Coldfire re-read: Black Sun Rising - chapter 41

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Tonight it's time for angst, for some action, and for our hero to rescue his girl eternal nemesis and personal annoyance.


Plot summary
Damien, Ciani, Hesseth and their Lost guide set out into the caves in the hope that a) they'll find a way into the citadel and b) Damien will find a way to justify rescuing Tarrant. Which is eventually found, so they continue their journey and eventually get to what they've been looking for - Tarrant, stuck in highly symbolical fire. Hesseth and Ciani do their part in getting him free, while Damien does the heavy lifting. They escape from the clutches of their evil enemies, and in true cliffhanger form, finish off wondering whether Tarrant is still going to be Tarrant when/if he wakes up .



Quotes

• But worst of all were those rare instants when he was honest enough to admit that he was grateful to Tarrant for making that move without asking him. Without giving him the chance to stop it. That gratitude was like a cancer on his soul, a growing uncleanliness which he lacked the knowledge - or perhaps the will - to eradicate.


• Tell me this, if you can . . . if he were in trouble - captured, let’s say, and in pain, incapable of helping himself - does he think that I would come after him?” When she hesitated, he added, “Or that I would let our party come to help him? Or does he think I would leave him to die - perhaps even be grateful to our enemy for arranging it?”


• “Now, let’s just hope that when we get that bastard back . . .”
  He released Ciani and lifted his springbolt. And tested the draw, to make sure it was tightly cocked.
  “Let’s just say he’d better earn his keep,” he warned her.


• Soon she’ll remember all of it. All of it! Her capture, her captivity, whatever torture she endured at the hands of these creatures . . . it’ll all return to her in an instant. A single blow. What will that be like? So much terror pouring back into her, all those years of suffering relived in an instant . . . this is nothing, compared to it. Her hardest moment will be the one in which we restore her to what she was.


• He felt a cold buzz course up his back, as though Tarrant’s sword was somehow upset by the concept of warmth. Tough shit, he thought to it.


• It seemed to him that for a mo¬ment he understood what that meant, what it felt like for a being that powerful to be rendered impotent - utterly neutralized - by so simple a means. And the pain of it, the utter humiliation of it, was so intense that he nearly staggered back, as though struck. For a man of the Hunter’s arrogance to be trapped thus . . . he wondered if that fierce pride could survive such an experience. If the identity he knew as Gerald Tarrant could emerge from it unscathed - or even recognizable.

Thoughts

• Tarrant is convinced that Damien won't bother with rescuing him. But when you think of it, why not? He knows that Damien needs him to help Ciani. Does he think Damien won't be rational enough to consider that? Damien already allowed the mind channel and lets him feed, so is the gap to mounting a rescue attempt really such a big one?


• When I see Ciani at her first glimpse of her memories, it makes me wonder whether her drive to remember is the loss of memory, or of her adeptitude. She seems to be doing extremely well in rebuilding her knowledge at a rapid pace, and it often sounds that what she really hungers for is her adeptitude. Would she take the latter without the former, if she could?


• Damien is really starting to form a relationship with Tarrant's sword at this point. He's even thinking of it as sentient. And talking to it!


• Am I the only one who wondered why, before sticking him into the fire, they bothered to undress Tarrant and then neatly fold his clothes to leave them in a tidy pile?


• How come Damien is so convinced Tarrant is still alive even when they find him? Their dreams of the fire could just as well have been an echo - he hasn't got any reason at this point to know what Tarrant can recover from when it comes to burning. Where does this conviction come from?


• The description of Tarrant being practically barbecued has never really gotten to me. Other instances throughout the books make me mentally flinch when reading, even when it's just a little cut or a prick. But here it's like it's simply too much detail to keep it scary. How about you?

On Monday it's chapters 42 and 43 - evil Bond-villain-type plans must be hatched, and our heroes have some healing and plotting to do as well.

Comments

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

Good point, he has control over matter in that way. And since he manages to patch his clothes with the fae, it stands to reason he has also figured out how to solve bigger problems, like dissolving them and integrating them into the alternate shape.

For creating clothes, he'd certainly need more than just the fae though, wouldn't he?

[eveningfire.livejournal.com]

For creating clothes, he'd certainly need more than just the fae though, wouldn't he?

I think creating clothes out of thin air is just as plausible as creating feathers. Which is to say, not very. But who am I to say what natural laws govern matter on Erna? Physicists have discovered some pretty weird things lately even on Earth.

[alice_montrose]

The way I figure it, when he shapeshifts the clothes and his sword (why did no one mention it?) transfigurate along with the rest of him. So, upon transforming back into human shape, he would be dressed the same way and carry the same implements that he did before shapeshifting.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

We were too busy wondering what Damien and the sword are up to. ;-)

The sword is actually the greater puzzle. Clothes are just clothes, but that sword is special. Unless, of course, the tamed fae in it is what feeds the change...