Coldfire re-read: When True Night Falls - chapters 40-42

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

It's a slightly longer than usual collection of quotes and thoughts tonight, but it's not every day Damien sees Tarrant betray him.


Chapter 40
The Prince's henchmen prepare for their task of the night, while their rakhene captain faces the universal problems of leadership.

Chapter 41
Damien and Jenseny continue onwards, with growing dread that they haven't lost only Hesseth but only Tarrant, since he once again has failed to show up by nightfall. Fretting and brooding over this, they reach the river they never wanted to go to. With good reason, it turns out - an ambush is waiting for them there, and they are taken captive. Which isn't even the worst, because Damien finally finds out that Tarrant has been playing his own game, and that he has sold them out to the Prince.

Chapter 42
Jenseny doesn't rate Damien's chances of survival very highly based on recent experience, and also doesn't enjoy the boating trip very much. They are taken through the canyon and to the Prince's palace, which turns out to have been designed by the same crazed architect who did the Keep of Lema. Crystal must be the latest fashion on Erna. And dungeons, of course, as Jenseny and Damien soon find out.



Quotes

• They were using no steam tonight, nor any form of power that might make noise. If their quarry had been merely human, the captain might have chanced it, but one of the travelers was rakhene - and that kind could pick out the mechanical sound of a steam engine down a hundred miles of canyon, if they knew that their lives depended on it.



• Was that precisely disciplined soul so perfectly oriented that he would never think of transforming his flesh without first checking the currents for an earthquake's subtle warning signs? Or had he Worked his own flesh so many nights now, so fearlessly, that a glance at the earth-fae would seem enough?



• Tarrant, I need you. I need your knowledge, I need your insight, I even need your God-damned cynicism. Get back to us soon, will you please?



• And perhaps there would be time enough and safety enough for him to wash up a bit, so that when Tarrant arrived-



• Tarrant was gone. There was no doubting it now, not after all these hours. First Hesseth, and then the Hunter . . . and the most painful part of all was that he couldn't begin to untangle his emotions, couldn't tell where the grief began or the anger ended or the pragmatism of their quest gave way to genuine caring . . . did he really care if Tarrant lived, beyond the practical advantages of their partnership? He abhorred what the man stood for so passionately that it was painful even to ask the question, and he dared not try to answer it.



• Too late, he realized what was happening. Too late he realized the pattern of his own thoughts, and what they were doing to him. Too late. Even as he tried to turn around - struggling against a tide of dread that demanded he watch the thing, watch the thing!, not take his eyes off it for a single instant - something struck him on the back of the head hard enough to send him reeling.



• He couldn't speak. He couldn't move. He could hardly breathe, so totally consumed by rage was he. Rage, and also despair; because if Tarrant was helping the enemy, Damien and his small ward didn't have a chance in hell of getting free. Not now, not ever.



• "Your cause," the Neocount said coolly. "It hasn't been mine for some time now."



• Damien had said he wouldn't help them here, that he didn't do that kind of thing, but she wasn't so sure. When you really cared about someone, didn't you want to help them? Why would a god be different?



• Tarrant had explained that once, how the fae could make shapes out of fears and hopes and give them a life of their own. Did that mean she might see her father one day, reflected in the fae's dark substance? She huddled close to Damien, afraid of the thought. Tarrant said that all the fae-things fed on people, even when they looked like things you loved.



• It was a chaos of brilliance, of knife-sharp edges and night-black surfaces that flashed with light as the boats moved toward them, a field of living crystal so complex, so intertwined, that it was impossible to focus on any one form, or to trace a single outline to its end.




Thoughts
(quite a few tonight, to make up for the relative dearth on Monday)




• It somehow feels odd to me to see the rakh in chapter 40 use steam engines on their boats. It's adaptation that runs in the other direction from that of the human newcomers on Erna - they adapt to the planet, the rakh adapt to their advanced technology.



• I wish we'd gotten a closer look at that succubus when it took all the features Damien appreciates in women. Enquiring minds want to know!



• I'll echo Damien - do you think Tarrant checks the safety of the fae before he Works, even if that means a conscious effort and a brief delay? I'd expect him to be too cautious not to do it, but if Damien still wonders about it at this point...



• Damien's thoughts, when they wander, are quite interesting. Especially when he keeps worrying about Tarrant's reaction to his dirty state. *g* Do you think he sometimes, when no-one is looking, does a quick cleaning spell the sort Tarrant does on a regular basis?



• I've mentioned before that I think Hesseth's death isn't getting a lot of reaction. In contrast, the mere possibility that Tarrant is gone has Damien absolutely shaken, and that when he's only making educated guesses.



• Who do you think did that little bit of distracting in the river? The Prince's henchmen, or a certain neocount who knows exactly what kind of thing it would take to get Damien to focus all his attention on it?



• Whenever I re-read the bit where Damien finds out about Tarrant's apparent betrayal, I have to wonder about the compact with the Unnamed and Tarrant's strict adherence to his code of honour. He breaks it here, by lying and by betraying trust. Does his ultimate goal justify that? Right now Damien believes with all his heart that Tarrant is a dishonourable bastard. Does that count, or is it only Tarrant's own interpretation that matters? He doesn't show any reaction to Damien's reactions, but what do you think he felt at that point? Satisfaction that all went along with his plans? Or maybe a touch of guilt about it?



• Again a little snippet of Tarrant giving Jenseny some consideration. He seems to have explained the nature of fae constructs to her at some point, and I can't see him do that out of boredom.



• I have to say, I appreciate it that Friedman is one of the few authors to consider bodily functions, despite their uncoolness. Most people in fantasy/sci-fi don't seem to have digestive systems.



• Most of the time I don't care much about Jenseny, but seeing her moment of feistiness in the dungeon, I wish we'd seen more of that side of her.





Next up on Monday are chapters 43 and 44, where we get one of those rare bits from Tarrant's point of view, along with much preparation and a touch of questioning.

Comments

[rekishi]

Damien doesn't do cleaning spells. It would be working for himself. And besides we get information about his filthy state way too often for that to be happening. No, Damien is one of those guys you like to see on tv or read about but who you don't want to smell for yourself ;)

And I don't think it's against the contract with the Unnamed. Not like what he later does. I suppose the contract might have a 'the ends justify the means' clause, so this doesn't break it but what he does at the end of the book with the new patriarch, that does, we know that.
And yes, I do think he feels a bit guilty. Maybe even more than a bit. Later there is this scene on the ship where Gerald says he wanted to tell Damien but couldn't and how he wanted them to be captured sooner to spare everyone the wasting but that Damien was fighting him at every turn.

Hm Tarrant checking for quakes. I'd venture as far as saying he just knows. Maybe the flow of the fae alters ever so subtly and after a thousand years he can tell.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

In Damien's current state, one might argue that cleaning spells are for the benefit of others. ;-)

I phrased it badly; I was thinking less of the contract itself and more of the sub-clauses Gerald placed on himself for soul-safety. He's still following the main goal, but it's caused him to lie and to accept betrayal on a personal level (at least for now). With his strict need for honour, I wonder where that leaves him.

Maybe he can tell quakes, but maybe those little changes are also such routine by now that he'd need to pay attention to really be aware on more than an instinctive level?

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Regarding Gerald scanning for dangers, surely adepts are so infused with the fae, they can feel the shift and know not to do anything for fear of essplodiness?

[trobadora]

Yeah - if you remember the earthquake in Jaggonath, way back at the beginning of BSR, Ciani knew the quake was coming way before even the alarms kicked in. I think since adepts always perceive the fae with all their senses, they'll notice right away if something changes/something is about to happen.

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

But wasn't Gerald making extra efforts so he could see the earthquakes earlier when they were freshly on the run?

I'm sure they notice it, but I wonder if it isn't the same we notice things in the visual spectrum: we see it, and while some things prompt instinctive reactions a lot of others need conscious input.

[trobadora]

Yeah - and some things, even though we know we can see them perfectly well, we still pay special attention to because they're just that important. So it's not really conclusive ...

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

I dont think Tarrants compact was even involved at this point was it? he never gave his word to help them against the prince. He was invited to come with and showed up is all. No doubt the pretense was that he was with them and he DID help them at times but that was his whim and unlikely to effect his soul - sort of like with Ciana in BSR if he had never directly given his word not to harm her he could have played at helping them and then attacked them himself without any harm - I mean the unnamed WANT him to cause suffering and its only his PERCEPTION of the need to maintain honour as essential to a soul that makes it so. I think he certainly feels guilty about what he is doing but he knows its not really a betrayal its their missions only chance and it all kinda goes back to that conversation with Damien when he is asked whether there is no chance at all and he says that there is...

[carmentalis.livejournal.com]

The compact itself not, but the conditions he placed upon himself are, I think. He didn't give his word so he isn't bound by that, but I'm not sure where he stands on lies. I can't remember any other moment where he told an outright lie like he did here. Truth and honour go hand in hand, so I'm left wondering whether he doesn't see it as betrayal after all, even though it's necessary. Betrayal of Damien, that is, and not their mutual goal. It's a neat little catch-22 he's in.

You're right about the compact, of course - the Unnamed would hardly care about what he does as long as he doesn't go around saving random civilisations.

[fragorl.livejournal.com]

interesting thought... I got the impression he avoided lying more on a point of policy than anything else, as if he thought lying was beneath him or something. I mean even in BSR he hardly seems to bother, despite the fact that his identity is at risk he practically revels in making Damien percieve him as connected with the hunter. And here its as if he sort of does the same - I could even imagine him not lying directly to the prince sort of like prince: if u betray ur friends we could team up tarrant: hmmm I might betray them prince: u can have immortality if u do tarrant: thats something I would probably betray friends for etc kind of thing...