Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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Following a message from Sealia Finbok to Hest, one meant to be held against his return, “Hostages” begins with Skelly conferring with her captain and uncle, Leftrin, about the unlikelihood of success retrieving Silver from the well the keepers have reopened in Kelsingra. She pleads to be tasked with the retrieval, but Leftrin refuses, and further conversation is cut off by the return of the dragons, whose needs must be addressed. Thymara finds herself considering her relationship with Tats once again as the dragons beckon and their quirks are noted, as are ongoing changes in Rapskal, and she joins the others in rushing to tend the dragons.

https://www.deviantart.com/gryphonic19/art/Heeby-757727927

The dragons return to Kelsingra, delighting in the actions they took against the Chalcedeans and asking for reports on progress towards the Silver. Soon after, the ship being escorted arrives.

Leftrin chafes at the arrival of the new vessel as his crew helps to bring it into port. The captives are brought ashore, and Leftrin notes with some surprise the presence of Traders among them as Alise joins him. Calls for executions ring out, and Leftrin argues against them, Alise recognizing that Rapskal has been largely swallowed by the memories embedded in Kelsingra. Amid the confusion, some of the captive Chalcedeans attempt escape and are thwarted, leaving the issue unresolved.

Hest, for his own part, assesses the changes in his situation as he is also brought under guard to Kelsingra. He marvels at what he finds there and begins contemplating what treasures it holds, and then he recognizes Alise among the throng, bristling as she accepts Leftrin’s attentions. He swiftly perceives that the pair have grown intimate, and he begins to plot how he will take control of things. Scanning the crowd for a likely target, he is shocked to see Sedric among the Elderlings and wounded to see his clear affection with Carson. And so he begins to plot revenge.

I note something of a parallel between one of the keepers and the Fool in the present chapter. The note is made that one of the keepers, Kase, came into contact with a small bit of the scant Silver retrieved from the well. A lack of pain and the presence of oddness of sensation are attested. Something similar comes to mind for the incidental contact the Fool had with the Skill-imbued Verity and the subsequent uses of power that resulted from it. Again, I’m nerd enough to appreciate the call-backs and echoes of older texts in the more recent, even if I’m not always skilled enough in the moment to notice them directly.

I note, too, the disparity of textual treatment of characters in the present chapter. The summary above does not entirely reflect it, but the section of the chapter that focuses on Hest and his thoughts is the single longest and most coherent in the chapter; it spans some six pages, while the other sections are three, five, and five pages, so while Hest does not receive a majority of attention, he does have a plurality of it. (A word-count would give more accurate information, of course, but such exceeds the scope of a post to a weblog such as this one.) It’s not necessarily a surprise; he has been figured throughout the Rain Wilds Chronicles as a significant antagonist, petty as he is presented as being, specifically as an impediment both Alise (one of the primary protagonists) and Sedric (a clear secondary, but a strong secondary protagonist) must overcome. Nor is it surprising that the presentation rather heavily foreshadows the coming conflict between him and those he had formerly controlled, although it might have been hoped that his own experiences in servitude and abjection might make him more sympathetic to them and contrite for his own misdeeds. Instead, he seems to be following in the footsteps of Regal Farseer once again, and while it is the case that neither Alise nor Sedric is as capable of ironic cruelty as Fitz or a certain mustelid, there are no few in Kelsingra who are…

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