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

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Following a set of instructions from one of the Servants that touches on their designs, “The Taking of Bee” begins with Bee returning to self-awareness and awareness of her situation after her seeming ensorcellment. She assesses herself and her surroundings, and considers the attack on Withywoods and its effects. Watching others under seeming domination, she purposes to remain as secret as she can, considering her captors and the nascent dissension among them. Seeing what appears to be a chance to escape, she sets out again, only to find herself stymied by the powers of her captors–especially Vindeliar, who is the source of the ensorcellment at work.

Bee watches as Shun begins to be assailed, the voice of Wolf-Father sounding in her mind as she does. Preparations for departure are made, and Shun fights against her prospective assailant, and Bee announces herself to interdict retribution against Shun. Her announcement has the desired effect, revealing her to be of particular value to her captors: Kardef, Kindrel, Soula, Reppin, Alaria, the aforementioned Vindeliar, and Lingstra Dwalia. Shun is ordered tended to and protected, and some discussion ensues about her fate that Dwalia quashes. Bee is taken, and she considers both the lack of response from the people of Withywoods and her separation from them and her father. As they leave, however, Bee notes Perseverance, watching clandestinely.

I note with some interest that one of the characters depicted in the present chapter is Ellik, whose depredations are known. As ever, I do appreciate gestures to show that a unified milieu is, in fact, unified. I also appreciate seeing Ellik reduced, although it is not quite as much as would satisfy; although he is not Chancellor of Chalced, and although he seems to have had to hire himself out, he yet remains in command of others. How he managed to escape the wrack of Chalced and the fall of Andronicus is not clear, although it is not implausible that he would do so; I do not recall as I reread the present chapter that his death was depicted, so…

I note, too, that the present chapter does a fair bit of additional exposition, both showing that the Servants have magics other than the prophecies of the White Prophets available to them–something like the Skill, perhaps, if not actually that magic (consider the Pale Woman)–and giving quite a few names to follow. The former reinforces the danger that the Servants present; the latter, while presenting a challenge to some readers in introducing a number of characters in rapid sequence, does offer more possibilities for narration. Each character, after all, allows for another set of interactions, and it is in interactions that stories inhere. Further, since it’s early in the text, there is plenty of time to learn the characters better–or to watch them die; it is, after all, a novel by Hobb, and she’s not exactly averse to introducing characters only to kill them off…

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