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

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A letter from the Duke of Farrow to King Dutiful that complains of dragons’ depredations precedes “Repercussions.” The chapter opens with Fitz struck still as Shine relates the events of Bee’s further abduction. Lant arrives, and Shine turns her attentions to him briefly before Riddle redirects her, prodding her to take the group back to the Skill-pillar into which Bee had been taken. Shine rails against the idea, and the relationship between her and Lant is let slip.

Shine is shaken by the revelation, and the decision is made to follow her trail back to the Skill-pillar. Foxglove, under orders, takes Shine in hand, and Fitz, Riddle, and Lant backtrack her, followed by Perseverance. Riddle asks Fitz about the siblings and receives confirmation, and Lant asks and is answered about his half-sister’s situation. As they go, they find Shine’s trail and are able to follow it, if with difficulty, finding the site from which Shine had fled–and the Skill-pillar. When Fitz attempts to use it, knowing where it emerges, he is unable to due to being under the influence of elfbark and delvenbark–Outislander elfbark of particular potency. He rages at his incapacity until Riddle takes him in hand. Fitz dispatches Fleeter and Perseverance to Buckkeep with a message for Nettle, with Riddle and Lant to follow behind. Other orders are given, and Fitz prepares to keep vigil.

As Fitz waits, he ruminates bitterly, and he is terse with his soldiers as they arrive and set up camp. They are wary of him, having evidently heard of his tricks, and he is largely sleepless. He greets Nettle when she arrives and takes matters in charge, sending a coterie through the Skill-pillar to find no sign of Bee or her captors. The outlook is poor, and when a quiet Riddle and Nettle retire, a silent Fitz remains awake in the night.

Something I only noticed as I was looking back through my rereading to insert appropriate references into this part of it is that discussion of Shine’s parentage and Lant’s occurs in chapters 13. I have no way to know if this was deliberate, of course, and whether it is or not does not much matter; what does matter is that the coincidence or construction makes a pointed, morbid joke; the circumstances making their attraction unlucky are presented at symbolically unlucky times. I’d not noticed it before, as reported, but I am glad to have noticed it now; it’s the kind of textual detail that delights me and many others who go into literary study and upon which I’ve remarked at times (for example here and here), the little bit of sometimes dark humor that rewards careful attention and revisiting a text–and that reminds even a careful reader that there are always more things to pull from a text worth studying.

I note another bit of wordplay at work in the chapter, as well. Two of the soldiers accompanying Fitz are named Reaper and Sawyer. Both of their names bespeak cutting, fitting enough for soldiers using spears and swords; there’s also a bit of reaping and sowing to be found, even if it takes a little squinting to see it. But since I was already either laughing or wincing from the chapter-number thing, that bit showed itself to me.

As I reread this time, as I sat to write, I found myself distracted again by Hobb’s writing. It happens often enough, I admit (and my wife can attest to it, having seen it happen more than once); I go to work on this stuff and get swept away again by the writing. I look up, and an hour or two have passed that I had meant to put to other uses…and I do not know that I can regret it. But then, you’d expect that from someone who’s been going about this as long as I have and who looks to keep on going with it…

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