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

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Notes from Bee’s prophetic dreams precede “Barriers and a Black Banner,” which opens with Fitz taking one of the Paragon‘s boats uncomfortably, accompanied by Spark, Lant, and Perseverance, all disguised. After valediction from Brashen, Althea, and the crew, the party proceeds toward Clerres, with Spark noting along the way that Beloved has regained some vision and concealed knowledge of it to facilitate deceiving Fitz and the rest and absconding. Fitz is chastised by his inattention and voices it to the shock of those around him.

Ashore, Fitz and his companions proceed, discussing how they will go about their intended mission. They are joined by Motley, whom Fitz bids the group ignore as much as possible, and the odds of Beloved’s success are remarked upon. Fitz, recognizing possibilities of Beloved’s designs, again urges his companions to depart, and they again refuse. The group also finds the stronghold of the Servants closed to visitors due to Symphe’s death. Against the upset, Perseverance suggests sending Motley into the stronghold to reconnoiter, and the bird flies off, Fitz watching as long as he can.

As often happens, I am taken by the prefatory materials for the chapter. The referents in the dream–Bee for a bee, Fitz for a blue buck–are clear enough. So is the heft of the metaphor; a father’s life is certainly worth exchanging for his daughter’s (although reading affectively once again, I think the exchange imbalanced; my daughter’s is worth more than mine). The foreshadowing is also hardly opaque…although how much of that is my rereading the text and knowing what will come, I cannot say. (Of course, that ends up lining up with a lot of Hobb’s descriptions of the White Prophets’ works, predictions recognized as having come true only in retrospect…which makes for a lovely bit of metanarrative and invites consideration of predetermination…more reason to return to the work again and again.)

Also of note in the present chapter is Fitz’s note that “Spark startled when I uttered a short, foul word” (564). I hadn’t been looking in the Realm of the Elderlings novels for this kind of thing, so I haven’t done the work (ah, another scholarly someday!), but I don’t recall Hobb making much use of overt obscenity; that is, she and her characters don’t seem to cuss much. Some of that, I suppose, can be excused by significant parts of the texts centering on high-class folks in high-class situations where such language would be out of place–but even among the sailors she shows, a population nearly a byword for foul language in the readers’ world, there’s little to none. I’m not sure what to make of it, actually; on the one hand, not having a deckhand say something like “fuck” (which may well be the startling word, being both short and foul) would seem to abrogate verisimilitude, but on the other, if it escapes readerly attention easily, perhaps it’s not a point that “matters” much for it.

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