Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series soon.
The seventeenth chapter of Shaman’s Crossing, “Tiber,” begins as Nevare and Spink are taken back to the King’s Cavalla Academy. Nevare ruminates on the experience of the séance, trying to slot that experience in with his beliefs and rejecting the whole thing as a childish error indulged once and not again. Nevare’s uncle, accompanying them, admonishes the cadets towards caution and obliges Nevare to write to him daily, reporting events.
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Arriving at the Academy, Nevare’s uncle goes to call on Colonel Stiet while Nevare and Spink return to their quarters. Nevare thinks he sees Caulder Stiet along the way and muses on his lack of desire to do so. Spink speaks to Nevare of his infatuation with Epiny and asks Nevare his opinion of the matter, which Nevare offers: Epiny is childish and her mother would object to Spink. Spink takes the comments as offering hope, however, and Nevare concedes that he would be pleased to have Spink as kin, although Epiny still strikes him as an odd choice for a wife.
The pair join Caleb and Oron and hear report of their exploits on leave. When they return to their quarters, they find them in a state of upset, their goods having been strewn about and dirtied–although those of Natred and Kort are relatively untouched. Caleb and Oron report having no knowledge of the event, and a quick survey of other quarters finds Gord’s possessions more thoroughly vandalized. After a brief discussion and an equally brief internal consultation, Nevare reports the vandalism to Sergeant Rufet. The sergeant surveys the damage, questions cadets he can, and orders such restoration as he can, which is not much.
As cleanup commences and other cadets arrive, they express vexation at the situation. Much opprobrium attaches itself to Gord, and Rory opines on Gord having invited the abuses directed at him. Nevare makes his disapproval clear, and he muses on the divisions at work within his cohort. He also, as cleanup continues, finds that the stone Dewara had left in him has gone missing. When Gord returns, a posy pinned to his coat, he is beleagured by events and cadets’ reactions to the same, and he is shamed by excusing himself from doing more to aid the other cadet.
Nevare muses further on the divisions that have emerged within his cohort, and he finds himself summoned to an inquiry regarding Cadet Lieutenant Tiber. Rebuked for not being more forthcoming, Nevare is ordered to report events of the night Tiber and Gord had been injured; he follows the order, rehearsing events and noting the involvement of Caulder Stiet, Cadet Ordo, and Cadet Jaris in them. Colonel Stiet notes that he will be advising Nevare’s father of events and dismisses the cadet, but Lord Tiber, also present, interjects, even though his son is reinstated.
Belatedly, Nevare returns to his classes, considering how he must appear to his fellows, and the gloss of ensuring events confirms that appearance. He does write to his uncle, and he receives written rebuke from his father for his failure of forthrightness. Spink also begins receiving letters, largely from Epiny and mostly concerning Nevare. Nevare finds himself jealous that he has not received word from Carsina as he and Spink confer.
Time passes at the Academy, winter settling in. Nevare contrasts the suburban environment with that of his home and notes the prevalence of illness among his cohort. He also notes the increasing practice by professors at the Academy of pitting cadets against each other based on their backgrounds as older or newer noble lines. Actions by cadets against one another are noted.
The chapter concludes with an encounter between Nevare and Tiber, no longer a Cadet Lieutenant, but a Scout. The new Scout asks Nevare about his motives for acting and withholding action, and he explains his posting. Nevare notes that Captain Maw had suggested he would be a good Scout, and Tiber notes that he had received the same message, remarking that it is Maw’s way of trying to secure at least some future for cadets he expects will be discarded. Tiber departs, leaving Nevare to wonder at his own future.
To address the chapter-length issue: the present chapter, in the edition of the novel I’m rereading, runs 21 pages in length, approximately 3.64% of the novel. While the notion that chapter-length indicates importance has been displayed not to be in effect in the present novel, the present chapter does read less as driving things forward than it does as concluding some narrative threads. That of Tiber seems to have come to a close, for example; even if he does reappear (and it has been long enough since I last read the Soldier Son novels that I do not recall, which I am working to fix), his departure from the Academy at this point reads as another completed narrative arc. I do not know that there is quite as clean a break at the end of the present chapter as at the end of “The Return,” that the span of “Initiation” to “Tiber” is as discrete a story as the first five chapters of the novel offer (or that “Sword and Pen” through “Classmates” comprises one), but with Tiber having “walked away from [Nevare] into the cold and the dark” (415), it is clear that something has come to an end.
Also, for indexing purposes, the following: Cadet Lading, Cadet Lieutenant Tiber, Caleb, Captain Maw, Carneston House, Carsina Grenalter, Caulder Stiet, Colonel Stiet, Daraleen Burvelle, Dr. Amicas, Epiny Burvelle, Gettys, Gord Lading, Jaris, Keft Burvelle, King’s Cavalla Academy, King’s Road, Kort Braxan, Lord Tiber, Natred Verlaney, Nevare Burvelle, Ordo, Oron, Posy, Rory, Scout Tiber, Sefert Burvelle, Sergeant Rufet, Specks, Spinrek “Spink” Kester, Tree Woman, Trist Wissom, Yaril Burvelle. It is not as exhaustive a list as some other chapters, even some shorter chapters, have generated, but it does offer some points of interest that might well be pursued later. There are scholarly somedays that might dawn from it.
A brief note before I go on: there is much that might be unpacked from Tiber’s name, as I probably ought to have done earlier. The word itself refers primarily to the river on the banks of which Rome stands (although there are other resonances that might be tracked). While the cadet lieutenant-turned-scout is the son of a new noble, so that there is some juxtaposition between the name and the Eternal City, it may be noted that the river does push forward; its mouth has demonstrably advanced, leaving what had been a port some distance inland. In the novel, Tiber has something of a reputation as a data-driven agitator, one working to upset practices that serve mostly to reinforce a status quo his family’s elevation threatens. Although there is some frustration of the comparison, he is something along the lines of various civil rights proponents, forward-thinking people, so there is something of the emblematic about his name, if subtle.
Another short note: the present chapter provides Gord’s surname, Lading. It is not directly expressed, requiring reference to the events of “Bessom Gord,” so I admit that it took a bit for me to make the connection, but it is still one I am glad to see in place. I am less glad to see the particular gesture towards emblematic naming; “lading” is cargo or the loading of the same, and given Rory’s comments about Gord as cleanup of the cadets’ rooms is underway, as well as long-standing remarks about his size, it seems something of a cruel joke for that to be his family name. In any case, earlier entries in my rereading have been updated to accommodate the new name, as was done with earlier name-revelations.
The chapter largely serves as a meditation on courage and an(other) display of Nevare’s failure in that quality. Here, as elsewhere, Nevare is forced to confront his refusal to do what he knows he is supposed to do; he knows he is supposed to report wrongdoings he observes, something demonstrated early on in the novel. (Given that Nevare finds rebuke, perhaps obliquely, for having done so, he might be forgiven for not being so forthcoming later in his life, but it seems a strange lesson for a protagonist to have taken. Then again, it is not the case that protagonists necessarily must be figures for emulation; Caxton bids readers of Malory, whose knights are not always in the right, to “Doo after the good and leue the euyl” they display, and Hobb’s own focal characters in other works are not always or necessarily often exemplars to follow [as witness this, among others]). Here, as elsewhere, Nevare is rebuked for not doing what he knows he ought to do. Here, as is less common elsewhere, Nevare is contrasted with those who are courageous, including Epiny. The juxtaposition between the ideal he acknowledges aspiring towards and his actual behavior is especially emphatic in the present chapter. Whether this is a permanent thing or part of his continued development as a character, something overcome later, the continued rereading will remind me, and I look forward to finding out again.
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Elliott RWI 