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

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The fourteenth chapter of Forest Mage, “Journey to Gettys,” starts with Nevare magically blessing the vegetable garden he had found for Amzil and her children, finding himself reduced in size from the exertion. After he, ravening, eats from it, Nevare says his goodbyes to Amzil and retrieves Hitch so that the pair of them can get underway for Gettys. Hitch is noticeably diminished, suffering from his injuries.

The pair proceed, perhaps more slowly than either might otherwise go, and Nevare finds himself in mind of Amzil as they do. Passers-by are noted but do not offer much opportunity for interaction, and as the pair go along, Hitch asks Nevare about his background and experience. Nevare gives some details, acknowledging his disownment, and Hitch offers to comment him to the commander at Gettys, Colonel Haren.

Travel continues, Hitch’s condition deteriorating, and the two continue to trade stories. Hitch lets his entanglements with the Specks be known, and they discuss Nevare’s lingering connection to his father briefly. Hitch also lets it be known that he, like Nevare, is a captive of Speck magic, reporting a bargain made much like that which entraps Nevare, and Nevare puzzles over the magic and his tense relationship therewith.

Thus informed, Nevare divulges more of his history, bringing up Dewara and Tree Woman, as well as the Dust Dance. The demands of the magics upon both of them are noted, and Hitch again comes to the notion of Nevare’s relationship with his father. Hitch also warns Nevare to expect some repercussions from his magic in Amzil’s garden.

To address the chapter-length issue: the present chapter, in the edition of the novel I’m rereading, runs 20 pages in length, approximately 2.74% of the novel. While certainly not the shortest chapter in the text, it is among the shorter ones in it, and the juxtaposition of following immediately after the longest chapter in the book helps it stand out, reinforcing the notion of the title that the present chapter serves primarily to get characters to the locations they need to occupy. The text, as given, also bears as much out; it is a union of form and function, announcing itself and what it does as it does it.

Also, for indexing purposes, the following: Amzil, Cavalla, Clove, Colonel “Rabbit” Haren, Dewara, Dr. Jakib Amicas, Drawroot, Dust Dance, Epiny Kester, Eron, Gernia, Gettys, Great Man, Keft Burvelle, King’s Cavalla Academy, Nevare Burvelle, Old Thares, Renegade, Scout Lieutenant Buel Hitch, Sergeant Ereb Duril, Speck plague, Specks, Tree Woman, Willow bark tea. Some of the items are not named, as such, but are clearly referenced in the text; they are included as indexable items due to the clarity of those references.

I note with some interest the physical effects of Nevare’s magical exertions. It’s a familiar enough thing from Hobb’s work, admittedly; the Skill in the Realm of the Elderlings novels asks much of those who use it, and those healed by it often find their bodies drained by the experience of it. It’s also not uncommon in broader fantasy literatures and their related media, nor yet is it unfamiliar that mental work would cause physical tiredness for those who do spend a lot of time doing things like totting up columns of numbers or writing to figure out what’s going on in texts being read with more than commonly recreational care and attention. Nevare’s case is more dramatic than most, admittedly; I’ve rarely mathed so hard my pants fit better afterward, for example. It is, of course, foregrounded earlier in the text, such as in the present novel’s “Judgment,” and I believe I’ve commented on it elsewhere, but it shows up here again, overtly.

That Hitch notes Nevare’s continued attachment to his father (319) also attracts attention. Back when I was writing lesson plans more or less consistently (and I’ll note that I’m still well able to do so, o teachers!), one of the commonly occurring topics was that of parental engagement and involvement. That is, for works that made much of anything about the relationships between parental figures and the children assigned to their care, I would put together a series of activities that asked students to reflect on their own guardianship experiences, consider one passage in the work being studied that focused on such relationships, and then move to a broader section or the whole work to see what the whole made of the subject. The present novel (and Shaman’s Crossing, to be sure) presents itself as one that would take such a series of activities well; if I ever do draft a sample lesson plan using this novel, I will certainly include it. I do think it deserves investigation.

The notion that Hitch is, himself, a soldier son or of otherwise noble birth is one hinted at, and strongly, in the present chapter (324-25). I am put in mind of Captain Maw’s repeated offers, both to Nevare (see Shaman’s Crossing‘s “Letters from Home” and “Crossing”) and to Tiber (see Shaman’s Crossing‘s “Tiber”); it is clear from the earlier text that Maw had been in the habit of offering scouting assignments to soldier sons, and it does not pass belief that Hitch might have been an early recipient of such an offer. So much is only an implication, however, so far as I am aware at this point; it has been a while since I last read the novel, after all, and I write these commentaries as I go through the rereading. But it is a tantalizing idea, that Nevare is not the first attempt by the Dappled People to resist the incursion of colonizing forces by suborning those sent ahead of them, and it is one that resists the kinds of narratives advanced by such works as Dances with Wolves and Cameron’s Avatar, something I think is useful.

On that topic, and likely somewhat belatedly, I do appreciate the inversion of the US colonizing narrative at work in the resistance of the Dappled People to Gernian incursion. In the history of the United States from which Gernia borrows, much of what made the colonialist project successful was the fact of pandemics introduced, sometimes deliberately, into populations with no prior knowledge of or resistance to the same.* In the present case, although the Dappled People regard disease differently than Gernia, they do use it as a weapon against those invading their lands, and they do so as a matter of course, the Kidona having also been subjected to such measures.** As before, it is to be expected that a borrowing will not be a flat repetition; the motion away from antecedents while still making use of them does, however, help the novel read as verisimilitudinous, for which Hobb has some regard, and thus eases readerly entry into its narrative world.

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* See, for example, PJ Bianchine and TA Russo’s 1992 “The Role of Epidemic Infectious Diseases in the Discovery of America” in Allergy Proceedings: The Official Journal of Regional and State Allergy Societies (DOI:10.2500/108854192778817040), Jeremy Hugh Baron’s 2003 “British Biological Warfare” in BMJ : British Medical Journal (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1126655/), and Bruno Romero González et al.‘s 2026 “The Genomic Identity of Early Smallpox in South America” in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.aee6957).

**If memory serves, see Shaman’s Crossing‘s “Sword and Pen” and the current novel’s “A Day of Letters” and “Dewara.”

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