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After a letter from Malta and Reyn that politely but tersely addresses what appear to be ongoing concerns between Kelsingra and the Six Duchies, “Dragons” begins with Fitz quizzing Lant and Perseverance about the passage of the Fool and Spark. They have no further answers for him, so they eat, and Fitz notes the improvements to the campsite the pair have made in his absence.

Perseverance sits awake with Fitz for the first watch of the night and asks about the way the Fool and Spark are dressed, meeting Fitz’s answers sullenly. Later, after watches are traded, Fitz finds himself wakeful and joins Lant at watch. Lant asks his own questions of Fitz and is answered, although he is less sullen than he is whining in his receipt of those answers.

Further conversation is interrupted by the return of the Fool and Spark through the Skill-pillar. Spark is badly affected, and the Fool sports Silvered skin. Fitz directs Lant and Perseverance to attend to Spark and directs his attentions to the Fool. Managing to secure a glove over the Fool’s Skilled hand, Fitz guides his friend to where Perseverance and Lant attend Spark, and there asks for a report of events. The Fool lays out his reasoning and proceedings, and Fitz notes the uncertainty of Spark’s recovery.

At the Fool’s suggestion, Fitz looks for the camping equipment they had had together in that place after the Fool had died. With assistance from Lant, he finds it, and camp is reassembled. With that done, the Fool resumes his narrative, if with some prompting. Fitz learns that the Fool had gone to Kelsingra, navigating from echoes of draconic memories he had imbibed, finding the Skill well and touching what of the Silver he could. Doing so provoked the wrath of the Elderlings and the dragons, and the Fool and Spark fled to a ruined chamber, escaping from it only narrowly and returning to where they now sit.

The early portion of the present chapter puts Perseverance in a position not unlike that Fitz occupies with the Fool years before. Indeed, some of the boy’s phrasing in the current moment echoes that of the earlier man quite closely, and I am reminded again both of the fraughtness of gender performativity in the Realm of the Elderlings and of the need to update the Fedwren Project more than I have done. There are several scholars’ works already noted in it that speak to the issue; I have to wonder, I have to hope, that there is more current work that takes in the more recent entries in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. It certainly presents itself plainly enough, not through what may or may not be a metaphorical treatment as some other things might or might not have been–but, as with several things, I am not the person to carry out a treatment of the matter, having neither the situated nor the invented ethos to address it.

Not entirely related: I appreciate the references to Rapskal and Heeby made in the Fool’s narrative. They are not named, and sensibly; despite who the Fool does know under the guise of Lady Amber, he would not have any reason to know, or even to know of, Rapskal and the dragon he serves. But it is entirely in keeping with their characters that they would jealously guard the Silver and move to violence before any other concern, and it is suggestive that some uses of the Skill-stone still seem to elude the Elderlings of Kelsingra at this point in the overall narrative. I find myself wondering if and how that will develop if and as Hobb presses ahead with her series (or if there is a Brian to Hobb’s Frank waiting somewhere, although a Christopher to her JRR might well be preferable).

I am somewhat struck with Fitz’s handling of matters in the present chapter. He seems to have a fairly decent handle on himself, which is…uncommon for him, even with his years and experience. So much said, it’s a good thing to see; how long it will last, though, I don’t recall. I guess I need to do more rereading…

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After an entry from Bee’s dream journal, “Departure” begins with a gloss of Fitz’s ongoing preparations to leave Buckkeep in pursuit of the Servants at Clerres. How he equips himself and plans to proceed are described, as is how he is sent off by his family and the assembled court of Buckkeep. Fitz notes some unease and sets it aside as the formal farewell proceeds and Fitz sets out with a party suitable to his station towards the Skill-pillar that was Bee’s last known location. Arriving there, Fitz gives a few final instructions, steels himself, and proceeds through the pillar.

Fitz is surprised to find that Lant goes with him, and he is more surprised that Perseverance accompanies them. To their questions, he makes harsh answer, and then he directs them to set up camp as best they can, given their situation. Matters proceed as well as can be expected, and the three take stock of their supplies, making clear that neither Lant nor Perseverance had thought through their actions. Fitz manages to calm himself and assess matters more rationally, although he is still displeased, and he sends through the Skill to Nettle and Dutiful, updating them.

The night passes uneventfully for the three, and the next day sees Fitz go out to hunt, setting Lant and Perseverance to tasks while he purposes to do so. As the pair address them, Fitz makes his way to the old stone-garden, visiting once again Verity-as-Dragon, tending to his lost king and confessing himself thereto. The man within responds to his nephew, easing him into sleep.

Returning to Lant and Per, Fitz makes a kill of a rabbit and learns that the Fool and Spark have been by, using the Skill-stones to travel. Fitz is incredulous as he receives report of their actions.

I‘m minded as I work through this that one of my scholarly somedays–and there are many, as I’m sure those of you whose continued reading I appreciate will have noted–is correction and updating of the work in this webspace. More than one of the prior pieces of writing I’ve referenced in putting together this commentary has needed some adjustment, and I cannot think that those I’ve noticed this time around are the only ones that are in such need. While it’s good to have something to do, it’s an annoyance to have made easily avoidable mistakes in my work; I really should be doing better than that. For such things, I can but apologize, work to proofread what needs it, and try to do better as I move forward.

It might also well be written that the present chapter seems to make some use of deus ex machina, an old device about which I’ve made some comment. There’s setup for such things as might appear so, though; Verity-as-Dragon is hardly new to the Realm of the Elderlings, after all, and the capriciousness of travel through the Skill-stones has been amply and repeatedly attested, in the present volume and others in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. Verity’s response to Fitz might be a bit of a stretch, although it has been noted that the extent of Skill-knowledge that was available exceeds what is available; the recovery of what Regal had sent off to the Pale Woman was incomplete, and much of what was recovered was described either as damaged or at the leading end of substantial language change, such that it was unintelligible to modern-to-the-narrative-milieu readers. Verity, in isolation and seemingly interpenetrated with what might well be called a physical manifestation of Skill and which is used expressly to store and make available for consultation memories, has had time in which to plumb the mysteries of his magic. So perhaps it’s not quite so much deus ex machina, after all, but some variation on Chekhov…

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Do note that the present chapter discusses torture in some detail.

---

After commentary regarding proper installation of Skill-pillars, “Travelers” starts with Fitz announcing his decision to leave Withywoods to the household staff, who accept the news easily. Matters are arranged to facilitate that departure with relative ease, and Fitz returns to Buckkeep, learning along the way that the Fool has been found where Fitz had suggested seeking him.

After arriving back at Buckkeep, Fitz confers with the Fool about his doings, learning that the Fool had gotten lost in the warren of secret passages that permeates Buckkeep. He had gotten lost while seeking more dragon’s blood, thinking to use it to restore more of his body and memories of a Skill-river and the effect of Silver (though not by that name) on dragons. Fitz rebukes his friend, and the two confer about how they will proceed to Clerres, the Fool laying out details he had not previously revealed to Fitz about his return thence and the social structure in place there, the machinations of those in charge of it. Some of the Fool’s sufferings are rehearsed, as well, and Fitz’s resolve against the Servants hardens.

Afterward, Fitz calls on Chade, finding him alone and lucid. Chade notes the effects of his age, not all of which are feigned, and he commends Fitz. He also notes Lant’s desire to accompany Fitz and urges him to allow it; Fitz holds his tongue on the matter. Chade also notes his distrust of Rosemary and her unraveling of his information network, but he still urges Fitz to press on with his own work. To that end, he presents Fitz a pair of exceptionally detailed maps on which he had worked for years.

Fitz returns to his chambers and secrets his gifts therein before responding to a Skill-summons from Nettle and Dutiful. Having made himself presentable, Fitz presents himself, finding the Farseers aside from Chade awaiting him. Arrangements are made for how the prince Fitz is will proceed, and a cover-story is introduced–along with comments about the residents of Kelsingra. The Fool is also discussed, and Fitz calls upon him to announce his intention to proceed to Clerres alone, to the latter’s exceptional upset.

The next days pass with Fitz making final preparations for departure. Kettricken gifts him yet another map, noting quietly her knowledge of how Dutiful came to be. A farewell feast is given, and private farewells are said–some of them brusque, indeed.

The present chapter is a long one, some thirty pages in the printing I’m reading. I am reminded once again that I need to find a cohesive print-run of the Realm of the Elderlings novels to get page-counts for the chapters; I remain convinced that there is something to be found in the relative lengths. O, to have the resources to undertake such a project!

The present chapter also offers more than a few things I like to see in a continuing work. One of them is a reference back to earlier parts of the body of work–in this case, Fitz’s first receipt of prophecy from the Fool. (It is also of interest that it’s just after six years since I treated that part of the corpus; how time flies!) There is a delight in seeing efforts made to maintain continuity across a body of work, to see attention to detail and long reading rewarded in text. I look for such delights, which the present chapter provides at several points.

I also look for the kind of commentary that can be found in the present chapter as the Fool describes the generational machinations of the Servants–“They are tremendously wealthy. They have been corrupt for generations, and they use the prophecies to make themselves ever wealthier. They know what to buy to sell later at a much higher price. They manipulate the future, not to make the world a better place but only to add to their wealth” (627). It may well be an affective reading, but I do find myself in mind of various oligarchies, established and aspiring, I see at work in the world. I am probably not the only one, either, and I think an examination of such commentaries in Hobb may be an addition to my list of scholarly somedays.

My medievalist self takes some interest in the description of Clerres as akin to Mont St. Michel–although I’ve discussed that much previously. Still, that I managed not to miss all of the details in my earlier readings is a comfort, and the partial correspondence remains in place. I wonder, though, if there is another scholarly someday in tracing Arthurian parallels, here; does Fitz castrate some giant, if only obliquely? I’ll have to consider it further as I reread more; it’s been a while.

So much said, the present chapter does a lot of explicatory work. As it is near the end of the novel, I have to read that work as being done to set up the third volume of the trilogy, Assassin’s Fate; I’ll proceed to that text soon, although not as soon as I might like–as I reread, again, I feel again the hunger for the reading that I recall feeling in earlier readings, spanning nearly ten years with Fool’s Quest and longer with other parts of the Realm of the Elderlings novels, that has led me to linger in place for hours, moving nothing other than my eyes except to turn the pages, and to stay awake far longer than the next day’s working demands suggest, taking in the text at once.

It is good to have such feelings.

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Following an excerpt from Bee’s dream journal, “Loose Ends” opens with Fitz leafing through the same in a sleepless night, rehearsing some of his earlier follies (notably this and perhaps this) and resolving to proceed, but with more deliberation. That deliberation pushes him to return to Withywoods to settle matters there, something to which the Fool objects angrily.

Fitz takes Perseverance with him when he goes, and the guard company commanded by Foxglove accompanies the pair. Their progress towards Withywoods is glossed and uneventful, and Fitz is welcomed back with reports of events there since his last visit. He secures what had been Bee’s room and directs that Shine’s and Lant’s belongings be forwarded to Buckkeep. And in the evening, he considers his course of action, finding himself unexpectedly in communion with Nettle through the Skill.

The next morning sees Fitz begin to learn from the household staff more of how events had fallen out since he was last on site. He learns also, to his surprise, that his treatment of Ellik and other Chalcedean raiders has been made known to the folk of Withywoods by way of Perseverance, who reports sadly on the state of his own mother. Foxglove is also apprised of matters and apologizes for her earlier cool treatment of Fitz.

Fitz spends more time putting things in order, his efforts glossed until he comes to sorting his personal effects. Those receive more detail, few as they are, as he arranges some and seeks out others that he knows Bee had secreted away. As he goes about that work, Fitz is overwhelmed by grief, prompting another Skill-sending from Nettle. As they confer, she notes that the Fool has gone missing, and Fitz offers some recommendation of where he might be found. Too, the two commiserate, after which Fitz outfits himself for the work he means to do.

Outfitted, Fitz reads Bee’s writings, finding himself often moved to tears by them. The next morning, Fitz takes a few things to Bee’s hiding place and locks it before taking his leave.

My background of media consumption shows itself, certainly, in one reaction I had to rereading the chapter. As Fitz equips himself for his trip to Clerres, I was reminded of nothing so much as Batman. The belt full of pouches of weapons and other accoutrements, weapons secreted in other places on his person, and the like all seem very much in the line of Bruce Wayne and his clandestine exploits–although, of course, Fitz is not so skilled as the Dark Knight, and he has little compunction about killing even on a good day.

That little bit of old nerdery aside, it is good to see that Fitz can, occasionally, learn from his mistakes. Although he certainly has the impulse to charge ahead (and, as I read affectively, I find it understandable; I think I would want to charge off after someone who took my daughter, and I am, well, me), he manages to restrain it in favor of making more careful preparations and undertaking careful pursuit. Admittedly, the lesson comes late for him; he reflects on earlier follies, and the fact that they are plural is an indication that he is not always the best of students. His more recent expedition, even in the present volume, suggests as much more forcefully. But the lesson seems, at last, to have taken, and that is good to see.

I don’t know that the present chapter offers a whole lot in terms of scholarly interest; it seems a narrative need, an accounting-for of some of the titular loose ends rather than any thing unto itself. There are a few offhanded comments about religion to be found, and those might be of some interest if there is some revisitation of an earlier project of mine. I’m not averse to doing such a thing, as might well be noted, and I’ve as much as declared my intent to extend at least one earlier project already; I might as well do another one, too, adding to my scholarly somedays. Too, there might be something to do regarding torture–which the present chapter references without presenting directly–as that is a recurring theme in Hobb’s work (not only in the Realm of the Elderlings novels; the Soldier Son series, which I will address at some point, has its share of such, as do some of the “peripheral” works under Hobb’s name). I’m not sure if and how I might address that, though, but there may well be time for me to consider it…and if I don’t, I’m sure someone else will.

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A commentary on how Nettle revitalized the corps of Skill-users in the Six Duchies precedes “Prince FitzChivalry.” The chapter, proper, begins with Fitz returning to his chambers briefly before making himself presentable for an audience with King Dutiful. As he does so and awaits the audience, Fitz muses on the presence of servants and their ministrations.

Fitz is admitted to the king’s presence, the chamber described as he enters it. Dutiful first thanks Fitz for recovering Shine. He then reminds Fitz that he occupies a place in the government of the Six Duchies, one that requires the king be able to trust him to act as a prince of the realm, and he bids him report, in full, his actions. Fitz does so “and left out no detail” (576). In response, Dutiful relives Fitz of his assassin’s duties, which takes Fitz aback.

Being dismissed from his audience with the king, Fitz stalks out without clear purpose, only to be found by Spark and informed that he has been assigned new quarters, the Heliotrope apartments where Patience had formerly dwelt with Lacey. Spark adds that she and the Fool have also been re-quartered, the Fool returning to the rooms he had had as Lord Golden.

From that meeting, Fitz calls upon Chade, finding him in his own chambers and attended by Shine. Fitz is again taken aback, seeing the decline that has afflicted Chade in seeming haste. Conversation between Shine and Fitz is tense, but it soon turns to Shine’s latent talent with the Skill. Chade unlocks that talent, prompting outside intrusion, Nettle soon arriving to take matters in hand and sending Fitz on his way.

Reluctantly acceding to the Skillmistress’s command, Fitz leaves Chade’s rooms and seeks out his own new ones, inspecting them thoroughly and carefully. Finding little to keep him there, Fitz seeks out the Fool, who is upset about the relocation and the interference from Rosemary. Fitz is able to offer the Fool some comfort, and he makes some recommendations for how the Fool might proceed. Beginning to do so, Fitz recalls some of Patience’s wisdom, although he is jarred by how he is enacting it.

Time passes, and Fitz begins to plan how he will proceed, and he takes steps to enact his plans. Most of them take the form of separating himself from his attachments, ensuring that he is not needed where he is so that he can go to where he is needed. How the others in Buckkeep fare is noted, and plans are made to question Shine further about events. Nettle and a reluctant Kettricken assist with the questioning, and useful information is uncovered. Lant is less helpful, but Riddle manages to be of help with him.

At length, Fitz begins to recover his Skill, training it back up as he continues to retrain his body. More of his affairs are settled and those in his care committed to other caretakers. The Fool adopts another new guise, Mage Gray from Satine. Dutiful takes some pleasure in Fitz’s evident integration into the life of the nobility, and, over a conversation between them and Chade, the latter reveals some unexpected insights.

The present chapter prompts another of my many affective readings. Dutiful’s decree removing Fitz from assassin’s work–not only reassigning him, but forbidding him from them–is a career-adjustment that is not unfamiliar to me. I’ve written about it a few times, I think (this is an easy example; it links back to others, as well). There is quite a bit of unease involved in leaving behind a career for which one has trained for decades, even when that career has not been entirely or even largely fulfilling; there’s a lot of identity constructed in such training and execution (yes, the pun is intentional), and so there is a lot of existential uncertainty involved in leaving it behind. There’s more in being forced out of it, and it remains an uneasy adjustment even years later, because it’s not always if ever possible to leave such a background behind entirely (as I’ve noted, too, here and likely elsewhere). Once again, then, I find myself feeling for Fitz, which I still know is unacceptably sentimental but which I persist in doing, regardless.

The present chapter also offers an interesting little bit of humor, the backhanded kind of thing I’ve commented on before and continue to enjoy finding (again? I hope so). The chambers Fitz is given, the ones formerly inhabited by Patience when she had come to Buckkeep after Chivalry’s death, carry the name of a plant that seems to have originated in the Americas (per Luebert, Hilger, and Weigend, here; I do still try to work from good information, you know) and that is toxic to people and animals (per NC State University, here), with the addition of being more dangerous when not in blue than when in it (per New South Wales, here, despite comments about nativeness). Even if it is a weak support, it remains a support for some ideas that I have had. Too, Fitz has not always been healthy to be around, although he seems to be deadlier when he is not wearing Buck blue than when he is. Again, it’s a backhanded thing, but that there is something there to look at is a pleasure.

On the topic of naming: I remarked some years back that Fitz’s very name indicates fundamental failures in the chivalric ideal. In some ways, the present chapter motions towards Dutiful’s recognition of such; he comments, among other things, that the Farseers have failed Fitz in assigning him to the assassin’s duties in which he had been trained by royal command. (To his credit, he also includes Chade among those who have been wronged.) But even that is a failure on Dutiful’s part and a gesture towards the failures of chivalry; for one, the king does not deny the need for such services, glossing over the fact of his retention of Rosemary in the assassin’s role, and, for another, the litany of services that Dutiful recites to Fitz as things for which he is grateful are only possible because Fitz was trained as he was and had his familial connections. It is a peculiar myopia, and while it may well be in keeping with Dutiful’s own name that he feels and acts out of an obligation to his older cousin, it is perhaps not so much in it that he would remove from particular activity someone who has been a resource in that particular activity. To my eye, Fitz continues to be an emblem of the failures of the chivalric ideal, and I think a fuller explication of that will be another scholarly someday for me.

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Following a commentary on a semi-judicial proceeding, “Family” begins with Fitz and company returning to Buckkeep Castle, their progress to that point described. Fitz does not take the journey well, and he does not receive the news of a royal summons well when it reaches him. He takes some time to respond to it and appear as bidden.

When Fitz reports as ordered, he finds the Farseers in array awaiting him, as well as Hap Gladheart and the children of Burrich and Molly, their arrangement described. Soon after, the Fool is led in, as well, and Dutiful calls proceedings to order. The announcement is made to the family that Bee is lost, and Fitz is called upon to report how events have come to that pass. He does, in detail, falling to his knees as he does so. After, the family begins to grieve, and Fitz is surprised to find his kin reaching out to comfort him amid his grief, feeling himself to blame for all that has befallen.

After a too-brief time of offering up shorn hair in token of grief and commiserating with Fitz, the assembled Farseers and others begin to disperse. Dutiful leaves Kettricken and Fitz last, and Kettricken refuses to allow Fitz to vanish once again, bidding him escort her to her rooms. He does so, and she tends to him, dosing him with a soporific and noting the justice of it.

Fitz wakes in Kettricken’s bed in the morning after commiserating with her in the night, and they part. Fitz proceeds thence through the hidden passages of the castle to rejoin the Fool, with whom he confers about how to proceed. Their talk is interrupted by the delivery of a message summoning Fitz to another meeting with Dutiful, and as they part, Fitz and the Fool make mention of the latter’s lost fingertips.

The prefatory materials in the present chapter present another of the callbacks to earlier materials that my nerdy self appreciates seeing. The prefatories make reference to the use of a duel before the Witness Stones to determine justice, something long established as practice in the Six Duchies (see here). In my comments on the early depiction of the practice, I do raise some questions about it; the practice of judicial dueling is fraught, at best. Consequently, with the present chapter’s prefatory materials adding to those questions (one Kitney Moss, accused of murder, maintained his innocence despite appearing to be on the losing end of a judicial duel before the Stones, and dashed into them, inadvertently using one as a Skill-pillar despite a lack of training or understanding, and disappeared, with later circumstances bearing out his innocence), I find myself pleased; even within the milieu, the accuracy of the judicial duel is suspect, and I remain egotist enough to like to be proven right (usually; there have been times I’ve wished I’d been wrong).

Similarly, I appreciate being right about Dwalia’s glove from before. I am less pleased, however, that that pleasure reminds me that it’d been too long since I’d read the book; I’m running into things and only dimly remembering them, if at all, and then taking delight as if I’ve discovered something that I’d already seen before.

Also similar to the preface in referring back to the earlier parts of the Realm of the Elderlings corpus is the shearing and burning of hair as a token of grief. It is mentioned in the first depicted interaction between Fitz and the Fool, if memory serves (see here), and it does reappear throughout the series (as noted here). Again, my nerdy self delights in such consistencies, which I know are not easy to maintain across decades and series and thousands of pages; that they are, here and elsewhere in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus, is part of why I keep coming back to Robin Hobb, again and again.

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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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Following Dwalia’s comments about Prilkop, “Aftermath” begins with Fitz considering the fallout from the fight with Ellik and his few surviving subordinates. Fitz issues orders to Foxglove and his own guards, and a search for Bee and Shine ensues. As Fitz goes about his part of it, Riddle assists him and confronts him about Lant and about his own inclusion in the drugged group Fitz had left behind, and, after some discussion, the two are accorded.

The results of Fitz’s and Riddle’s search are noted, and they are unhelpful. The pair call at nearby Ringhill Keep, which is described as they receive accommodations. Fitz, drug-addled, muddles through the meal, after which he and Riddle are taken aside by the resident Skill-user and informed that they are to return to Buckkeep with all due haste. Fitz apologizes to Riddle for having led to his rebuke, which apology Riddle sets aside, and the pair prepare to return to face Nettle and Dufitul.

The next morning, Fitz, Riddle, Lant, and Perseverance set out for Buckkeep, Fitz’s guard in tow. Reports of the previous night are offered, and Lant voices his complaints to Fitz for ill-treatment. As they proceed, Fitz and Riddle confer, and discord breaks out among the guard. They also find Shine along the way, and Fitz learns to his sorrow that Bee has been taken through a Skill-pillar.

The introductory material to the chapter once again attracts my attention. I find it interesting that Dwalia describes Prilkop as “the Black Prophet,” a description echoing that under which he was introduced to the Realm of the Elderlings corpus (see here and here). I find it also interesting that the description comes amid commentary that casts some aspersion onto Prilkop: “Since he was discovered as a natural-born rather than bred at Clerres, his time at our school was too short to be certain of his loyalty” (523). Both lead me once again to think about Manichean allegory at work, as well as the ways in which portions of the Realm of the Elderlings seem to me to refigure early US experience (about which some comments are here). I imagine that some additional updates to my earlier work will be in order, and I imagine also that I may have to review some of my older notes to reground myself in some of the prevailing theoretical discourses in which I’d need to work to follow up on this particular set of scholarly somedays.

There’s some there there.

In any event, the text of the main chapter is relatively brief, some thirteen pages in the printing I have (I really need to sit down for a while with a cohesive print-run of the Elderlings novels; there’s something in the chapter-lengths). It reads to me as being a pivot, separated out from other materials for sense and to allow greater focus on other events but still needing more development than a simple gloss would permit. Fitz’s recognition of his errors, his faults, and the ways in which those faults impact both others and the regard others have for him deserves attention, certainly, and I am put in mind of “filler episodes” in a number of television series. I note that many such episodes become some of the most favorite, though, as they tend to permit the kind of character development that receives much approval and that, frankly, many “literary” novels focus on.

I’m not upset to see it.

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

Another content warning for the chapter: discussion of child abuse / neglect, torture.

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After a Servant’s commentary about the Fool, one noting his youthful intransigence and certain measures attempted and suggested to address the same, “The Glove” returns to Bee and Shun as they flee the fracas between the Servants and their Chalcedean hirelings. Shun directs Bee as they flee, and they come at last to take a tentative rest. A cold night passes for them.

In the morning, Bee and Shun press on after some disagreement about what path to take and why. They proceed with difficulty and in cold hunger, and Shun divulges some of her personal history. Bee ruminates on it as she takes a turn breaking trail for Shun, and they come at last to a place to rest for the evening.

Bee wakes in the night, prompted by the echo of Nighteyes within her. One of the Chalcedean hirelings, Kerf, approaches in seeming kindness, offering escort and food. Kerf relates some of his own history and makes to attend to Bee and Shun, and they sleep.

The next day dawns with Kerf providing more food for Bee and Shun, and the trio set out again. Reluctantly, Bee and Shun follow Kerf as he leads them along, and they realize that he has led them back to Dwalia under Vindeliar’s power. Dwalia takes them in hand, noting the end of Bee’s deception, and she bids them be taken through a Skill-pillar. Bee acts, allowing Shun to slip free before she is dragged into the stone of the portal.

The present chapter does quite a bit. For one thing, in its prefatory materials, it brings back to mind the ways in which the Fool had been marked by those in Clerres, tattooed in his youth. In the earlier discussion of those marks, the Fool reports them as inflicted in an attempt to render him not-White. (As I write the words, I recall some earlier comments that motion towards Hobb’s use of tattooing as a trope, and I have to wonder about Manichean allegory and race politics–more scholarly somedays, I think.) While he might well have recalled them as thus inspired, the broader issues of control that are reported in the prefatory materials remain…chilling.

It’s not the only thing in the present chapter that is so. Aside from the weather depicted, there is a more to indicate the ruthlessness of the Servants and their ilk in dealing with those who resist them. As Dwalia and her company prepare to take Bee through the Skill-pillar, she produced “a single strange glove. [Bee] could not tell what it was made from. The hand of it was pale and thing, almost translucent, but to three of its fingertips a shriveled silvery button had been attached” (521). Another of the injuries inflicted on the Fool is accounted for in the description; in Fool’s Assassin, Chapter 30, Fitz notes when he surveys the Fool’s injuries after stabbing him that the fingers with which he had touched the Skill had been damaged, the magic-tinged tips taken away. It would seem they found another home–a macabre little touch that I do not think I caught in my earlier readings.

It’s a good sign when a book gives you something new upon rereading.

Another note, and on another topic entirely: I’ve remarked many times before about Hobb’s use of emblematic names in the Elderlings novels, something overtly discussed as at work among the higher social strata of the Six Duchies and seemingly present among other social groups in the milieu, as well. With that, I have to reflect on Kerf, whose name Merriam-Webster reports as meaning either “a slit or notch made by a saw or cutting torch” or “a slit or notch made by a saw or cutting torch.” In either event, the name indicates that something is missing because it has been removed, and I have to think, given the character’s self-report of his personal history and what has been done to him both by his native society and by Vindeliar at Dwalia’s command, it is an apt name.

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Read the previous entry in the series here.
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Got another content warning on this chapter: torture.

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Following a report to Chade that discusses the end of Andronicus Kent and the ascent of Chassim, “Red Snow” begins with Fitz and Fleeter proceeding at speed, Fitz detailing their progress through the night and into the dawn. He notes passing “a rare shrine to Eda” (474) as he and his horse move ahead, and Fitz tries to puzzle out his quarry’s path. His thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of the crow, Motley, who croaks out a warning that Fitz heeds, and he is more cautious as he approaches the remnants of violence.

Fitz surveys the scene, searching for Bee and finding no sign of her. Fleeter’s sudden fatigue reaches Fitz through the Wit, and though he sees to her, he still hardens himself as the assassin he had been trained to be, reflecting on the quiet work he did for Shrewd. Fitz skulks through the terrain, considering implications of the evidence that presents itself to his senses, and he finds the results of the fracas that had broken out between the Servants and the Chalcedeans.

Fitz also finds there are survivors, and he watches for a time before advancing with fatal intent. Seeing the spoils of his own home on display, he questions one of them, Ellik, and secures his person before settling in to extract information. It is forthcoming, and it details how the Chalcedeans were hired and brought into the Six Duchies to effect the raid on Withywoods. It also details the lead-up to the violence that had erupted, and the escape Dwalia and Vindeliar had achieved. It does not report on Bee and Shine.

Securing Ellik, Fitz moves to confront another Chalcedean. He is not more merciful with him, and what he learns confirms what Ellik told him. And then he is beset by Ellik, melee ensuing until interrupted by the onrush of fleeing Chalcedeans and Six Duchies soldiers in pursuit. Perseverance is among them, and his untrained efforts save Fitz from death at Ellik’s hand. The general melee is soon concluded, and Fitz commands a search be organized in haste.

The mention of the shrine early in the present chapter brings to mind some work I have done explicating how Hobb works with concepts of medieval religion in the Realm of the Elderlings corpus. (The short answer is “not a whole lot, but not not at all.” The actual answer is more complex, as the paper bears out.) I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I had missed in the paper the mention of the shrine in the present chapter, as well as its description: “The goddess slumbered under a mantle of white snow, her hands open on her lap. Someone had brushed her hands clean and filled them with millet. Small birds perched on her fingers and thumbs” (474). I’m sure there is something to trace out in the description–there’s enough medievalist resonances in the Disney princesses the shrine’s description evoke that something could be plumbed–but I think it would not be something to stand on its own. Perhaps if I were to rework the conference paper into a longer piece…but that’s just another scholarly someday for me.

I note that Hobb returns again to the theme of torture that pervades her work–and not only her Elderlings corpus, as this rereading series will hopefully address at some point; it factors into the Soldier Son series, as well as some of the out-of-series works such as are in the Warriors anthology edited by Martin and Dozois. A quick glance at available scholarship–which reminds me that I need to do more to update the Fedwren Project–suggests that there is some attention being paid to the topic, which I am glad to see (even as I am somewhat jealous that I’m not the person doing the work). I’m not seeing an extended, systematic study, however, although I will concede that that might be simply a matter of my not having / taking the time to look more closely through the available scholarship at this point. I think I have already noted that such a project is among my many scholarly somedays; I should do so if I haven’t already. Perhaps, as things slow down a bit for me in my “real” life and in the more formal scholarly work that I am, somehow, still doing, I will have time to attend to some of them.

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