In which Master Lute gives a friend more help than he knew he was capable of.
It’s amazing, the details one notices when one starts paying attention. As for instance: this story is also in the wrong place; I had never realised before, but it goes between “Where the Goddess Sends” and “A Spell for the Lost”. (I’m beginning to think that when this big re-read is over, I’m going to have to do another smaller one, just the Moonhawk and Lute stories, to get them straight in my head.)
Moonhawk and Lute have been travelling together for just a few days, and Moonhawk has just mastered her first piece of Craft Magic. She’s already started snarking about how he’s a terrible teacher, and he about how she’s a disrespectful apprentice. And he’s already started offering her new perspectives on the relationship between the Temple and the towns.
The anecdote about Rowan learning to read also says something about the way society works on Sintia. (Incidentally, this is the first story, in the order we’ve been reading them, to explicitly name the setting as Sintia.)
More characters named after plants (though this time with some orthographic variations), including merlot (a grape varietal used in winemaking), vervain, rowan, and juniper. (This Rowan is the second we’ve encountered recently; the Witch of Dyan Circle who was hunting Lute down in “Moon’s Honor” also bore that name.)
Speaking of plants, the association of rosemary with memory is a piece of folklore of long standing. (“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember.”)
These stories do really well at the atmospheric spell-casting scenes.
I like the way Lute’s attempt to help Veverain turned out. It’s got some interesting implications (and I bet this is another story Priscilla’s teachers didn’t tell properly if they told it at all).
I like the story about how Tween the cat came to be named.
In fact, I like this story period. It’s my favourite of the Moonhawk and Lute set.
No comments from me because I have not read any of these chapbooks involving Lute and Moonhawk. Just not interested in those characters at all. I like Shan and Priscilla, though.
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the Lute and Moonhawk of the chapbooks are more like Shan and Priscilla than you might expect if you only know them from their appearances in the novels. In the scene in Plan B, Lute is being serious, which suppresses aspects of his character that usually get fuller expression (much as is the case for Shan in the same scene). And in the duology, whether it’s because of being serious again (although that didn’t affect Rool Tiazan the same way) or just because he hadn’t grown into himself yet, Lute is surprisingly un-Lute-like.
(Just offering the extra information. Ignore me if it’s unhelpful.)
Info is always appreciated. Some day I may turn to these books. I still have a few chapbooks to read that do involve modern Korval characters. Just a few.
A belated realisation about a belated realisation: A large part of the reason it took me so long to notice that this story comes before “A Spell for the Lost” is that that story explicitly proclaims itself The Second Tale of Moonhawk and Lute. And this story doesn’t begin or end with any such proclamation.
I reckon that indicates that Priscilla’s teachers didn’t tell this story…
This is also my favorite Lute and Moonhawk…perhaps because it has a successful outcome and happy ending for Veverain. The idea that a person’s will and imagination can succeed in creating a “real” spell was interesting. What is not explicitly stated in the story, but can be inferred by the reader, is that the actual binding ingredient of this particular spell is love: Veverain’s love for Rowan and even Lute’s love for both of them.
I continued to like this story on my 3rd time through. I don’t think I had any further particular observations, however.
Like you Paul, someday I need to make a point of reading the Lute and Moonhawk stories in their proper order. I always start out using a list I made from yours on the Suggested Reading Order page, but then I keep getting sidetracked by following the order of links, as shown on this page and by following the links from post to post.