Chancellor’s Welcome Reception for the Gallowglass Chair
Lenzen Ballroom, Administration Tower Three
University of Delgado
In which Jen Sar Kiladi comes to Delgado.
Sharon Lee once mentioned on her blog that there are apparently readers who are under the misapprehension that when Daav left Liad to be Kiladi, he was taking the easy way out. I can see where they might have got that impression from Scout’s Progress, where Daav spends a lot of time chafing at Liad and thinking about taking off for elsewhere, but I think Mouse and Dragon does a good job of counteracting it. Over the course of the novel, Daav makes accommodations and settles into his place on Liad, and the last few chapters show very clearly that in leaving Liad he’s leaving his son and his brother and many other people and things he values; the discovery of Aelliana’s presence was a help, but it’s clearly still traumatic for him.
One thing I notice about this chapter is that it never names the point-of-view character. I mean, it’s obvious who it is, but is he Daav yos’Phelium or Jen Sar Kiladi? (Kiladi on the outside, but Daav on the inside where he can hear Aelliana? Though I notice that at those moments, Aelliana also goes unnamed; apparently Kiladi is aware of possessing an invisible companion – I suppose that would have been a necessary adaptation, since neither Daav nor Aelliana would have been happy if she’d had to pretend not to be there most of the time – but not of her identity. Likewise, her comment about his sister isn’t attached to a name, and it’s possible the sister he remembers is not the same as the one she does.) That was a long parenthetical comment; where was I? Ah, yes, the question of his identity. There are moments where he doesn’t seem too clear on that question himself.
This is where we leave Aelliana and her beloved friend (whoever he is) for now; it will be a couple of months for us (and a larger number of years for them) before we will get to see what becomes of the new situation on Delgado, and of the potential friendship with Scholar Waitley.
For now, there is a week or two of short stories, beginning with “Veil of the Dancer”, and then the novel Conflict of Honors.