Repair Bug
In which the Pathfinders offer assistance.
…or the other thing could happen, which is that they think Theo is a pirate. Which I can see how that might seem like a reasonable consideration, from their point of view.
Continue reading
Bechimo
Wyrd Space
In which the crew’s investigations find a whole lot of nothing.
I’m getting a bit confused about what Theo does or doesn’t know about Spiral Dance. There’s that one comment in this chapter where she indicates she knows Cantra had a ship of that name, but the rest of the time she seems more surprised than I’d expect by things which follow naturally from that, like the ship being of the old universe and the tree on the bridge being related to Korval’s Tree.
When Joyita remarks that Clan Korval is likely to have extensive records of a nature related to their problem, I wonder if it is, among other things, his own more subtle attempt to get Theo to heed Val Con’s request to return to Surebleak.
Bechimo
Wyrd Space
In which Bechimo‘s crew find a solution to a problem.
In the first proper chapter, we return to the crew of Bechimo, who are still where we left them, in the wyrd space with the mysteriously-appeared ship Spiral Dance.
Continue reading
In which the Road Boss comes home.
I spent the entire epilogue waiting for Theo to show up, or Daav and Aelliana, or all of them together, but it didn’t happen. Perhaps Daav’s homecoming, like the downfall of the Department, is a large enough thing to require the length of an entire book to tell it.
Maybe Daav and Aelliana are even home already and the narrator’s just not mentioning it, to avoid being distracting. Or they may be just about to arrive; the hint of the seed pods could go either way. Theo’s definitely not back yet, judging by Miri’s reaction to the vision of her with the seedling from Spiral Dancer; Miri doesn’t know it’s a thing that’s actually happened. (It has to be a thing that’s happened, because the business with Admiral Bunter shows that this is after Dragon Ship – so it’s interesting that it’s in among a bunch of visions of things that haven’t happened yet. I wonder if the young woman in Scout leathers is who Lizzie will grow up to be.)
Another thing that’s happened is “The Rifle’s First Wife”, since there she is among Korval’s other guests. I suppose that means the events of that story have been happening alongside the events of this one (or perhaps in the gap between the last chapter and this epilogue, if it’s large enough, although I seem to recall “The Rifle’s First Wife” begins when Hazenthull is still on Surebleak and Kareen is still guesting at Jelaza Kazone).
And that’s it. Nothing left to read. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: A few retrospective posts.
Bechimo
In which Theo encounters an old friend of the family.
A nice moment of cross-purpose: on hearing the message saying that Spiral Dance is out from Solcintra, Kara and Win Ton both think immediately of Solcintra City on Liad. After all, what other Solcintra is there?
I am not entirely sure what to make of Spiral Dance‘s reappearance. It could be considered as the end of something, with ship and passenger returning to yos’Phelium. But it could also be the forerunner of something: if they can make it through, what else might follow?
(The answer to that might depend on how, exactly, Spiral Dance found its way through. If it was only possible because of having a ssussdriad assisting the navigation, that’s probably an end of it, as there are no sussdriads left in the old universe. On the other hand, if the key event was Bechimo‘s haunted Struven Unit calling out in a way audible to old tech, that means the way is potentially still open – although even then, I suppose it’s unlikely that there’s going to be another ship with a haunted Struven Unit sitting in the wyrd space any time soon.)
It’s not clear how much time has passed for Spiral Dance since the Rising of Solcintra: that its passenger is now a tree and not just a seedling suggests it’s been a while, but the fact that it still fits in its planter shows that it’s been considerably less than the centuries it’s been for everyone else.
In which we’re leaving together, but still it’s farewell.
This is the only chapter in the duology that doesn’t have a caption saying, however ambiguously, where it takes place.
I think the mention of Dancer, “singing sweet seduction to her makers”, must be where I got the idea that she was sent off to act as a decoy; whether that was Cantra’s intention, it’s what she’s doing. (And I love the image of the seedling adding its own insulting messages.)
Hands up, anyone who thinks the Iloheen’s being honest in its offer to promote Rool Tiazan’s lady if she comes quietly. Nobody? Didn’t think so.
I was right about Rool Tiazan’s bargain with the ambitious dramliza, it looks like. (Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are twelve kinds of twisty.)
The “vast and implacable greenness” is interesting. A last-ditch attempt by the ssussdriad? Or … something else? (Do they have Turtles in this universe?)
Spiral Dance
Solcintra
In which the leave-takings begin.
Jela’s Troop are shipping out with the rest of Captain Wellik’s soldier boys – and have received an official troop designation, so henceforth they are an actual Troop and not just a bunch of people united by shared experiences and a nickname.
Cantra sends Spiral Dance off on autopilot, with a seedling from the tree as passenger or crew. I’d got the idea somewhere that this was a distraction mission, in case the Enemy were looking for Dancer, but that’s not the impression I’m getting this reading. The way Cantra talks, it’s so they both have a chance of survival: Dancer has a better chance of survival on the move than sitting on the ground on a planet that’s about to be attacked, and the seedling’s there to give Jela’s legacy another chance if Quick Passage perishes, and Cantra and the tree along with it. You pay your debts, as best you can.
Solcintra
In which Rool Tiazan comes visiting.
Rool Tiazan warns Cantra that her actions on Vanehald have attracted the Enemy’s attention, and that the fact that Spiral Dance obeyed her then doesn’t mean it’s free of the Enemy’s influence, only that the Enemy has not chosen to exert that influence – yet.
Cantra expresses some doubt to herself and to Rool Tiazan that humanity is either saveable or, perhaps, worth saving, but I think it says something that when his lady asks her if she wants to keep Jela’s child, she doesn’t hesitate to say yes.
(I also appreciate that the pregnancy needs a bit of dramliz-healer help to be confident of a good outcome. It underlines how much work the tree had to do to get it going at all.)
Tor An’s Aunt Jinsu, whose advice about being well-rested he starts to offer, has been mentioned before: she’s the aunt who used to travel with Scholar tay’Palin in her younger days.
Liad dea’Syl is an observant man, and I wonder how much he has observed about Rool Tiazan. (Apart from the fact that Lucky likes him, which would have been pretty hard to miss.)
Solcintra
In which some more reunions take place.
Cantra is still planning to go off on her lonesome at the first opportunity, but there are several people not wanting to give her that opportunity.
I’m intrigued by Wellik’s tattoo. What we’ve been told about X Strain tattoos is that they’re large and gaudy, to off-balance the people who have to look at them, and that a tattoo signifying the soldier’s born-to troop goes on the right cheek. Wellik’s tattoo is not large and gaudy, nor is it on the right cheek, so although he’s following the general trend of face tattooing he seems to be avoiding all the specific rules. Presumably he’s making some kind of statement; I wonder what it is.
Long Savannahs of the Blue
In which Cantra comes to a decision, and Rool Tiazan’s lady comes to an arrangement.
I get the feeling that the tree is worried about Cantra, and trying to help her, but most of what it knows about getting around Cantra comes from watching Jela doing it, and even aside from the fact that what works for Jela won’t necessarily work for anyone else, imitating Jela is not the most helpful thing to be doing right now.
The tree can, it seems, speak words on occasion, within limits. The words it gives to Cantra in this chapter are all memories of words, its answer to her question a reshuffling of the question itself. I wonder whose memories; the ones I recognise are from occasions when both Cantra and the tree have been present. The images it usually used to communicate with Jela were obviously drawn from its own store of memories, though, and I don’t offhand recall it ever talking to him with his. Perhaps it hasn’t spoken in words before because it doesn’t have very many words to draw on, and wasn’t used to using the ones it had; Jela was the first verbal person it had ever met, and he didn’t talk much, at that.
Meanwhile, Rool Tiazan and his lady (whose current state of existence does remind one of Aelliana’s, later) are making a house call. We see that not all the free dramliz are as altruistic, or as balanced in themselves, as Rool Tiazan and his lady, or Lute and Moonhawk. Which is saddening, but not really surprising, given the way the dramliz are brought up.
It’s indicated that Simbu’s dominant is only one of a group of dramliz plotting to supplant the Iloheen, which – on the one hand, obviously that’s not something it would be remotely reasonable to contemplate attempting on one’s own, but on the other hand, given the kind of person you’d have to be to want to supplant the Iloheen, I suspect that if they actually did succeed they’d be backstabbing each other in less time than it takes to say “Lords of Unmaking”.
Rool Tiazan is the kind of being you find in fairy stories about people who come to grief by not being precise about wording, and I think it’s significant that what he and his lady have agreed to is to lend one third of his strength as measured by the borrower – particularly since he has a track record of making his strength appear less than it is. (See also: not “it cost him an effort”, but “he knew she would see that it cost him an effort”.) Not that I blame him, since honest-and-upfront is clearly the wrong approach to take with an ally like this.