Lytaxin
Mercenary Encampment
In which Daav sits vigil.
In publication order, the conversation with Aelliana is a pretty big first occurrence, but it loses some of its impact when read in chronological order.
The other thing in this chapter is the death of the Explorer, but it’s too soon to be sure how big a thing that is.
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.
In which Daav yos’Phelium dies and Jen Sar Kiladi returns to teaching.
Thus, Daav’s Balance: Having identified ignorance as the enemy, he will take the fight to the enemy by sending out Professor Kiladi to battle ignorance. In so doing, he will also remove himself from the clan and hide in a place where nobody will look for him, so that news of his death might be believed, and the Terran Party be given what they want before anyone else is harmed.
(And while a teacher with Kiladi’s accomplishments might surely have many grateful former students, given the name of the university involved I like to think that the influential alumnus who arranged for Kiladi to be given a place was Chames Dobson.)
Thus, also, the truth about Daav’s blackouts: through the lifemate bond, Aelliana lives on in him, in the manner of Rool Tiazan’s lady in the old story. Incidentally, it’s interesting to note that the last time Rool Tiazan’s lady was mentioned, it was Daav himself recounting that very story in Local Custom. Of course, knowing the story doesn’t mean he believes it, and even if he does one can understand why he might not think of it being repeated in his own case. Rool Tiazan and his lady were of the dramliz, and planned for the eventuality, neither of which are true of Daav and Aelliana.
I see a whole bunch of things going into this being possible. Daav is doubtless correct that the Tree had a hand in it (or whatever the corresponding metaphor is for Trees), but I don’t think that’s all. I think that, however it’s possible for Aelliana’s mind to be hosted in Daav’s head, it can’t have hurt that he already had from his Grandmother the ability to hold other personalities in his head, nor that he’d been keeping that ability in practice with Professor Kiladi. (It’s interesting to think that perhaps, in a sense, Professor Kiladi is responsible for saving Aelliana.) Another thing, which I noticed for the first time on this re-read, is that Master Kestra makes a point of mentioning that Daav no longer overflows with mental whatever-it-is that previously caused Healers to have to keep their distance: whatever it was he had too much of for one person, apparently it’s now been chanelled into sustaining two.
In which Daav grieves.
Daav’s grief is very effectively conveyed in this chapter, to the point where I feel obliged to remain respectfully quiet and not intrude with my chatter.
In which Dollance-Marie Chimra finds something with a price above rubies.
I didn’t like this story much the first time I read it. I found the plot utterly predictable, and none of the new characters particularly engaging. In the intersection of those two things, I didn’t care at all for Dollance-Marie Chimra, whose troubles are at the centre of the plot, since her troubles were by and large of her own making and I had less sympathy for her than for the various people whom she was putting to unnecessary trouble.
I enjoyed it more on this re-read. The plot wasn’t such a liability, because knowing what will happen next is what one expects on re-reading a story. And I find that I have more sympathy for Dollance-Marie on second acquaintance; this time through I got a better grasp of how her upbringing has produced the blind spots that result in the poor decisions she makes, and also I noticed more the indications that she does care about the people she’s caused trouble for — even if she doesn’t always understand the nature or extent of the trouble, when it comes to people outside the societal structure she’s grown up in.
That societal structure, where the intrusive-media side of celebrity has become a formal part of the life of the upper classes, was something I found some entertainment in even the first time I read the story. There’s aspects of modern social media, with trend-setters’ worth being judged by the number of their Followers, and echoes of the more old-fashioned paparazzi. And I noticed on this re-read that some of the names have a particularly English cast to them, which makes me think of the way the British Royal Family is arguably more important nowadays for giving the media something to pay attention to than for anything involving actually ruling the nation.
(The other thing some of the names remind me of is the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, but I haven’t visited that charming place in so long that I’m not sure if I’m just imagining things.)
Tomorrow, Mouse and Dragon chapter 37. Which brings to mind the thought that another thing this story has to offer, in the confrontation outside the Port, is a certain amount of foreshadowing.
In which Aelliana and Daav welcome Val Con yos’Phelium into the world.
Again, if things had been otherwise than they are, this might well have been where the book ended. But as things are, there are still places for the book to go, and the conversation at the beginning of the chapter reminds us that although the immediate issue of Daav’s abduction has been resolved, the underlying problem continues.
Aelliana and Daav’s shared vision of themselves as dragons flying together clearly owes something, somehow, to the Tree; it reminds me of “Dragon Tide”, and of the way the Tree used to visualise Cantra and Jela.
The other interesting thing about that shared experience is the way it’s mentioned as having strengthened their bond into something solid and ineluctable; one wonders whether subsequent events might have been different if Aelliana had allowed the Healer to send Daav away.
In which Daav decides to go into a possibly-hostile port without accepting backup.
Had this book been other than it is, the previous chapter might easily have been the last, perhaps with an epilogue in which Daav finally gets to hold his son in his arms. It is, after all, what the main plot line was building up to for the last two volumes.
But this is a prequel, which knows if any form of literature does that Peter Beagle was right about endings, and getting married isn’t the end of the story; it just means that Daav and Aelliana now have attention to spare for what else is going on in their lives.
I see a parallel between Daav’s decision to go to the Low Port alone, declining backup, and Aelliana’s decision last novel to go to the house of Mizel alone, declining backup, though in this case I’m not sure the decision is wrong; Daav does have a point about the advantages of working alone and under the radar. Still, one can wish he could have gone better protected. (Perhaps another Scout might have worked, if there were another Scout he could trust with this business. It’s a pity that Clonak is not available to be suggested as a possibility.)
Daav’s deliberately exaggerated worst-case hypothesis of “ghosts who lure the unsuspecting into the mists and steal their self-will” is not, after all, so far from the truth as one might prefer.
In which the lives, the hearts, and the souls of Daav yos’Phelium and Aelliana Caylon are joined.
Did I say Kareen’s schemes had gone flat? I think “flat” is not sufficient; they have not only gone flat, they’ve sunk so deep into the ground as to be a convenient height to be used as stepping stones. The end result of all Kareen’s scheming has been to smooth Aelliana’s path.
Apart from that, I have (as apparently is becoming traditional for this point in each Liaden novel) not much else to say except “Yes!”.
In which Aelliana takes decisive action in response to Mizel’s message.
I said in an earlier entry that one of the things worth noting about Scout’s Progress was the way it wasn’t a story about Aelliana being rescued, but a story about Aelliana rescuing herself. Even though she is now, for the most part, rescued, Mouse and Dragon has continued to be a story in which Aelliana makes the decisive moves in her own life. She was the originator and driving force of the idea of going for courier, and each time her personal relationship with Daav has tightened a notch, it’s been her making the move. (Which is an important thing, for a person whose life was for so long out of her control.) That continues here: the proposal that they cry lifemates comes from her, unbidden, when she’s ready and not before.
In which the worst of coming home is dealing with one’s mail.
The quote at the head of this chapter seems, at first glance, not to have much to do with what follows. There isn’t obviously anybody doing something dangerous in the name of necessity.
Unless it’s the Tree.
I am deeply suspicious of the Tree’s purposes in giving out this set of sweet cedar-smelling seed-pods — the more so since, on this re-read, I’ve noticed the other place in the chapter where the smell of sweet cedar recurs.