BattleAxe First Read: Chapter Two: At King Priam's Court (Part I)

[pangolin20]

Chapter One (Part II) | Table of Contents | Chapter Two (Part II)

NRSG: A good day, and welcome back to BattleAxe! Before this, we spent an entire chapter with three people talking in a tower. This time, we will meet one of our protagonists! How exciting!

 

And I have managed to extract a map from the other edition, so here it is:

Chapter Two: At King Priam’s Court

We open on the 5^th of September, with a block of omniscient narration. Oh well, I will be done considerably faster then. We are told that Priam’s nameday is “an occasion of great celebration” throughout Achar, and it is even a “general holiday” in Achar. In the morning, Priam presides over a parade through the streets, sitting under “a heavily embroidered canopy” that usually serves as a shade. Now, it keeps an “unseasonable drizzle” from his “closely curled head.” Despite the rumours from the north, people line the streets, “an affair put on by the various guilds of Carlon to honour their king.” Priam waves cheerfully throughout the affair, though he is “bored witless by the time the fifty-seventh flower-draped cart passed him by.” Well, so am I by this book. Care to change that, Douglass? He makes a speech once it is over, thanking the guilds, and saying some “graceful words” about the numerous “enthusiastic (but largely talentless) children of guild members” who were there throughout the performance. The crowd cheers for Priam, Priam waves some more, and then everyone goes home, wondering about how the weather will affect the fesitivities.

Priam’s nameday is the one day when he “extend[s] his royal largesse” to everyone in Carlon, by providing them with a free feast. A parenthetical notes that they still need their “own stools” if they want to sit down. The banquet, of course, needs many months of preparation for the “tens of thousands of people” who need to be fed. That is still quite little for the ostensible capital of Achar, I must say. It is also an opportunity for the various lords of Achar to try to impress with their loyalty.

“Earl Burdel of Arcness” (the province west of Carlon) provides 500 large pigs. “[T]he gigantic Duke Roland the Walker (too fat to ride) of Aldeni” gives 235 “carts of vegetables and fruit”. Yes, thank you for that observation, Douglass. Also, Aldeni is the northwestern province of Achar, south of Ichtar.

In fact, let me take a moment to lay out the provinces of Achar, clockwise from the north, along with their ruler:

Province	Ruler
Ichtar	Duke Borneheld
Skarabost	Earl Isend
Arcness	Earl Burdel
Tarantaise	Baron Greville
Nor	Baron Ysgryff
Romsdale	Baron Fulke
Avonsdale	Earl Jorge
Aldeni	Duke Roland

 

It is maybe not the best place to put this, but it is a handy reference.

Anwway. Fulke of Romsdale supplies “enough ale to keep the Carlonites off work for three days after the banquet”, and 220 barrels “of his best red.” “Baron Ysgryff of Nor”, who understands that the citizens need entertainment after the banquet, “donate[s] the services of one hundred and eighty-five of the best whores and dancing boys from the streets of Ysbadd.”

1) Did we exactly need this addition? Especially “whores”?

Gratuitous Grimdark: 9

2) Given the somewhat racist things that will appear about Nor later, I am not exactly keen on Nor being the province that delivers sex workers and dancing boys.

RVMP: 14

3) Do we also need to have these ridiculously precise numbers? What does it add?

4) Ysbadd is the capital of Nor, by the way. Not that Douglass could be bothered to explain that, for some reason.

5) Ysgryff lost the vowel auction, it seems.

A Better Commando Name: 14

Another thing I would like to note is that his name seems to me suspiciously like a corruption of “Icegriffin”, which is certainly not out of Douglass’s league, as with “Sea of Tyrre” and “Smyrton”. Also, griffins are a thing in this setting, and they will play a role in the next books. So this is a nice red herring, except that, as far as I know, no one ever notices this! It is just so bizarre, and I see no reason why anyone would have even named him like this, when he has no connection whatsoever to Gorgrael.

This Is What the Mystery: 22

We are told that “all the lords” contribute what they can (not that there is any sign of Isend, Jorge, or Greville here. In fact, the last one does not even appear in this book), but Borneheld is the most generous one. He donated an entire herd of his finest sheeps and cows, and gave “a fistful of diamonds and emeralds from his mines in the Urqhart Hills” to the guilds. Ah, those are the hills Sigholt lies in, I see.

Well, the lords mutter around “goblets full of Baron Fulke’s finest” that Borneheld can afford to be so generous as he “control[s] more territory than any four of them put together.” Um, no. Looking at the map, Nor + Tarantaise + Arcness + Skarabost is considerably larger than Ichtar, so what in the world are they talking about. Douglass, did you even look at your own map?! Chapter two, and we already have a glaring continuity error. A great sign.

Anyway. By nine in the evening the Carlonites are “happily gorging” at various venues: the “town hall, the market square, and seven of the massive guild halls.” The sex workers and dancing boys begin to ply their business. The camera pans over to “Priam’s cream and gold palace in the heart of Carlon” where another banquet takes place.

The banquet hall, which is “popularly known as the Chamber of the Moons”, is massive and circular, and it doubles “as an audience chamber on ordinary days of the week.” It has “[g]reat alabaster columns” and a “soaring domed roof, enamelled in a gorgeous deep blue with gold and silver representations of the moon in the various phases of its monthly cycle floating amid myriad begemmed stars (thus the popular sobriquet).” My, that looks quite nice indeed, and I can certainly see where the name comes from. I am not a great fan of the prose here, though. The floor is made of “deep emerald-green marble shot through with veins of gold.”

Tonight the floor is hardly visible beneath the tables, and no one is lying on their back yet, where they can see the ceiling. Opposite the entrance is “the slightly raised dais” where Praim usually receives callers, but that tonight supports the royal table. Praim is there with his “immediate family”, which a parenthetical notes is not large anymore, and the “most important nobles of the realm” along with their wives. Jayme is near the centre of the table (and for some reason, Douglass reiterates his title). Despite the grim news from the north, he is determined to enjoy the banquet until he can talk more with Priam.

Immediately below this table is another that seats the children of the nobles. From there, the tables spread out over the chamber, “with the least important guests cramped around rickety tables in the dim recesses behind the grand circle of columns.”

Cut to one of our protagonists: “Faraday, eighteen-year-old daughter of Earl Isend of Skarabost, sat soaking up the atmosphere with her intelligent green eyes.”

Ah yes, she is apparently named after Michael Faraday, the scientist, and even after his surname. What a good idea.

A Better Commando Name: 15

Also, “intelligent green eyes”? I do not know what to imagine for that. We are told she only became eighteen “a half-year previously”, so this is the first time that she was invited to a royal banquet and indeed the first time she has ever gone to Carlon. So she was presumably born in February or March of 982. She has not been raised at court, but she is still “far from being out of her social and cultural depth.” Her mother is called “Merlion”, and Scales wanted me to share a picture here:

I am not entirely sure what to think of it, though it would be interesting of the griffins in this setting were a merlin/lion hybrid, instead of an eagle/lion one.

Anyway, Merlion spent years training her in “the rituals and etiquette of court society”, while her “own wit and composure” give her the skills to hold her own in “most courtly company”. Her “green eyes, chestnut hair and fine bone structure” are so beautiful that several young nobles “seeking well-bred and wealthy wives” are already eying her. Ah yes, Douglass really likes to use “breeding” in such sense, and I very much do not like it.

Next to her sits her “new friend”, “Devera, twenty-year-old daughter of Duke Roland the Walker.” She has “a blue-eyed, fair-haired prettiness that Faraday [thinks] extraordinary appealing.” I am sorry, but I am not willing to be lenient on this:

RVMP: 15

Do correct me if you think I am being unreasonable here. Faraday leans to Devera, hoping that “the intricate knot of her heavy hair, held together with only small pins of pearls and diamonds”, will hold. She says to Devera that everyone looks so beautiful, “unable to completely hide her excitement.” She looks at her goblet of “watered wine”, a “golden cup [] encrusted with small diamond chips.” She may be noble, but she is still young enough to be impressed by the court’s extravagance. I ought to put this in, by the way:

Distinct POV’s: 9 (I forgot to put in Gilbert’s POV last chapter)

Anyway, Devera smiles at Faraday, and we cut to her POV.

Distinct POV’s: 10

Stick to a POV: 6

She says she remembers how she felt when she “first came to court two years ago”, but she will not tell Faraday that. For whatever reason. She tells Faraday to look more bored, because “[i]f people suspect you are in awe of them they will try to take advantage of you.” Well, that is certainly not always the case, Devera, as I have experienced myself. If it was meant to be some kind of meaningful statement, its too-broad application has certainly removed that.

Faraday looks up, her “green eyes serious”. She asks Devera if she has read Artor’s words in “the Book of Field and Furrow”. Nice, there is also a Bible expy. She says that taking advantage of people “is not the Artor-fearing way.” The narration tells us that Merlion has ensured Faraday receives “strict religious instruction.”

Hmmm. I would not mind this, per se, but given the later books, this feels to me like Douglass subtly discrediting Faraday by having her be overly attached to the “bad” religion and being naïve. Anyway, Devera suppresses “a small grimace”. She says Faraday is a little too devout for her liking. “Everyone at court” genuinely fears Artor’s wrath (well, good that they believe their own religion), and most of them respect Jayme, but they “generally only pay lip service to the Seneschal.”

She says that devotion to the Seneschal’s “Way of the Plough” is a little “too peasantish” for the court and indeed Carlon at large. Also, many nobles resent how much the Seneschal interferes into political affairs. Ah yes, I would certainly have expected that. And so, Faraday will have to “drop the expressions of devoutness” if she wants to “hold the interest of one of the better-looking courtiers.” Devera assumes that Isend sent Faraday to court in “such an exquisite dark-gold silk dress and fine pearls” to find her a husband.

Devera herself is betrothed to “one of the younger sons of Baron Fulke” and will be married “within the month”. She looks forward to it with “lustful impatience.” Well, good on her, I would say. She thinks that if Faraday is devout, Isend might give her an audience with Jayme. She points him out and asks if Faraday has met him yet. Cut to Faraday’s POV.

Stick to a POV: 7

Faraday looks at Jayme. She says he looks as noble as any other, with his “well-groomed (and non-tonsured) hair, his gently waved and perfumed beard and rich clothes.” He has a “massive emerald ring” on his left hand, and he uses his napkin as gracefully as Priam. He has “a kindly, intelligent face” (but what good is that intelligence in his face?), but he is preoccupied by some concern.

Faraday says no, and then asks if he comes from the royal family. Devera snorts and says he is not. He comes from “an undistinguished farming family somewhere in the depths of Arcness.” She suggests that he probably is quite familiar with pigs, “although he hides it well now.” A few decades ago, he became “chaplain to the royal household”, and there, he learned his manners. She says he was, and is, an ambitious man, and he learned well, so he was appointed Brother-Leader.

Faraday is “dismayed at the sacrilegious way Devera talk[s] about the Brother-Leader”. If you say so. She tells Devera not to talk ill about Jayme, and says that the Seneschal appoints the Brother-Leader, and the royals have no influence at all. Faraday’s reply feels quite mismatched with what Devera just said, I must say. Cut to Devera’s POV.

Stick to a POV: 8

Devera thinks that Faraday still has much to learn about “the intrigues of both court and Seneschal”, and decides to keep the conversation away from religious matters. She asks what Faraday thinks of Priam. Faraday smiles, and says that he is “handsome”. Her eyes twinkle “impishly” as she adds, “But such curls!”. Devera laughs. She says that Priam inherited the good looks of his family, and their “magnificent dark auburn hair”, but it is somewhat ridiculous “for a man in his late forties to continue to have his hair curled so tightly.” And I think it ridiculous to judge Priam for doing so. Also, this means that Priam was born between 950 and 955.

Faraday no indicates his wife, “Queen Judith”. She is described as “a woman of ethereal and fragile beauty” who sits between Priam and Jayme. As they watch, Priam leans over and gives her “the choicest meats from his own plate.” Well, that is sweet.

And here I want to leave off for the time being, as I am almost a third of the way through the chapter. Until next time!

Comments

[pangolin20]

NRSG: Thank you for the article, and I can certainly see where you are coming from. I think that in this case, though, it is rather homophobia in this case, as in the last part of this chapter, we will see Axis call Priam "effeminate and ineffectual". And in chapter six, one of the earls mentally derides him for being struck by the Skraelings, allegedly, stealing Rivkah's body. (And that is about how far I have read.)

[rc88]

True, true. There's a bunch of femmephobia in Hiveswap, too, as you'll see ifwhen you catch up with that.