BattleAxe First Read: Chapter Twelve: At the Edge of the Silent Woman Woods

[pangolin20]

Chapter Eleven | Table of Contents | Chapter Thirteen

NRSG: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to BattleAxe! Last time, Faraday found out about Embeth’s affair, and we had some nice bonding. Let us see what happens now!

 

Chapter Twelve: At the Edge of the Silent Woman Woods.

My, I think that this is the point that something will begin to happen. How exciting! Too bad we will only stay at the edge of the Woods for the time being. Oh well.

We are told that the journey from Tare to the Silent Woman Woods takes “five days”. So it would be the 28^th of September when they arrive there. Then we get this:

“The first days of Bone-month were upon them and the weather was now bitterly cold.”

No, not at all! I have kept the calendar quite meticulously, and it simply is the 28^th of September! And if we are to take this on face value, the last day of this must be, at the very least, the 2^nd of October. Then the beginning of the story ought to take place on the 11^th of September, which assuredly is not the first week of the story, like Douglass said. Also, if the story begins on the 7^th of September, Axis will reach Smyrton on the 1^st of December, just like the story says.

So there are two things supporting my calendar, and one thing opposing it. I know which side I am on, and this should read “The last days of DeadLeaf-month were upon them”. Good to see I already found a blatant continuity error.

The weather is none too well, as “dark clouds broil[] across the sky”, and it often rains and sometimes hails. We are told that snow cannot be far away. The soldiers huddle in their “oiled sealskin clothes”, with their collars drawn up to their ears, trying to ignore the rain. And why could we not see a little of this, instead of being told it in summary? Also, I just realised that Embeth is gone for the time being. That is quite the pity.

We are told that the plains of “northern Tarantaise” only have “league after league of scrubby grassland containing no life at all.” Douglass, you do realise that grass is alive, do you not? Also, it seems very unlikely to me that it has no significant life to speak of. Like, yes, the forests have been cleared out, but the land has had a thousand years to recover from that, so I think that a whole ecosystem has already come into existence there.

Also, this might be a good place to show just how much impact the Wars of the Axe have had on the landscape. Instead, it comes across more as a way to show just how dreary this trek is, even though the way it is put is patently ridiculous.

Well, we are told there is no shelter for the rain. Merlion huddles in a “voluminous cloak” and complains about Isend sending her along with the Axe-Wielders. Even Faraday is less happy. Occasionally Timozel rides up, and tries to cheer them up, but Merlion and Faraday only give him a polite smile, and then he rides back again.

Axis also tries to speak to Faraday “[o]nce or twice”. He thinks he has to say something, “even though Embeth [has] told him she’[s] explained everything.” Because he thinks he knows better than Embeth. What would him talking to Faraday possibly add, beside making him feel important? On the single occasion he manages to find her “without her mother attached to her side like a limpet”, she smiles, apologises for interrupting him and Embeth, and “turn[s] on her heel and walk[s] away without another word.” She handled that quite well, I would say. Then we get this:

Well, she had to grow up sooner or later. Better sooner, before Borneheld got his hands on her.

I am too baffled to be angry about this. How does what she just did demonstrate that she is not “grown up”?? She simply gave him an apology, and she did not out his affair to anyone else or the like. I would say that this is the grown-up thing to do. My best guess is that he is not happy she will not talk to him, but then, how should she know? She cannot read his mind! If he wanted to talk to her, he should have said so, instead of hoping she would and being angry when she does not! If anything, I think he should be the one to grow up!

Also, I think that Axis is the one Faraday ought to watch out for, Douglass. Until now, he has shown himself to be a considerably worse choice.

Well, on the evening of the 28^th of September, they can see the Silent Woman Woods at the horizon. It is not raining, though the clouds still hang low. They Woods are visible as a “dark line”, that “spread[s] as far as the eye can see”. Oooh, how scary!

Belial rides up to Axis, who is surveying the trees. Belial says that it is enough to make “an Artor-fearing man reach for his axe”. Axis absently “nod[s] his head”. He says he has only seen the woods once before, and then he passed “leagues to the south”. But now they have to enter.

He says they will make camp “another two hours’ ride closer”. If they come any closer, everyone will have nightmares. In the morning they will ride in (here he hesitates). Belial understands why Axis hesitates, and he says the Woods are a “frightening sight”, and he is afraid of what they will look like closer, let alone what it will be to ride through them.

Yes, I know that Belial is afraid, but what does he (and all the others) fear about the Woods? Yes, they think forests harbour demons, but what kind of demons? What will they do to the riders once they enter? And how will the forest be? Are the trees themselves demonic? What does each of them expect to die of?

I simply need specificity here. Belial and Axis ought to have fears beyond “forest scary”, and this truly does not work for me.

Anyway, Belial asks if everyone has to go in, and Axis says only a few. Yes, what would an entire cohort of soldiers add, after all? Axis names himself, Gilbert, and “one or two others”. He decides on Timozel and “Arne”, who is one of the cohort commanders. He says that Belial would better stay in command while he himself is away, and Belial is quite relieved at that.

Cut to everyone camping. The Woods are “even more unnerving” from this place. The trees are “dark, thick and gnarled” and grow close together. Their tips seem to be at least 95 metres tall (I think that is hyperbole), and the canopies intermix, so that it is very dark in the forest. Well, I can see that be unsettling. We are told that eyes seem to be watching everyone, and “[a] constant undertone of strange whispers and crackles” comes out for anyone who listens. Um, what? What is happening? What can make these sounds? Are we supposed to imagine that the people are just imagining these?

Well, whatever that may be, let me talk about why this fails for me. I already noted the lack of specificity, which this makes up for somewhat, but there is also the question of perspective. Of course, the prologue also contributes, as we saw there that the forest-dwellers are not scary at all. But even then, we could have this forest be menacing, if we were in the head of any of these people. They genuinely believe that it is evil, after all. But the omniscient narrator does not; we are not really supposed to think it is scary. And so, this falls flat.

The people are silent as they make camp, and most keep their backs to the Woods. The men make a display of practicing their axes as the cooks quickly prepare the meal. Zoom in on Faraday, as she walks up to Gilbert and Axis, who are looking at the Woods. She says that it is frightening, and that it is “so wild, so untamed, so uncivilised”, and who could live there but demons? Again, I just do not feel it. I mean, I can feel it, but the book does not make it easy.

Gilbert says that the Seneschal have the Woods well under control, and Artor is with them. Faraday asks Axis if he has to ride in tomorrow. He says there is no other choice, though he does not know how the brothers can live in there.

Faraday then turns back to Gilbert, and asks why the Woods are called “the Silent Woman Woods”. Yes, that is a very good question indeed, because I fail to see how this name relates to the Woods at all. It may be explained later on, but I will give it this for now:

A Better Commando Name: 20

Axis’s response is this:

“Because they do not ask as many questions as most women!” Axis snapped at her before Gilbert could reply.

Oh, drop dead. She asked an honest question, that was not even directed at you, and you respond with an misogynist shut-down? I truly do not know what to say, other than that I hate him!

Faraday says that she is sorry if she disturbed him, and then walks back to the camp. The white cat “[winds] about her heels”, and Axis glares at her. Yes, Faraday is the person who needs to grow up.

Scene break.

We are told that it is a bad night. Those people who fall asleep wake soon again, “frightened by unidentifiable fears”. I am sure those fears are connected to the forest they are sleeping next to, Douglass. Calling them “unidentifiable” is unnecessary. Well, after a while, Axis sinks into The Nightmare again.

We have mostly the same as before: Axis is bound and he is afraid, then the presence comes, and he tells it that it is not his father. But now, the presence “[grows] strange”. It does not speak, and it radiates puzzlement rather than hatred. Axis asks who it is. The presence asks that too, “strangely hoarse and distorted by the darkness.” Yes, that is unsettling.

Axis says it is just as “frightening and threatening”, but it does feel different. The bonds disappear, and he gets up, trying to see anything in the darkness around him. The ground “[feels] cool and damp beneath his feet.”

A voice behind him sounds, which causes him to whirl around. The voice says “we” do not know who he is, and it asks where Axis came from, and how he came to find “the paths”. Axis again asks who they are, searching for a weapon. The others say that they “are who they are and [they] have always been here.” They ask who Axis is.

He introduces himself as “Axis Rivkahson, BattleAxe of the Axe-Wielders”. Well, good to see that one conversation with Faraday apparently helped him get over the shame of his parentage!

This announcement immediately causes a change. The puzzlement is replaced by “fury and hate”. Well, little wonder, considering that he just told a forest being that he is the leader of a group that hates forests. The beings begin to “hiss and moan in equal amounts”, and Axis can feel malevolence. He readies himself for an attack.

To one side, a light blooms, and Axis looks in that direction, where he can see a “vague shape”. Then, everyone shouts at him to leave, because he is not welcome. The shape that holds the light steps closer, and Axis can see his surroundings now. He is in a “large grove in the middle of a forest”, and he can see shapes moving behind the trees. He is glad he cannot see them properly. Then he focuses on the being that stands in the middle of the grove, and “he almost crie[s] out in horror.”

The being is describes as follows: “Although it had the trunk and limbs of a muscular man, clad only in a brief loincloth, the creature had the head of a full-grown stag. Massive antlers brached out from its forehead and its eyes were red with hate.”

Ooooh, scary! More seriously, my impression is mostly “cool”. I do not think they are scary at all, and if I were to name any negative emotion, it would be disappointment that they are not an anthro bird (which I know is not the reaction I ought to have). This is not on Douglass, though.

Also, I see the fantasy elements are suddenly more prominent. Interesting.

Well, the being comes closer to Axis, moving their head from side to side, “baring [their] broad yellow-stained teeth.” They scream at Axis to leave, Axis screams too, and then he wakes up. Well, that was not as bad as Gorgrael’s nightmares, I would say. At first, he thinks that he screamed aloud, but he sees that the other people are still trapped in their nightmares.

He puts his face in his hands, wondering if it will ever end. Then the cat comes up, and he pulls her against his chest. He sleeps “soundly and dreamlessly” until Belial wakes him at dawn of the 29^th. End chapter.

Well, that was… not much of anything. It had some nasty moments, though I would say the main characteristic is the more direct introduction of fantasy elements. Next time, we will go into the Silent Woman Woods. See you then!

 

Comments

[epistler]

Embeth is definitely one of the better characters. She should have been given a bigger role.

“league after league of scrubby grassland containing no life at all.”

There's a large area of grassland near my home which people have fought to protect from development precisely because it's home to so many native species including a rare type of lizard. Grasslands teem with life.

If anything, I think he should be the one to grow up!

Oh yeah. Axis is incredibly immature and remains so for the entire trilogy with his pathetic temper tantrums and constant selfishness.

He puts his face in his hands, wondering if it will ever end.

It will, about halfway through this book, after which it will never come up again.

[pangolin20]

Embeth is definitely one of the better characters. She should have been given a bigger role.

NRSG: And a better fate than dying while giving birth because there was not Icarii around to help. Thank you, StarDrifter.

There's a large area of grassland near my home which people have fought to protect from development precisely because it's home to so many native species including a rare type of lizard. Grasslands teem with life.

Yes, I truly dislike this attitude. True, this area previously had forest, but it has had a thousand years to develop itself, and destroying this grassland would be bad, too. But noooo, we simply have to plaster Minstrelsea over the eastern parts of Arcness and Skarabost.

Oh yeah. Axis is incredibly immature and remains so for the entire trilogy with his pathetic temper tantrums and constant selfishness.

I think he might mellow out a bit later on, but I am not sure.

[epistler]

NRSG: And a better fate than dying while giving birth because there was not Icarii around to help. Thank you, StarDrifter.

Wait, what? THAT'S what ultimately happens to her??

I think he might mellow out a bit later on, but I am not sure.

He does a little bit in book three, but it doesn't last.

[pangolin20]

Wait, what? THAT'S what ultimately happens to her??

NRSG: Let me quote:

“Who was Embeth?” Maximilian said, looking at StarDrifter.

His face tightened. He did not speak, and it was Salome who answered.

“My grandmother,” she said, her voice quiet and lacking in any emotion at all. “The birth that killed her produced a daughter, Hasweb, who was my mother.”

[...]

Maximilian glanced at him, but addressed Salome. “You said she died giving birth?”

Salome sighed, more from weariness than anything else. “Yes. She was not a Corolean. She came from Tencendor—”

“—but married into a noble Corolean family. She was pregnant at the time. Everyone thought it was her new husband’s child, but… she had a terrible labor. The child would not be born. It tore my grandmother apart. My mother, Hasweb, survived, but Embeth did not.

[...]

“I was Embeth’s lover,” StarDrifter said eventually. “I was Hasweb’s father. I had no idea Embeth was pregnant when she left Carlon. Salome, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

~The Serpent Bride, Chapter 89, "The FarReach Mountains, Southern Kyros"

So yeah.

[chessybell_90]

Let's see, what lives on grassland? Off the top of my head we have:

Rabbits, hares, assorted ground squirrels, assorted weasels and ferrets, large grazers like horses and cattle, assorted insects, small grazers like goats and sheep, assorted wildflowers, assorted grasses, and, if there's enough water, trees.

Yes, I'm serious. The only reason grasslands aren't forests is because they don't get enough rainfall. Rivers running through grasslands support thin stretches of gallery forests on their banks, and some hardy drought-tolerant species like baobab can dot the open landscape. Even in places like Calgary trees attempt to take over lawns given the chance.

So basically, declaring war on trees only works if you need truly monstrous amounts of charcoal because otherwise you're just wasting your money.

'Who could live in there but demons?' Who could live in empty desert but the Devil himself? Oh right, the desert fathers. Honestly, sticking religious deep in uninhabitable territory is the most Catholic thing Douglass has had this church do so far.

Have to say, telling Axis to leave to a lot nicer then I'd be. Also, I kind of hope that's supposed to be a mortal, because as a Lord of the Forest that's a disappointing design.

At least the plot is progressing.

[epistler]

So let me get this straight. In book one he impregnates not one but TWO teenage girls and leaves them to die horribly... and he still hasn't learned his lesson??

[pangolin20]

NRSG: It seems not. At least Salome is the last person he does this with, as far as we can see...

[epistler]

But not before setting her up to be brutally gang-raped, of course.

[pangolin20]

NRSG: Good write-up! I ought to have thought of that myself, but then again, I was very bored. (I would also add assorted birds to the list.)

And that is a very good question: outside of magic, which the Seneschal does not use, why have the forests not yet grown back in at least some places. Ah, I see that the glossary (!) says this: "The only trees grown in Achar are fruit trees and plantation trees for timber." Well, that explains where they get their wood from, but still.

And there is no indication that they are constantly pruning the forests back, so, combined with the bit about the grasslands being "lifeless", I get the idea that Douglass thought that an area subject to environmental destruction can never recover, which is... not how things work.

Gah, her environmental plot makes less sense the more we think about it.

'Who could live in there but demons?' Who could live in empty desert but the Devil himself? Oh right, the desert fathers. Honestly, sticking religious deep in uninhabitable territory is the most Catholic thing Douglass has had this church do so far.

And mostly by accident, it seems.

Have to say, telling Axis to leave to a lot nicer then I'd be.

Yes, it feels like Faraday is not allowed to be meaner than this, because that would put Axis in a bad light or something.

Also, I kind of hope that's supposed to be a mortal, because as a Lord of the Forest that's a disappointing design.

He is something in between, actually.

[littlecaity]

Damn, Embeth is gone, and with her all the charisma and kindness the book has to offer. Bugger!

Fuck's sake, Axis! She's not the one acting like a child right now! She walked in on you guys, Embeth had a rather lovely talk with her and reassured her that there were no hard feelings or ill blood, and she's decided to treat you with the distance she should have been showing you from the instant she became engaged to your half-brother.

The more this book tries to convince me Axis is somehow good, the more I want to punch him in the nards for being a predatory man-child.

I can understand why someone who's been brought up believing forests are filled with nothing but evil would find the sight of these woods unnerving. It's just a pity that Douglas refuses to stop and think for a moment about what that would actually mean for anyone here. I'd love to learn about the origins of this Plough-obsessed religion and Artor's part in it way more than I do about Axis' ~magical destiny~!

...Wow, Axis, fuck you. That's a question that deserves asking, and Faraday deserves better. I hope Bourneheld cuts your dick off.

I expect more than random deer-head man as a forest spirit, Douglas. D-.

[pangolin20]

Damn, Embeth is gone, and with her all the charisma and kindness the book has to offer. Bugger!

Maybe Faraday can provide some? She is the best character in the book by now...

Fuck's sake, Axis! She's not the one acting like a child right now! She walked in on you guys, Embeth had a rather lovely talk with her and reassured her that there were no hard feelings or ill blood, and she's decided to treat you with the distance she should have been showing you from the instant she became engaged to your half-brother.

Indeed! He is just complaining that she is not romantically interested in him at the moment. And that is actually a good thing, as they absolutely do not need Axis and Borneheld fighting right now.

The more this book tries to convince me Axis is somehow good, the more I want to punch him in the nards for being a predatory man-child.

Yes, I do understand that.

It's just a pity that Douglas refuses to stop and think for a moment about what that would actually mean for anyone here. I'd love to learn about the origins of this Plough-obsessed religion and Artor's part in it way more than I do about Axis' ~magical destiny~!

(nods) Given how much of this series will be devoted to getting people off this "evil religion", it would fit Douglass to put in some more worldbuilding!

...Wow, Axis, fuck you. That's a question that deserves asking, and Faraday deserves better. I hope Bourneheld cuts your dick off.

Sadly, I am quite certain that does not happen...

I expect more than random deer-head man as a forest spirit, Douglas. D-.

Yes, it is a bit underwhelming. (As are the designs of most of the deities in this series, come to think of it...)

[maegwin_of_hern]

Geez, Axis is an asshole!

And since this chapter apparently serves as the intro to the Silent Women Woods part, maybe it should've been combined with the next chapter?

[pangolin20]

Geez, Axis is an asshole!

NRSG: And it gets worse!

And since this chapter apparently serves as the intro to the Silent Women Woods part, maybe it should've been combined with the next chapter?

That would have been a quite good idea.

[wolfgoddess77]

- “The first days of Bone-month were upon them and the weather was now bitterly cold.”

Stupid names of months are still stupid.

- The weather is none too well, as “dark clouds broil[] across the sky”, and it often rains and sometimes hails.

I wonder if the author meant to say sleet, not hail. If it's really as cold as she's suggesting, then the rain should be starting to freeze. Hail isn't impossible, depending on how severe the weather, but I feel like she might have gotten them mixed up, or thought they were the same thing.

- Also, I just realised that Embeth is gone for the time being. That is quite the pity.

Where did she go? Is this a case of characters vanishing completely from the storyline when they're not needed, even though they should actually be there somewhere?

- Axis also tries to speak to Faraday “[o]nce or twice”. He thinks he has to say something, “even though Embeth [has] told him she’[s] explained everything.”

PISS OFF, AXIS.

- How does what she just did demonstrate that she is not “grown up”?? She simply gave him an apology, and she did not out his affair to anyone else or the like.

I'm not sure that she's saying her reaction is immature. I read it more like 'yes, I could have had a stronger reaction, and I wanted to, but it's time that I grew up, so I'll handle this as an adult.'

- If anything, I think he should be the one to grow up!

Hear, hear!

- I simply need specificity here. Belial and Axis ought to have fears beyond “forest scary”, and this truly does not work for me.

I want to know, too. The fact that people have nightmares when they get within a certain distance of the forest makes me think there's something supernatural about it. If forests are so horrifying in this world, then there has to be some reason why this one hadn't been cut or burned down, too.

- The people are silent as they make camp, and most keep their backs to the Woods.

I wouldn't! Something could be creeping up on me if I had my back turned, and I would never see it. Nope, I want those trees within my sight at all times.

- More seriously, my impression is mostly “cool”. I do not think they are scary at all,

I honestly think that I would be scared, if only because this description reminds me strongly of a wendigo, and they terrify me, despite being my favorite cryptid.

[pangolin20]

Stupid names of months are still stupid.

NRSG: And it is still not October yet!

I wonder if the author meant to say sleet, not hail. If it's really as cold as she's suggesting, then the rain should be starting to freeze. Hail isn't impossible, depending on how severe the weather, but I feel like she might have gotten them mixed up, or thought they were the same thing.

Hmmm, that may be the case... though I doubt that it is exactly freezing, given how far south on the continent they are.

Where did she go? Is this a case of characters vanishing completely from the storyline when they're not needed, even though they should actually be there somewhere?

She stayed behind in Tare, presumably because she is the city's lady.

I'm not sure that she's saying her reaction is immature. I read it more like 'yes, I could have had a stronger reaction, and I wanted to, but it's time that I grew up, so I'll handle this as an adult.'

Oh, that makes sense! I can certainly see it as Axis complimenting her on being so grown-up. I am still not sure what Douglass meant, though.

I want to know, too. The fact that people have nightmares when they get within a certain distance of the forest makes me think there's something supernatural about it. If forests are so horrifying in this world, then there has to be some reason why this one hadn't been cut or burned down, too.

There certainly is, and we will get to it eventually.

I wouldn't! Something could be creeping up on me if I had my back turned, and I would never see it. Nope, I want those trees within my sight at all times.

I can see why they would turn their back on the Woods, as they might think that the creatures within will not come out, and if there is no danger, they would rather not see it.

I honestly think that I would be scared, if only because this description reminds me strongly of a wendigo, and they terrify me, despite being my favorite cryptid.

Ah, I think that might be some of my knowledge from what will happen seeping in.