Eragon: Chapter Twenty-Eight: Thieves in the Castle (Part I)

[pangolin20]

Chapter Twenty-Seven | Chapter Twenty-Eight (Part II)

Fumurti: A good day, everyone, and welcome back to Eragon! Last time, Eragon learned to read and write within a week, and much interesting stuff unfortunately went ignored. For the reader post:

On the overview of the previous chapters, Maegwin suggests that Helen could be shown as being unhappy at being unable to give a proper dinner to guests or to host a party, instead of complaining about dresses. That led me to think that her complaining about dresses could make sense if they were a kind of status symbol, so that being unable to afford one confirms that she’s got less status than before.

On the previous chapter, Epistler notes that the Green Chestnut ought not to have glasses if it’s really as bad as it’s supposed to be, since those were quite expensive.

Did Not Do the Research: 120

I also found out that barley, which has been noted as one of the crops that Eragon’s family grew, is not actually native to the Americas, which is a bit of a problem.

Did Not Do the Research: 121

With that, let me begin with the next chapter and some new material!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Thieves in the Castle

I probably shouldn’t mind this, but I find it a bit weird that Eragon, Brom and Jeod are referred to as thieves when they aren’t really stealing anything. Then again, I can kind of see it, since they aren’t supposed to access the records, but that’s to keep them from messing with them, not because the information is classified or something. It’s not wrong, but it feels like Paolini could have chosen a better title.

In any case, we open on Eragon waking up from a nap to a “golden sunset” (could we have been told that this was a nap? I got the impression it was a longer sleep than that). We get some description of the sunset, and Eragon dozes off again because it is nicely warm. Then the sun sets for real, which wakes him (and apparently he can see the sea from his room?), and he thinks it’s “[a]lmost time”.

So yes, they’re going to have a look at the records at night, which would be quite fine if they meant to break in. Instead, their plan involves entering the castle the usual way and not being noticed, which will be rather hard to do at night, since it’s not open then, and if they are let in, they’ll be rather noticeable! If they did it during the day, they could get in and out without trouble, and could easily access the records room and do what they want there. That part of the castle also does not seem to be very busy, and Brom and/or Eragon can sense people coming, so they should be able to avoid being noticed. So if they’d wait until the next day to go ahead with their plan, I’d expect it to go perfectly fine! I guess that Paolini thought that executing their plan at night would inherently make it safer, but this is one case where it makes it considerably worse.

Ill Logic: 72 (+5) (for how difficult they are making this for themselves)

Eragon now prepares himself by “[slinging] his bow and quiver on his back”, though he leaves Zar’roc in his room. He thinks it will “only slow him”, and he does not want to use it; if it’s necessary to “disable someone”, “magic or an arrow” will do. I understand that he wants to be prepared in case something goes wrong, but taking his bow with him will make it very clear to the castle guards that he’s up to no good, and if they’re the least bit competent, they won’t let him in. Magic, as he says, would serve him just as well and not be visible.

Ill Logic: 73

I do give him credit for not taking Zar’roc with him, since that would bring them in even greater trouble. As for his own reasons… I guess that Eragon’s talking about being unfamiliar with the sword when he talks about being slowed, and I presume that that’s his reason for not wanting to use it, though he’s just as unfamiliar with magic, so it might be that he’s afraid of hurting people too much when using Zar’roc. It would have been nice to know just why Eragon’s doing this, I find. Finally, Eragon would do better to put Zar’roc in Cadoc’s saddlebags when they set out; if they need to flee, they’d likely not bother to go back to retrieve it, after all.

Ill Logic: 74

We then get a description of him putting his jerkin on (which seems to be there to show us that he has one), and then Eragon “wait[s] nervously” until dusk, because they want to make absolutely sure that the castle is closed when they get there and that they can’t leave Teirm because the gates close at dusk. I don’t think that’s what they were aiming for, but it is what they get.

Ill Logic: 75

Once it’s dark, Eragon leaves his room and meets up with Brom, who’s carrying “his sword and staff”. Outside, they meet up with Jeod, who is wearing a “black doublet and hose” (which seems vaguely accurate) and also has an “elegant rapier and a leather pouch” with him. Yes, I’m sure that the guards will let Brom and Jeod in, too; it’s not like they’re openly carrying weapons, after all…

Ill Logic: 77 (+2)

Brom notices Jeod’s rapier, and says that the “toad sticker” (as he calls it), is “too thin for any real fighting”. He asks what Jeod will do if someone comes after him with “a broadsword or a flamberge”. Jeod tells him to be realistic, since none of the guards has a flamberge, and his rapier is “faster than a broadsword”. At that, Brom shrugs and says it’s Jeod’s neck.

Hmm, I think that Paolini wanted to show off his knowledge of swords a bit; while I don’t mind that on principle, it does come across as filler here, since we’re about to begin with a tense infiltration sequence. The types of swords he names are real, though I see that “broadsword” can refer to two distinct types of sword, and “flamberge” can both refer to a specific type of sword as to a large sword in general, so he might have wanted to choose some less ambiguous examples. (And I note that the former definitions I found are from later than the Middle Ages.)

As for Brom’s complaint, Jeod has the right of it, since rapiers certainly can be used for real fighting (else they wouldn’t have been as popular as they were), and they’re indeed meant to be quick to use. I also agree that the guards wouldn’t have flamberges, with which Brom clearly means “large swords”, since those would be rather inconvenient inside the castle. And Jeod presumably knows this quite well, because he’s familiar with using a rapier and because he’s been in the castle often enough to know what weapons the guards have!

If Brom had had good advice, I wouldn’t mind that, but since his advice is complete nonsense, I can only think that he wants to feel more knowledgeable than Jeod. I don’t care much for Brom’s reaction to being corrected, either, as he doesn’t admit that he was wrong and still implies that Jeod’s being foolish, and he also sounds a bit callous for someone who’s supposed to care about Jeod. I think that Paolini meant for Brom to be in the wrong here, given that Jeod has not been shown as particularly foolish so far, but he would still look better if he said something along the lines of “I don’t think that’ll work” instead of “you’re wrong, and let me explain why”.

Is that all…? Oh, I do note that Brom specifically refers to Jeod’s rapier as a “toad sticker”, which apparently means “large knife” (which I first found talked about here, and then in Urban Dictionary). While it does seem to be an established phrase, I’ve never seen it elsewhere, and I wonder how many readers would be familiar with it, not to mention that it hardly sounds like something Brom would say.

Forgot the Narrator Speaker: 62

PPP: 817 (combined point for the ambiguity of the swords and for using a phrase that readers might not know)

HISC: In the self-published edition, Brom now suggests they walk around, because it should be darker before they start, which does make me wonder if Paolini originally had them break in…

Fumurti: So they “casually” walk along the street for a bit, while avoiding “watchmen and soldiers”. Eragon is rather nervous and his heart is pounding. Then they “pass[] Angela’s shop”.

HISC: I note that the removal of the bit I just described does hurt this sequence, since this makes it sound like Angela’s house, which is next to Jeod’s, is considerably farther away than that, or that they manage to encounter several watchmen and soldiers while going from one house to its neighbour.

PPP: 818

Fumurti: For myself, I note that avoiding “watchmen and soldiers” (and I see that Risthart’s doing something with the latter, apparently) is not exactly being casual. I do understand why they are doing it: they want to avoid being seen as much as possible, but in addition to being suspect, I can’t really see the point of it; if they’re caught and someone sees Jeod, it would be easy to trace all three of them even without involvement from the people here, and if that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter much if they’re seen now.

Ill Logic: 78

Anyway, Eragon’s understandably nervous about this venture, and as they go past Angela’s shop, he notes “a flash of movement” on the roof, but he sees no one. Then his palm tingles, which prompts him to look again, but there’s still no one. …Why does his palm tingle? The other time we saw it happen was just before he was attacked in Yazuac, but as it turns out, what Eragon now sees will keep him out of danger instead of putting him in it. I guess that Paolini hadn’t fully planned out what this meant at this point, but the next time it happens, it clearly serves to warn Eragon of danger, and the revision is the perfect place to fix such things.

PPP: 819

That said, I do like this moment! It’s quite possible to guess who is on the roof, because Paolini doesn’t hint too heavily, it also provides a nice explanation for something that will happen soon, and it does help to build some tension. We now cut to Brom leading them along the “outer wall” of Teirm (as opposed to the inner castle wall, I guess?), and by the time they reach the castle, the sky’s black, which will certainly help them in their non-existent break-in. Eragon shivers at the “sealed walls” of the castle and comments that he’d “hate to be imprisoned there”. Then you could tell the others that this is a foolish plan and they should try again next morning? Jeod now walks up to the castle gates, “trying to look at ease”, and then knocks on the gate.

PPP: 820 (the gate changes from plural to singular)

After a bit, a grille is opened and a “surly guard” looks out. He “grunt[s]” “Ya?”, and Eragon can smell “rum on his breath”. So this guard is surly, he talks with an accent and he’s drunk; I think we might be supposed to dislike him! (And I note that “rum” only appears here, which means that it should probably have been edited out during the revisions.)

PPP: 821

They’re also rather lucky that this guard turns out to be drunk and so can’t think as well as usual, so he actually has a chance of letting them in; I do wonder what they planned to do if the guard didn’t let them in. In any case, Jeod says they need to get in, the guard asks why, and Jeod says that Eragon left “something very valuable” in his office, and they need to get it back at once. At that, Eragon hangs his head, “shamefaced”. This isn’t exactly bad, since people are often let in somewhere with an excuse like that, but I think Jeod could have better said that Eragon’s left something important; that would justify why they need to get it right now. If it’s something valuable, it’ll be quite safe in his office until next morning, so they don’t need to get it now.

HISC: In the self-published edition, Jeod says that they need to “return” it at once, which I find makes a good deal more sense.

Ill Logic: 79

Fumurti: In any case, I’d expect them not to be let in, because the guards are supposed to do so, and because whatever they’ve lost will still be there in the morning. The guard now thinks over the cover story, but the thought of drinking more soon wins out, and he decides he doesn’t care, “swinging his arm” (which Eragon can’t possibly see, since the guard’s still standing behind the gate). He only asks that Jeod makes sure to “give [Eragon] a good beating f’r [him]”, which Jeod promises he’ll do. The guard then opens a “small door set into the gate”, and once they’re in, Brom gives him some coins, which the guard accepts before “tottering away”.

I have several things I want to note here. First, this guard is rather incompetent indeed, as he is not only drinking while on duty, but also lets people on their say-so! I do wonder how he’s stayed on duty this long, as he doesn’t bother hiding that he’s drinking from Eragon and co., and I think it would be noticeable to his replacements. I can see it happen, sure, but the guards have struck me as reasonably professional so far, so I’m not sure if they’d put up with someone like this, much less put him alone on what amounts to night shift now.

Then, Paolini tries to make the guard look bad by telling Jeod to beat Eragon up, to which Jeod agrees (which I can understand; they’re trying to get in and it isn’t worth it to raise a fuss). It does take some gall to show this as bad when Brom’s been constantly beating Eragon up in the guise of swordfighting over the past months, and especially when Saphira has beaten Eragon up because he got into trouble too much; what makes it wrong when this guard does it? I also don’t like that no one has much reaction to this, beyond Jeod’s reply; that gives me the idea that Paolini only put it in to make the guard look more unpleasant. In that, he certainly succeeds: because this “something valuable” is safe, Eragon would end up being punished for a mild inconvenience, which is quite evil and bodes ill for any children he might have, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him unable to ever beat anyone again. And that’s my problem with it: this is treated like it’s as about as bad as the guard’s alcoholism, which it really isn’t, and I hate that. (It does make sense, given that the other abuse isn’t shown to be bad, either, I’ll give him that.)

For something much lighter, I did stumble on the description of a smaller door within the gate, but it turns out that it is a thing and it’s called a wicket gate! Here’s a picture:

Finally, we have Brom bribing the guard, which seems to be his default method for manipulating people. While I think it might work here in general, I think Brom would do well to be a bit more specific about what he wants from the guard; given that the man is drunk, he might well interpret it as “thanks for letting us in; do let us out again” and not understand that Brom wants him to keep silent, too.

Abuse Count: 122 (for how there’s no reaction to the guard’s remark)

Edgy Equals Mature, Right?: 10 (I think that’s part of why Paolini threw in abuse like this)

Forgot the Narrator: 63

Ill Logic: 80

Once the guard is gone, Eragon pulls his bow from its “tube”, and I have to note that a bow has a case rather than a “tube”.

PPP: 825 (+4) (for here, plus three backpoints)

So Eragon pulls out his bow and strings it (while preparing to use magic wouldn’t be noticeable at all…), Jeod lets them into the “main part” of the castle, and then they go to the records room while listening for “any soldiers on patrol”. Once they’re there, Brom tries the door, which is naturally locked.

HISC: I note that Brom trying the door here is transplanted from the previous chapter; in the self-published edition, he did that during their reconnaissance.

Fumurti: Since the door’s locked, Brom opts for magic instead and “mutter[s] a word that Eragon [does] not recognize”, which opens the door. Brom then grabs a torch from the wall, and they quickly go in, sensibly closing the door behind them. Hmm, given that we only see one word being used to open things with, it seems that Brom didn’t bother to teach Eragon that spell, even though it is very handy to know. For something else… I think that Brom can make magic using light, so why can’t he light up the room without grabbing a torch? Or, if he can’t, could they at least grab another torch? As it is, anyone searching for them can see that the torch opposite the records room is missing and use that as a starting point for their search. And wouldn’t it be prudent for Brom to lock the door behind them? Sure, it’s nice to have it unlocked in case they need to get out, but Brom can evidently do that quickly, and at present, the unlocked door is a clear sign that people have been doing stuff there. I don’t get the impression that they’ve talked this through at all.

Ill Logic: 83 (+3)

HISC: In the self-published edition, they reconnoitred the whole area and “meticulously planned” this, and they got much they same results, so I would say this is actually an improvement, since now they have a reason to be so bad at this.

Fumurti: For something else… I am not really feeling the supposed tension here, which I think has to do with this taking place at night. Sure, there are guards patrolling the castle (which we are only hearing about now…), but as long as they manage to avoid them, which should be quite possible when they are listening for them, going in and out of the records room won’t be much trouble. If they did this during the day, there would be no guards to trouble them, but there would probably be other merchants, who are much less predictable than the guards. For example, one of them might well leave their office at the moment that Eragon and co. are leaving the records room and then report them. And this would be hard to guard against, because they can’t see those people, and, even though Brom and Eragon can sense them mentally, they won’t be able to pick up much of their intentions without being noticed. That would be more tense than having to duck around guards, I find, because they’d have to rely on luck, too.

Back with the story, we get a bit of description of the room: it has racks with scrolls on them and a “barred window” in the wall. Jeod explores the room, looking at the scrolls, and finds what they want at the back: the shipping records “for the past five years”! According to Jeod, they can tell the date by “the wax seals on the corner”. Oh, can we hear more about what those dates look like? That’d be a great thing to have some worldbuilding about! Too bad that we never get any…

Cardboard Worldbuilding: 16

In any case, five years will probably be enough to find some patterns in the use of Seithr oil, so that’s lucky! Eragon asks what they’re going to do now, pleased that they have not been discovered so far (which was kind of a given). Jeod explains that they should start at the top and then go down (because… then they’ll go in chronological order or something?). There are some scrolls that “only deal with taxes”, which they can ignore, and they should, of course, look for any mention of Seithr oil. …Why would there be tax scrolls mixed in with the shipping records? That seems like it would be quite inconvenient for anyone wanting to check the records.

Ill Logic: 81

Jeod then takes a bit of parchment out of his pouch, along with writing materials, which he explains is to keep track of what they find. Good to see one person, at least, has bothered to plan ahead… Brom then grabs an “armful of scrolls” from the rack and puts them on the floor. Unless you know exactly where to put them back, that might well give away that you’ve been in here, and I think it should be quite possible to take the scrolls out one by one to avoid that.

Ill Logic: 82

So they begin, as Brom unrolls the first scroll and Eragon joins him, in such a way that he can see the door (not that that’ll give them much advance warning…). The work is tedious, and it’s especially hard for Eragon, since the “cramped script” on the scrolls is “different from the printing Brom [has] taught him”. They only look for ships that “sail[] in the northern areas”, and can skip many scrolls because of that, but they still go quite slowly, and note down each mention of Seithr oil they find.

…Why didn’t Brom bother to teach Eragon the kind of letters he’d be encountering in the records? Yes, “printing” could help him with getting literate, but they’re supposed to comb through the records first and foremost, so he should have learned this “cramped script”, too. Jeod also has records in his office, so it should be easy enough to teach it to Eragon.

Ill Logic: 83

I also wonder how they know which ships “sail in the northern areas”… I guess Jeod might know that by now, and he can tell Brom and Eragon what to look for? It would be great to be told that, though.

PPP: 826

Then, for something else, I find this scene a bit boring. It’s mostly a list of what goes well for Eragon and co. and what’s more difficult, and I would have liked it if we had some detail on what Eragon sees in the scrolls, like him seeing things shipped that he never thought would be shipped, and getting to see which cities Teirm has the most trade with. It’d just be nice to see details like that, and it’s something that Paolini doesn’t seem to be seeing the value of, unfortunately.

For a final complaint, could they really go through all of those records in a few hours?

HISC: The self-published edition gives us a figure of “a couple hundred” ships that arrive in Teirm each year, which I think would take quite a while to comb through… but they do only look for ships that sail north of Teirm, which presumably would not be that many. Still, with only an estimate of how many ships arrive, and no idea how many of them sail north of Teirm, I cannot say anything solid about this. Because the task would mostly involve skimming through the scrolls to find the right ships, and then skimming through the records of each ship to find Seithr oil, it might take little enough time to go through all the scrolls that it could be done in one night… but I am just not certain.

Fumurti: However that may be, they keep working in quiet, except when “the occasional watchman” passes by, who luckily don’t notice that there’s a torch missing in a place where it probably shouldn’t be, or, if they do, don’t bother to investigate. Suddenly, Eragon’s “neck prickle[s]”. He goes on working, but the feeling doesn’t pass, so he looks up and is surprised to see a “small boy crouched on the windowsill”. Let me complain for a bit: If Eragon can see the door, I don’t think he’ll see the window at once when he looks up. Also, I guess that this boy is crouching on the outer sill, because of the bars in the window? I’d like some more detail to be able to visualise it. I also find it a bit silly that Eragon spots the boy because… he can feel he’s being watched, which isn’t actually a thing?

PPP: 827 (I might have liked a better sense of blocking)

This boy has “slanted” eyes, and he has a “sprig of holly” woven into “his shaggy black hair” for some reason. Then someone asks Eragon mentally if he needs help, which shocks Eragon, since it sounds like Solembum! So here we can see Solembum’s anthro form, and I do like that we get to see it so soon after first being introduced to werecats. And now I notice that the two forms don’t line up very much, since Solembum has to be older than Eragon, and so would hardly be a “small boy”, and he’s got black hair now, while his cat form has tawny fur. Given that this occurs with other werecats, I presume that the two forms are not related? We never get anything on this (and it would be quite nice to know more), so I might as well assume it’s true.

Eragon “incredulously” asks if it’s Solembum, to which Solembum asks if he’s someone else (fair enough, I’d say). Eragon then “gulp[s]” and looks at the scroll again, confirming that it’s Solembum, unless “[his] eyes [] deceive [him]”. Solembum then smiles, showing “pointed teeth”, and says that the way he looks doesn’t change who he is, and he is called a werecat for a reason. I’m not exactly impressed by Solembum being a smartass here, I have to say; even if Eragon knows that werecats can shapeshift, seeing it in action might still surprise him, and I’d say he’s more surprised at seeing Solembum here in any case. I also don’t care much about him explaining that he can actually shapeshift, since Eragon and the reader have presumably figured that out by now, and really don’t need to be told again.

Anyway, Eragon asks why Solembum is here. Solembum “consider[s] whether the question [is] worth an answer” (which it absolutely is), and then says that if they’re reading the scrolls “for entertainment”, there’s no reason for him to be here (so why even bring that up?). If they are doing something illegal and do not want to be discovered, though, he might be here to tell them that the “guard [] [they] bribed just told his replacement about [them] and that this second official of the Empire has sent soldiers to search for [them]”.

So yes, they’ve been discovered! I’m not exactly surprised, since everything’s gone quite smoothly for them so far, so something had to go wrong, and because Brom didn’t bother telling the guard to keep quiet. Even if I didn’t know what would happen next, I wouldn’t exactly fear for Eragon and co., though, since they could use magic to escape the castle, for example. So let me have a closer look at some of this:

It’s not made clear how Solembum knew how to be here, but let me have a guess anyway. I’m quite sure that the movement Eragon saw on the roof of Angela’s shop was Solembum, so I presume that he followed them to the castle, then waited outside and went to the records room once the guard was replaced. That leaves the question of how he knew they were going to the castle in the first place, but I guess he could have listened in on Eragon and co. discussing how they’d enter. (And that makes me wonder if he’s done that earlier…) That’s none of his business, so I can’t quite approve of it, but he does put what he learned to good use, so I can’t be too hard on him.

Then, I note that they might well not have had this problem if they’d showed up after the change of shift; then they’d only have to trust the guard they’d bribed, and when leaving, they wouldn’t need to either explain why they were in the castle when they weren’t supposed to be or try to find another way out. Jeod would presumably know this, too (or at least be able to guess), since he’s lived in Teirm for quite a while!

Ill Logic: 84

I also note that Solembum calls the guards “officials of the Empire”, and mentions that “soldiers” are being sent to search, so I guess that they’re part of the troops that Galbatorix sent for the defence of Teirm. I don’t know why they’d be used to guard the castle; maybe there’s a shortage of guards? In any case, the guards are hardly “officials of the Empire”, since they seem to be under Risthart’s authority (the soldiers were “given” to Teirm, after all), and they don’t hold positions in the government.

PPP: 827 (these aren’t officials!)

And finally, I do hope that the drunk guard will be relieved from duty, since he’s obviously unsuited for it.

Eragon thanks Solembum for informing him, to which Solembum (somewhat obnoxiously) considers if he actually told Eragon something and then suggests that Eragon “make use of it”. Yes, Solembum, I am sure Eragon is able to deduce that for himself and will do it just as soon as this conversation is over. Is it that hard to give Eragon some credit for his ability to think, and not always be condescending in your interactions with him? Oh yes, we need to be reminded that Eragon Is Stupid, so it presumably is. Solembum now makes to leave, and Eragon sensibly asks him what he meant by his talk about the Menoa tree and the Rock of Kuthian. Solembum answers that he meant “[e]xactly what [he] said” and then leaves through the window before Eragon can ask more. It seems “politeness” doesn’t occur in Solembum’s vocabulary, and I keep wondering just why we’re supposed to find him cool if he acts like this.

Also… I note that Solembum goes “through” the window, which means that it is open to the outside world, and that this window can be reached by werecats, and thus by humans, without the need of a ladder or anything. This means that rain and snow can presumably get in unhindered, which seems like a rather bad idea for a chamber with scrolls, and that people can easily break in if they manage to remove the bars, or just throw something that burns in and so destroy the records! There’s no reason for the records room to have a window, either, other than to give Solembum a way to get in, which isn’t necessary when he could have his conversation with Eragon just fine through the solid wall… but I guess that wasn’t Paolini’s first thought, so we’re stuck with this instead.

Ill Logic: 85

Eragon now announces that soldiers are looking for them (see, Solembum?). Brom asks “sharply” how he knows that, to which Eragon says that he listened in on the guard, his replacement sent soldiers to search for them, and they need to get out. By now, they’ve “probably already discovered that Jeod’s office is empty”, too! Jeod asks if he’s sure, and Eragon says “impatiently” that he is, and the soldiers are coming.

I see that Eragon really doesn’t want to mention Solembum (maybe because then Brom might ask about the advice he was given?), and he doesn’t do a bad job of it; we know that he can listen in on people from a distance, after all, and he might have whispered it for whatever reason so the others didn’t hear, so this could stand up to scrutiny, at least. I also like that Eragon, in noticeable contrast to Solembum, conveys the urgency of the situation.

I do have considerable trouble with Eragon claiming that the soldiers have noticed that Jeod’s office is empty, though. I suppose the guard could know about Jeod, since he was sent here to help protect the shipping and Jeod is one of the prime targets, but recognising him on sight is another thing, and it would be especially hard in the dark and while drunk. Given this, and that Solembum did not say that the guard had told the soldiers who they were, I very much doubt that the soldiers have any idea who they’re searching for. Because of that, they’d need to go down all the rooms in the hallway to be sure they find Eragon and co., which would take them some time. Even if they’ve already discovered that Jeod’s office is empty, it’s only an indication that they need to look further (and I have to note that the soldiers don’t know where they are now, either!).

Ill Logic: 86

Brom’s reaction is to grab another scroll and to say it doesn’t matter, since they “have to finish” now. …You really don’t need to, since you’ve already gone through most of the scrolls, and you’ve presumably got nearly all the data you need to find the Ra’zac, not to mention that rushing through the rest of the scrolls might well cause you to make errors (by skipping over or mistranscribing entries), which won’t be of much use, either. It’d be smartest to cut your losses now and leave before the soldiers show up, but I guess the sunk cost fallacy is too powerful.

Ill Logic: 87

So they cram the remaining work into a minute (!), “scanning” the records at top speed, which means they’re probably missing quite a bit. When they’re done, Brom throws the last scroll back on the rack (like that won’t be noticeable…), Jeod packs his writing supplies, and Eragon takes the torch. They run out of the room and close the door (and Eragon presumably puts the torch back), but just then they hear the footsteps of the soldiers at the end of the hall! They make to leave, but Brom realises that the door isn’t locked (and says “Damnation”), and puts his hand against it to magically lock it, and at the moment he does so, “three armed soldiers” appear!

That’s reasonably well done, though, since Brom can lock the door from a distance, this isn’t quite as tense as it might… and I can’t help but note that if they’d left as soon as Eragon told them, they wouldn’t be in this predicament. I also note that “damnation” doesn’t occur in this series again, and I get the feeling that Paolini hadn’t considered where it comes from yet, so…

Forgot the Narrator Speaker: 64 (we never hear about damnation being a thing, so why does Brom mention it?)

As for them being discovered… they’re not in a very bad position now that Brom has locked the door; even if the soldiers look inside the room, the only sign they’ve actually been in there is that the scrolls are out of place, and I don’t think the soldiers would be familiar enough with how it should look like that they’d pick up on that. They ought to pick up on Eragon and co. being armed, though, but we’ll see how that goes.

One of the soldiers shouts at Brom to get away from the door, which he does, “assuming a surprised expression”. The soldiers walk over to them, and the tallest (who I guess is the leader?) asks them why they are trying to “get into the records”. This prompts Eragon to grab his bow “tighter” and prepare to run. I don’t think you’d want to draw attention to your weapon, Eragon… not that the soldiers seem to notice his bow, Brom’s sword, or Jeod’s rapier, despite standing quite close.

Ill Logic: 89 (+2)

HISC: I spy an editing error here, with Eragon grabbing the bow “tighter” when he did not hold it all before. In fact, we have not heard anything about Eragon’s bow since he got it out and strung it, so I guess that he has put it back in its “tube” when they went to the records room and is now about to pull it out again; if he did not, it would have been in the way when they were reading the records.

PPP: 828

I further note that, in the self-published edition, the guard just asks what they are doing here, instead of asking why they are trying to enter the records room. I do like that change, because the soldiers have good reason to assume that that is the case, and it makes the situation more dangerous.

Fumurti: Jeod answers that they’ve “lost [their] way”, sounding and looking obviously strained, which does seem like the right way to act.

HISC: Hmm, I find this works a bit better in the original, since it follows from the question the soldier asked there. It is not exactly a problem, but it does not make Jeod look any better, either.

Fumurti: Yeah, I wonder if he really expects the soldiers to buy that they’ve lost their way so close to his office, especially since he’s a merchant and would be quite familiar with this bit of the castle by now. I can understand why he came up with this, since he seems to be making it up on the spot, but shouldn’t they have established what to say in case they’re caught before now?

Ill Logic: 90

The soldier’s rightly suspicious and tells one of the others to “[c]heck inside the room”, presumably for evidence. Eragon holds his breath as the soldier tries the door, then “pound[s] on it with his mailed fist” and declares that it’s locked. I see that chainmail gauntlets did exist in the Middle Ages, so Paolini got this right! The leader thinks about this result for a bit, and then declares that he doesn’t know what they were up to, but as long as the door is locked, they can go. Then the soldiers stand around them and “march[] them back to the keep”.

Well, that was rather anticlimactic, I have to say; at the least, I would have expected the soldiers to fetch the key for the records room so they can check if nothing’s wrong. Yes, if the door’s locked, it’s relatively unlikely that they actually did something, and if they were to break in, they’d likely do it via the window, but they could still, for example, have used magic to light a fire, so it’s sloppy not to bother taking a look. Of course, even if they did that, they wouldn’t find much evidence for there being anything wrong, so they’d still let Eragon and co. go, but it would be a lot more tense. I also find it a bit weird that the leader isn’t wholly sure if Eragon and co. are allowed to go or not; shouldn’t these people have been briefed about what to do in this case?

Eragon, for his part, can’t believe that the soldiers are “helping [them] get away”. I agree that it’s a bit of an odd situation, but I do want to point out that it’s hardly unexpected. Eragon and co. aren’t supposed to be in the castle, after all, and the quickest way to do that is to get them out of the castle. Even if they were caught, I’d expect the same to happen, since they’d probably bring Eragon and co. to the new guard, who seems to have more authority for this, and because it’s better not to give them any further opportunity to look at the records.

At the main gates, the leader tells them to walk out of those and warns them not to try anything, because they Will Be Watching. If they need to come back, they should do so in the morning. Jeod promises to, and they hurry out of the castle… and that is that! I’d expect that people who are in the castle when they’re not supposed to would get a fine, or at least a reprimand, but apparently they get away with “don’t do this again”? I could see that if the blame is laid on the drunk guard because he let them in, but then I’d like to hear something about that. I’m also a bit disappointed that we don’t get to see the new guard; shouldn’t Eragon and co. meet him as they walk out, at least? It’s all a bit too easily resolved for a venture that’s supposed to be tense.

Well, as soon as they’re out of the castle and the gates close, Eragon grins “triumphant[ly]” and jumps in the air. Brom gives him a “cautioning look” and tells him to save it for Jeod’s house (not that I think that someone celebrating would attract that much attention, and I’m not sure if the soldiers can see them now… but it still can’t hurt to be careful). Eragon puts on a “staid demeanor”, though he is still “bubbl[ing] with energy”. They hurry back to Jeod’s house and go to the study, where Eragon says, “We did it!” Yes, you did, though you could have spared yourself all of this trouble by trying to deduce yourself where the Ra’zac might be, or by figuring out a way to scry the scrolls and see what’s on them. He does have reason to be happy, of course, especially since they were nearly caught, but I just find it so silly that he’s so happy they did it when there was never any question that they could do it. That’s presumably because Paolini thought this was the only way to get at the information, so to him it makes perfect sense to have Eragon cheer here, but since it isn’t the only way, the disconnect is quite noticeable.

And I’d like to stop here for the time being, because I’m halfway through the chapter, and because the sheer nonsense is wearing me down. Until next time, when we finally deduce where the Ra’zac must live!

Comments

[epistler]

Realised I should have commented here instead! Copying over because what the heck.

I probably shouldn’t mind this, but I find it a bit weird that Eragon, Brom and Jeod are referred to as thieves when they aren’t really stealing anything. Then again, I can kind of see it, since they aren’t supposed to access the records, but that’s to keep them from messing with them, not because the information is classified or something. It’s not wrong, but it feels like Paolini could have chosen a better title.

What they're doing isn't theft - it's espionage. But that word wouldn't fit the setting (not that this has stopped Paolini before) and sounds way less DRAAAMATIIIC.

Eragon dozes off again because it is nicely warm.

I wonder if Future Eragon ever misses the fact that he can't do this any more. Not being able to sleep any more sounds awful and I have no idea why Paolini felt it necessary for Eragon to start having "waking dreams" instead.

Eragon now prepares himself by “[slinging] his bow and quiver on his back”,

Precisely what use is that going to be at close quarters? You know, inside a castle?

Brom notices Jeod’s rapier, and says that the “toad sticker” (as he calls it), is “too thin for any real fighting”.

Not that it matters, because Jeod never does any actual fighting in the entire Cycle.

Finally, we have Brom bribing the guard, which seems to be his default method for manipulating people.

Where did he even get all that money anyway? It's not as if he had a job back in Carp Hat.

So Eragon pulls out his bow and strings it

Uh, why? Is he planning to use the "just kill all the guards" method of stealth?

Why would there be tax scrolls mixed in with the shipping records? That seems like it would be quite inconvenient for anyone wanting to check the records.

Yeah, what moron set up the cataloguing system for this place? (I used to work in records so this sort of thing always leaps out at me).

Solembum then smiles, showing “pointed teeth”, and says that the way he looks doesn’t change who he is, and he is called a werecat for a reason.

Fun fact, "were" is an old word for "man". So "werecat" literally means "man cat".

It seems “politeness” doesn’t occur in Solembum’s vocabulary, and I keep wondering just why we’re supposed to find him cool if he acts like this.

This trait isn't going anywhere either; he's a rude asshole for the entire Cycle.

And I’d like to stop here for the time being, because I’m halfway through the chapter, and because the sheer nonsense is wearing me down. Until next time, when we finally deduce where the Ra’zac must live!

That Brom somehow doesn't already know where they live is absolutely preposterous. See you next time!