Brisinger Chapters 21-30

[amatyultare]

Chapter Twenty-One: Unexpected Guests

Eragon wakes up, does some yoga the Rimgar and a little sword-practice, then washes up and goes to help with the wedding preparations. Here we get a really awkwardly-phrased sentence:

“There are still twenty loaves of bread dough that have to be kneaded.”

Twenty LOAVES...of bread dough. I understand what’s being said here, but that’s awfully poor wording. Then Eragon spends, like, forty-five minutes kneading the dough. Kneading is basically ‘punching’ the bread back down after it’s risen, and doesn’t (correct me if I’m wrong, frequent-bread-bakers) usually take more than a few minutes.

Birgit makes a dirty joke. OOOH. Eragon is embarrassed.

It’s a perfect moment for Eragon. Therefore, it must be ruined. War drums ho! Sound the alarm! Eragon throws his armor on and races for the gate. Imperial soldiers have sailed down Jiet River and are disembarking close to the encampment. But....there aren’t very many of them. What’s up with that?

OH LOOK, MURTAGH IS HERE. What a surprise. I wonder if we’ll actually get to hear Thorn speak this time? (Note from the future: sadly no.)

And I’m sorry, this description is hilarious:

Red as a ruby dipped in blood, red as iron hot to forge, red as a burning ember of hate and anger, Thorn appeared above the languishing trees.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Fire in the Sky

I spent this entire chapter humming ‘Smoke on the Water’ to myself. Just so you know.

Nasuada sends out soldiers to engage the Imperial soldiers, who are laughing in an extremely creepy fashion. Murtagh taunts Eragon. The elven magicians are ready to back Eragon up, including Arya who imbues him with some strength before battle. Also, she is obviously falling to the Dark Side in love with Eragon.

Eragon tries to convince Murtagh that he can be freed of his binding if he changes himself enough that his true name changes. If Galbatorix no longer knows Murtagh’s true name, Murtagh can escape! Murtagh is basically ‘interesting...yet that plan is ridiculously stupid. Much like you, Eragon. Let’s just fight and get it over with; showing you mercy last time caused me a lot of trouble with Galbie, so I am not happy with you.”

Time for another ariel battle! Saphira breaks Thorn’s wing in five places! Mortagh heals it. Thorn slashes Saphira’s wing! The elves heal it. Eragon slashes at Murtagh, Murtagh blocks (and is as fast as half-elf Eragon, ZOMG!). Eragon and Murtagh grapple mentally and magically.

The following quote makes me wonder--is Galbie turning Murtagh into a Shade? (This would completely fit into the Return of the Jedi plotline, where Durza the original Shade was the original ‘Death Star’ destroyed in New Hope, and Murtagh is the ‘new’ Death Star.)

Eragon noticed that Murtagh’s mind felt as if it contained multitudes, as if a confused chorus of voices was murmuring beneath the turmoil of Murtagh’s own thoughts.

Eragon gets the best of Murtagh, but the dragons were plummeting and hit the ground as the mental battle is ending. Eragon is knocked unconscious for just long enough for Murtagh and Thorn to escape (convenient!) and Eragon is too drained to follow.

Hey, remember those ground soldiers? Laughing eerily? Galbatorix has made soldiers that feel no pain. Unless you absolutely kill them, cut off their heads or something, they will keep fighting no matter what injury they suffer. And laugh while doing so. The Varden lost a lot of soldiers in the fight, although they did manage to eliminate all of the Imperial soldiers.

The chapter ends with a shaken Roran and Kristina deciding they’ll go on with the wedding ceremony anyway.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Man and Wife

Wedding ceremony time. And if a wedding’s not an excuse for some gratuitous description, I don’t know what is!

Eragon stood on the crest of a low hill dotted with yellow wildflowers. Surrounding the hill was a lush meadow that bordered the Jiet River, which rushed past a hundred feet to Eragon’s right. The sky was bright and clear; sunshine bathed the land with a soft radiance. The air was cool and calm and smelled fresh, as if it had just rained.

The Carvahallans sing a traditional wedding song filled with double entendres and everything is lovely. Roran is handsome. Katrina is beautiful enough to elicit gasps.

Are you KIDDING, CPao? Doves laying a circlet of flowers on a blushing bride’s head? Shame on you, Arya. What next, did magical elven mice sew Katrina’s wedding dress?

We get a lame rewriting of a modern-day wedding ceremony, plus contractual stuff. Think paraphrased wedding ceremony (written out to an agonizing degree) with random additions of ‘here is what the groom offers the bride. Is this acceptable to the bride’s maid of honor representative?’. Nasuada has given Katrina a bunch of jewelry for her dowry. Roran swears that he’ll go back to Carvahall someday and provide Katrina with a living from his farm.

Reception time! Eragon gives the happy couple....magical rings that summon help if you twist it on your finger and call for Eragon and Saphira. Spare me. Cue cutesy putting-the-rings-on-each-other scene.

Eragon and Nasuada leave the party to go visit the wounded soldiers. Among them, Eragon encounters one who is blinded, yet can see magical energy/life force as patterns of light. He sees Eragon and the gems he wears that hold magical energy. He also saw Murtagh – whose body was filled with other souls than his own, shining brightly. Gods, the man calls them – they don’t look or ‘sound’ like human souls. Eragon is all, ‘what could this mean?’

HE'S A SHADE, ERAGON. HOLY CRAP, HOW OBLIVIOUS CAN YOU BE? DO YOU NEED A DIAGRAM? IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO FIGURE OUT. (Note from the future: I am wrong about this. Still, it’s an obvious theory, don’t you think?)

Chapter Twenty-Four: Whispers In The Night

Three and a half page Roran chapter! Whee!

Roran wakes up in the middle of the night and notices that Katrina is awake and staring at the stars; he goes to join her.

He shifted his arm, fitting it against the curve of her waist and feeling the slight bulge of her growing belly.

It’s official: she got preggers before being kidnapped by the Ra’zac. There is NO WAY she’d have a noticeable bump after, at most, two weeks.

Anyway, Katrina is thinking about how an army camp is no place for a child. It’s not really any place for a pregnant woman either, but Katrina wants the Carvahall midwife to oversee the pregnancy. Plus, she wants to take care of Roran for as long as possible:

I will do everything I can to lighten your burden. I will cook your meals, mend your clothes, and clean your armor...

How interestingly unenlightened, CPao – anyway, after she gives birth, Katrina plans to leave the army and take the baby to one of Surda’s cities for the duration of the war. Roran doesn’t want to be parted from her but sees where she’s coming from. He’s hoping they can end the war and defeat Galbatorix before she gives birth.

Well, that was...fairly pointless. At least it was short. Back to Eragon!

Chapter Twenty-Five: Orders

Next morning, Eragon goes to Nasuada’s tent to find out what she wants them to do. Ahaha, Dominatrix!Saphira cracks me up. On Thorn:

That red runt is no match for me. If he did not have Murtagh protecting him, I would trap him against the ground and shake him by the neck until he submitted to me and acknowledged me as a leader of the hunt.

Nasuada is planning for the army to go on the offensive agin. In the meantime, however, she wants the dwarves to hurry up and choose a king already, and preferably a king who will continue to support the Varden. She wants Eragon to go to the dwarves (remember, he was adopted as one) and throw his weight behind Orik or whichever friendly dwarf seems most likely to win. However, as not to leave the Varden completely vulnerable, she wants Saphira and the elf spellcasters to remain and pretend Eragon is still around. If worst comes to worst, Arya can ride on Saphira and fight. Eragon will therefore travel to the dwarves with a single Urgal.

Eragon doesn’t like this plan. And he says so. Vehemently.

I hope Eragon understands that he is allowed this level of insubordination because he is uniquely important to the Varden. A normal soldier does NOT get to argue his orders with the general. This is also yet another example of how Eragon is stupid. Emotionally disliking an extremely sensible plan=/=the plan is flawed.

Nasuada is really a good leader. She recognizes that disciplining Eragon will ruin confidence in her leadership, so her ultimatum is: do what I tell you, as you swore to do as my vassal, or take over leadership of the Varden.

Eragon and Saphira discuss it in CPao’s typically overblown style:

His emotions and hers washed between their minds, tidal surges in a shared pool of anger, anticipation, reluctace, and tenderness. From him flowed the anger and reluctance; from her other, gentler sentiments–as rich in scope as his own–that moderated his choleric passion and lent him perspectives he would not otherwise have.

Once he finally agrees, Nasuada tutors Eragon about the dwarves. Eragon learns all about the dwarf clans in two hours? Well, I guess he did learn to read in a week. Eragon goes to prepare for the journey, still sulking.

The compromise is, however, that once the dwarf coronation actually takes place, Eragon can go to Du Weldenvarden and consult some more with Oromis and Glaedr. Just in time for Oromis to die, I’m sure.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Footprints of Shadow

Eragon goes to say goodbye to Roran and Katrina; turns out Roran will be part of a team attacking Imperial supply lines, so they’re all splitting up. *emotear* Saphira purrs (really) and gives them some wise advice along the lines of ‘don’t get sentimental and leave your enemies alive’ and ‘don’t dwell’.

Then Eragon and Saphira go to the cook tents, where Eragon sits and watches animals be killed and butchered, and pulls out their life energy as they die to store in his magic-holding gems. Which is a pretty interesting idea, really, although Eragon hates it since he’s experiencing death again and again.

Saphira and Eragon say farewell; Saphira totally rips off the traditional Irish Blessing:

“May the wind rise under your wings and the sun always be at your back.”

Eragon grabs what he needs and heads out, sneaking out of camp with STEALTH LIKE NINJA. He meets up with the Urgal who will be accompanying him – a Uruk-hai Kull who fought alongside him at the Battle of Burning Plains – and they set out.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Over Hill and Mountain

Running, running, running. Finally they get tired and must eat. The Urgal kills a deer and makes a tasty stew. Apparently Eragon is no longer troubled by eating meat. Okay then.

Wow, the dwarves-have-fourteen-toes thing may actually be relevant! Because the Urgals have fourteen toes as well. Or, you know, it may be a random coincidence and have nothing to do with the plot. With CPao, it could go either way.

Eragon and the Urgal, named Garzhvog, talk. Garzhvog tells his culture’s version of the Rumpelstiltzken story, except that it ends sadly. They debate over whether the Urgals will be able to change themselves enough to live in harmony with other races in Alagaësia (their current culture emphasizes fighting over all else, which makes them unrestful neighbors). Eragon brings up some Urgal atrocities he’s seen; Garzhvog says he’s seen humans do similar things to Urgals in the past.

More running! They approach the mountain range in which the dwarves live, circle around and head into the valley. Therefore, the title of the chapter should really be ‘Around Hill and Mountain’, but let’s not quibble. Also, Eragon throws in there that the mountains of this range are an average of 10 miles tall, although many are higher. Um, WHAT? The highest mountain in our world is Mt. Everest, which is a little more than 29,000 feet above sea level, or about 5.5 miles tall. These mountains AVERAGE almost twice as tall as Mt. Everest? CPao, have you ever studied geography?

The world narrowed once Eragon and Garzhvog were fully inside the long valley. The gigantic mountains pressed close on either side, oppressive with their bulk, and the sky was a distant, unreachable strip of sea blue, the highest sky Eragon had ever seen. A few thin clouds grazed the shoulders of the mountains.

Eragon has never SEEN the sea, so this is an odd description. After seeing and avoiding several wild animals, they reach the beginning of the dwarf settlements; Garzhvog will head back at this point, as the dwarves have no love of Urgals. Eragon says an awkward goodbye and then gets a bunch of dwarf children to bring him into the city. I think we’re actually going to see Orik again!

Except...perspective change. Hi again, Roran!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: For My Love

Roran is off on a raid of an Imperial supply run. First, however, we get a little bit of his interaction between him and the head of the group. The captain comes across like a drill sergeant, all ‘Do not mess with me, boy!’ and Roran is all ‘sir, yes, sir!’. Roran is actually handling military discipline quite well. Can you imagine Eragon being lectured about how he needs to get along with everyone in the group even if he doesn’t personally like them, we are not your friends, and you better Goddamn follow my orders or I will break you? He’d either get into a shouting match with the captain, or he’d go away and sulk until Saphira talked him out of it.

Raid time! Except it’s not exactly a ‘raid’; the idea is to kill the soldiers and burn the wagons of supplies, not take anything. Roran – still fighting with A HAMMER against soldiers WITH SWORDS, which is bizarre and unrealistic – does quite well. He kills several soldiers from horseback.

Then, when a few Imperial soldiers form a defensive triangle, he stands up on his horse and jumps OVER the wagon to kill four of the five soldiers causing the standoff. Serious question, when has Roran ever RIDDEN a horse before? I don’t recall his father owning any. He should be having a hard time staying on a galloping horse, never mind trick riding.

Anyway, the captain is all, ‘You’ll do. But that was risky, try to avoid it’. Roran feels guilty again for killing; after the Burning Plains, he isn’t even sure how many people he’s killed. He reassures himself that he’s doing this for his love (see also: chapter title) of Katrina, Eragon, and all of the Varden.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Forest of Stone

The first page is an info-dump that I had to force myself to read. More than you ever wanted or needed to know about the construction and design of Bregan Hold.

Orik is the new clan chief of Dûrgrimst Ingeitum. Yay! And he’s married to that girl he was talking about back in Eldest, Hvedra. They actually got married just two days ago and their celebrations are still ongoing, which is cute. We are watching some bizarre kind of dwarvish jousting when CPao hits us with another unexpected paragraph of description:

[Orik] laughed and drained his tankard of mead, his polished coat of mail sparkling in the early-evening light. He wore a helm embellished with gold, silver, and rubies and, on his fingers, five large rings. At his waist hung his ever-present ax. Hvedra was attired even more richly, with strips of embroidered cloth upon her sumptuous dress, strands of pearls and twisted gold around her neck, and in her hair, an ivory comb set with an emerald as large as Eragon’s thumb.

No wonder Orik is drinking mead. Heck, I need a drink after that paragraph.

We get some Orik/Hvedra cuteness; Eragon is going WHY AM I SURROUNDED BY COUPLES? Hvedra is apparently the chatelaine for the entire clan (not because she’s Orik’s wife, but from her own merit). Well, good for her.

Next morning, Eragon is going to be taken to see a ‘forest of stone’ on the way to the dwarf capital. After some angst about being separated from Saphira, Eragon heads out with his escort. The ‘forest of stone’ is a forest of petrified wood, although of course the dwarves don’t call it that. Orik tells about how it was discovered while they were mining and how even now, troublesome young men are sent by their fathers to cool their passions by “chiseling out a tree or two”. Hee. Have I mentioned lately that I like the dwarves?

Who are in trouble. Orik explains that they are close to an inter-clan war; tensions are extremely high over who will be the new king. He asks for Eragon’s support in his bid for the kingship. Eragon demurs; this is exactly what Nasuada told him NOT to do, since he needs to support whichever pro-Varden candidate seems most likely to win. This causes a big argument, since Orik is expecting Eragon to be loyal both to him personally, and to his adopted clan. Plus, as he points out, what does Eragon know about dwarf politics? They compromise: Orik promises that if it becomes clear that he can’t win, he’ll withdraw and throw his support and Eragon’s behind a different candidate.

We get another quick burst of missing-Saphira angst as the chapter closes.

Chapter Thirty: The Laughing Dead

Back to Roran’s perspective. Another attack on an Imperial supply convoy is imminent, but Roran is worried. Specifically, the soldiers seem to have put themselves in a deliberately vulnerable position. Nor do they seem to have any magician with them. Still, no one can actually see something wrong and the Varden magician doesn’t sense any magical trap, so in they go.

And as the title implied (CPao, I say this with no disrespect, but you need to work on your chapter titles), the soldiers are of the pain-blocked-creepy-zombiefied variety.

Long, painful, and bloody battle ensues. Finally the Varden prevail, although at the cost of many deaths of their own. The captain even has his right hand chopped off, although he survives.

Geez, how many of these soldiers does Galbatorix have? We probably won’t find out the answer immediately, because it’s back to Eragon’s POV!