BattleAxe First Read: Chapter Twenty-Two: Evening by the Barrows

[teres]

Chapter Twenty-One | Table of Contents | Chapter Twenty-Three (Part I)

SCSF: Welcome back to BattleAxe, everyone! Last time, Timozel pledged himself as Faraday’s Champion and nothing much else happened. Before we begin, there is the reader post:

Epistler points out that Timozel’s sword would not make an audible noise when he pulls it out.

It’s Like We’re Smart But We’re Not: 14

Chessy further points out that Yr could and should have asked Faraday before healing her.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 38

She also points out that the description of the practice of Champion as “practically untenable” implies that “nonsexual male-female friendships are impractical and unfeasible”, which is nonsense and far from feminist.

No-Wave Feminism: 23

You do not fail to disappoint me, Douglass.

(Yes, I do see that wolfgoddess77 has made some quite good points, but I think I can better collect them, or else I will spend too much time on the reader post.)

I have also read ahead a little and decided to resurrect this count: We Get It Already. Yes, we promised there would be no more, but that is the problem with such a readthrough: it is not very well possible to tell what lies ahead.

Let us begin, then!

Chapter 22: Evening by the Barrows

So this is a chapter from Axis’s perspective. How lovely.

It begins with a page of summary. By “nightfall”, Axis has regained control and moved his men into the Barrows. The Axe-Wielders have quickly gathered their horses and reformed into units. The “two physicians” they have on hand are tending the wounded (good luck with that) and the dead are put in graves between two of the Barrows.

Veremund raises an eyebrow at Axis for this, at which Axis says that the Barrows can hold their dead as well as “those of the Forbidden”. I have to agree with Axis here. He is not interfering with the tombs themselves, and it would be quite difficult to bury the bodies entirely out of the area. There is this:

Later, the two Brothers, pressed by Axis’ cold stare, mumbled the words of the Service of the Dead and managed, with a number of embarrassing stumbles, to commend the dead to Artor’s care.

Is there any reason you could not have learned this better during your time in Silent Woman Keep? This is a very poor way to keep up a disguise, after all.

Ill Logic: 39

And it is also quite disrespectful, as is their “mumbling” the words. I already dislike them.

The injured are lying on stretchers and are to be taken back to Tare the next morning. Later on, the soldiers are sitting around the campfires, either eating “warm food” or cleaning their gear. Axis spends a large part of the evening among the soldiers, “smiling and reassuring”, comforting where necessary, joking and laughing where necessary. While he is doing this, he also thinks about the events of that day and tries to make sense of them. He is “grateful” that no one has seen cloud head, as he does not know how he would explain that to the soldiers.

That works nicely, I think. What works less is this:

What was it that had bubbled out of his subconscious to drive back the frightful apparition that seemed so intent on destroying him?

But he knows this “apparition” is Gorgrael, and that Gorgrael wants to kill him! And why is he using the term “subconscious”, anyway?

PPP: 114

The more Axis thinks about what has happened, the less sure he becomes. Douglass tells us that, since he has “lived so long with the uncertainty and shame of his parentage”, he does not like uncertainty elsewhere. Well, if you say so. Eventually, he goes to seek out Ogden and Veremund. I wish the best of luck trying to get certainty from them, Axis. They are huddled very close to a campfire, deeply absorbed in their reading, so they do not hear Axis approach. (Come to think of it, what are they reading now?)

He asks them if they have already found the answers, and if they can tell him to drive back “another of those demon-spawned storms”, or how he can protect his men from the ice spears. Ogden and Veremund are startled by this, and they see “Axis [standing] the other side of the low fire, his stance aggressive”. Yes, there truly is no “on” there.

PPP: 115

Axis is ready to grab both his sword and his axe from his belt. I… you are not here to fight them, Axis! Why are you ready to pull out your weapons? This is not someone I would trust! Veremund “gently” tells him to sit down for a while, as they should talk. Axis stands for a little bit longer and then sits cross-legged in “one fluid motion”. Ogden thinks he has “the Icarii grace” and the Icarii temper. Well, good to see that threatening to harm people you want to talk to when you are a little angry is apparently a regular feature of the Icarii! Also, Ogden, if he has the Icarii temper, that is a coincidence. He has not been around Icarii, after all, and it is certainly not inheritable.

Axis “harshly” says that they should indeed talk, and asks if they will tell him the truth. I am pleased to see that he is a little suspicious of them; given how very vague they have always been, they would not come across as exactly reliable. Ogden snaps at him how much he wants to hear, and then Veremund puts a hand on his arm and says “smoothly” that they only ever told him the truth. I see their dialogue is in the same paragraph.

PPP: 116

Why does Ogden react like this? Axis has not constantly refused to listen to them, after all… or is he angry that Axis refused to believe him about the Talons? Yes, that bit was ridiculous, but it is just as ridiculous to be still angry at Axis about that. Even in general, it is quite unreasonable to be angry at Axis for not immediately accepting things that contradict his entire worldview. As for Veremund… he does not exactly make himself out to be trustworthy, either, but I do think he is a little better about it.

Axis thinks that Veremund may be right, but the truth was wrapped in as much riddles as the Prophecy. Right on, Axis! He calms a bit and asks what the head in the clouds was and if that was the Destroyer of the Prophecy. Ogden says it was only his image, so not Gorgrael himself, as he is “not strong enough yet to make such a journey in the flesh”.

First, I would like to rephrase that to “not yet strong enough”.

PPP: 117

As for what Ogden says… where to begin? Ah yes. Ogden, if Gorgrael sent a magic cloud head, then what does it matter that he cannot make the journey physically? This way, it seems to imply that he sent his spirit to the Barrows, which he evidently did not.

Ill Logic: 40

Also, why is he not strong enough for that? Going by what I know, he might just take a horse and ride all the way to the Barrows.

Ill Logic: 41

I guess that Ogden might mean that he is not strong enough to teleport there, but still. This would be much more appropriate if he were a Skraeling, for example, or maybe Skraeling hybrid. Then he could use magic to make himself more solid. But, as we have seen, he has been perfectly corporeal since he exists! Why are you trying to apply this to Gorgrael, Douglass?!

Ill Logic: 42

And, of course, there is this:

“Why journey in the flesh when you can kill and maim as effectively with your cursed sorcery?” Axis said angrily.

Yes, that is a very good point! There is no reason for Gorgrael to expose himself to thousands of Axe-Wielders when he can hurt them just as effectively from safety! Why would he have come in the flesh?

Ill Logic: 43

Veremund now tells Axis to be calm. He should learn from the experience of today, but not “waste [his] energies blaming [him]self”. That…. is true enough, I suppose. Axis battles with his temper for a bit because he is angry that Veremund speaks sense.

Axis Is Angry: 10

He tells Veremund to tell him what he should learn from it, then asks why Gorgrael attacked them. Veremund says it is because they are a danger to him. Axis “carefully” asks if he means the Axe-Wielders. Veremund replies just as carefully that Axis is, too. He does not want to give too much information to Axis while he is “in this state of angry self-denial”. Hmm, I can see why he wants to do that, but it also means that the audience will not get any more information, either.

It is the same issue we have had since the beginning: Douglass wants to have mystery, but she is very much not good at writing it. So let me resurrect this:

This Is What the Mystery: 14

Veremund says that Axis leads them, and he leads them to Gorkenfort, so maybe Gorgrael thought it worthwhile to attack while they were still at the Barrows. Axis accepts the answer, and he says he will think about the “further implications” later, “when his heart [does] not burn with such fierce sorrow that he [thinks] he [can] not bear it.” Yes, that is why he can hold this conversation perfectly well, and why we did not exactly see this earlier.

Well, Ogden and Veremund both know what he thinks, as they have both seen what happened to Faraday, but, “unlike Axis”, they know she is probably alive. Yes, we already saw that. They are not “unkind creatures”, they say, but it will just be so disastrous if Axis is pulled off the path of the Prophecy. But it is not, and that makes this look very bad.

They know that Faraday and Timozel (who is not even mentioned)—

Petty Ain’t the Word for You: 29

—are likely still alive, and yet they see fit to have him believe that they are dead, purely so Faraday can get to Borneheld before him, so Borneheld will not murder him. What, pray tell, is the difficulty in warning Axis that Borneheld will try to murder him if he will get together with Faraday? Axis might abandon the relationship, then, or he might decide to murder Borneheld himself. Either way, Axis would still survive, in a way that is much less likely to fail.

And since this will influence quite a good bit of the book, there is this:

Ill Logic: 92 (+50)

That also makes the things they have done so far look even worse.

Brainwashing Faraday and abusing her into going along with their plan? Completely pointless.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 39

Making her go along with Jack and Yr after Merlion died? Completely pointless.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 40

Collapsing the Barrow? Completely pointless.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 42 (+2)

Not to mention that Faraday is still necessary in the Prophecy, so they endangered her life for no reason at all.

Ill Logic: 93

And presumably brainwashing her last chapter was also pointless.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 43

Then we have this. They are lying to everyone because of a situation they created, which was completely unnecessary. So, first Axis believes Faraday and Timozel are dead.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 44

The rest of the Axe-Wielders now believe this, too.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 46 (+2)

I also want to give specific attention to Arne here, who thinks that one of the people from his cohort is dead while that is not the case.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 47

Then we have Timozel’s relatives: Embeth and her two daughters, who will also falsely hear that Timozel is dead.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 50 (+3)

How about Isend and Faraday’s siblings?

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 53 (+3)

And all the other people they will lie to for no good reason?

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 58 (+5)

Back to the story for a bit. Axis asks Ogden and Veremund what will happen when Gorgrael comes back. Ogden looks at Veremund. We get this:

“They had discussed this earlier, and concurred in thinking that Gorgrael had risked this attack only because so many of the Sentinels, as well as Axis and Faraday, had been in one spot.”

Well, why was that necessary? Jack and Yr could have met up with Faraday in Arcen! Ogden and Veremund would have been there either way to brainwash  talk her into it. Once she was in Arcen, Yr might have come in her therian form to get her, and from there, they might even follow the same route that they will later in this book. They would not even have had Timozel along!

But still they met up with Faraday again, even though they do not need her to be married to Borneheld, and they knew that Gorgrael might attack. They still stayed around, even until the moment of the storm, too.

Ogden and Veremund were hardly better here. They knew the danger, and yet they waited an hour to inform Axis, and Veremund saw fit to insult Gorgrael, which might even have made things worse. In short, there was every reason not to do things this way, and yet they did.

Ill Logic: 103 (+10)

That also means that Jack, Ogden, Veremund and Yr are responsible for all the deaths and injuries and suffering that occurred today.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 68 (+10)

They got Merlion killed, for example, but they are still supposed to be completely blameless. This book is morally bankrupt and I hate it!

Back to the story again. Now they are split, Gorgrael might “well hang back”. Then you should have done that earlier!! They suspect and hope that Gorgrael has “seriously weakened” himself in trying to reach so far. He turns back to Axis and says they hope Gorgrael will “not adventure this far south again”. Well, then it does not help that you are only going north from here, and that it will thus become easier for Gorgrael to hit you.

Ill Logic: 104

Ogden tells Axis to think for a moment. The storm was “vicious and deadly” (yes, it certainly was), but it only lasted “a few scant minutes” when it reached the Axe-Wielders. If Axis were Gorgrael, would he have stopped “with only a few hundred men”? Axis winces at that and concedes the point. Ogden says this:

“Gorgrael could not press the attack home.”

I… highly doubt all of this. After all, the attack consisted of ice spears, which were not spread very thickly and were not always lethal, either. Also, those who sheltered behind the Barrows were perfectly fine. That does not seem like an attack designed to kill as many as possible to me. If it were, surely Gorgrael could have placed the clouds above the Barrows? And why bother with the cloud head if not to scare Axis?

This simply seems to me like an attack to scare everyone. After all, if Gorgrael can rain down ice spears from the sky and kill with impunity at the Ancient Barrows, what might his true might look like? Of course, he succeeded in killing hundreds, too, and putting an extra load on the army with the injured. It has also succeeded in upsetting Axis, which might cause him to make stupid decisions.

So Ogden and Veremund are playing right into Gorgrael’s cards! Good work!

Ill Logic: 105

So, in summary, Gorgrael never meant to drive it home, since he understands that killing everyone is not the only way to win a war. And here is Ogden, trying to make it sound like a failure, which he apparently sincerely believes!

Ill Logic: 106

I also do not think it says very good things about Axis if he would bother to exterminate the entire army if he were in Gorgrael’s position.

Well, Ogden says that Gorgrael may have “overreached himself with this effort”, and hopefully they will be safe for now. Maybe they have even given Gorkenfort some time.

Axis does not respond to that, and instead asks why Gorgrael has been in his dreams. Veremund replies with this:

“Gorgrael is a creature who thrives on hate, hate is his very existence, it drives his heart,” said Veremund.

That sentence is painful, not only because of the two comma splices, but also because of the two comma splices. Who puts three relatively long sentences together like this?!

PPP: 119

Talk Like A Natural: 4

I would turn the first comma into a period. That means that the comma splice is between the shortest sentences, and those are tied together more closely qua meaning, too.

Also, what evidence do we have that “hate is his very existence”? He is not some kind of personification of hate, Veremund. He is a person like any other: he may be obsessed with hate, but it does not exclusively define him.

This also makes me think that Veremund wants Axis to see Gorgrael as only a “creature of hate” so Axis will have an easy time killing him.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 69

Axis says he has felt that. Axis, you “felt” that in magical dreams he sent you. He can make it feel like you are surrounded by hate, yes, but that says nothing about Gorgrael himself.

Ill Logic: 107

Veremund says that Gorgrael hates those who oppose him the most, those who want to “deny him what he craves”, which is the utter destruction of “all lands below the line of year-long ice and snow”. I see there is a missing period here.

PPP: 120 (did this book undergo any editing?!)

We get this:

“Why?” Axis interrupted. “Why would he want to do that?”

Ogden shrugged. “He simply hates, Axis. That is enough.”

Axis nodded. He understood.

This is not “enough”, Ogden. Gorgrael simply does not consist only of hate, so he must have reasons for this. But here we have Ogden and Veremund telling Axis that Gorgrael only hates, that that is the only thing in his life. They do not want Axis to see Gorgrael as a person with reasons for what he does, but as an unthinking force of hatred who cannot be bargained with and who can thus only be stopped by being killed. Further, they are doing this when Axis has lost hundreds of people to Gorgrael and when he believes that Faraday and Timozel are dead. That means that he cannot think as well as usually and that he is prepared to accept this information about Gorgrael as truth more readily. I certainly think it would be tempting to see Gorgrael as a force of pure evil after this.

So they tell Axis this at the time he is most ready to accept it, and I am very sure they do this intentionally.

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 70

And they only tell Axis the things that will make him more likely to murder Gorgrael. I hate them so much!!

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 71

Veremund (I think) further says that Gorgrael will try “everything in his power” to make the people who oppose him scared and uncertain. So if it means that he needs to invade Axis’s dreams to do so, he is “perfectly capable of doing that”. So you mean that Gorgrael can mould reality to his will to accomplish his goals? That is what Douglass wrote, after all.

PPP: 121

I am also peeved that he is supposed to be so “evil” for trying to demoralise his enemies, when that is hardly worse than what the “good” people will do.

Then there is a long pause. Ogden and Veremund know what Axis will ask next. Finally, Axis softly asks what he sang during the storm. One of the brothers says that he sang an “ancient ward”. Axis naturally calls it sorcery, “his voice horrified”. We get this:

Axis had absorbed the Seneschal’s fear and hatred of magical things at an early age.

My, would you think!? This is such a common occurrence that I will give it this:

Hand-Holding: 1

Veremund hastens to say that it is not. Some might “consider it an enchantment” (who?) but it is simply a ward against evil. No one can sing it, and thus “ward themselves against evil” unless they have been taught to in the womb. He says that Axis’s father sang it to him. He just loved Axis so much that he give him “the gift of that song”.

Hmmm, let me first merge We Get It Already into Hand-Holding. And then this:

Hand-Holding: 2

That aside… I can see why this is a touching moment for Axis. His father gave him the means to save his life, after all! And he also knows that Gorgrael is not actually his father now, so that will also be a relief for him.

Still, it does not exactly work for me. After all, this is something that his father could have sung anyway, and it is a way for the child to protect itself later. This is not something that only parents who love their children very much should sing; this is a basic safety measure that his father should only not have sung if he has a very good excuse for that. Giving people basic safety measures is not something you only do when you love them very much! This does not work, Douglass.

Axis cries a little at this, though he tries to hide it. Veremund goes on, saying that Axis should never doubt that he was “loved and wanted”, and if Axis’s father has not claimed him, it is “because circumstances greater than his love for [Axis] have kept him away”. That is nice to say to Axis, but they do not know that!

Axis “nod[s] his head curtly” (another thing I wish Douglass would stop) to acknowledge this and then looks back, with tears streaming across his face despite his efforts. He asks who and what his father was. The brothers rise and move around the fire, “sitting either side of Axis”. I would prefer that as “on either side of Axis”.

PPP: 122

Veremund puts a hand on Axis’s shoulder and Ogden says neither of them knows who his father was. That is certainly fair enough. What is not so much is this:

Neither felt the time was right to tell Axis that his father was almost certainly an Icarii Enchanter.

I can understand them in a way. Axis will, of course, not take kindly to the idea that his father was one of the “Forbidden” and that he himself is half-Icarii. Also, Axis is not in the best state of mind right now. Still, Axis asked who and what his father was. He outright asked you for it, and yet you decide to lie to him. Oh, they do not say anything untrue to him, but they keep the things they know from him, even though he asks!

Morals for Thee But Not for Me: 72

Ogden further says that, if Axis finds him, “a great many questions” will be answered. Axis again does not react. Instead, he says that when he read the Prophecy for the first time, he felt as though “a deep, dark dungeon” that had been locked his whole life had been “thrown open and flooded with light”. He looks Ogden in the eye and says that he is not sure he likes what he sees in there, and he begins to wonder if it would have been better if the dungeon remained locked.

I like this, actually! I like that Axis is not immediately comfortable about the things he learns and that he even thinks it might be better not to know of it at all. Yes, I might wish there were more here, but I will take what I can get.

Still, I would get rid of the dungeon metaphor, given how overwrought it is. Well, Axis looks at Ogden a little longer, and then shrugs off Veremund’s hand and stands with “fluid grace”. He tells them to sleep well, because they will ride to Arcen the next day to reprovision and then with “full haste” to Smyrton. He will not let Gorgrael “deflect” him from going north. Further, he will send riders with the injured to Tare (which we already knew) and then to Carlon with news of the catastrophe.

His voice then “harden[s]” and he says that he must then write to Embeth to tell her that Timozel lies dead beneath a landslide. “Would that I could tell her myself rather than entrust such news to a messenger.” And if Ogden and Veremund saw fit to tell you that he is still alive, this could have been prevented. I still hate them.

On that “dramatic” line, the chapter ends. I see this was one of the shorter chapters, and yet I have rambled on for quite a bit. Next time ought to be more bearable, as we get back to Faraday!