Shadowed By Wings Spork, Part Six

[epistler]

Part Six: Is That a Plot I Spy?

Thankfully this time we cut to after the dragon sex rather than having it described to us in detail. Zarq is taken back to her hammock by the dragonmaster (or Komikon – whichever). Out of nowhere a Temple “auditor” shows up, declaring that she’s under arrest. Zarq yells at Dono to go and get the conveniently absent dragonmaster, but he stands by and does nothing. Zarq instantly realises that he went and told the Temple about her by way of petty revenge, and we get a completely flat declaration that the realisation is like losing her childhood all over again and she’s forsaken, etc. Yet again the author dumps some completely misplaced exposition on us, about how male prisoners are used as “Retainers” for female prisoners (what, was “guards” not fancy enough for you?), and that female prisoners are little better than sex slaves. Wait, I thought if she got arrested she’d be executed, not locked up. Why is she so sure she’s going to prison rather than a chopping block? Oh, and she somehow intuits (again) that Dono knows all of that and is happy about it because she totally deserves it for insulting his “phallus”. Riiight.

The Auditors (again, was there no more suitable name for these guys? Perhaps one that actually sounds scary rather than just invoking my yearly session with the tax accountant?) stick her on a dragon’s back and fly off. Cue lots of description of flying on dragonback (Zarq doesn’t like it one bit, as you’d expect). Eventually they bring her to some guy called a Ranreeb, who’s apparently some sort of big cheese, and who comes accompanied by a eunuch for some reason. They all check her out, and infer from her eyes that she’s addicted to Dragon Crack, just as The Artist Formerly Known as Yellow Face warned all those years ago. She’s then thrown in your standard issue fantasy dungeon, where she freaks out and tries to dig through the floor with her fingernails. Why she didn’t go after the rotten wood ceiling is beyond me.

After a standard seen-it-a-hundred-times-before scene in which a guard shoves some food in and ignores her pleas to be let out, Zarq inspects the walls and finds someone’s written their life story on it – another woman who talks about how she had an interest in Malacharite literature which was deemed “unnatural”, and she was arrested after her husband intercepted a letter she wrote to someone known only as X. Underneath that is another bit of text informing the reader that this woman later died.

There are other accounts on the wall, one written by a woman who was arrested for giving lectures on “subversive literature” (to who, it doesn’t say. I’m picturing a university professor, though). When did this turn into a ripoff of V for Vendetta? It turns out she later died during a botched abortion, though it’s referred to as a “medic-induced miscarriage”. So they have medics too now, do they? When did this turn into a modern day military drama?

It turns out a whole bunch of women have been locked up here, all of them literate and educated and most of them nobles, and all arrested for pissing off powerful men. Wow. Subtle.

Zarq spends an unstated amount of time in her cell, being generally miserable (wow, that is so unlike her). Her mother’s haunt starts bothering her again, and we’re now informed that when a female dragon gets old she covers herself in some sort of waxy cocoon in preparation for death. (Yes of course the cocoon has a fakey made-up name. Which I can’t be bothered to type down).

Blah blah, Zarq is on the verge of being taken over by the haunt, and she decides to carve her own story on the wall. She pompously narrates that “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. Anyone who does not know this, knows not the livid loneliness of  fear.”

Um, what the hell does that mean? I talked it over with torylltales and we eventually agreed that it really doesn’t mean anything – it’s just another Ice Cream Koan in a book full of them.

Anyway, so writing her story (which conveniently leaves out the dragon sex) makes Zarq feel connected with all those poor women who died here before her and they’re like friends to her now, and  it “joined my heart and breath and spirit to the women who had died in that place”.

I’m trying to figure out why I found this part so offensive. Because that was absolutely my first reaction – to feel offended and even in some way personally insulted. I eventually concluded that it was because the other stories Zarq read made me genuinely sympathise with  their subjects, whereas I have no connection with Zarq. In fact I think she’s a stupid asshole. Trying to elevate her to some sort of heroic or mythical stature just plain pissed me off.  I had the same reaction every time someone in the Inheritance Cycle blah-blahs about how “noble” and “brave” Eragon and Roran are.

With this philosophical interlude mercifully over and done with, Zarq is finally taken out of her cell and given a bath and a change of clothes by the eunuch, who gets a lot of completely pointless description. He then takes her to meet her fellow prisoners (why they didn’t just do this on the first day I have no idea). Zarq casually mentions that this guy will spend a lot of her imprisonment dragging her around the place, including “to the Retainer’s bunks to be raped”. So there’s that to, uh, look forward to?

Along the way Zarq sees a couple of Retainers. Needless to say they’re both ugly and lecherous. Wow, never seen that one before. This of course pegs them as the “bad” kind of lecherous rapist. The “good” variety are always incredibly handsome, which of course means it’s not rape or lechery when they do it (I really wish this particularly distasteful trope wasn’t so very common, but it is). She’s then led into a room full of things which are obviously meant for stimulation (no, not that kind of stimulation). Writing equipment, puppets, painting canvases, “destiny wheels” – that sort of thing. Here Zarq meets her fellows, and they basically all look like creepy zombies, with unnaturally white and puffy skin and eyes all red and horrible from venom abuse. They’re even more seriously fucked up on the magic drugs than Zarq or anyone else she’s met. They also have a matriarch who insists on being adressed as “Greatmother” (this series’ completely unnecessary substitute for “grandma”), and it turns out they’re all given new names on arrival.

Wait, this sounds awfully familiar. Didn’t this exact same thing happen in the last book? Order of sickly older women, everyone gets slapped with a new name, led by a matriarch, everything’s grubby and run-down… what the hell? This is a complete rehash of the convent from the first book!

When an author starts retreading old ground this thoroughly, you know she’s officially out of ideas. And we’re only halfway through the trilogy, which doesn’t bode well at all.

Zarq’s second new name is Najivia, which apparently means “One Hundredth Girl”, because she’s number one hundred to arrive here. Everyone else has a number-based name too, and no I am not going to write them all down because as you would expect, none of these characters will be important bar maybe one or two.

Which is exactly how it was with the convent subplot. No, I’m not happy about it either.

The other women invite her to sit down with them, and the eunuch leaves, “Moving his hips like a cur with dysplasia”. To quote distinctvaguens, what and why would you write that? I also really wish the author would stop subtly mocking the guy for the way he looks. What’s the proper word for bigotry against eunuchs, anyway? Eunuchphobia? Either way I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his choice to be castrated, Ms Cross, so put a sock in it.

Greatmother, or as I’m now going to call her, Yellow Face 2.0, tells Zarq the rules. No using her original name or talking about her former life. If she does this will be classed as a “transgression” and will be reported. Apparently all the women here inform on each other. She’s asked how old she is, and answers truthfully that she’s seventeen. A boring conversation ensues, in which Yellow Face 2.0 tells Zarq that they’re not friends and shouldn’t think of each other that way (why on earth would they? They just met). One of the other prisoners, Misutvia, seems a little younger and more rebellious than the rest, so I decided to note her name down just in case. I smell Beauty 2.0 in the offing. Oh, and it turns out the prisoners are forced to have dragon sex and report what they learn to the guys in charge because – surprise! – Temple knows all about it and also want the secret of hatching male dragons.

The eunuch then shows up, still being described in a highly unflattering manner, bearing a whole lot of really delicious food. All of which is described in great detail, and all of which has some sort of made-up name. Paak, nerwon, muay leaves, quanis, etcetera. I feel like I’m reading a Star Wars novelisation all of a sudden.

In an absolutely hilarious parallel to the creepy dungeon scene in Inheritance, the eunuch insists on hand-feeding everyone (even though nobody’s tied up). He nags at them to eat plenty because they’re all too thin, but nobody’s all that keen except for Zarq. The implication seems to be that all the venom they’re on has killed both their appetites and their willingness to do anything for themselves (hence why the writing equipment and so on is lying around unused). Afterwards Zarq is super tired, and she’s escorted to a “stone burrow” full of cushions, which is so small she has to crawl inside and lie down. They give her some venom to drink, and she thanks them for the fix before passing out.

Well, looks like this place ain’t so bad after all! Lots of good food, free venom, and mandatory dragon sex! Sounds like Zarq will be having the time of her life (and she’d better live it well). But of course it won’t be anything of the sort. Gotta keep it dreary and depressing, boy howdy.

Now I think about it, I don’t think I’ve seen Zarq having a nice time even once in the entire series so far. Nor have I seen her have any pleasant interactions with anybody, unless you count the bit where the original Yellow Face suddenly goes all motherly on her and mouths a few Ice Cream Koans before randomly exiting the book forever. Either she’s working her ass off, moaning in pain, being yelled at and abused, or lying in a venom-induced stupour. Or being an asshole to someone. And pretty much everyone is an asshole back to her. You see what I mean about this trilogy being utterly drab and unpleasant to read even when it’s not focused on the dragon sex or the rape? It’s just so joyless. Is it really too much to ask for a work of fiction to be… you know… fun and enjoyable to read?

The next chapter describes how Zarq settles into her new life – AGAIN. She did it THREE TIMES in the first book, and this is the second time she’s done it in this one. See what I mean about the plot spinning its wheels?

Either way at first she enjoys it. All she has to do is eat, sleep and trip balls. It’s all pretty much anyone does. Zarq has wistful dreams about her happy childhood memories of listening to her parents loudly fuck in the next room at night (no I did not make that up). She has sex dreams about Dono going down on her (when did that happen?). She starts getting to know the other prisoners, and as with the nuns in the previous book she tells us their, uh, personality traits rather than bloody well interacting with any of them in a scene. But she also starts to like Misutvia because she’s pretty and not as much of an asshole as the rest of them.

Apparently everyone’s completely nuts with the reporting on each other thing, any pretty much anything – even failing to take a morning shit – can be classed as a “transgression”. So apparently now Zarq is in a crazy cult (albeit one with no deranged cult leader. Yellow Face 2.0 doesn’t count). Zarq does her best to stay out of it, but – oh, here we go – one night she wakes up and sees another prisoner named Prinrut crouched outside watching her. Zarq realises she’s been pleasuring herself in her sleep “again” and she’s all wet down there. Sleep masturbation, huh? Can’t say as I’ve heard of it. Prinrut has been watching her while also whacking off.

Well that’s not creepy at all.

For whatever reason this turns Zarq on and they end up having strenuous lesbian sex for two pages. Zarq loves it (and apparently knows how to go about it). How on earth is she able to do this when she’s had her womanhood sliced off anyway? I don’t know either.

Afterwards Prinrut reports her for “sleeping restlessly”, and Zarq realises that the noises she’s been hearing at night were in fact other prisoners enjoying some girl-on-girl action. So apparently everyone here is either gay or bisexual? Or something? I don’t know. Either way I’m starting to wonder about the author’s own inclinations, because the descriptions of woman on woman intimacy were far more enthusiastic and – dare I say – erotic than the descriptions we got of Zarq with Dono. I checked the author bio online but it didn’t say. It did however say that she’s taught a bunch of “self-empowerment classes”, which instantly had me narrowing my eyes. (Honestly, though, she sounds like quite an interesting person. If only she was a better writer).

Anyway, Zarq gets her first black mark, and apparently they have quite a complicated system for keeping track of everyone’s transgressions (and if you report on someone, you get a mark taken off). But she still doesn’t know what the actual punishment will be.

She keeps screwing Prinrut anyway (I note that she’s finally started calling people by their names), and becomes quite attached to her. I take it this is because she’s good in the sack, because I have absolutely no idea what her personality is supposed to be. It’s never come up. Eventually Prinrut randomly goes catatonic, and Zarq is informed that she’s decided to let herself die rather than carry on. I’m not sure how that works. One of the other prisoners we know nothing about drops dead, which massively pisses off the eunuch for some reason, and Prinrut is taken away to “Prelude” (their name for the cell Zarq was in when she first arrived). She never comes back.

Let us all pause to mourn the tragic implied death of Prinrut, about whom we knew absolutely nothing. Amen.

After this Zarq and Misutvia and a couple of others are taken to the bathhouse, where they’re scrubbed off, and the eunuch’s sidekick, Boy Eunuch, cleans “little rolls of old skin and dirt” from their “thighs” and the “folds of our vulvas”.

Vulva, which is a word I actually had to look up (damn my inadequate Christian school sex ed classes!) refers to a woman’s eternal genitalia. You know, the bit Zarq had sliced clean off when she was nine? How the hell is this kid cleaning something she hasn’t got?

I’m beginning to get the feeling the author has forgotten all about the whole circumcision thing, honestly. That or she really doesn’t know how it works.

They’re then taken to the Retainer’s bunks, or as I’d prefer to call it, the guardhouse, and Zarq finds out what the punishment is. Given the sheer levels of horror we’ve endured so far it actually turns out to be pretty tame by comparison: the number of marks against her name is the number of sleazy guys she has to pleasure. Rather surprisingly – again, given the author’s usual habits – you don’t even see it happen. It literally passes in two sentences. In fact the first time I read this book I missed it entirely. Why is Ms Cross choosing now of all times to suddenly play coy with us? Rather depressingly, I suspect the answer isn’t because she didn’t want to write a rape scene.

Either way they must have been pretty rough with her; afterwards she has to go to the “medic’s den” to be stitched up. There she has a dream about KZ, her alleged best friend from the previous book who she periodically likes to angst about apropos of nothing. She rehashes the story about how KZ left, then tells us she dreams about seeing her and her baby standing on a bridge about to break, oblivious to the danger. Zarq tries to save them, but the bridge breaks and they fall to their deaths. She then wakes up crying.

Okay, what the fresh hell did that have to do with anything? Are we still pretending KZ was an actual character with an actual relationship with Zarq? Because come on. That ship has well and truly sailed and the dead horse has long since been flogged into a fine paste.

The next day Zarq gets some advice from Misutvia, who secretly informs her that her brother is an extremely rich nobleman named Malaban. He’ll soon be back from some business trip or other, and their mother will tell him what happened. She believes he’ll come to rescue her. She tells Zarq she has to get herself sent back to “Prelude”, in other words locked up in her original cell again, so she can complete the stories of Prinrut and the other prisoner who died. Apparently it’s some sort of secret ritual the prisoners have for releasing the souls of their dead fellows. Just why we’re supposed to care about that when we don’t know anything about any of these characters, I’ve no idea. 

Zarq is then escorted to the dragon stable, and right out of nowhere she starts spouting poetry. Might I add, this isn’t something she read in a book or anything – she just randomly says it, apparently making it up on the spot.

For your reading pleasure (grammar and typesetting faithfully reproduced):

 

Embrace with thy obsidian-jewelled mouth,

a  creature made of blood coagulated.

Embrace! and the honey light of wings ignited

will teach that which they give not unto men.

 

Puts Paolini’s poems to shame, don’t it?

Oh, but it continues on the next page.

 

I make thee mine own peer,

reckless of what must come when thy luck must turn in the turning of time.

My shame!

 

 

I saw what I hoped never to see alive,

the cur that fouled me papered and well fed,

the black snakes in plumes, the good yearning for death.

 

All of this comes right the fuck out of nowhere, sans any sort of explanation, and as you’d expect it doesn’t go over well. The Evil Men threaten to cut her tongue out, and she apologises for her “impudence”. Which is not exactly how I’d describe it, but there you go.

The chapter ends with her about to have more dragon sex, but mercifully the author seems to have gotten bored with describing it to us because it’s skipped over. Thankyou, merciful gods.