AMRT Chapter 47: On the Verge

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What do you feel about Joyse's strategy?

I think it was great
4
50%
I think it wasn't so great
2
25%
I am neutral
2
25%
 
Total votes: 8

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duchess of malfi
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AMRT Chapter 47: On the Verge

Post by duchess of malfi »

It is hard to follow Danlo, and his masterful job with chapter 46!! :o

We open our chapter in the tent of the Tor. Teresa and Geraden find him in great pain and being examined by a physician.
For the first time, Teresa saw the place under the lord's ribs where Gart had kicked him.
Involuntarily, she tightened her grip on Geraden.
The Tor's injury was swollen like a tumor, black-purple and angry; it bloated out from his belly as if his skin might burst.
"Oh, my lord," Geraden breathed, nearly groaned. "What are you doing to yourself?"
The Tor wants to know one thing -- where is Nyle????

Geraden admits that Nyle is/was not at Esmerel, and that he (Geraden) and Teresa might have unknowingly led the others into a trap. But he feels that his brother must be nearby, someplace close enough that they can be attacked by High King Festten, and close enough for the little neighborly visit that Eremis, Gilbur, and Vagel had made through the snow. Geraden speculates that Eremis must have a secret base nearby.

The Tor asks what Geraden will do when Eremis uses Nyle against him. But before he gets an answer, King Joyse comes in, looking as if he has been in a battle, and filthy. Yet he bounces like a boy, and grins from ear to ear when he sees Teresa and Geraden.

The Tor asks for the Prince to be summoned. Then:
...he plunged to his knees as if the ground had been cut out from under him.
Ribuld started to help the lord, but King Joyse's presence daunted him.
Bowing his face to the canvas, retching for breath, the Tor panted, "My lord King, I beg you."
King Joyse's smile turned to ashes on his face.
"I beg you. I have brought your guard and your Congery and all your friends to destruction. Tell me I have not betrayed you."
"Betrayed me?" The passion in the King's face was wonderful and dire. As if he had no arthritis and no years, no weakness of any kind to hamper him, he caught hold of the Tor's arms and raised him to his feet by main strength. "My old friend! If you have put all that I love and all of my force in the path of ruin, you have not betrayed me. If you have sold my kingdom to the Alend Contender, so that I have nothing left to rule, you have not betrayed me. You are here -- here, where the fate of the world hinges." Tears trailed through the grime on his cheeks. "My lord Tor, I have used you abominably. I considered you an obstucle, your loyalty a stumbling block. And you have served me better than my best hope."
Joyse then faces challenges from Geraden and Teresa. Geraden demands to know where he has been and who he has been battling with -- and the King tells them that he has been off rescuing the Queen. He had ridden a creature of imagery to Vale House, where he had found the trail left behind by Torrent. Torrent had enabled the King to find the Queen and set her free. After making sure his wife and daughter were safe as could be in Romish, the King had come to the Army camp, without even stopping at Orison for news.

Geraden then demands to know why the King had given unequal treatment to the sons of the Domne. The King had always been supportive of both himself and Artagel -- but not of Nyle. Joyse admits that he simply doesn't like Nyle, and that is part of the cause. But also, Artagel's worth was obvious, due to his talent with a sword. And He knew that Geraden would be important from an old Augury -- and the king admits that he had failed Nyle, the son of a good friend.

Geraden says that he hates the King's dishonesty, but he swears he will save Joyse if he can.

And then it is Teresa's turn to take the King to task. She tells the King that she had defended him, that she had told the others that the King had made himself the target of the unknown enemies. But she insists that Joyse know who had paid the price of this strategy:
Master Quillon is dead.
Castellan Lebbick is dead.
The Perdon is dead.
The Tor is dying.
Nyle is a hostage.
Houseldon has been burned.
Sternwall is sinking into lava.
Fayle has been depopulated by the ghouls, to the point where the Fayle doesn't have enough men left to rescue his own daughter.
(She could have added that the Tor lost his son, that a physician was killed, and some other bad things as well at this point, too!!)

Teresa asks how anyone can trust him? How can he even live with himself, knowing the cost of his plan to others around him?

Joyse explains his strategy to her, and points out that he has identified the enemy, as well as gaining his attention, and therefore giving hope to all three countries -- Alend and Cadwal as well as Mordant. And then he explains that he has a huge flaw as a hopboard player -- that he cannot bear to sacrifice his pieces. He tells them how he nearly wrecked his own strategy to find out where Princess Myste had gone, and that he had struck Havelock when he had not helped Teresa after Master Quillon's murder. Joyse cannot stand to know what has happened to his people. He knew that he had to wage the battle himself rather than command it.
The blood must be on my hands. I will not have my pieces so contemptuously used. I will not allow Master Eremis to tilt the board, to remake the world in his own image.
But does anyone else find it odd that even in this context -- where Joyse is stating so passionately that he hates has happened to his friends and supporters -- that he refers to them as "pieces" rather than as "people"?

Do you agree that this strategy was the only that Joyse could have used? The only thing that could have worked? Was the price to his most loyal friends and followers too high?

The chapter shifts gears a bit after this, and Master Barsonage, Castellan Norge, the Prince, and a mysterious masked person come into the tent. A spirited discussion follows, where Joyse is a bit of a jerk about the Prince (IMHO anyway) and the Prince and his honor are defended by all present -- especially by the masked person, who turns out to be Elega. She takes her turn roasting Joyse, and her father laughs! He ends up telling Elega how proud he is of her.
Alone, and without power or position, you have made an alliance where none existed.
The group then talks for awhile, and makes battle plans. Geraden has another of his feelings -- that he and Teresa should be elsewhere.

After the strategy discussion, Geraden and Teresa go find their place to sleep. They talk, relax, make love. The night seems to be over much too quickly.
In the morning battle preparations are made by the army. Geraden and Teresa watch the army getting ready in the company of Elega, who has hope for the day.
"The world is filled with strange things, which our enemies do not understand. Master Eremis comprehends only fear and power. He is blinded by his contempt. He does not grasp how far valor may go against him."
As the morning light comes, the army sees that catapults have been pulled up to be used against it. And then King Joyse takes personal command, as the battle is about to begin...
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Post by Myste »

Terrific dissection, duchess, and way to bring us to the point. This chapter is the moment when Joyse gets confronted for the first time with the true magnitude of the personal cost of his policies.

I voted for it being a great plan. I don't mean great as in "terrific," of course; I mean great as in "Grand" or "Magnificent" or "Stunning in its Machiavellian intricacy and usage of people's own natural inclinations against them." This is a perfect example of the good of the many being more important than the good of the few. It's said somewhere that Joyse is an idealist--he sees the big picture, his mind and his plans are subtle enough to watch the whole forest at once. And his ideals are good ones--peace and harmony and independence for the people in his "care." But they also prevent him from seeing the smaller picture--he can't see the individual trees.

I don't think I care for Joyse much. But I think his plan was a masterpiece of subtlety. Does it cost too much? On a personal level--especially for the characters we get to see--I think there's no doubt that it does. But think of all the "people of Mordant" who we never see. They're saved. Their country is saved. Their children and grandchildren will grow up never worrying about Alend or Cadwal. So in that sense it was worth it, and probably worth more than that.

But I couldn't do it. I'd be too busy trying to get an intervention set up for the Tor.

Just had a thought--Covenant saves the little girl from the rattlesnake bite, and ignores Mhoram's summons to the Land. He puts the good of the few over the good of the many (never mind that he doesn't believe in the many). And Mhoram says something along the lines of "You go buddy, do what you have to do, needing to do good stuff like that can never hurt the Land." (Or something.) Joyse is really the opposite. I don't think we're supposed to feel comfortable with his choices. We aren't supposed to be happy with them....

On the other hand, remember that Myste says "I have always felt that problems should be solved by those who see them." While Mordant was settling snugly into independent nationhood, it was only Joyse and Havelock who saw the problems looming distantly on the horizon. But they saw them all the same, and did their best to solve them.

Sorry--this ended up being more rambling even than usual! Thanks for asking a good question, duchess! :D
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Post by Leonard Nimoy »

I think Teresa should have made the strategy, because she had not been poisoned by testosterone.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
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Post by ___ »

Actually, I think Geraden poisoned her, repeatedly.
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Post by Usivius »

I indicated that I was neutral because of what was already stated in the books, that the plan was very extreme and far too risky, but it worked. I would have tried something less extreme. (don't know WHAT...)
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Post by Cord Hurn »

After the depressing scene within Esmerel that we saw in the last chapter, it was good to see King Joyse return looking competent and confident.
The tentflaps were swept aside, and King Joyse strode in.

He startled Terisa so badly that she nearly stumbled to her knees.

He was filthy. Clots of mud clung to his battle gear--his breastplate and mail leggings, the protective iron pallettes on his shoulders, the brassards strapped to his arms. His mail had been cut, hacked at by swords. Blows dented his breastplate. Blood stained his thick cloak and the leather us armor; black streaks marked the tooled scabbard which held his longsword. Grime filled his beard, caked his hair to his scalp.

Nevertheless he entered the tent like a much younger man. He strode forward with strength in his legs, authority in his arms; and his eyes flashed a blue so deep that it was almost purple.

When he saw Terisa and Geraden, he grinned like a boy.

"Well met. Better to come late than not to come at all, I always say."

"My lord King," Geraden breathed, gaping. He was too surprised to bow, almost too surprised to speak. "Are you hurt?"

"A few scratches." The King's grin broadened into the smile Terisa remembered, the smile of innocence and pleasure, the sunrise which lit all his features and made him the kind of man for whom people were willing to die. "Nothing my enemies can pride themselves for."
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Post by Cord Hurn »

"Now," King Joyse faced Terisa and Geraden. He stood slightly poised, as if he were ready to spring, and his eyes blazed blue. "You have a great deal to tell me. Before Prince Kragen comes. Begin from Gart's attack in the hall of audiences.

"Where is Castellan Lebbick?"

His intensity was so compelling that Terisa almost started to answer. Geraden, however, had other ideas. He shifted a bit away from her, a bit ahead of her, placing himself between her and danger. Folding his arms on his chest, he said firmly--so firmly that Terisa was simultaneously amazed and proud and frightened--"You've been fighting your enemies, my lord King. I can decide better what to tell you if you'll tell me who gave you your 'scratches.'"

The King's eyes narrowed. "Geraden," he said harshly, "Do you remember who I am?"

Geraden didn't flinch. "Yes, my lord King. You're the man who abandoned the throne of Mordant when we needed you most. You're the man who brought us all to the edge of ruin without once"--his anger stung the air--"having the decency to tell us the truth."

Instead of retorting, King Joyse studied Geraden as if the younger man had become someone he didn't know, a completely different person. A moment later, he shrugged, and the peril in his gaze eased.

"Your father, the Domne," he said evenly, "has given me many gifts, both of friendship and of service. His greatest gift to me, however, is the loyalty of his sons. I trust you, Geraden. I have trusted you for a long time. And I have given you little reason to trust me. You will answer me when you are ready.

"I have been fighting, as you see"--he indicated his battle gear--"to rescue Queen Madin."

Rescue Queen Madin. Rescue the Queen. Terisa didn't understand how that was possible--the distances were too great, the time too short--but his mere statement filled her with so much relief that she could hardly keep her legs under her.

"Doubtless," King Joyse explained, "you have been told of the strange shapeless cloud of Imagery with which Havelock broke Prince Kragen's catapults. That shape is a creature, a being--a being with which Havelock has contrived an improbable friendship.

"I must confess that when you told me of the Queen's abduction I became"--he pursed his lips wryly--"a trifle unreasonable. It was always my intention to lead whatever forces Orison could muster myself. I meant to intimidate an alliance out of Margonal. I could coerce the Congery somehow. For that reason, my old friend"--he nodded toward the sprawling Tor--"had no place in my plans. I did not know that I would need him."

"That's my fault," Terisa said abruptly, unexpectedly Geraden had placed himself between her and the King for a reason, a reason she ought to respect. Nevertheless she couldn't keep still. "You were doing what you had to do. You hurt the Tor and Castellan Lebbick and Elega and everyone else so they wouldn't realize your weakness was only a ploy. So they wouldn't betray you. But I already betrayed you. I told Eremis"--the thought of her own folly choked her--"told Eremis you knew what you were doing. That's why he took the Queen."

King Joyse looked at her hard, so hard that she blushed in chagrin. Yet his gaze held no recrimination. After a brief pause, he said, "My lady, you were provoked," and returned his attention to Geraden.

"As I say," he continued, "I became unreasonable. I abandoned you. Though he pleaded with me to reconsider, I forced Havelock to translate his strange friend for me, and that shape bore me to the Care of Fayle as swift as wings. At the debris of Vale House, I found the trail of a motley collection of the Fayle's old servants and soldiers attempting to pursue Torrent and the Queen. That trail eventually led me to Torrent's--eventually, I say, or I would have returned to you a day or more sooner--and so to Torrent herself and the Queen.

"At the cost of much hardship and privation and danger"--his eyes hinted at pride--"my demure and retiring daughter saved her mother. She enabled me to find the Queen and set her free.

"Her abductors defended themselves as well as they could--well enough to prevent the Fayle's men and me from capturing or questioning them--but a last they fell." The state of his gear testified that the battle hadn't been easy. "When I had taken Queen Madin and Torrent to safety in Romish, Havelock's friend brought me here as quickly as possible."

Geraden absorbed this account without obvious surprise or appreciation. When King Joyse had finished, Geraden asked noncommittally, "And you didn't stop in Orison? You don't have any news from there?"

The King was losing patience. "Do I look like a man who has spent time on social amenities and conversation? I knew that if I did not find you here I could return to Orison at my leisure. But if I had stopped there first and failed to find you, the delay might have made me too late to join you. I have learned nothing, heard nothing, since the moment I left the hall of audiences.

"Geraden," he concluded warningly, "I must know what has happened in my absence. I must hear the tale you brought to Orison with Prince Kragen. I cannot go into battle without that knowledge."

"My lord King," Geraden responded as if he were immune to Joyse's impatience, "Eremis is holding my brother Nyle hostage somewhere near here--a stronghold of some kind, probably. Eremis is going to use him against us. Against me. And it's my doing. If I hadn't been so determined to stop him from betraying you to Elega and Prince Kragen, he never would have been vulnerable to Eremis. He wouldn't have been locked up where Eremis could get at him.

"But it's your doing, too. You've always been such a friend of the Domne. You welcomed Artagel. You went out of your way to draw me to you. And yet you always ignored Nyle.

His yearning was as great as mine. He has plenty of ability. And he was raised from the beginning on Artagel's stories about you, the Domne's stories. He would have belling to kill for you by the time he was six."

"Geraden," King Joyse growled.

Nevertheless Geraden went on, "Why didn't you value him at all? Why didn't you give him something to save him while he was still young enough to save?"

"You exceed yourself," snapped the King. "I have not come all this way to answer such questions."

"But you're going to answer this one," Geraden replied as if he was sure--as if he had the capacity to make King Joyse do what he wanted. The hint of authority in his voice was so subtle that Terisa scarcely heard it. He meant to wrest some kind of truth from his King.

And the King did answer. To her astonishment, he retreated visibly, with a crestfallen air, a look of embarrassment; Geraden had touched an old shame. "Yes," he muttered, "all right. You are right. I always did ignore him. There was always a quality in his dumb need which I disliked. He pitied himself before I could pity him--and so I had no desire to pity him.

"But that is not the reason.

"Artagel was another matter altogether. His talent with the sword was obvious. Anyone would have welcomed him. But you, Geraden--" The King's gaze was angry and hurt at once, as if his own sense of culpability baffled him. "I did not choose you out of a desire to give you precedence over Nyle. I would not have done that to the son of a friend. No, I drew you to me because I had already seen your importance in Havelock's augury."

Geraden hissed a breath; but King Joyse didn't stop.

"The glass which he broke when I was an infant showed you exactly as you appear in the Congery's augury"--for a moment, the King's voice sounded as raw as splintered wood--"surrounded entirely by mirrors in which Images of violence reflected against you. How could I let you be? I had to save you, if that were possible. And if it were not, I had to give you the chance to save me.

"Geraden," King Joyse admitted in frank pain, "on your father's love, I swear to you that I slighted Nyle's yearning only because I was not wise enough to see where it would lead him. The Domne has given me nothing but love and loyalty. In the matter of his son Nyle I failed him."

For a long moment, Geraden didn't speak. When he did, his throat was tight with emotion. "We all failed, my lord King. For my part--I swear to you on my father's love that I'll save you if I can. No matter how many people you've hurt. You haven't been honest with us for a long time, and I hate that. But you're still my King. Nobody can fill that place but you."
It's great that Joyse apologizes to Geraden, though I don't think he is responsible for Nyle. But he still needs Geraden--and Terisa--or he won't win.
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Terisa couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Castellan Lebbick is dead," she put in cruelly to get the King's attention. She needed answers of her own. "Gart killed him. All he managed to do before he died was save the Tor."

That made Geraden turn toward her, made King Joyse face her again.

The two men looked unexpectedly like a match for each other, suited to meet each other's demands.

"I defended you," she said with Lebbick's body vivid in her mind, and the Perdon's; with the Tor's hurt displayed under the light of the lanterns. "I stood up in front of everybody and told them what Master Quillon told me. You made yourself the only reasonable target. So the enemies you hadn't been able to identify would attack you instead of someone else. I told them. That's why we're all here. We decided to trust you even though you abandoned us.

"But Master Quillon is dead. Castellan Lebbick is dead. The Perdon is dead. The Tor is dying." Her distress accumulated as she spoke. She thought she would never be reconciled to all the different kinds of pain King Joyse had exacted from his friends. "Nyle is a hostage, and Houseldon has been burned to the ground, and Sternwall is sinking in lava, and the Fayle doesn't even have enough men left to rescue his own daughter, and now we're probably going to die slaughtered because we don't where Eremis' stronghold is," oh, curse you, curse you, you crazy old man, "and I want to know how you can stand it. How do you live with yourself? How do you expect us to trust you?

"You can't help now!" Overwhelmed by unpremeditated bitterness, Terisa cried, "You can't even beat Havelock at hop-board!"

Despite her outburst, however, King Joyse faced her gently. Her accusation hurt him less than Geraden's had; maybe he was readier for it. His face softened while she protested against him; his gaze was blurred by compassion. He waited until she was finished. Then, incongruously, he pulled an old hankerchief out of the seam of his breastplate and handed it to her so that she could wipe her eyes.

Geraden stood now at the King's shoulder as if he had been won over. "Terisa--" he began; but King Joyse touched his arm, stopped him.

"No, Geraden. I must answer her.

"My lady, I have already proved myself to you, after a fashion. You have seen atrocities in Mordant. Yet it was not I who perpetrated them. If I had not, as you say, made myself a target, those atrocities would be everywhere. Without the lure of my weakness, Eremis might have had great difficulty forging an alliance with High King Festten--and so he would have had no choice but to afflict Cadwal and Mordant and Alend with vile Imagery until all things were destroyed. At the cost of Quillon's life, and Lebbick's, and the Perdon's--at the cost yes, of my own wife's indignation, my own daughter's betrayal, I have procured my enemy's name as well as his attention, so that for Cadwal and Mordant and Alend there is still hope. I have given us the opportunity to fight for our world.

"But that is not what you wish to know, is it?"

His voice searched her, and his eyes seemed to probe her bitterness. When he looked at her like that, she felt an unaccountable desire to tell him about being locked in the closet, as if it were his fault in some way, as if there were something he could have done about it. Until this moment, he cut himself off from her--as her father had cut himself off. What made King Joyse a better man than her father?

"You dislike what I have done," the King said, "but you are able to grasp the necessity of it. Otherwise you would not have supported me. No, my lady, what you want from me is a more immediate hope. You wish me to be greater than you can imagine. You wish me to justify myself with power. You wish me to tell you that I have the means to save you."

Involuntarily, she ducked her head, unable to meet his steady blue scrutiny.

"Terisa," he said softly, "my lady, I cannot save you. I do not have the means.

"You know that already," he continued at once. "As you have observed, I cannot so much as defeat the Adept at hop-board. It is only a game, of course, a mere exercise--but I cannot forget that the pieces live and breathe, with names and spouses, children and bravery and fear. I am an unreasonable man. When Quillon told me that Myste went to you before her disappearance, I risked myself and all my plans in order to challenge you, even though Havelock's augury had given me reason to think I knew where she had gone. When my wife was threatened, I did not ask whether any larger need should outweigh her peril in my mind. I lack Havelock's particular sanity.

"And the same unreason weakens me everywhere. Shall I tell you a thing which shames me? When I learned that you had fled to Havelock after Quillon's death, that you had gone to him for rescue with Master Gilbur hot behind you, and that he had refused you--My lady, Havelock is my oldest friend. It was he who put me on the path to become what I am. But when I learned that he had refused you, I struck him--"

Geraden's eyes widened at that revelation; but he said nothing.

"Nevertheless," the King went on as if mere shame couldn't hold him back, "I am here. When Quillon was killed--Quillon, who had served me so long with such courage and cunning--I knew that this battle was mine to wage, rather than only to command. The blood must be on my hands. I will not have my pieces so contemptuously used. I will not allow Master Eremis to tilt the board, to remake the world in his own image." Terisa could have sworn that he was growing taller, rising to power in front of her. "Do you believe I care nothing for Lebbick's suffering, or the Tor's? Do you believe I have not felt your distress--or Geraden's--or Elega's?

"My lady, you have not seen me fight."

Curse you. Oh, curse you completely. I'll do anything you want. Just tell me what it is.
I voted for Joyse's plan being a great one in this thread's poll. And this speech of his is a major reason why I did so.
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