This... can this be real? Is this really happening? Has the book driven me mad, or is this... actually a pretty good chapter?
We start out in the main hall of the conquered castle with Nasuada seated in the throne, flanked by her senior commander, Jormundur, on one side, and Eragon on the other. Paolini does much better with his descriptions in this chapter, not appending every other sentence with a poetic simile. He describes Jormundur as having a "lean face [that] bore the studious blank expression of a person who had extensive experience waiting on others.* " He could probably shave a word or two out of there, but this is actually a really good description that gives me a very nice idea not only of what Jormundur looks like, but what kind of a person he is at the same time. Shame that it's immediately followed up by Jorm turning out to be Made of Iron as well, or at least aluminum, as a trickle of blood seems to still be running down his arm from the battle. Still, it's the first sentence in the book that I really like.
Nasuada also has a bandage on one hand where she was injured, but she took the time to change out of her armor and into a dress "more suited to the practice of statecraft.* " Ignoring the fact that fighting on the front lines is a bad idea for the leader of the entire rebellion in the first place, it seems to me that wearing the armor you just came out of battle in would add quite a bit of weight to your argument when trying to persuade someone to join your side in a war. It would have been better to say that she exchanged clothes for comfort or some such thing, but it's not bothering me too much.
The three of them are hopeful to recruit the werecats to their cause, but are worried that they don't have anything to offer them. Eragon jokes that they could offer the werecats barrels of cream.
I actually really like this joke, not in the least because it's a bit racy. Perhaps that's not an admirable thing for a hero like Eragon is meant to be to do, but it's very realistic, and heck, it could be cultivated as a legitimate flaw that Eragon underestimates the werecats due to their superficial resemblance to housecats. This one off-color joke has just done more to humanize Eragon and make me sympathize with him than anything else he's done in any of the books to this point. My only concern is that I'm not certain Paolini realized or intended the racist (speciesist?) undertones here that make the joke so endearing.
Anyway, a "flaxen-haired page" (add another point to the TAC for "flaxen") announces the werecat king and his entourage, but I want to take a moment to note the first appearance of the Varden's flag that I can recall: a white dragon on a purple field with a sword in one hand and a rose in the other. What is this supposed to mean, exactly?
Anyway, the cat king is named Grimrr Halfpaw; he dresses like a Nac Mac Feegle, with a loincloth and a leather vest decorated with small skulls, and is missing two fingers on one hand. The description of him and his escort is relatively brief for this series, and effective. Again, Paolini doesn't waste time on flowery similes or unnecessary adjectives here (well, one simile, but it's a good one), and the prose is much better for it. Everything is good up until this paragraph:
Why is a powerful stride inherently masculine? I seem to recall Arya having a powerful stride on a number of occasions. Should I have been reading something into that that I wasn't?
Anyway, Angela is present, knitting tube socks with six needles. Tube socks strikes me as an anachronism, and I'm not sure whether using six needles is normal for knitting something strips, or if this is just Angela being quirky again. It would be nice if it were clarified somehow, since I'm guessing the majority of Paolini's target audience knows as little about knitting as I do. Either way, the werecat entourage stops and hisses at her. She makes bird noises back at them, and Eragon thinks they might attack her. Varden around the room start to draw their blades, though Eragon doesn't, but the werecats back down and approach Nasuada. There's another strange line here with some odd gender connotations:
So strong strides are masculine and arrogance is feminine? I won't comment much on this right now, but gender roles seem to be a recurring theme in this series on an underlying level that makes me question Paolini's subconscious views own on gender. For example, the tendency for female characters to be either laden in jewelery (ala Iorunn in Brisingr), or to have some quality that makes them shine despite not having any jewelery (ala Katrina in Brisingr). Even Nasuada was "resplendent" in her dress at the beginning of this chapter, despite having just come from being in battle and changing out of her armor only moments before. This focus on beauty as a major aspect of each female's characterization says a lot about Paolini's values when it comes to women. Female characters just don't seem to be worth writing for him if they aren't beautiful.
Nasuada asks Halfpaw why the werecats have chosen to show themselves now, and he gives a nice concise speech that basically boils down to the time being right because Eragon is here, but he doesn't heap any praise on Eragon, which is refreshing. He simply states that Galbatorix has shown weakness in his refusal to kill Eragon and Saphira, and the werecats believe this weakness can be used to overthrow him, essentially seeing Eragon as a tool to the werecats' end. This is a pretty realistic take; Grimrr doesn't know Eragon, so it makes perfect sense that he only cares about him as a weapon against the greater enemy and doesn't heap praise on him like other leaders have been known to do. Eragon and Saphira are impressed by his speech, and honestly I am too.
Nasuada has some questions about the werecats that are reasonable, and don't come off as infodumps because of it. The werecats are not normally ruled by a king; Grimrr's title is a temporary one granted to him as he was chosen as their war leader. This makes sense and answers my question as to why solitary creatures like werecats would have a king, though it does cast an odd light on all the extra titles Grimrr was announced by earlier. I still want to know where the heck they all came from, though, if they are supposedly so rare that "[their] kind has become more myth than fact over the past century,* " and how the soldier at the end of the last chapter recognized them on sight as werecats if this was the case.
Grimrr also claims that the werecats may command the "one-shapes," or regular cats, "as is only natural.* " I have a little trouble swallowing this. If this were a more Disney-esque fantasy, I could accept that. But in this case, Paolini has gone to such lengths to ground his magical world in reality that I'm just not buying ordering cats around.
Nasuada echoes Eragon's joke about the cream, which makes me certain Paolini didn't grasp the racial (species...al?) undertones of the joke the first time, because it seems rather offensive to offer cream to the king of the cat-people as payment for service in war, especially with an audience as large as is in the hall. Grimrr pays it no mind. He wants his people outfitted by the Varden with a dagger apiece, two suits of armor (one for each form), a bird apiece daily, liver every other day, and a cushion next to the throne when everything is over for werecats to sit on. I admit, I like that last one a lot, but Paolini is showing his lack of money sense here. Nasuada is more concerned about the liver than about the cost of making armor for all the werecats, even if she's only willing to provide one suit apiece. In reality, making brand new suits of armor for all the werecats would be incredibly expensive, especially since they can't simply provide the werecats with salvaged armor because they're too short for human armor and too lean for dwarf. On top of that, why are they so strapped for money? The Varden has conquered at least two cities now, why aren't they at least pillaging the Imperial garrisons, armories, and offices? Lord Bradburn was said to have a vault back in chapter 1 when they were discussing the Dragonspear, why aren't the Varden looting it?
Grimrr agrees to only one suit of armor apiece and to allowing his people to be magically inspected by the Varden's magicians, as long as it's absolutely not Angela, and then the Varden cheer for their new allies.
This chapter has its share of problems, both from a logical standpoint and in terms of Unfortunate Implications, but the quality of the prose here is much, much improved from previous chapters, to the point that it almost feels as if someone else were writing it. And even though Eragon was present, the spotlight was not on him, which I appreciated. It gives the sense that he's not the only person who matters to the universe if he can just politely observe a conversation - one in which he name comes up, no less! - without having to get involved. I like Grimrr, too, which is a pleasant surprise because I never cared much for the whole werecat thing in the previous books. If the rest of the book manages a level of quality like this, it will be much more bearable.
Here's hoping!
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