The Sending – Epilogue

Epilogue!

So this shall be interesting, are we actually going to continue where we left off and see what happened after the efari attacked Elspeth and knocked her out? Will there be another cliffhanger? Let’s find out!

So we are still with Elspeth, but she is drifting around in unconsciousness. She dreams of Ahmedri with Darga walking through the dunes, but the others don’t seem to be with him. I guess this actually is happening, so was it only Elspeth captured or are others with her? Then she dreams of what I assume to be Rheagor’s ancestor, possibly, walking through a deserted Beforetime city, just as the sand was starting to creep in. Then she saw Maruman leap onto a large machine! A ‘horseless carriage’ Elspeth thinks it is. Maruman seems to almost be ‘at home’ here, and I have to wonder if maybe he knew this place and lived here, cause he is such a mystery. At the same time, he seems to be stalking something.

Bookish Topic Tuesday – Don’t you dare fold that corner!

Bookish Topic Tuesday

Don’t you dare fold that corner!

Today’s post just so happens to coincide with my 500th post! Wow time goes so quickly! There isn’t much left of The Sending, just a touch over a week left of posts remaining, with a wrap-up/predictions of The Red Queen afterwards. Following that I’d like to start a new book, and start a new project, which is working through some of the “The Classics” of literature, that I simply haven’t read before, and know very little about. I’ll be starting that (after a little break) with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I know nothing about, and didn’t get around to seeing the recent film adaptation (because I refuse to until I’ve read the book). After that there are plenty of other ‘classics’ that I have waiting on my shelves to be read (like War and Peace, but we’ll see if I tackle that behemoth!).

Anyway, back to topic! It’s one of my pet peeves, people who fold the corners of books to mark where they are up to, or a page to come back to. Okay the people aren’t the issue (though I’d wish they wouldn’t do it), it’s the fact that they desecrate a perfectly good book, with a crease that just never goes away. And it’s not just folding the corners that annoys me, it’s the drawing in the margins, the excessive bending of the spines, and those terrible people who decide to rip out pages from library books! (If you rip pages out of your own books, that’s not my worry, though why would you be doing that?). What did the books do to deserve such treatment? Even if you’ve been forced to read it, it isn’t the books fault, it’s probably your teachers, so don’t take it out on the book!

Obernwetyn Chronicles – Book 6 – The Sending by Isobelle Carmody

Book Six – The Sending

So first I’d just like to say that you should check out my Predictions for The Sending here, but this post serves as an introduction to The Sending and I’d like to share my story/history with The Obernewtyn Chronicles.

The Australian ‘The Sending’ cover, courtesy of Penguin Australia’s site. And credit must go to the wonderful Cathy Larsen for designing/creating all the covers that have featured here on the newest editions

But first (even though this is second) we must really clear up a few things. I am reviewing/talking about the Australian Penguin/Viking Edition of The Sending, which is the cover you can see to the left. This was released on the 31st of October 2011 (story about that below). Now for the latest developments in the international release of The Sending (and for talk of the release of The Red Queen– the final book in the series, tentatively late this year or early next) go to Obernewtyn.net that is the best place for all your news. But as far as I know, in other countries, The Sending has not been released. In fact, I have heard discussion that in the US (publisher Random House) and UK (Bloomsbury) aren’t going to publish The Sending at all, except in ebook format. Even then, there has been a lot of talk that once again they have decided to split the books up, and I’ve mentioned before that this is going to cause some difficulty, since the planned release of Part Two of The Sending (Aus version) would be called The Red Queen which is the final book of the Australian Version, which is really confusing. Isobelle Carmody is trying to sort it out, and it is outside her control and is not her decision, so don’t go writing angry emails/letters/tweets to her (or for any pushing back of the release date of the final book!). And sadly the release isn’t until at least June! So your best bet is to find an Australian online store that ships internationally, you might have to pay a bit for shipping, but you’ll actually get the full version (as the second part has no release date in sight) in print, and you’ll get it now!

The Sending American cover – courtesy of The Book Pushers

So as a recap, internationally The Sending is going to be split into two, The Sending (which due to an earlier split of The Stone Key will be book 7) and The Red Queen which may be called The Waking Dragon (Which shall be book 8). And then there will be the final book The Red Queen (book 9, which may or may not be split up itself!). The cover for The Sending (Random House) is to the right. If you are still confused check out this post on Obernwetyn.net for a list that might help you. Honestly it is very confusing, but hopeful it will be all sorted out eventually.

EDIT: Just got word from Isobelle Carmody that the book is now out of print, that means that there are no more copies in the warehouse, there still are copies available at stores, but this has reduced the likelihood for our international friends finding a copy. It will be reprinted later this year. However if you are feeling lucky/creative go over to Obernewtyn.net where there is a competition to win a signed copy of the book, by just discussing your first memories of reading the series, all you’ll need to do is pay for postage if you are successful. Find out more here, and you have until the 28th of Feb, and you need to be a member of the site. Good luck!

Onto the Australian cover, which sees Elspeth and Maruman walking down some sort of ‘road’ which looks a little like a desert, and there is the moon in the background (THAT moon again!). I have no idea what the significance is, but as always it is a beautiful cover. And the American cover, we have wolves. And if you look on the back (avert your eyes from the blurb!) you can see the silhouette of more wolves. So two symbolic features, a wolf and the moon, which were both prevalent in The Stone Key.

Inside we have a number of acknowledgements which I don’t think we’ve really had in the last few books, but I guess coming to the end of a nearly life-long series (Isobelle started this when she was 16!) there are a few people that really need thanking for making it possible to reach the end (because I’m sure there are plenty of series that end up never ending, actually I don’t know about that, I’ve never seen one, but I’m sure there are a few series that publish the first one or two but never end up publishing the rest of the series). Plus there is a dedication, which we have seen before, but to a different person. I think it would be amazing to be acknowledged in a book, but they always make me wonder, especially the cryptic ones, what is the author talking about or referring to, because sometimes it isn’t obvious.

There is as always a map, and I opened it before really quickly closing it again, because I saw it was a new one and that’s what I was interested in. It is new and has new places, I only saw the one place that I already knew existed so that’s okay. But I have no idea what else it says or reveals, so I’ll have to wait until I’m done to have a look at it. But that is really it in terms of this standard introduction, but now I want to talk about how I started reading the chronicles, the story about buying The Sending and why I haven’t read it until now.

I honestly am not sure when I first read Obernewtyn, I know it was sometime after the release of The Stone Key, or around that time, so sometime 2008. One of my friends had read it, and she was recommended by our teacher librarian to read it. I soon followed, and ended up reading The Stone Key before she did. We both loved the series, and discussed a few theories, and kept track of  the developments with The Sending. Unbeknownst to us, we didn’t realise that The Sending would be pushed back a number of times, if only we had paid attention and checked the release dates of the other books, we could have seen that we were probably in for a long wait. Okay three years, is nothing compared to those people waiting after The Keeping Place, I cannot imagine how they survived, Obernewtyn.net is probably their saviour, but I’m guessing a number of people stopped there and have almost forgotten the series. Or they are waiting for the entire series to be out, so they don’t have to reread to remember what on earth happened before, which is exactly what my friend has decided to do.

Part of the reason why it has taken me over a year to get around to reading The Sending is for that same reason, my friend and I wanted to read it together so we could both discuss things, but then of course The Sending turned out to be the penultimate book, which meant that my friend wanted to wait until they were all out, while, I wasn’t so sure. But I waited, and I started a blog, and decided that eventually I would blog through them, hopefully in time for The Red Queen, and turns out, there will most definitely be a break in between The Sending and the final book, since it is not going to take nearly a year to read this one book. And honestly The Obernewtyn Chronicles have been a great series to fill the gap after Harry Potter. I grew up with that series, and I’ve continued to grow up with the Chronicles. And thankfully this one is still going, and I will continue to grow up with them for some time yet.

As for the story of when I actually bought The Sending. I find it somewhat funny but I believe it was the day before the actual release date, I had seen on Obernewtyn.net (sounds like I’m really plugging the site, well I am, it’s amazing) that a few libraries and even a few stores had copies of the book available before the proper release date. And this is because unlike one of the Harry Potter books, The Sending was not embargoed, meaning stores could sell them when they got the shipments. Having seen this, it wasn’t long till I went down to a department store, since it was the closest place that sold books, and quickly went to check if they had a copy. And they did!

There was only a single copy, and it was at the bottom of the shelves. Without even thinking I immediately ‘jumped’ down and clasped the book. There actually were a few people around and I think I got a few weird looks at this grown person jumping to grab a book. But honestly I couldn’t have cared less right then. I had The Sending! And at that point I knew I wasn’t going to read it then, and I still didn’t care because I HAD IT! I was so excited, it was just like going out to get The Deathly Hallows except there wasn’t any waiting around to buy it and no queue. It seemed like fate since there was only one book in the store, but maybe that’s just pushing it!

The Sending Predictions!

Finally! After a number of years, I don’t even know how many for sure, but definitely not as long as some people have been waiting for The Sending (which after all turns out not to be the final book in the series, just as The Stone Key did once upon a time). I’ll talk about The Sending properly tomorrow, like when it came out, the cover, like I usually do, but today, as you could tell by the title, I want predictions.

I haven’t read a single word of The Sending, well actually that isn’t true, I read the first word when I bought the copy (a day or two before the ‘release date’ since a department store had one copy out already, and funny story, and I’ll tell  you tomorrow) because I allowed myself that one concession (and I’ll explain tomorrow why it’s taken me so long to get around to reading it!). Plus I have read a snippet that was posted on Obernewtyn.net, and all I remember is wolves. Plus I know about one of the locations that is going to be introduced again because of Obernwetyn.net, but I’m not mad, because I still have no knowledge about anything in this story, and it’s my fault for getting involved with an online community when I hadn’t read everything. So yes, I honestly know nothing.

Now after just finishing The Stone Key there are a lot of questions to be answered (I have over 30, they are listed below in case you are interested), and how many The Sending will actually answer, I’m not sure, but I think that of the 30 I’ve got in my head, I’ll probably get answers to about 12, and I’ll raise at least 7 more questions in the process. So I think it is obvious that there a lot of mysteries to be solved yet, and I love it.

So here is my list of questions that I currently have:

Who is Salamander? Is it a she? Where did he/she come from? What is Ariel, is he the Destroyer? Why was Matthew in that true dream? How will they get to the Red Queen’s Land? Where is the statue that marks the safe passage agreement? What is the ancient promises that Elspeth will fulfill?How will Elspeth lead the animals to their freedom? Where are the weaponmachines located? How will Elspeth get there? Where is Dragon? How is Angina going, honestly? Who are the white-faced lords? What is going on with Atthis? Who/what is the H’rayka? What is entina? Maruman or Merimyn? What is on the other levels of the Beforetime Complex with Ines? Will the Sadorians stop bathing, and will the insects work? What will they reveal in this new taint-free world? Where was Jacob Obernewtyn going in his radiation suit? Where is Hannah’s body and the key that she was supposed to have? Jes? Wolves? Darga? Miryum and Straaka? What’s going to happen to Malik and his crimes? I’m sure there are more questions, but these are all I could think or, and there are already a lot here!

So now for predictions, what is going to happen in The Sending, what are we going to see, and of the above questions, what do I think the answers are going to be? It goes without saying that you should not correct me on any of my predictions, and you should not point out where I should find the answers, or if I shall find them out in The Sending, honestly please do not spoil this, please the one exception is to cypher your text in rot13, so that I have no idea what you are saying! But feel free to discuss among yourselves in rot13, I’ll read them soon enough.

1. I’ll start off with some more ‘safe’ predictions, we aren’t going to the Red Queen’s Land, that is saved for the final book, since it is after all titled The Red Queen. But we will definitely see preparation for this journey happening, and by the end of the book we should be on the ship.
2. As for who is going to go, pretty much everyone, Dameon, Rushton, Brydda, Dragon, Elspeth, Daffyd, Miky, Gilbert, Gwynedd, Dardelan, Jakoby, Maruman, Gahltha and maybe Swallow. I have a little feeling that maybe Elspeth, Maruman and Gahltha won’t be on the ship and will somehow end up in the Red Queen’s Land, but that seems implausible
3. Darga is going to show up with the pack of dogs that was predicted. How this can happen and nobody else get really suspicious I’m not sure
4. There is going to be a heartwrenching scene where Elspeth has to leave Rushton, without saying goodbye
5. We will see a memory of the Great White as it happened, or one very close to its happening
6. Elspeth will find the statue/thing that marks the agreement of safe passage, and it will be in Murmroth, simply because Elspeth hasn’t been there
7. I think the ancient promises with Swallow will be complete, Elspeth needs to have finished at least one of her three destinies, she can’t do them all in the final book
8. As for what they are, I guess it is just something that Cassy said to make sure the Seeker got all the signs that were to be placed in the Land
9. Gavyn will disappear, maybe he will bring back Darga
10. Elspeth will make contact with Matthew again through the dreamtrails
11. We will see a ‘memory’ of Matthew spotting Ariel, and possibly Salamander will be with him, but not in disguise
12. Salamander is Seresh, and if not, Seresh has an important role to play
13. The White Faced lords will get a few more mentions
14. Atthis is dying, and I don’t think she’ll be replaced, as once the Seeker’s destiny is complete there won’t be any more Agyllians
15. We’ll find out more about Maruman’s past, I was going to say he dies, but that won’t work since Elspeth wouldn’t be able to get into the weaponmachines complex, so he must live, but my guess is that after that, he’ll die/disappear
16. Miryum is not dead, and will turn up somewhere unexpected, I almost want to say Jes is alive, but I feel that might be pushing it
17. Elspeth is going to go after Jacob Obernewtyn and into the Blacklands, since she must get the key that he has (or did Hannah have it, not sure)
18. I thought Dragon might have gone to the Beforetime library complex/ruins since that is where she went when she first came here, but that wouldn’t make sense. So Dragon (I don’t think she was taken by someone) is, gosh I have no idea. Where are you Dragon? Maybe she has slipped over to the west coast. Oh, that gives me an idea, maybe Dragon has ended up going to the ocean and contacting one of the ship-fish, and they have taken her somewhere, obviously not the Red Queen’s Land since that is way too long! But maybe we won’t find her at all
19. Speaking of Dragon, the stone sword is hers, why did Cassy make a stone sword for her, I don’t know. I think the cover for the Red Queen indicates as much
20. Entina is just a huge ass scary beast that kills people, and is stuck in the cave because there is taint there and it has adapted to it. Or, it is not a beast at all, and is some sort of time portal or computermachine, farfetched but still (my guess is that this isn’t answered until the next book)
21. We’ll meet probably three new characters (as in more than just a passing reference, and who could be important) and we’ll be going to at least four places Elspeth has never been before. Plus Elspeth will definitely travel the dreamtrails again, despite Maruman’s warning, and will come very close to being trapped by the Destroyer/H’yraka
22. The Destroyer is…. I have no idea, it could be Ariel, but I don’t think so, it could me Matthew, why else was he in that tunnel thing, honestly it could be anyone at this point. You want me to pick? I think that Matthew is almost too obvious, like a red-herring, but then I immediately think is Isobelle Carmody trying to make it a red-herring that it is a red-herring, so he really is, but she makes it look like it is a red-herring. I almost want to say Dameon, but no I don’t think so. I think it has to be someone we have seen, and it has to be unexpected, which I guess is why I have thought that maybe it is Jes, that would make some sort of sense, brother vs sister. And maybe Jes was just taken by some sort of Destroyer version of Atthis/Agyllians, and has been groomed to destroy the world. But I’m going to say not. So who then? Seresh? But then I don’t think so if she is Salamander. Gah, I know it won’t be revealed in this book, I’m certain of that, but there are going to be clues, that can point to a number of different people. But I’m going to point my finger to Gavyn, don’t ask why, just because.
23. Oh and we’ll end on a cliffhanger!

Well there are 23 of my predictions. How many turn out to be true, we shall have to wait and see. Some of them you may know already, but there are a few that nobody apart from Isobelle Carmody and maybe her editor know the answer to. Hope you’ve found my predictions interesting, and I’ll see you tomorrow with a discussion about The Sending, its front cover, history, and my history involving The Obernewtyn Chronicles!

The Stone Key – Part Two – The Song of the Waves – Chapter 15 – Part One

Part Two – The Song of the Waves

Chapter Fifteen – Part One

So Elspeth is clinging to a rock in the ocean, and being circled by what she thought was a shark. Turns out, the animal is a kind shipfish, and it doesn’t want to eat her, but looks like it is trying to help her. The shipfish have a musical voice, and can hear Elspeth’s thoughts without physical contact, and it seems that they have an entirely different beast language to those on the land. For example, Innle is Morred-a, in shipfish. Elspeth remembers that Dragon’s mother, called the shipfish Vlar-rei, in Dragon’s dream thing, which means, that the Red Queen was able to communicate with aquatic animals, something that no Misfit on the Land has been able to do previously. I guess that is because of the taint in the water that is so close to the Land (because of the taint in the Suggredoon). But if I remember correctly, further out, the water cleared up, and on their way to Sador, Elspeth was tempted to communicate with the ship fish, but she didn’t want to disturb them.

This particular Vlar-rei, called Ari-roth (they seem to like hyphenation), has ‘answered the call’, and is offering her help to Elspeth (at least I think it is a she). Of course, Elspeth wants Ari-roth to take her to the shore, because she can’t survive much longer out here. If Elspeth wants to be taken somewhere she better grab on tight, and picture where she wants Vlar-rei to take her. Elspeth decided to go to where Noviny told her about, so she can follow the Herder ships.

Surprisingly it was dusk now, Elspeth had been away for many hours, and she can only wonder what is going on with Gahltha and Wenda and Linnett. Are they prepared for the invasion? Or are they already being overrun? While Elspeth rides on Ari-roth, she feeds her ohrana, something that is making Elspeth’s aura stronger. Maybe it is life-force, but whatever it is, it is some powerful stuff (Elspeth thinks it is spirit energy). This is a very special thing that is taking place, because usually Vlar-rei give ohrana only to other Vlar-rei, but because ‘Mornir-ma’ asked that Morred-a be helped, it is such an honour to help Elspeth that Ari-roth is giving her ohrana. Is Mornir-ma, Dragon’s mother, because Dragon is known as Mornir. If that is the case, Dragon’s mother, sang a beautiful song to the beasts of the water about Elspeth, and how she would need help, and that these beasts must help her.

Mornir-ma, could also be the original Red Queen, who possessed the same talents as Dragon’s mother, and was told to do so by Cassy, who had foreseen a need. Luckily for Elspeth, she had all these people looking out for her, and ensuring that whatever eventually happened, Elspeth would be able to survive and carry out her quest. But the real question is, how did Ari-roth know that Elspeth needed help? Apparently, Elspeth said a word, which was sent out across the waves, and Ari-roth responded. And that word, was Maruman! Mornir-ma, told the water beasts to help Morred-a whenever she called out Maruman, for she would be in great need, and that without her, the song of the waves would end.

Elspeth’s mind continues to reel at just how intertwined everything is, and how everything is just so connected. But she does wonder how Ari-roth managed to hear Elspeth’s cry, when she was surely far away at the time. Can sea creatures hear astonishingly far? Do the waves literally carry messages for them? The Vlar-rei, can travel very quickly, and soon enough they were out to open water, Elspeth feeling more calm, relaxed and inspired than ever before. Ari-roth begins to sing, and Elspeth can’t understand the words, but knows the meaning through Ari’s thoughts. She sings about the moon, and the two sides, and how the waves love the moon so much that they calm themselves to reflect its image. As of the true meaning of the song and why Ari-roth is singing it, Elspeth will not know, unless Ari explains, which she does. Apparently she is making an offering to the waves.

The moon was high in the night sky when Elspeth and Ari-roth reached the first of the beach steps, where two of the ships were already anchored. The Black Ship must either be at the third beach, or going to Sutrium. Elspeth needed to know whether the warrior priests had already gone ashore, or where they still on board. It appears that the force is on the land now, and Elspeth knows it might be safer to go and follow them, and farseek Gahltha and the others. But, Elspeth is a gambler with these things, and brave, so she is tempted by the ship boat next to one of the ships. Elspeth wants to find out what is going on ashore, and then, take control of the ship. Very ambitious, and maybe foolish.

To cover their approach to the ship boat, Ari-roth dives down under the water, and what a ride that was. Elspeth was concerned if Ari-roth realised that Elpseth couldn’t hold her breath as long as she could, but Ari-roth knew that, and told her to be quiet or the sharks (azahk) might be drawn near. But soon enough, they were back above the water, though their presence has been heard. That is easily fixed though, as Ari-roth provides a spectacle for those watching, as Elspeth gets into the ship boat. Luckily for her, there was a ladder up to the deck of the ship. Unluckily for Elspeth, without the ohara, she soon realised just how hungry, thirsty, tired, cold and hurt she really was. So it took Elspeth multiple attempts to try and climb up the steps, but she soon fell, and crashed back into the ship boat.

She immediately hid herself under the canvas cover, just in case someone was altered to her presence by her crashing. Luckily she was hidden from sight just in time, as someone comes over to check out the noise, but is told that maybe it was a board coming loose (since the ship is being repaired). The senior Herder, Elspeth heard talking to Salamander was onboard, and disregarded any superstition about ship fish as nonsense. Sadly, he and the eldest seaman, were wearing demonbands, probably since they were so close to the land. The younger seaman however, was unbanded!

The seaman’s name, who is little more than a boy, is Lark, and his father is the captain of the ship. He and his father are from Norseland, which the Herder’s control. He was a stowaway on the vessel so he had no demonband to wear, which is lucky for Elspeth. The Herder took his father away to inspect maps, and he was worried about the repairs being undone. The Herders had forbade them from doing proper repairs, because that would mean they would have to stop. And it was the priests who were at fault for the damage, as they mistimed the exit from the cavern, because they took charge when better people were on hand. His father had taken a huge gamble when Lark was discovered, and refused to captain the ship if Lark was thrown overboard or punished in any way. I guess when you are integral for a mission, you get your way. But as soon as you are no longer needed, you will pay!

Elspeth had begun to be so engrossed with the boy  and his thoughts that she forgot what she needed to do, which was gather intel. But since Elspeth is about to get on track, now seems like a good time to end, and continue tomorrow, since this has gone on long enough. And what is sure to come, is very different from what we have just seen.

The Keeping Place

Let’s try this again!

We started The Keeping Place with Rushton off with the rebels, who are trying to convince him to join the rebellion, even though Obernewtyn have rejected this course of action and have turned their attention to what they can do best, which isn’t fighting. Dameon is still in Sador, and we learn more about the Earthtemple and overguardian. Eventually we find out that women voluntarily go into a tainted pool of water after having their first baby, causing any second child they have to become defective, and end up working at the Earthtemple, and this is a practise that will continue until the Sadorians can heal the earth (cue Jak’s taint eating bugs). Dragon is still in her coma, and Matthew is still over the seas somewhere as a slave.

We quickly find out that Rushton has been kidnapped, and someone wants Obernewtyn to join the rebellion, the question is, who? The Herders appear to be the ones who kidnapped Rushton, but why would they want the rebellion to occur, something that hopefully we get more of an answer to later on. With Rushton away, Elspeth has to take on responsibility for Obernewtyn, and is forced into joining the rebellion.

At the same time, we experience our first moonfair, and hear an emotional tale of sleeping beauty from the magi. The magi, who are coercers who use their talents to create illusions for audiences (as well as plain old illusions), are subversively reforming the attitudes of the general public towards Misfits. They even get called up for a Councilman’s daughter’s wedding, which is a high honour for ‘gypsies’. The magi are Obernewtyn’s first line of attack, against prejudice, but there is another group who are trying to do the same thing. However, they (the Coercerknights) are lead by Miryum, who creates a set of moral guidelines which she calls chivalry (and yes she was inspired by the mythological knights). The group consists of people who weren’t too happy about the shift towards non-violence, and take an practical approach to improving treatment of Misfits. They think that if the Misfits are seen to do good, then people will come to accept and almost worship them. Eventually, the coercerknights split from the coercers, and come under the control of Elspeth. Now the interesting thing will be to see how Rushton reacts to them, and whether he is so accepting of their actions. Whether or not they become a permanent guild remains to be seen, especially since, guilds are based on talents not ideological beliefs. I think they will continue to be a pain in the arse for Roland, who hates them.

Dragon still in her coma, begins to influence the dreams of the inhabitants of Obernewtyn, with Elspeth being the worst affected. This leads to Elspeth having dreams about Cassy Duprey, who later turns out to be Kasanda, the seer from Sador. Not only that, but she has dreams about Ariel (who Elspeth is convinced is the Destroyer), her quest and Rushton, all of which have varying degrees of importance. The dreams about Cassy though, were very interesting, as it was the first time we got to see what the Beforetime looked like, and the politics of what was going on (with some help by the Tecknoguild and Dameon). Further to this the Tecknoguild have been hard at work and have found what appears to be Jacob Obernewtyn’s grave, though they have been banned from touching it, until an agreement can be made between all parties, since there is opposition to desecrating a grave, something that Rushton will be opposed to. Not only that, but they have started diving in the city under Tor, and that eventually leads to Elspeth also diving, and finding a glass statue of herself in the Reichler Clinic reception! Sadly, that is all destroyed now, and Elspeth was under the impression that that was a sign, but it appears that it wasn’t.

Back onto dreams, and Elspeth with the help of Maruman, ventured on the dreamtrails. Her first time, was so she could find the message Cassy/Kasanda left for her on the old doors of Obernewtyn, which were brought to Obernewtyn by Gypsies. She finds, with the help of Fian who translates the gadi to urolish, clues to lead her to the signs that Kasanda left for her so she can complete her quest. Also on dreams, Elspeth and others dream of Matthew, who is now in a place called the Red Queen’s Land. Unfortunately, he is a slave, and there is this weird, scary thing that lives under the ground.

Having agreed to the rebellion, Malik decides to use the Misfits in a ruse to make the soldierguards follow them before finding themselves in a trap. Sounded like a great plan, but if only they could have seen what Malik was really planning, but wearing a demonband (which prevents Misfits using their abilities, and was created by the Herders from tainted material) stopped them from being able to. In the end, the Misfits lost many human and beast lives, including Straaka (Miryum’s suitor, which caused her to go missing) and possibly Angina’s life as well (whose battle remains, as we don’t know whether he lives or dies). Only the ‘chance’ arrival of Swallow and some Gypsies, saved their lives. Malik’s betrayal will not go without justice. But the rest of the rebellion went off without a hitch, except of course that the west coast remains council territory, as more betrayal occurred, and there is a high chance that the Herders were involved.

In the Herder cloisters they found Rushton (Domick who disappeared at the same time, is still missing), but he was crazed after being heavily drugged. Elspeth was told to return to Obernewtyn by the Agyllians via Maruman because a sign was in danger of being lost. Eventually through the dreamtrails, enters Dragon’s mind to help her and Rushton, whose mind was absorbed by hers. Inside, a lot happens, and we learn that Dragon is the daughter of the Red Queen! Sadly the Red Queen is overthrown by a trusted advisor, and then sold off to traders. The Red Queen, who eventually dies, reveals to Dragon that she must remember where the first Red Queen’s brother died, because it is the location of a sign, one of those for Elspeth.

In the end, Elspeth saves Dragon and Rushton, who both recover. Dragon has no memory of her time at Obernewtyn, and so she has essentially returned as a ‘savage’, and Rushton is still recovering. Elspeth wasn’t helping things, but the two of them, seem to be heading in the right direction.

A lot has happened, and the pieces have started to come together, but there is still a long way to go. The west coast needs to be won, with Misfits still in danger. The Herders, they could easily be an issue. Dragon’s recovery, will she ever like Elspeth again? The Gypsies, and Elspeth involvement with the ancient promises. The signs, and Elspeth’s quest. MALIK! Making sure that the rebels maintain their hold on this side of the suggredoon is going to be a big issue. Bigger still is how the Misfits will be treated by the populace, and whether life will get easier for them. And what about Ariel, and Domick, and Matthew. What are they up to? We’ll have to find out.

I said I had ‘news’ about The Red Queen the forthcoming and final book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles. Well, thanks to twitter I was able to ask Isobelle Carmody when it might be released. And she very quickly replied that it will come out either late 2013 or early 2014. Now I’m not going to hold her to this, because things happen, and I know with Isobelle Carmody that she can change her mind (it has happened before,many times, and it is not a criticism) and work on other things (she has many ongoing projects, including a new website http://theslipstream.com.au/ ). We’ll see, but since there is no indication that we’ll be getting The Red Queen in time for me to read it immediately after The Sending (because The Stone Key could take up to 80 days, again with splitting of the chapters, but we’ll see about that, and then The Sending could take 60+ days again splitting the chapters). This could easily take us into the middle of next year (hopefully earlier). After that, I believe I have mentioned a desire to read ‘the classics’. I’ll reveal more about that when we actually get much closer to the date. Tomorrow we shall take a look at The Stone Key!

The Keeping Place – Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

Maruman and Elspeth are now inside Dragon’s mind. They know that Rushton has been taken into her mind as well, and they have just found out that Dragon is the Red Queen’s daughter! Dragon was coming to her mother to talk about the bear that the Queen had just released into her garden. Dragon seems to believe that since the bear has been whipped and beaten, that is proof that the ‘arena’ exists. The Queen denies such a myth, but after hearing from the trio, I think this arena does exist, and either the Queen is just feigning ignorance for her daughter, or she really is clueless. It makes me wonder how much the Queen knows about what goes on in her city, let alone what happens outside her garden. Once Dragon is sent away to make peace with the bear (which really, is that a safe thing to do?), Elspeth asks about the arena. The Queen again says that the arena is a myth, and hints that the gatekeeper knows this town better than anyone, and yet he does not know of the arena. I hate to break it to you, but the gatekeeper might be lying. He doesn’t seem to share your love of animals.

Elspeth asks if they can wander in the garden, and the Queen allows them, though warns that the gatekeeper will again disapprove. As soon as they are out of earshot, Elspeth shares my concern that the gatekeeper is not as innocent as the Queen believes. Maruman suggests that they find Dragon. The garden is a strange one, and somehow goes down into a valley, even though the wall that surrounded it, did not. So again we must assume that Dragon’s brain has merged various things together to make illogical surroundings.

They find Dragon talking to the bear, and she is trying to talk the bear into opening its mind, and showing the Queen about the arena. Dragon soon spots them, and thinks that they are spying on her. It seems that Dragon (or the Dragon in this dream) thinks that her mother is too accepting of people, and that she doesn’t realise that some people in this world are bad. Which is interesting, for such a young girl to think, which makes me wonder whether this is just the dream Dragon talking. Dragon finds Elspeth familiar, which again points to Dragon not being the Dragon of the memory. Elspeth tries to figure out the underlying story which is what Dragon has been repressing. There is some danger that Dragon can see clearly, but her mother is blind to.

Elspeth offers her help in proving the existence of the arena. But she goes a little too far in questioning why Dragon believes in the arena without proof, it almost breaks the illusion. Elspeth tires to divert before it collapses, and Dragon tells her that the bear must be from the arena, otherwise why would he be so injured. Suddenly Dragon stands and runs to find the Queen, she is in danger. Elspeth follows Dragon to find the Queen struggling with the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper draws out a dagger, and stabs the Queen. Maruman tries to pounce, but a net traps him. Another traps something else, and then Elspeth is caught by a man. Elspeth tries to coerce the men, but she remembers that they are just apart of Dragon’s mind, so that would be futile, since Dragon is stronger than her. She contemplates using her killing power, but honestly, that would do more harm than good. Anyway, somehow Dragon escapes and ends up in the Land, so there must be more to this story.

The gatekeeper tells Elspeth that it sad that they are caught up in this, and that he really wanted Maruman to end up in the arena, but there are other beastspeakers who would see this event, so that would be foolish. The bear from earlier arrives at attacks one of the men, but is quickly shot with an arrow. Dragon and Elspeth where taken inside a shed, where a carriage awaited. It was a strange carriage, and looked like a train or tram of some sort, and would go underground. Now apart from Maruman, Elspeth is fearful for his safety. The carriage begins to move, and Elspeth was thrown around the carriage unable to brace herself anywhere.

Eventually the carriage stopped, and Elspeth tried to speak to Dragon, but the door opened, and they were near the ocean. For some reason Elspeth was deaf, but I think that would be because Dragon would be in so much shock that she could not hear what was being said at the time. The two of them were herded onto a ship. The ship was a slave ship, and the gatekeeper has done some sort of deal with them, to send Dragon away. I am surprised that he doesn’t kill them all, but I guess he could earn some coin for them. Elspeth finds that the bear and Maruman have both been brought along too, both are injured, but still alive. Elspeth wonders why the bear got involved in the first place. Did it make a connection with the Queen, or did the sounds enrage it? Strange.

Elspeth also finds that Dragon is fighting against the men, because her mother, who is still alive, is within reach. The whole reason for this treachery, is that the gatekeeper wanted to be king, but the Queen refused. He thought that the queen was stuck in the past, and living in a fantasy. What’s more, he thought she wasn’t taking advantage of what this land could be used for. It’s a wonderful plan actually, because he will pretend that he is merely guarding the throne until the Queen returns. Nobody knows anything about his betrayal, and they have no reason to be suspicious.

The slaver is ready to go, and the gatekeeper tells him to either throw the beasts overboard, or sell them if they can be bothered. Dragon and Elspeth are tied up, and Elspeth makes physical contact with Maruman, which allows a mental connection. The issue is they don’t know what is going on. Elspeth isn’t even sure that this is what happened to Dragon, or whether this is just a fabrication. Maruman warns that the cycle is not over, and that they are now apart of Dragon’s dream. If they do not end the cycle this time around, it will reset, and they will be stuck in it. Unfortunately, the next time, they will have less freedom, as they start to be worked into the narrative. So the longer they stay, the harder it is going to be. Elspeth does think about contingencies, and believes that if it came to it, she could destroy the illusion. But what that would do to Dragon, is anyone’s guess.

Elspeth turns her attention to Dragon, who has begun to cry. Somewhat surprisingly, the Queen opens her eyes and talks to Dragon. She tells Dragon that she was a fool, but she will be different. Dragon must return to claim the throne one day, and it is most important, so that they can do it for Cassandra and the promise made to her by their ancestor, the first Red Queen. It is a shocking revelation, which proves that Dragon is the Red Queen’s Daughter, and this is not some dream narrative. The Queen continues, and tells her to remember the location of the Red Queen’s grave, and that next to it, is the grave of her brother (the first Red Queen that is). It is an important location, and Dragon must remember it, and it must be the location of a sign, because otherwise, the world will fall into darkness. The Queen is about to die, and Elspeth suddenly realises that Dragon came from the Red Queen’s Land.

The real question is, how did Dragon make it to the west coast of the Land? Did something happen to the ship? Clearly the slavers wouldn’t take her there, because she wasn’t sold to anyone. But it is clear that the Red Queen, is going to die. It is in this moment, that Elspeth pieces everything together. Cassy/Cassandra is Kasanda. Now it doesn’t take a genius to see the similarities, but it is something that unless you were observant you wouldn’t notice. I would have mentioned it, but I already knew about it. And Cassy knew Hannah Seraphim, and then somehow became the leader of the Gypsies. These Gypsies came to the Red Queen’s Land, and then she married the Red Queen’s brother. She left a sign there for Elspeth, and then went to the Land, where she gave birth. She was taken away to New Gadifa, where she was saved by the Sadorians, and then she became Kasanda, the seer. I think it is more than a complexly interwoven puzzle, because it is a story. All these pieces are slowly coming together. And yet we know so very little.

Elspeth continues to chew threw her thoughts, and imagines Cassy giving the Red Queen a key, which she promised to keep hidden forever, and in fact, she buried it with her brother. The Red Queen passed down knowledge of this key, and probably of Elspeth. What is interesting, is that Cassy must have foreseen that the Red Queen would be betrayed. Possibly after she left the Red Land, and so she tried to steer Elspeth towards Dragon, without making it easy for the Destroyer. Who, I must add, has to be conveniently be around Elspeth’s age. Because, otherwise why didn’t he come earlier, or later. But of course, the two must be together. Which honestly gives rise to the theory that Jes is actually alive, and is the Destroyer. But that is wild. Elspeth tries to figure out why Cassy would lead her here, and how they can get out. And that, is what I’ll leave for tomorrow’s post. After that, there is only the epilogue! We are getting so close!