Stone 42

Chapter 42
Long one today, folks. Long and painful.
We return now to Richard and Verna, who are traveling through a “dark and humid, dank and stifling tunnel of green, ascending the gently sloping road towards the humming, haunting sound of distant flutes.” Shades of Lovecraft. Anyway, they're in a dense forest that sounds vaguely tropical, following a road that's bordered by stone walls that are topped at intervals by skulls. Richard and Verna are still mad at each other and are giving each other the silent treatment. Sounds pretty juvenile.
They pass piles of bones and skulls, and eventually pass several terraced fields and reach a city of dull, square buildings and fetid, muddy streets. Verna (breaking her sulky silence) tells Richard that the people here are called the Majendie (hey, another name that, while odd, is far better than “The Mud People”). Apparently all the piles of bones and skulls are their sacrifices to their spirits. Verna cautions Richard not to cause trouble, and he responds by ignoring her, which seems rather petty.
They reach the town square where they find a bunch of flutists and old women in black standing by a pole. One of the old women pulls a rope and rings a bell on the pole, which starts miscellaneous Native Dancing. There are also a thousand random men hanging around, all armed with short swords. What?? \~/ This sounds like a very amateurish D&D adventure.
Verna takes this opportunity to infodump on the Majendie. Yes, she waited until they were in the heart of Majendieville to tell Richard anything about these people. Brilliant.
The Majendie, we learn, live in a crescent of land around an area of swampy forest. In the swampy forest live another tribe, hostile to both the Majendie and the Nuns. For ill-explained reasons, the Nuns can't just go around both places, but have to go through Majendie-land to reach the Palace of the Prophets. In order to prove that they are allies to the Majendie, Verna and Richard have to participate in a ritual.
Verna says that “The Majendie believe that men with the gift, like all men, carry the seed of life and soul, endowed by the spirits.” Why is it men who “carry the seed of life and soul?” It's women who give birth, creating new life. This seems misogynistic to me.
We learn that the woman in black who rang the bell is the leader of the Majendie, “the Queen Mother.” What, really? 
The Queen Mother. Their leader is the Queen Mother. \~/
Hereafter she shall be referred to as Queen Elizabeth.
Queen Elizabeth, we learn, is “the one who is bound to the female spirits. She represents the spirits of fertility in this world. She is the embodiment of the receptacle of the divine seed from the spirit world.”
Women: Receptacles of the divine seed. If that isn't misogynist, I don't know what is. \~/\~/
Verna explains that Richard will be taken to the person to be sacrificed. This is actually good, since if they didn't have a sacrifice ready, Richard and Verna might have to wait months until the Majendie acquired one. I'm admittedly no expert, but historically, weren't most sacrifices either (1) regular events that occurred along a set schedule, or (2) isolated events that occurred in times of great stress? It sounds as if the Majendie make sacrifices whenever they happen to have the opportunity, which...yeah. \~/
Richard must then kiss the sacrificial knife, thus giving his blessing. If he does not, he will be sacrificed as well, which makes absolutely no sense. If wizards are so gosh-darned special that the Majendie have to have one bless their sacrifice, what bloody sense does it make to sacrifice their wizard if he deems the sacrifice inappropriate? It's like the wizard is simultaneously respected and meaningless. \~/
Finally, Richard has to watch the victim be sacrificed. I remind you again, this is a regular route traveled by the Nuns, and they usually have children younger than ten with them. They deliberately force prepubescent children to watch – no, participate in – a human sacrifice in order to save some travel time.
I hate the Nuns as much as I hate the Confessors. \~/
Verna, to her slight credit, comments that “the beliefs of these people are obscene.” I notice that she makes no effort to alter the situation in the slightest. She also notes that this sacrifice and child-traumatization “has kept peace for three thousand years between us and the Majendie.” 
This state of affairs has been going on for longer than most of Western civilization. And it hasn't changed at all in that time. \~/\~/
Bleagh. Anyway, Queen Elizabeth's representative (one of the other black-clad old women) decides that, as Richard is far older than the usual “magic man,” it is not sufficient for him to kiss the knife; he has to perform the sacrifice himself. We also learn that “it is the time of the planting sacrifice,” so I guess these sacrifices are on some sort of schedule. Queen Elizabeth's handmaiden takes Richard away to wherever the sacrificial victim is being held after Verna warns him not to “swing the axe,” and Richard refuses to comment.
The Royal Handmaiden leads Richard down a random muddy street and into a random, undistinguished building, where she leaves him in the care of four shaven-headed men. One of them has a missing bottom tooth (or, as the book puts it, “a missing, bottom tooth”) so we know they're bad news. They snicker villainously and lead Richard to a small, dirt-floored room containing a naked woman chained to the wall by an iron collar. This is the sacrificial victim, and it's implied outright stated that she has been repeatedly raped by the Four Bald Jailers. \~/
The Bald Jailers snicker about how Richard can enjoy himself with “the savage,” and at one point they stab her in the leg with a spear. Yet again I have to digress. Raping the sacrifice? That's pretty stupid (in addition to being horrible). Traditionally, when someone or something is sacrificed, it is an offering to the gods, a gift, if you will, from mortals in the hopes that the gods will be merciful or generous or whatever. A sacrifice is typically a thing of value. Why do you think the stereotypical sacrificial victim is “a virgin sacrifice?”
Because you're giving her to the gods, you numbskull! You don't sacrifice old, diseased animals; you don't make an offering of wine that's turned to vinegar. Raping the sacrificial victim is literally raping the bride of the gods. At best, its the equivalent of offering them damaged goods; at worst, it's a flagrant insult to entities which are notorious for their jealousy and short tempers.
So that's a couple more drinks for massive stupidity and a failure to understand what a sacrifice is all about. \~/\~/
Richard and the Bald Jailers chat for a couple of pages, and one of the Jailors gives Richard a knife with a malachite handle, which is “carved with figures in obscene poses.” What, they're flipping the bird? The Jailer states that “This is the sacred knife, to be used in the sacrifice.” Yes, the Sacred Porn Knife was kept stuck in the belt of Random Bald Jailer #2, not in a temple, or in the possession of Queen Elizabeth, or any such logical place. \~/
Oh, and it appears that the sacred “planting sacrifice” is supposed to consist of Richard raping and beheading a random woman in a tiny, dirt-floored room. It's specifically noted that the only way to get the iron collar off her is to decapitate her with the Sacred Porn Knife, which Bald Jailer #2 leaves with Richard for just that purpose. No ceremony. No pageantry. No speech by a priest. No religious trappings at all. Just a brutal rape and knifing in a back room.
God, I hate this book. \~/\~/
The Bald Jailers Four leave Richard alone to get on with the rapin'. Richard, of course, is Noble and Good and does not rape the sacrifice; instead, he asks her name, which is Du Chaillu. We learn that her people are the Baka Ban Mana, which means “Those Without Masters.” Richard promises to free her, but Du Chaillu is naturally suspicious.
Anyway, Richard promises to cut Du Chaillu's iron collar off with the Sword of the Homicidal Hobo. He explains to her that “I, too, am a prisoner,” which isn't exactly true but I'll let it go. Du Chaillu, learning where Richard is heading, responds “You are with one of the witches? From the big stone witch house?” 
Hereafter, the Palace of the Prophets shall be known as the Big Stone Witch House.
There's some more chatter, during which Richard makes the hilariously ironic declaration that “I don't kill people unless I'm forced to.” Like your freaking brother, you heartless sociopath. \~/ No, I'm still not over that.
Richard tells Du Chaillu that he is the Seeker. By way of explanation, he states that “it means I do my best to see the truth prevail, to see right done.” \~/\~/
Anyway, Richard uses the sword's magic to break Du Chaillu's iron collar with his bare hands...er, hand, since one was holding the sword. \~/ He then tells her to wait while he gets her clothes. Du Chaillu's response...well, I'll just quote it:
“Why? What is wrong with me? I am not a bad shape to look upon. Many men have told me...”
This woman normally wears clothes. She has been kept prisoner in a tiny room, expecting to be killed at any moment, and repeatedly raped by multiple men for who knows how long. Her nudity is now being played for laughs.
\~/\~/\~/
Richard intimidates the Four Bald Jailers into producing Du Chaillu's dress by indicating that this is what the spirits want. He takes it back to her and she dresses, and then Richard notices that the stab-wound in her leg is still bleeding. He asks her to lift her dress so he can bandage it, and...this happens:
“Giggling, she raised her skirt and held her leg out, rotating it from side to side, displaying it in a teasing manner. Richard quickly wrapped the cloth around her thigh, over the gash, and jerked the knot tight. She yelped with pain. He thought it served her right, but apologized anyway.”
Again, this woman has been raped repeatedly. This is NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR. A rape victim should not be displaying her body in “a teasing manner” to anyone at all, much less a man she does not know. Rape is a horrifying, brutal thing that can leave deep and long-lasting emotional scars. However much Terry Goodkind's mouthpiece Richard might state that rape is bad, this...rubbish completely trivializes it. \~/\~/
And Richard “thought it served her right.” It serves the rape victim right if Richard is unnecessarily rough when he binds her bleeding stab-wound, rough enough to make her cry out with pain. Yeah. \~/
Anyway, Richard drags Du Chaillu out past the Four Bald Jailors and the chapter ends at long last.
Drinks: 25
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