Dragonstone 57

**Chapter 57**

Our Heroes ride on, cleaning up camel dung along the way. The conversation drifts around to parents, and we learn that Burel's mother died when he was ten, and Samurai Chick's died giving birth to her. They bond over this shared tragedy, and Ferai attempts to upstage them by reminding everyone that both her parents were murdered. Also, Samurai Chick is forever grinning, and Burel hugs her, because she's totally fine with public displays of affection. Yep, that's our stoic warrior, all right.

More travel, and Alos gripes about the demon horn waking him up. We learn the important fact that none of our protagonists have living parents except Arin, and hers live on Adonar. Delon declares that he'll just consider the others to be his family, although Ferai is only *"a remote tenth cousin."* When she asks why, he says that if she was closer kin, *"I couldn't do this."* He then gives her a hearty smooch, because incestuous undertones are exactly what you want in your epic fantasy, right?

Delon starts singing *"a heartfelt refrain shared by two other men deeply enamoured."* I am going to assume he's singing "Me So Horny," by 2 Live Crew.

They're oblivious to the concerns of the women in question: *"Dara Arin, who dreaded what the oncoming decades would do to her mortal lover and how he might react;"*

A very reasonable fear which Egil completely ignored, I remind you.

*"fierce Aiko, who could but barely acknowledge that she had room for love in her warrior heart;"*

Romantic love, especially in such a short time, goes against everything we've learned about Samurai Chick. As a result, this feels more like a Red Sonja, Best Her To Bed Her situation where Samurai Chick feels obligated to give herself to someone who . . . um . . . likes swords?

*"and untrusting Ferai, who'd been raped as a child."*

Hey, yeah, that's right. The woman Delon has been pawing at, kissing without warning or consent, and making incest jokes at, was **raped when she was twelve.** Her sum total experience with sex and romance has been **rape.** She also lost her only family - her parents murdered, and her circus friends left behind - and was forced to live on the streets. She spend her teenage years in the company of criminals, learning to be a thief herself. You'd think someone like that might have a few issues. You'd think someone like that might not be so open to being pursued and slobbered over by a notorious man-whore who has fucked dozens of women over the course of the last fifteen years, most of them either for material gain or just because he could. \~/

Samurai Chick + Burel seems unrealistic, but Ferai + Delon seems downright creepy when you think about it.

We cut to evening, where there's a four-page discussion on fate vs free will, which accomplishes nothing. For the record, atheist Samurai Chick believes in free will, while religious Burel does not. Next, we get three and a half pages and the men and the women each discuss the same subjects: the inevitable romances of Burel and Samurai Chick, and of Delon and Ferai. Samurai Chick is afraid to surrender, Ferai is wary of violence and brutality, Burel is used to being the pursued instead of the pursuer, and Delon wonders why Ferai isn't ready to jump his bones. Alos, who is now separate physically as well as narratively, is disgusted with them all.

Alos is the character in this novel that I identify most with, at this particular moment.

Our Heroes return to Aban and take rooms at the Golden Crescent again. Samurai Chick, favoring the direct approach, asks Burel if he wants to share her room, which reduces him to blithering. Delon gives Ferai a suggestive look, but she decides to sleep alone. They have dinner, and we learn that Alos - miracle of miracles - is now clean and well-mannered, and also that Yilan Koy can't be found on any of their maps, and no one seems to have heard of it.

Everyone retires, and we get a page of Ferai angsting over Delon before she finally succumbs to his man-whore lure and drags him into her bed. Well, that didn't take long.

Drinks: 1

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