SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Chapters Read:
- XIX. Choices
- XX. Qazhqargla
- XXI. A Question of Faith
- XXII. Black Smoke
These chapters felt really oddly sentimental at times, and slowly growing more epic. The intensity remains high the entire time as well.
Murtagh and Thorn got a taste of what to expect from Bachel if they were to continue being her personal zombie slaves. Safe to say it wasn't anything good. They both had to perform a very shameful mission that will likely haunt them for life.
It seems that this pressure is overwhelming Murtagh and Thorn. They are simply stuck in the mud. It's hard to describe what they're going through because frankly they're both being tortured and used on several levels, and in several ways. It's eerie and depressing. Really, the past several chapters of this book have been some of the most uniquely rough bit of reading that I've read. It's not necessarily like, gorey (mostly) or graphic or whatnot, but truly sad and disturbing. I can't really put it into words, everything just felt truly hopeless. Murtagh somehow manages to be like seemingly 15 percent coherent and this seems to be enough to plot his escape and hopefully even overthrow Bachel in the process. But it is taking truly miniscule steps full of desperation. A real Hail Mary.
He ends up asking Uvek for assistance and at first it seems silly and hopeless but Uvek does somehow have this empty healing stone. Uvek's willing to help Murtagh but with a few conditions. Uvek says Murtagh must help him escape and that to ensure this happens they must become blood brothers via Urgal traditions. This includes an interesting ceremony where they shake bloody hands/wrists and say an Urgal phrase together. This scene intrigued me because while Murtagh and Uvek have become pretty friendly, a commitment/bond like this is serious and to make it on a whim is pretty bold. But they're both extremely desperate and need each other's help badly. In addition even though their time together in prison wasn't insanely long, they seemed to get to know each other quickly at a pretty deeply personal level due to these horrible circumstances/conditions. Also, Murtagh and Thorn have been there for some weeks at this point so I suppose Uvek and Murtagh have associated and spoken with one another more so than the story reveals.
The healing stone Uvek possesses is drained of power but it's a spark of hope. After contemplating the stone Murtagh realizes he still has his own stone which is filled with magical energy, but due to being drugged, he can't actually access the magical energy within the stone.
He requests help from Alín to cease drugging his food and defy Bachel. After a lengthy enough conversation he persuades her but it wasn't easy.
So bam, two of the people I was hoping would help Murtagh, are doing so.
Removing the drugs is literally half the battle because he's still under the influence of The Breath, but cutting his problem in half is a great start.
Bachel is set to have a big 'Black Smoke' festival which is to basically be a preparation event to, if I am understanding correctly, invade the empire? And/or summon Azlagûr, perhaps both.
This festival seems quite scary and Bachel displays her ruthless nature as she performs a very graphic sacrifice of one of the people she captured who refused to join her Dreamer cult.
Seriously, her sacrifice is one of the nastier scenes described in all of 'The Inheritance Cycle' books. I was shocked for sure.
The chapter 'Black Smoke' ends with Murtagh finally sobering up enough to access his magic stones, with Uvek and Thorn's help.
He is seemingly about to strike Bachel unaware...
It's taken all of my patience to stop reading and make this post!
The end of the book is nearly here!
Recently Murtagh had a flashback of Tornac, his relatively mysterious father figure who helped raise and train him in swordsmanship. Probably the major reason Murtagh is actually a decent human. The vision was of when Murtagh initially escaped Urû'baen but unfortunately during the escape, Tornac was killed.
This moment was really interesting to learn about as I've always been curious about Tornac. It makes sense to an extent that Murtagh would have such a vision before a massively important moment in his life. A massively terrifying moment.
I believe this event took place prior to Eragon discovering Saphira. At the latest it my have happened as Eragon and Brom began their trek through the Spine.
As a reader, this feels like a deleted scene, and a fascinating, yet very sad full circle moment for Murtagh. Hopefully this flashback can give him some renewed strength.
In general man, these weeks have been just so incredibly torturous and depressing. Murtagh and Thorn are warriors. They're not perfect, far from it, but this nonsense needs to end and I hope they get through this in mostly one piece.
