Inheritance Chapter 46

This chapter is called “small rebellions”. You mean like the one that the Varden are leading?

We remain with Nasuada who’s aching and hurting like crazy but still wishing Murtagh would pop back in for tea and a chat. Which is weird because Chris just told us that Murtagh had dulled the pain away with magic. I guess he must really suck at his job as Gabby’s court magician. Or maybe he’s related to Miss Price and his magic doesn’t last very long.

She hears footsteps outside the door and her jailer, whom I shall call Fred from now on, reenters the room. He lets her out to go to the toilet and Nasuada is too weak to make a grab for the knife on the tray. She says his nails are even shinier than before and he obviously wants her to see them by the way he keeps holding his hands where she can view them.

I hate that. I hate when characters assume something that’s actually not as clear as they’d like us to believe but they’re always right. In real life, people are mistaken. We interpret the smiles of the wait staff as a sure sign that they’re interesting when, in reality, they just won a hundred bucks off a scratch ticket or they got a new puppy. We see a cop car come up behind us and panic that we’re getting pulled over when they’re just headed out on a call and you’re in the way.

But characters in badly written books are never wrong. Somehow they can look at a man in farming clothes and surmise that they’re really an assassin because their hands are too soft, stab him in the face and turn out to be right. They don’t have to be wrong all the time but it’d be nice to know they’re capable of mistake like us real squishy humans that don’t have intuition fed to us by an author.

Fred then feeds her and leaves after putting her down for the night. Then Murtagh shows up again and this time he heals her. He looks both somber and sober, though neither in the same sentence, and his once fine clothes are torn. So he looks like a homeless guy that’s been picking through a noble’s garbage but can’t afford beer. Nasuada asks it Gabby knows Murtagh is there.

“He might, but I doubt it. He’s busy playing with his favorite concubines. That, or he’s asleep. It’s the middle of the night right now. Besides, I cast a spell to keep anyone from listening to us. He could break it if he wants, but I would know.”

Wait, Gabby has concubines? Is this a tradition of kings everywhere or is it just something he does? Is this frowned upon in-universe or is it perfectly acceptable behavior for people in power? Does Gabby have any kids or does he have the magic of contraception? Whatever it is, Gabby’s just supposed to be evil because he sleeps or likes the ladies.

Now if his concubines were coerced or under mind control, that would be evil. Care to elaborate there Chris? No? Then I’m going to pretend that Gabby actually plays with his concubines. I’m picturing them playing beach volleyball in his backyard while grilling bratwurst. You’ve got to watch out ladies because Gabby has a wicked spike.

Murtagh has decided to try on apathy for size and says he doesn’t care if Gabby knows. He says the Varden are coming and they’ll let her go. Nasuada suggests that Murtagh help her escape by loosening her restraints and leaving the door unlocked on his way out. He says there are wards there which alert Gabby as soon as a prisoner walks out the door. On a side note, I like how wards went from protecting to being a catch all kind of enchantment.

Nasuada says that there’s always a chance and she’s willing to try. Murtagh says there’s no way unless she can travel faster than on dragonback so start getting used to manacle sores. She says the least he could do is let her loose so she can stand up and stretch. And instead of simply doing that, he starts freeing her and asking her if she thinks she could beat him.

I really don’t know where this level of paranoia comes from but all of Chris’s characters have it. Roran was imagining ways of killing nasuada’s bodyguards, Eragon wouldn’t trust Trianna and now Murtagh thinks Nasuada is getting ready to bury a shank in his ribs. Maybe the exposure to magic drives people crazy and that’s why Gabby makes everyone swear oaths to him.

Anywho, Nasuada gets up and sits down next to Murtagh. Then she starts asking him about his friend Tornac and if he was really the only friend Murtagh had growing up. He says no but he was the closest thing he had to a father. I guess Morzan wasn’t as involved in his life as Murtagh indicated before. Anywho, Tornac and Murtagh went to escape but Tornac got killed by a knife in the back while escaping with Murtagh. Murtagh managed to get away but was living in constant fear.

“I counted the days,” he said. “That was when the Ra’zac were in Palancar Valley, searching for Saphira’s egg. So you see, Eragon lost his foster father almost at the same time I lost mine. Fate has a cruel sense of humor, don’t you think?”

No, I’d say your writer is incredibly lazy. Then Murtagh went and hung out at a friend’s estate but he was betrayed. Murtagh then left for Dras-Leona before Gabby caught up and that’s the real reason Gabby went there and not to chastise the local lord. Wow, more self referential navel gazing while adding details that don’t matter and I don’t care about. That’s like the seven ten split of bad writing.

Anywho, Nasuada continues to prompt Murtagh so he can fill in his back story. He says he left the estate to earn his name through his own deeds and how he suppose he has now and, again, fate has a cruel sense of humor. No, Murtagh. In order to say that the situation would have to be funny. Instead it’s dull like a seed salesman from Nebraska with a happy marriage. Funny would be if Murtagh’s friend escaped Gabby’s forces only to cut his own throat shaving because he sneezed on the upstroke.

Nasuada, moved by this display of almost humanity, begins grilling him on Gabby’s weaknesses. Which is odd because most people, after hearing someone reveal a little about themselves, will react to it by empathizing or sharing themselves. But Nasuada was built on an assembly line of stock characters and the machine working on her figured the emotion chip was dead weight.

Murtagh mentions that Gabby has lots of protection and Nasuada says that there’s always a way. Murtagh asks if it would be so bad if Gabby’s in charge because he’d be the great equalizer. Nasuada says no because then they’d be slaves and to fight. Murtagh says he can’t and Nasuada says that yes he can, just look at her. She says even the smallest rebellion might add up to bring Gabby down and that he might as well fight.

For once I have to agree with Nasuada. If Murtagh doesn’t like Gabby he really should be fighting him in any capacity he can. She asks if he likes hurting her, he says no and she jumps to her feet and puts her face up at his. She says that if she can keep fighting so can he, Murtagh orders her “back to the stone”.

“I know you’re not a coward, Murtagh. Better to die than to live as a slave to one such as Galbatorix. At least then you might accomplish some good, and your name might be remembered with a measure of kindness after you’re gone.”

I like the caveat there. So it’s not better to die than to live as a slave under Eragon? Or is it going to be called something else like Eragon’s Obligatory Service to the State because he outlawed slavery? And if being bonded to a dragon makes you damn near immortal, why would he be worried about how he’s to be remembered once he’s gone? Or is she assuming Eragon is going to kill him for the hell of it?

Murtagh repeats his order and drags her over to the slab. Nasuada allows herself to be chained and keeps badgering him. She asks him what would Tornac do? This is a very heavy moment because, in spite of his death early in the series, he was so well characterized and likable that it even gives the readers pause. Oh wait, I’m confusing this series with something else. Murtagh then casts a spell on her, again, that should shield her from the pain but she’ll have to pretend or else he’ll be in trouble. I hope for her sake, Nasuada remembers those acting lessons.

Once he’s gone, Nasuada wonders whether Murtagh’s visit was planned by Gabby and she decides not. She also wonders if he’s a good witch or a bad witch, I mean good or bad. Which is important to figure out because life is a simply binary choice, good or bad. No middle ground for anyone. Nasuada decides to ignore his past and to try and judge him on his current actions. Does that exclude the hot iron branding then?

Just to make things interesting, Fred comes in with gruel and Nasuada asks to eat first. He lets her out and she tells him she can stand on her own. Instead of grabbing her anyway, he lets it go because he’s been knocking back Long Island iced teas to get through his shift with her. She then proceeds to “stumble” towards the tray, knock over the pitcher and grabs a metal spoon.

Somehow Nasuada hides this in her shift by putting it through a ‘hole in the garmet”. I’m curious as to how she’s doing that as Chris made a point to say her shift was in tatters and barely held together. I could buy her hiding it on her body which would at least be believable. And really, the super neat jailer isn’t going to notice a missing spoon? I’d buy a shard of pottery, maybe, but not a spoon.

Fred takes her to the bathroom where she plucks a few hairs, turns it into makeshift cord and ties the spoon to her left thigh. The left because Gabby always sits on her right and she has it tied so her shift, which doesn’t cover much as Chris said earlier, will hide it.

When she comes out of the bathroom, Fred says his first word “spoon”. Nasuada points at the bathroom and he does his best to search the place before deciding that she threw it away. Oh, but he does check her by running his hands through her hair before coming to this decision. So he takes her back and chains her up again. Once he leaves, Nasuada smiles because now she has a weapon.