Across the Face of the World, part eight
First of all, apologies for the absurdly long time since my last post. It is absolutely forgiveable and I hope that you will all be able to forgive me.
And now, on to Chapter 11 of this riveting work: The Fenni
The snowstorm that was harrying our happy company at the end of the last chapter fades, and they come out of hiding to discover they've lost the horses. The competence of these saviours of the free world awes me. No sooner have they found the horses than they are ambushed and taken prisoner by a gang of armed men who gabble in a foreign language. Leith shows why he is the Chosen One by asking if they are the Bhrudwans, even though he knows that there are only four Bhrudwan warriors and can tell damn well that there are a lot more than four of these fellows. At least I think he can. Maybe his parents never taught him to count?
After a little while it turns out these people are the Fenni, one of the Losian peoples that Farr, our resident strawman racist, doesn't like. They are pretty pissed because they're also the people whose hunting party the Bhrudwans attacked the last chapter, killing the men and carrying off the woman. I already pointed out the absurdity of the villains attacking their natural allies in the war against the First Men at the time so I won't reiterate that now.
One of the Fenni turns out to speak our heroes' language. His name is Perdu and he isn't actually a Fenni at all but we'll come back to that. He asks them what they did with the food and the dead bodies, seems the Fenni think that they are the culprits behind the attack. Quite reasonable I suppose, except that as soon as the Haufuth says 'we didn't do it!' the Fenni instantly take them at their word and let them go. I'm starting to see why the Bhrudwans did not consider these people worthwhile allies.
The Company is released and feasted in the Chief's Hut while we get Perdu's backstory. He is a man of Vinkullen, cousin to Farr and Wira, and a few years back he almost drowned crossing a frozen lake. The Fenni rescued him, healed him up, and then gave him a choice: join us or die. It's becoming clearer now why these people have such a bad reputation. Perdu chose to stay and has become naturalised, marrying a Fenni woman and having children.
Naturally Farr, as a Strawman Racist, has something to say about all this:
'"Well well," Farr shook his head, unable to contain himself. "Who would have beleived it? The Wild Man of Vinkullen tamed by the wild men- or should I say the wild woman- of the north. And you've had children on her!" His voice clearly communicated his distaste.'
Naturally Perdu doesn't take kindly to this and tells them to shut it. However, the way in which he does so is a bit odd. You would expect that the caricature bigot (Farr) would be defeated by the sheer stupidity of his arguments being shown to him, delivering the authors message of tolerance and inclusiveness. However, that is not at all what happens. What happens is that Perdu tells Farr to shut up or he'll smack him around like he used to when they were kids:
'"You had better think carefully cousin, before you say anymore," he said quietly. "or I might have to repeat the lesson I gave you the last time you set foot in our house. Remember the black eye?"
"All I remember is a bully who enjoyed picking on those younger than himself," Farr ground out between gritted teeth'
Now this is an oppurtunity for some interesting character development here. What if what Farr said was true, what if the preacher for tolerance was no better than the racist? Sure he would be right about the Fenni, but he would also have his flaws; he might even try to bully the company just as he bullied people back home. Just because you aren't a racist doesn't make you a saint.
Sadly this bullying side is never mentioned again and Perdu becomes one of the blandest characters in the series as Farr leaps at him and they start a fight. Everyone is horrified at the breach of decorum of fighting in front of the Chief, and the Fenni guards soon separate the two men. Perdu is exiled, bound never to return on pain of death, seems a bit extreme for a brawl in which he was, let us not forget, defending Fenni honour but hey ho and never mind. The Company are to leave at once, minus their horses and belongings which the Fenni are keeping for themselves (if they steal everything from everyone they meet it's no wonder nobody likes them, say I) and Farr is to stay with the Fenni and at dawn tomorrow he will be offered a choice: a life of slavery, or death.
Dum dum dum, dum dum dum dum dum duuuuuuum.