Bitterwood Chapter 2 -- Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet, We're Hunting Humans!

So... something comes up in this chapter that hints at this book's twist later on.  More I won't spoil yet, but much like certain revelations in Revealing Eden, I suppose only time will tell if it's a good twist, a bad one, or a potentially good one spoiled by bad writing.

Chapter 2, "Circles," opens with Gadreel heading into a clearing in the forest...

 

I know, I know, yet another named character to keep track of.  Lots of writers seem to believe that it's not an epic fantasy book without Loads and Loads of Characters.  The problem with packing a ton of characters into a book, though, is that each one has to serve a purpose to the story.  Putting in extra named characters -- especially POV characters, characters who get parts of the story told from their point of view -- can be detrimental to the story, as it can make it hard for readers to keep track of who's who (especially if names are similar) and detract from the actually important characters.

Anyhow... Gadreel is heading into a clearing to meet with his master, "the finest tracker in the land."  Maybe we can get some proof of this before the text declares him "the finest tracker?"  Also, the tracker's name is Zanzeroth, because we are still in the Land of Silly Fantasy Names here...

Gadreel, Azkaban, and Zanzie are all in this clearing three miles from where Bodriel's body was found because Zanzie has declared it's where the prince died.  Also, Gadreel is apparently a slave.  What?

Gadreel suspected, however, that the king ignored him due to his status.  It was a simple matter to treat a human as a slave.  The notion of a sky-dragon such as himself forced into servitude made some uncomfortable. -- p. 41

Understandable, I suppose... and yes, we do get an explanation as to why a dragon is a slave.  And yes, it's stupid.

Also Zanzie -- who's apparently pink instead of red due to his age, something that makes me giggle uncontrollably -- turns out to be a Scarily Competent Tracker.

"Here is where the slave, Cron, skidded to a halt as Bodiel dropped from the sky.  See, the handprint here?... The human fell and had difficulty regaining his footing."  Zanzeroth moved his claw to direct the king's view to a patch of broken ground several yards away.  "That is where Bodiel dropped from the sky.  Cron's footprints then reappear several feet behind where he stopped -- he's jumped away out of fear of Bodiel.  There are signs that Bodiel toyed with the human, blocking his moves, prolonging the moment before the kill.  And then..."  Zanzeroth trailed off, his gaze flickering over the mud, studying it as one might study a book.  "And then Bodiel staggered backward.  See the marks?  Cron fled, passing through the brush... here." -- p. 42-43

I'd complain about this, but TV Tropes' page on Scarily Competent Trackers points out that there are real-life trackers who can not only tell the approximate age, sex, and health of their quarry, but see through their prey's efforts to disguise their path.  So I suppose this level of skill has some precedent, especially in a species that's a natural predator.  It still makes for somewhat boring reading.  It might have been nice to actually see this scene take place instead of hearing it secondhand through Zanzie the Pink Dragon.  

Suddenly this character is much less

threatening-sounding...

"We could follow Cron with ease but he's not the one who killed Bodiel."

"I know that" Albekizan said.  "Bitterwood's to blame.  The Ghost Who Kills haunts these woods tonight."

"Perhaps," Zanzeroth said.  "But I've yet to see a ghost leave tracks.  The murder of your son was merely a man." -- p. 43-44

Zanzie doesn't seem to understand nicknames or metaphor very well...

Zanzie continues, pointing out where Bitterwood tied his horse and where he took a shot from a tree branch.  He was apparently shot five times in the back, shoulder and throat, with the fifth and last arrow being the fatal one, but apparently Bitterwood wasn't satisfied with just killing him.

"The prince struggles to rise, unwilling to accept his fate.  He crawls toward the water, seeking relief.  Still the arrows come.  The archer knows Bodiel has mere moments to live but wants him to suffer.  The shots that follow aren't meant to hasten death, but to increase agony.  The arrows fall upon the tender flesh of the wings and tail.  Bodiel at last collapses, his left wing in the river.  Slowly, the speeding current drags him from the bank." -- p. 45

Okay, now I'm questioning Zanzie's tracking skills -- how is he going to know in what order the arrows hit Bodiel?  Also, how are we supposed to sympathize with Bitterwood at the moment?  He already proved with the dead sky-dragon last chapter that he knows where to hit a dragon to kill it instantly... yet here he's plainly tortured another dragon to death.  Not only is turning Bodiel into a scaly pincushion a waste of arrows (archers will tell you that making and fletching arrows is a pain in the butt, so conserve and save them wherever you can), but not exactly conducive to making Bitterwood a sympathetic, likable, or relatable protagonist.

And yes, I get it, it's possible for a character to be an anti-hero... but in my opinion, anti-heroes are boring and unpleasant to read about.  And somehow I get the feeling that we're supposed to be siding with Bitterwood here...

Zanzie slips in the mud, and Gadreel goes to help him up, but Zanzie gets up on his own and splatters Gadreel with mud "that smelled faintly of dung."  Again, fair warning, Maxey is obsessed with poop in this novel, and this is probably the mildest incident involving refuse that crops up.

Not posting an actual picture of poop... you get

this meme again.  I have some standards.

Zanzie declares that Bitterwood fled on horseback, just as a group of earth-dragons show up with two "ox-dogs" -- basically ox-sized dogs like the one that showed up in the "prolog," though whenever the name "ox-dog" crops up I can't help but think of an actual horned dog.

To be fair, this totally looks like the kind

of dog a dragon would own...

Earth-dragons were solid and squat, no taller than humans but twice as broad, with thick muscular arms instead of wings, and powerful shoulders to support their thick-boned tortoise-like heads.  They were strong as mules but their strength did little to slow the powerful dogs. -- p. 46

So basically they're the lizard-people that some conspiracy theorists like to claim are in control of human society?  Is Maxey a Reptilian theorist?  

The hounds find the scent -- though wouldn't they need a sample of Bitterwood's scent first? -- and Zanzie looses them to find their prey.  As the chase goes on Gadreel follows, and we get an info-dump regarding Gadreel's past... which probably should have been saved for a quieter moment instead of a tense chase scene.  Here it just breaks up the flow of the story.

Apparently three years ago Azeroth imposed a new tax... one that had to be paid in slaves instead of money or goods.  The sky-dragons held a Council of Colleges -- a meeting of dragons representing various schools and libraries throughout the kingdom -- and decide they don't want to part with any human slaves because they feel the menial labor of "cooking their own food or emptying their own chamber pots" is beneath them.  So instead they decide to pay using sky-dragon students who are failing at their studies.  I guess that's one way to give students incentive to improve their grades?

I dunno... this reasoning just seems stupid to me.  Why demand a tax of slaves when you can just raise gold taxes and buy them yourself?  And won't turning dragons into slaves just increase the unrest in your kingdom?  It feels like this bit was just thrown in to make the dragons EXTRA EVIL instead of for any logical purpose.

Anyhow... so Gadreel served as a messenger for awhile before King Azkaban lost him in a bet to Zanzie, and now Gadreel's hoping to impress the king enough to win his freedom.  Good luck with that, Gaddie...

More of the dogs sniffing around, and then they emerge from the forest and spot a riderless horse in a grassy field.  Zanzie kills it and realizes they've all been had

"Where is he?" Albekizan said as he touched down nearby.  "Where's Bitterwood?"

"We've been tricked, Sire."  Zanzeroth said.  "This is the horse we've been following.  I can smell it.  But Bitterwood must have dismounted early in the chase.  I saw no sign.  Perhaps he clung to an overhead branch."

"Damn your incompetent hide," the king shouted.  "If we've lost my son's murderer due to your carelessness, I'll have your head!" -- p. 49

Hey, Zanzie's actually been pretty dang competent as a tracker.  Also, Maxey, maybe you should have corrected that typo instead of playing the retcon game during your revisions...

Zanzie crawls along the ground, sniffing the hoofprints -- though if dragons have a keen enough sense of smell to pick up scents, what do they need dogs for?  Finally they get back to the stream, and he decides that Bitterwood dismounted in the water and ran through it to lose his scent.  They run a dog along either bank to find the spot where he stepped out of the water, which I admit is pretty dang clever.

Then everyone skids to a halt, and we get our first sign that this is no ordinary fantasy -- something someone merely calls "the lines."

Straining his neck to see around Zanzeroth, Gadreel could see that whoever had spoken had been correct.  They had reached one of the bleached, cracked stone lines that stretched endless miles through the kingdom.  Some scholars claimed the lines were only ancient roads, built by a long-vanished race of giants.  A more common belief was that the barren, flat stone marked a web of evil energy that ran through the earth.  In the presence of this cursed ground, the night was unnaturally quiet. -- p. 51

Okay, so remnants of an ancient civilization are fairly commonplace, if somewhat cliche, in fantasy... so what makes this one so different?  Read on...

The sun-dragons and Gadreel are unnerved enough by the "haunted stone" line to continue the chase from the air, while the earth-dragons and ox-dogs go on foot.  (Yes, Maxey's in love with his hyphens...)  The road passes through a tunnel, and the dogs go in... but there's a yelp and only one comes out.

Zanzeroth peered into the dark opening.  Gadreel strained to see and spotted the first ox-dog, dead, its head crushed by a heavy stone.  Zanzeroth took a spear from his quiver, pushed the shaft along the floor, then lifted it to reveal a loop of thin rope.

"A deadfall," he muttered.  "The killer has booby-trapped his escape route.  Cunning, for a human." -- p. 52

Okay, just how much of a head start did these guys give Bitterwood anyhow?  If they waited long enough to give him time to booby-trap his escape route, they're freaking incompetent.  Though I feel sorry for that dog... it didn't do anything wrong, just its job...

Here, have some cute Rottweiler pups

to make up for it

The chase continues with the last dog... and we get Sign #2 that something fishy's going on...

Gadreel followed, growing ever more nervous.  They were walking along the diamond.  All the winged dragons were familiar with the place for it could be seen from the air for miles: four gigantic stone circles surrounded by an even larger diamond of stone.  There were several of these constructs throughout the kingdom, in places where the mystery lines crossed in elaborate networks of ramps and bridges.  The last remnants, perhaps, of a long-vanished culture.  These places were much feared, for four circles were the symbol of death. -- p 53

Wondering what this thing is?  Here's a hint:

That's a cloverleaf interchange, usually used when two freeways or otherwise busy roads cross and allows cars to move more easily between them.  They're pretty much exclusive to roads with motor vehicle traffic... so what's one doing in our bog-standard fantasy novel?  

I'll let you, my good readers, ponder over the implications of this for awhile.  Because it's our first hint as to the weird and troubling twist that comes later on in the nove.

I will also point out here that I wish Gadreel had explained WHY four circles are a symbol of death.  Symbols are meant to represent an idea, but there's usually a reason why a particular symbol is used to represent a particular idea.  Just announcing "4 sirkls iz DEATH" isn't enough.

The dog ends up veering away from the interchange toward a "large field of broken stone" and an ancient brick building.  But then the dog gets an arrow through the eye and dies.  Geez, Maxey what have you got against dogs?

Here, have more puppies

King Avada Kedavra sends the earth-dragon soldiers into the building to flush Bitterwood out.. but evidently Bitterwood's been very busy while they've been chasing him.

"He's fled deeper," said Zanzeroth.  "Or perhaps-"

His words were cut short as a dragon cried out from the darkness, his voice followed by a thunderous rumble.  The doorway glowed suddenly with a light to rival the rising sun.  A ball of flame rolled forward. led by a blast of searing, turpentine-scented air that threw Gadreel from his feet. -- p. 54 

Just how much of a head start DID they give this guy?

While the earth-dragons get fried alive (how ironic), Bitterwood runs off across the field.  Zanzie dives to grab him, but he pries up a "rusty iron disk" and jumps down a hole.  Here's a hint as to what exactly this convenient mystery-hole is:

I'm pretty sure most of you have already guessed the big twist by now... but let's let it simmer a little longer.  Because Maxey manages to make the big reveal of the twist even stupider than you think it is.

Zanzie stabs into the hole with a spear, only to get an arrow slicing open his face and delivering a healthy dose of Eye Scream for his trouble.  Ouch!  Albus-Dumbledore gets down on his belly and starts pawing around inside the hole, though you'd think his hunter losing an eye just seconds ago would be a sign that that's not a good idea.  Is every dragon in this book a raging idiot?

Gadreel sees his chance to prove himself and earn his freedom, and volunteers to go in after Bitterwood.  See above note about dragons and idiocy... He enters the Absurdly Spacious Sewer and goes a little ways, only for something to tangle up his legs and trip him up, washing him back to where he started.  Said "something" isn't a net or some sort of fancy snare -- it's just Bitterwood's cloak.  

How did these dragons manage to conquer humanity?  They're portrayed as so incompetent that they couldn't take over a McDonald's.  Seriously, how are these creatures so threatening again?

The king hauls Gadreel out of the sewer and asks if he found him.  Gadreel considers lying and telling him he fought the killer, but confesses that he got away.  I half-expected Afghanistan to start beating Gadreel or at least chewing him out for his failure, given how one-dimensional Maxey's made his villains so far, but surprisingly he just tells him "you did your best.  Be grateful to have escaped with your life."  Wow... does the king have a spot of decency after all?

Zanzie's tending to his wounded eye with a bloody bundle of leaves.  There's an aside that no one knows more about medicinal plants than Zanzie and "the entire world was his pharmacy," but fresh leaves don't exactly make an absorbent bandage...

"We'll head back to the castle for more earth-dragons and fresh dogs [said Zanzeroth].  The hunt will continue.  In daylight our prey no longer has the advantage of shadows."

"No," Albekizan said.  "I admire your spirit, old friend, but we need not chase this demon into further traps.  There's a solution to this problem, an obvious one.  We've paid a horrible price this night.  I vow this -- the debt of Bitterwood will be repaid in blood." -- p. 57

Seemed appropriate

I was sorely tempted to just lay out the entire twist in this chapter, especially since I figure it's really obvious at this point, but I'll give it a little more time.  Maybe wait for more hints to be dropped.  I'm just dying for a chance to use the "what a twist!" GIF from Robot Chicken again...