As the rest of my week will be solidly busy,\u00a0 here’s an Easter treat…little snippets from here and there.<\/p>\n
All snippets have the potential to be a spoiler for someone,\u00a0 though I try hard to keep them “clean,” so crack open the chocolate rabbits, candy eggs, and so on with care.\u00a0\u00a0 Some are from earlier drafts and may not be exactly the same in the final book.\u00a0 They are not in order, either.<\/p>\n
#1\u00a0 Dorrin in Chaya, visiting Kieri<\/p>\n
Dinner reminded Dorrin of dinners at Kieri’s old steading, or her own at Verrakai house.\u00a0 Squires, the king and queen, and Lady Tolmaric, all talked freely, as if with equals, about the affairs of the day or tenday.\u00a0 Lady Tolmaric seemed entirely different from the distraught and helpless widow Dorrin had met before.\u00a0 In fact, she seemed to have much the same character as Farin Cook: practical, capable, and firm.\u00a0 She and Kieri discussed the growth of trade on the road from the new port, and her plans for her land near it.\u00a0 Squires chimed in with their observations from their courier trips about the kingdom.\u00a0 Nobody mentioned the reason for Dorrin’s visit…<\/p>\n
#2 Alured\/Vaskronin in battle<\/p>\n
Vaskronin disappeared from his mind, leaving Alured, survivor of many desperate times.\u00a0 He called on the magery his advisor had given him, clutching the red jewel on a chain around his neck.\u00a0 His troops roared and held their ground; he cast a dark cloud laden with fear at the enemy.\u00a0 For a moment the massed pikes faltered; the cavalry horses shied, bucked, bolted out of control.\u00a0 His troops advanced again, pushing the enemy back toward the creek, while Alured aimed the fear and anguish trapped in the advisor’s jewel.<\/p>\n
Finally the enemy broke and ran.\u00a0 He held his troops back from pursuit and pressed on to the vill.\u00a0 That fortified vill would make an excellent camp, a base from which to advance again.<\/p>\n
He had won.\u00a0 He could conquer Fallo, and next year–next year he would take the rest of Aarenis.\u00a0 The year after that, the north.\u00a0 King.\u00a0 King of all.<\/p>\n
You are strong and brave; you deserve to be king.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Familiar warmth spread through his body, this time more flame than warmth along his bones.\u00a0 He felt more alive than ever, filled with strength, power, the wild joy of victory.\u00a0 In that moment of exultation, he had no thought of the disfigured child, of Andressat’s curse, of possible treachery.\u00a0 He dropped the reins, raised both hands high–sword and jewel symbols of his power, and spurred his mount toward the vill with the others, yelling in triumph.<\/p>\n #3\u00a0 Camwyn in a particular valley<\/p>\n Next morning Camwyn woke when something tickled his face.\u00a0 He opened his eyes to find a horse’s head hanging over his bed…a long milk-colored forelock and mane, bristly whiskers, a soft muzzle.\u00a0 After the first startled jerk, he lay still, fascinated.\u00a0 Was it a wild horse, like the others, or Mathor’s?\u00a0 It seemed to wink at him, stiff golden lashes coming down across a deep brown eye, then pulled its head back out of the window.\u00a0 Camwyn sat up just as he heard the sound of ripping grass.\u00a0 Out the window were three horses: the cream and gold one that had wakened him, a red chestnut mare, and a foal whose spindly legs were spread wide as it sniffed at something in the grass.<\/p>\n #4\u00a0 Easter Egg in the extended DVD sense<\/p>\n Some horses must be accounted for.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Illusion, who died last fall but was already clearly aging fast as I wrote this book,\u00a0 put in a cameo appearance just above.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I wrote it, I knew it was Illusion intruding into the book, but not that he would die in the next six months.\u00a0 There’s more of his story, and Camwyn’s, to come, much of it not in Crown of Renewal<\/em>.<\/p>\n But there’s a horse some of you have asked about from a previous volume.\u00a0\u00a0 A black bay belonging to a certain thief enforcer, a horse he could not find after he escaped the death intended for him.\u00a0\u00a0 A horse to whom he had taught certain tricks, as all thieves’ horses are taught certain tricks.\u00a0\u00a0 They are not, let us say, a safe ride for anyone who takes them for granted.\u00a0\u00a0 That horse reappears in this book, and to my surprise (because I had a different situation planned for him) became a plot point of note.\u00a0\u00a0 That horse may show up again–though I don’t know if it’s going to find its way back to Arvid.<\/p>\n