Frustration, Part 5

As a Christian who believes that the life is in the blood and believes in the Power of the Blood of Jesus Christ, I thought it was rather interesting that in the midst of all this written darkness, and believe me it was, would be a pinpoint of light. Here is a character that has been prophesied to be the downfall of evil incarnate who discovers a powerful weapon in his blood. I don’t believe in coincidence. And I don’t believe that Mr. Stackpole even knew what he stumbled upon and then promptly forgot. Because Will never used this new found ability again, nor did he or his comrades explore what other capabilities he might have come back from the brink with.

After this conflict they arrive at Sayce’s country and capital city, and begin to pitch in to resist the Evil Chytrine.

Now remember, the book is skipping all around to multiple characters that I have varying degree’s of care for: from intriguing to pointless. And also remember that, at the heart of the story, there is this crown that has been broken into many pieces.

At Sayce’s city it is discovered that one of the side characters has a piece of the Dragon Crown. I of course know this already as I have been forced to follow along in order to get back to Will. So Will and some of his comrades set out to intercept the side character, which leads to the second of only three scenes in the entire one thousand three hundred pages that I even care about.

Unfortunately, again, Stackpole failed to optimize on it.

In the scene, the rag tag band of men who have assemble around Will have all taken to wearing black masks. All but Crow, who, for his failures twenty-five years earlier, doesn’t feel that he is worthy to wear a mask. Finally, Crow’s formerly estranged brother, another character that was thankfully not granted his own perspective, and Will convince Crow to don the ubiquitous Dread Pirate Roberts mask (sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) Will, who is Crow’s rightful Lord, lays his hand on his shoulder and gives him a new name. Saying something to the effect that Tarrant Hawkings, Crow’s real name, is dead and that Keyden’s Crow is now alive and ennobled.

And then Will should have turned and, viewing the entire band of men that surround him and their various liveries and their unanimous black masks, said, "From this day on, we shall no more be many different soldiers from different countries. But we shall be one people, we shall be known as Keyden’s Raiders!" To which Crow would promptly interject before anyone else could huzzah "No My Lord. We shall be Norrington’s Marauders!" (because that was Will’s last name) to which the entire group would have burst into cacophonous huzzahs. But none of that happened.

And of course, I understand, it’s not my story. I’m just saying.

To make this long story short, so that I can get on to the last book of the three and to the point of my frustration, Will and his group meet up with the above mentioned additional character, another Prince, who is carrying a piece of the desired crown. And at this point a dragon comes onto the scene and begins to eat them for lunch. Literally. The good guys get thinned down, but in the process, one of Will’s companions, a character that was always with Will but I had to be reminded existed, who is an amnesiac, turns out to be a dragon. Apparently taking human form for the first time was so traumatic that it caused him to lose his memory and took getting roasted like an apple by another dragon to wake him from his amnesia. This character was so unnoticed that I had to look back to figure out who it was. "Who? What? What just happened?"

This Companion Dragon beats the bad dragon and the bad guys that have been hounding the good guys and then takes Will and his closest companions, and the piece of the vaunted dragon crown to the hall of the dragons. A very, very, hot, lava filled cave. It is a sort of bazaar, preternatural sauna.

In the dragon’s pad, all of the original companions are reunited. And Will discovers that he has Dragon blood flowing in his veins. For the first time since he was almost killed, he is warm.
The dragon’s hold a congress. And like all good congresses, nothing is decided. Not only is nothing decided, but one of Evil Chytrine’s Lieutenants is given a seat at the table. The individual dragon’s are left to make up their own minds about who they will fight for. While, as a whole, the dragon’s remain neutral.

The companions also learn that the stones set in the dragon crown are actually the true, physical essence of a dragon, their souls if you will. And if they are destroyed, then the dragon that they belong to will also die.

So the bad guy gets one of these dragon true stones and throws the stone into the lava. Or at least attempts too. But Will, without thinking, leaps after it, nimble thief that he is, grabs it and flings it to one of his companions, before promptly bursting into flaming ash.

Again I was scratching my head (my scalp was very tender after this read) because I remembered that the amnesiac dragon, of just a few pages before, while in human form, was encased in lava and that was what "woke him up." But throwing their "true stones" into lava would kill them? Huh? It seems to me that that would be the safest place for them: at the bottom of a lake of lava where no-one could ever get them.

And

Yes, that’s right. Will Norrington, the Scourge of Evil, the Bane of Wickedness Incarnate dies after nine hundred pages of adventuring.

And that is the end of book two. Will dies, leaving his companions dumb struck.

The End.

Or rather "Next book coming soon; I know, I know, Write faster"

To be continued . . .