WiC Reads: Blood of Elves

CHAPTER SIX

“Chapter Six” splits its time between long-awaited confrontations on the one hand and people whispering about conspiracies on the other. The conspiracies ARE more interesting.

Or maybe it’s that the confrontationS underwhelms. Although he’s been a shadowy, driving force for much of the book, I don’t feel like I really know Rience, the sorcerer hired by the Nilfgaardian army to find Ciri (and who therefore must go through Geralt). It’s cool that he can make claws sprout from his fingers and everything, but at the end of the day, he’s a pretty flat bad guy, and we didn’t even get the satisfaction of seeing Geralt cut him down. (Saved by a portal; there’s always a portal.)

Geralt tearing through the hired goons was pretty fun, though. I feel like he’s just on the cusp of feeling too powerful to be interesting, but Sapkowski puts enough safeguards in place — the Witcher elixirs sending him into beast mode, him almost fainting from loss of blood — to get away with it.

Elsewhere, the leaders of the major kingdoms of the north —  King Hensalt of Kaedwen, Lord Foltest of Temeria, Queen Meve of Lyria, King Vizimir of Redania, and Demawend of Aedirn — meet in secret to decide what to do about the rising unrest sweeping across their territory, from the Scoia’tael attacks to the Nilfgaardian army sitting right over the border. Eventually, they decide that the way to reestablish their authority is to retake Cintra from Nilfgaard. Unfortunately, they join their voices to the chorus of characters trying to kill Ciri, reasoning that if she’s left alive, there’s too much risk of her falling into the hands of Nilfgaardian emperor Emhyr var Emreis, who could marry her and then rule Cintra legally. That poor girl cannot catch a break.

Speaking of Emhyr, we meet him in another closed door meeting. He’s presented as an implacable man who does not suffer fools. I didn’t like the way Sapkowski drew out the “reveal” of his identity until the end of the section; it felt pretty gimmicky and didn’t add anything to our understanding of the character.

The final conspirator is Vilgefortz, a young sorcerer with immense sway over the Council of Wizards. His plan is to let the movers of the shakers of the north hatch their schemes and wait for an opportunity, and to call a convention of his colleagues in the meantime. Tissaia de Vries, an obsessive-compulsive sorceress, suspects him of wrongdoing. So do I, because it’s hard to stay completely ignorant of anything on the internet and I’ve heard a few things about where Vilgefortz’s character is going. I blame the information age.

I seem a little down on this chapter. I think it’s mostly because even though I’m nearing the end of the book, it doesn’t feel like a ton has happened; there hasn’t been a complete arc, just setup for a bigger story. Maybe that’s change in “Chapter Seven,” or maybe this series is just better approached as one big story with an arc that only comes into focus when it’s all over, rather than one built out of smaller chunks that all have their own beginnings, middles and ends.