Greft

Yes, I’m starting with Greft.

He’s been bad news from the beginning, but his demise is still brutal to watch.

He demands blood from his dragon, who refuses and tosses him into the river. Rescued and back aboard, he lashes out, and it gets ugly. He makes the critical error of calling Alise a whore, and we know the captain doesn’t play about his lady.

But what emerges most clearly in all of this is that Greft is a truly tragic figure.

“’I’ve known all my life that I wouldn’t get as much as anyone else did. Not respect. Not even time. People like me, like us, we die young. Unless a dragon takes us on and makes sure we don’t. … But not Greft. Not for me.'”

And then:

“’I’m going to die… Things are starting to go wrong inside me. I can feel things going wrong. My gut hurts when I’m hungry and hurts worse when I eat. The shape of my mouth has changed so much that I can’t chew or even close my mouth comfortably. My eyes are dry, but I can’t close my eyelids all the way. Nothing simple is simple anymore. I can’t get enough air through my nose when I try to breathe, and when I breathe through my mouth, my throat dries out until it cracks and I spit blood.’ … ‘That’s my life,’ he said quietly. ‘Or my death. The death of someone who is changing, without a dragon to guide it. The death of someone who was born so Rain Wild touched that I can’t even live to be middle-aged, let alone old.’”

I know that’s a lot of quote to include, but it’s just so visceral and affecting. This is some sad shit.

Greft isn’t someone we rooted for, but Hobb works her magic, giving him dimension and wringing out sympathy.

Now shunned from the group and painfully dying – yada yada more turmoil and conflict – Greft sets out on his own early one morning. Carson and Sedric are sent to track him down. (Hey, they need those ship biscuits.)

They find him wedged in his small boat, dying from gallator poison.

A grim end for a complicated character.

🪦

Let’s stay in Downer-ville for a moment.

Alongside Greft’s death, we get the devastating conclusion to the Jerd’s pregnancy: she miscarries. The women handle it, and Bellin – no stranger to miscarriages herself – delivers a stern warning to the keeper gals not to sleep with anyone not fully committed to dealing with the consequences.

It’s harsh, but it’s a needed reality check.

Which makes a fitting segue to the Tats-Thymara situation I’ve been skating around in my reactions.

I’ve been hard on Thymara for being wishy-washy all series. In hindsight, I probably should have been harder* on Tats for his pushiness. Because no, Tats unequivocally should not be pressuring Thymara past her comfort level. And it’s entirely understandable that she’s torn between physical desire and very real consequences.

(*Important note: My lack of direct admonishing hasn’t been excusing the boys’ behavior, my “critical” focus has simply centered more on Thymara as a main POV character.)

But we’re in Hobbland, so of course the situation has been crafted with grounded nuance. We don’t have to agree with the characters to understand their motivations. And through Jerd, the sobering stakes of procreating in the Rain Wilds are no longer theoretical. They’re immediate and can’t be brushed aside.

These relationships aren’t clean or tidy, and we leave Tats and Thymara (and Rapskal) in an open-ended place:

“’Oh, something happened. It just wasn’t what you expected. I said no and I meant it. I still mean it, Tats. But it’s not about you. It’s about me dealing with what I’m becoming, and dealing with it one change at a time.’
He glanced over at her. His lashes were long and thick as they had always been. ‘Then it isn’t…forever. It’s just a decision for now.’”

I don’t know what the future holds for them. And not every pairing needs to end in romance. But I hope Thymara gets to a place where she can accept love on her terms. She deserves that.

Buckle up: I’m about to take a wild swing in tone…

Mega “Horny Moments” Musings

1️⃣

We’ve been tracking the non-healing wound on Thymara’s back for quite a while, and now we finally get some answers. Sintara – not one to settle for a status quo transformation for her keeper – decides to make Thymara the first Elderling with wings.

This was right up there with the Tarman feet reveal for me.

Thymara is horrified and Sylve discovering the finger-like bone protrusions in her back was admittedly gnarly. But, me? I loved it. Especially because it leads to a very enjoyable scene between Thymara, Tats, and Rapskal as we close things out.

If anyone has mastered the art of eroticism divorced from overt sexual context, it’s Robin Hobb. We saw it most potently with Fitz and the Fool in Tawny Man. But this wing inspection scene? It’s seriously charged.

First, Rapskal coaxes Thymara to show him her wings:

“’Your wings, of course! Everyone else has seen them but me. Take them out, I want to see them.’ …
‘I’m not ready for people to see them yet.’ He turned his head to one side. Sunlight ran down the scaling along his jaw, and she had to suppress the impulse to trace the same line with her fingers. …
‘…it’s only fair I get to see them now, because everyone else got a chance to see them then.’
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
‘Please.’
She tried to think if he’d ever said please to her before.”

Light begging ✅

Then:

“…she felt his fingers on her wingtips as he gently guided first one and then the other out of her shirt. His gentle touch put a shiver up her back and when she shook, she felt her wings suddenly quiver in response.
…she heard Rapskal catch his breath. ‘Oh, they’re lovely. Can I touch them?'”

👀

We’re not done yet – let’s not forget Tats is part of this ménage à wing:

“He crawled around behind her, and she felt him take the outermost tip of each wing in each of his hands. Then, as carefully as if she were a butterfly, he opened her wings fully to the light. …
‘The colors just got brighter,’ Tats said quietly.”

Why choose indeed.

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2️⃣

We know Alise and Leftrin are gone. Gone gone. They are in their own world, and the rest of this expedition feels like background noise. They are almost too mushy for my comfort.

I mentioned very early – when they were traipsing through the Trehaug (or was it Cassarick?) treetops – that Leftrin’s level of smitten was giving me the ick. And listen, I’m happy for them. Especially Alise. I am firmly Team Lady and the River Tramp. But the ick has lingered.

May I present:

“For how could any man feel discouragement when every night a woman engulfed him in tenderness and sensuality? She woke in him appetites he had not known he had, and she sated them as well.”

They did exchange “I love yous,” and it was all very sweet and hurrah for them.

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3️⃣

Moving on to chief freaks of the expedition: Carson and Sedric.

They set out on a mission to track down Greft and recover the stolen goods. Time is presumably pretty important when you are trying to catch up to someone with a head start.

But that doesn’t stop these two.

Sedric hits him with “I love your smile,” and that’s all it takes:

His voice was hoarse when he spoke. “I’ve never done this in a boat before. It might be tricky.”
“Tricky can be good,” Sedric responded breathlessly.

---

Honorable Mention🏅

Goes to Tats and his “throbbing urgency.” I’m just going to leave that there.

Fitz Watch: Kelsingra Edition

We get a brief mention of Alise longing to explore Kelsingra proper to search for records, scrolls, artifacts, etc. The reference to scrolls immediately made me think of Fitz (to be fair, he’s rarely far from top of mind).

But I’m not insane: Kelsingra is the defunct Elderling town from some of our key Fitz moments, right? Or have I invented this entirely? If it is, will we get some remnants of what Fitz left behind?

Just give your girl a crumb.

Sedric’s Confessions, Part III: The Finale

Greft’s final act is to use his last breath to expose Sedric’s original dragon-part selling plan in front of Carson. (Gotta respect the petty ’til the very end.)

Carson is disappointed and makes it clear that full transparency is the only path forward.

And with that, we get one final wild reveal for poor, dear Alise. I loved the opening to their conversation:

“‘I’ll have nothing else left to apologize for, no more dirty secrets that I’ll have to dread you discovering some day.’
She clasped her own hands. ‘That’s not a reassuring way to begin a conversation.’”

Through this final confession, Sedric lays the groundwork for rebuilding.

Alise forgives, and is more than ready to leave the past behind. For the first time in her life, she is happy and free. (And getting good loving on the regular doesn’t hurt).

“It had been a chain of events that led to her finding Leftrin. That led to her finding both love and a life.”

Yes! How far we’ve all come. (Resisting come joke here).

There’s a shared recognition of who the real villain in their story has been, which gives us the incredible moment of Alise unceremoniously removing Hest’s portrait and lock of hair from the locket and replacing them with Relpda’s scale. She returns it to Sedric, now encapsulating a bond worthy of the inscription: Always.

Sedric then flips Hest’s likeness into the cookfire.

And with that, folks, I think we can call the Hestorcism complete.

Be gone, doofus! You hold no power here.

(At least until the next book. Bring it, man-demon.)