In the eighth part of Mastiff, the Hunt begins, and Beka meets perhaps the most intensely irritating human in the entirety of Tortall. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Mastiff.
Trigger Warning: For talk of misogyny and sexual assault.
Oh, Beka, you started making me antsy with all your frustrated waiting! Understandably, this was a difficult thing for her to go through because it’s not common for her to have to wait for a Hunt to begin. You have to remember that when she’s home in Corus, it’s a new hunt every day. She’s got Rats to hobble, clues to track down, spinners to visit, and pigeons to listen to. Even when she’s on a bigger case, they just… well, they just go after their Rat. It’s now been days since Beka left the Summer Palace, and while she does appreciate the days off in one sense, she mostly wants to go after Prince Gareth. Of course, I can’t ignore the urgency here. How much time is left before they start tormenting Gareth? What if he’s too far away for Beka and Achoo to track him?
Beka spends her time in Port Caynn doing some training with Achoo and waiting for the news that it’s time for her to head out. Tunstall returns, bring the glorious Lady Sabine with him, and by gods, I AM SO EXCITED SHE’LL BE A PART OF THIS HUNT. She does give the group some more information on the state of the nobles in the capital, which wasn’t all that surprising. There’s chaos, lots of gossip, the nobles are furious, the mages are furious, everyone is afraid and Beka… doesn’t care. That’s not her concern, at least not yet. She’s got a prince to track down, and she has no desire to dwell in the complicated politics of Tortall. It’s not that they don’t matter to her. I think she’s certainly willing to take them into account, but only when she needs the information to find Gareth.
Thankfully, after days of waiting, Tunstall wakes Beka up on a Tuesday morning with news of their departure. They are being sent to Arenaver in the hopes of find the slave caravan where they suspect Gareth is being hidden. It’s important to note that there’s nothing terribly concrete here, and it’s just a theory. There are, unfortunately, more places Gareth could be hidden than Beka can count. I mean, he could be in Corus, right under Their Majesties’ nose! There are plenty of slaves in the capitol and hiding him close to home would be deviously clever.
But before we get to the plans that Gershom has given the group, we have to talk about Iceblade Regengar. Oh. My. God. After Farmer warns Beka that Iceblade is obsessed with talking about his sexual conquests, she actually walks in on him doing just that. And then? LORD HELP ME.
The mage’s eyes lit on me. He straightened, and smoothed his shoulder-length hair away from his face. To me he said, “The Gentle Mother weeps to see so beautiful a flower in the coarse gear of a Provost’s Guard.”
Let’s appreciate the levels of backhanded condescension here. I think he’s trying to hit on Beka, but he is basically telling her that his god is crying because her ugly uniform isn’t good enough for her. Hey, dudes: DON’T HIT ON PEOPLE THIS WAY. (And I can verify that gay and queer men are not exempt from this criticism. They’re not! It is not fun when someone hits on you by insulting you. Are you perplexed by this phenomenon? SO AM I. And yet, I’ve still been hit on by dudes who have told me I’d look better if I lost weight or if I shaved off my beard. hahahaha, I’m so glad I don’t have to give them any of my time. BEGONE.)
There is just a lot wrong with Iceblade, which Master Farmer then details by sharing all of the horrible classist ways in which Iceblade belittles those around him:
“I don’t like him,” master Farmer replied mildly, sounding like his normal self. “He nearly cost the life of a girl lost in the swamp, telling her parents he could find her and I could not. I play the dolt to vex him, because he couldn’t bear it that a seamstress’s unschooled brat found the child.”
Like the nobles or his fellow high mages, Iceblade wholeheartedly the hierarchy of privilege and power that comes with his birth. Not his talent, mind you, since it’s demonstrated multiple times in this section that he’s kind of a buffoon. Unfortunately, Master Farmer has to purposely fall in line with Iceblade’s stereotypical views of him in order to get work, which is a pretty damning representation of how this really works in our world. It would be nice if Master Farmer could give Iceblade the finger and kick him into a volcano, but Farmer also needs to eat. So he puts up with the horrible treatment he gets from Iceblade because it’s how he survives.
Anyway, before everyone is made unconscious by the spells necessary to survive the ride on the peregrine, Tunstall details out the plans that Gershom sent along, which give a possible path that the mages and nobles took with the prince in tow. Possible. And he sends “the best possible team [he] can field.” WHICH IS THEM. Everyone go AWWWWWW because it’s SO CUTE. And I’m beginning to see how truly perfect these four individuals are going to work so well together. I’m eager to see what other surprises Farmer has up his sleeve. I’m ecstatic that Lady Sabine is coming along. And I already know what a great team Tunstall, Beka, and Achoo make. It’s possible that the prince isn’t anywhere near Arenaver at all, but it’s a start.
There is a part of me that kind of wants Iceblade to come along, but that’s purely because I want him to be continually shamed by Lady Sabine and Master Farmer for being a classist, misogynist shitface. I do! I just want hundreds of pages of him being humiliated. (If that isn’t in the book, lord, do I want that fic. I GIVE YOU THIS TASK, MY FRIENDS.) Lady Sabine remarks that he’s the kind of asshole who “gets the serving girls in corners and roughs them up,” so yeah, let’s shame him for hours. DAYS. ETERNITY.
Truthfully, I think this might be the most immediately entertaining Tortall book yet. I’m so glad I’m reading this.
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