In the eleventh chapter of Cold Fire, this book continues to destroy every cell in my body. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Circle Opens.
Trigger Warning: For excessive talk of fires, pyrophobia, murder, child death.
This feels so bleak and upsetting to me because I don’t even know how anyone can ever get justice for what Bennat has done.
I suppose there’s a slim chance that Bennat Ladradun was not behind the Jossaryk fire, but I don’t really think it’s worth entertaining at all. This man set this fire out of revenge, out of an inflated sense of worth and value, out of a perverted sense of moral rightness. He did it to get what he wanted, and he killed twelve people because of it. He sent Daja and Frostpine into that fire, knowing they could have died doing so, knowing that without a doubt, someone in that household would not make it out alive. That’s the cost he made these people pay, and for what? To usurp a local bureaucracy? To prove his mother wrong? How the hell is this worth it?
Bennat doesn’t think in those terms, of course. But I couldn’t think of anything else as Daja ran through that house, futilely trying to save every life she came across. And Daja herself was not futile; I admire her willingness to refuse to give up, and that deserve commendation. But Bennat set this fire to destroy, and the outcome was always going to be deadly. I think that Daja knew that this was an eventuality, too. As she did her best to maintain her shield’s strength, you can see her concede space and power to the fire as it roared louder and faster through the wooden home. She had to know, right? Deep down?
That’s a moot point, though. Daja and Frostpine’s heroism was not done in vain, and it’s easy to see how their work within the Jossaryk home was instrumental in a number of people surviving the fiery nightmare. What I wanted to focus on instead was how Bennat’s selfish actions negatively impacted everyone around him. There’s the obvious, of course: twelve people perished, including the brace servant and the infant that Daja had tied to her back. Jossaryk himself died trying to save people at the children’s party he was hosting. Did Bennat know that the party was scheduled that night??? Not that this would make matters less serious if he’d not known, but JESUS CHRIST.
On a smaller level, the act has devastated those who survived. There’s an incredibly raw moment shared between Daja and Frostpine just after they escape the fire, and it broke my heart:
She knew what he meant, but that wasn’t what she needed to say. I want to go home, she told him. Her eyes hurt; she wanted to cry, but she was so dried out she couldn’t produce tears. To Summersea. To our family.
On the first caravan out of here in the spring, he promised.
I don’t want to say that this is the most important reaction here, because I know that it pales in comparison to the greater story of loss and murder. Daja and Frostpine did not lose family members or friends or loved ones. But this is the first time in this quartet that one of the foster-siblings has desperately wished they could go home immediately, and I think that’s important to point out. Who could blame her? The pages after this are all brutal and distressing, full of tragedy and pain. Frostpine couldn’t save an elderly couple; some of the firefighters died; Olaksan passed all because of a city council decision.
It’s a hellish thing to think about, and there’s a huge part of me that’s dreading the next section from his point of view. It’s going to be terrible to read.
The original text contains use of the word “crazy” and “mad.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2dKltGCDLU
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