19 June, 2002
King's Blood Four
Sheri S. Tepper
1983
202 pp (MMPB)
I seem to be rereading all of Tepper's True Game books in an unusual order. I don't recommend reading the series in the order I've been doing it. (Yeah, right. These books are so out of print, nobody's going to run out and buy them on my recommendation, even if they wanted to.)
So, this is the first book in the first series, in publication order. In the internal chronology of the series, this follows The Search of Mavin Manyshaped. Peter is the son of Mavin, although he doesn't know it at the beginning of the novel; as far as he's concerned, he's a foundling, left on the doorstep of a School, Mertyn's House, when he was a baby.
The society in this world is based on a caste system which is organised by "Talents"-- psychic or magic powers such as mind-reading, telekinesis, shapeshifting, and healing. The nature and quality of one's powers determines one's role in society. The highest ranks are held by those with the power to Beguile their fellow men-- to inspire love and loyalty. Other people with powers (called "Gamesmen") tend to ally themselves with Kings and Princes. People with no power are referred to as "pawns," and are basically serfs who the Gamesmen use and abuse at will.
Young people are supposed to be protected in school, but unscrupulous people are everywhere, and Peter is horribly betrayed-- almost killed-- by somebody he had trusted and loved. He survives, but the price of his survival is to be sent away from the only home he's ever known to go to a new school, far away. Here is a scene I like, where King Mertyn, the leader of Peter's school, talks with the young man as he's recovering from his injuries:
"I am sorry you were hurt, Peter," [Mertyn] said. "Perhaps you would rather be dead, but I gambled you would not feel so a year from now. Had I the skill with shields and deflectors I do with other strategy, I would have saved you these wounds."For a long time I merely looked at him, at the grey hair falling in a tumbled lock across his forehead, at the line of his cheeks and the curve of his lips, so much like my own. There was nothing there unkindly, and yet I was angry with him. He had saved my life, and I hated him. The anger and hatred made no sense, were foolish. I would not repay him with foolishness, therefore I could not repay him.
[...]
He sighed, very deeply. "I am sending you away from Mertyn's House. Shielding you was forbidden. When we do things that are forbidden, there is always a price. For me, the price will be to lose you, for I have been fond of you, Peter." He leaned forward and kissed me, forbidden, forbidden, forbidden. Then he went away. I did not see him again.
For me, the price was to be sent away from everything I had ever known. It was hard, though not as hard as they could have made it, for they let Yarrel and Chance go with me. We were to become an Ordo Vagorum, so Chance said. I had put myself in another's hands, truly and completely. I had learned why that is foolish. Never mind that it is forbidden. It is foolish.
They did not forbid me to play the Game-- someday. I was no nearer to being named. There were wounds on my face which would make scars I would always carry. They said something about sending us to another House, one far away, one requiring a very long journey.
I got over being angry at King Mertyn. Each morning when I woke I had tears on my face left over from brightly colored dreams, but I could not really remember what they were.
Over the course of the next few hundred pages, Peter makes new friends and loses some old ones, suffers at the hands of enemies, meets his mother, and does some growing up.
In the context of the rest of the series, it's clear that this is the first book. Compared to later books, she hasn't entirely worked out how she wants thing to work in the True Game world. Also, one of the characters, Huld the Demon ("Demon" = mindreader) undergoes a big change between this book and the other ones. Later on (and also in the prequels), he's portrayed as one hundred per cent pure evil. Here, he's a more ambiguous figure. He's still a villain, but he's not totally committed to his villainy, and tries to blunt the edge of some of the principal villain's behavior.