Recap of HOUSE OF ASSASSINS by Correia
Book 2 of the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior
This is the second installment in an ongoing recap of the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. Correia is currently at work on the fifth book. I’m moving the longer recaps over to the CrackerStack, and a tidier, more succinct recap will end up on Upstream when all is said and done.
Watch this review/listen to it in the video below.
At the end of SON OF THE BLACK SWORD, our heroes experienced a “breaking of the fellowship,” and now we get to follow several focal characters as they move through different areas in Lok.
Thera Vane, the prophet of the Forgotten Gods, has been kidnapped by the wizard Sikasso and taken to the House of Assassins for interrogation. She learns a great deal about this “Lost House.” Unlike traditional Great Houses of Lok, they aren’t united by a bloodline or a family name; they’re a genealogical patchwork made of stolen children. Magical aptitude is rare and the Assassins’ numbers are capped, so they steal adept children from all over the land, then test them and train them, and discard the ones who don’t pass the trials to advance in their ranks.
Right now the House of Assassins depends heavily on the Inquisition for their magic. The only two known sources are black steel—like the ancestor blades—or pieces of demon corpses, which are dangerous to harvest. Sikasso thinks that Thera has a potential third source, which gives her the prophetic visions she receives, and he wants her help to cultivate and extract it.
During this time we’re treated to flashbacks of Thera’s earlier life; she was born to House Vane, members of the warrior caste, and her father was a respected man. One day a meteor flew over their lands, made of the same black steel as the ancestor blades, and a small fragment broke off and struck Thera in the head. Ever since then she’s had a scar, and she’s heard the Voice in her mind. (It’s worth noting that as the series progresses, there is a clear association between the black steel and the Forgotten Gods and their power.) The Voice has only ever caused problems for Thera. Her family lost social respect, though her father never loved her less for it. After Thera’s arranged marriage failed, she was found by Ratul, a man who was also being directed by the Forgotten Gods, and he helped her on her way.
Ratul, it should be noted, was the head of Ashok Vadal’s order, and the one who told him his life was a lie. This is the second time he, as an Inside Man, has influenced a key character in the spiritual uprising.
Sikasso the Assassin has his own problems, though. In the last book, Ashok hacked off Sikasso’s arm with a battle axe, leaving him unable to perform magic spells or “patterns.” Because the House of Assassins is full of backstabbing, uh, assassins…his leadership is now in question, and others begin to make moves against him. There were once patterns that could regrow lost limbs, but that knowledge has been missing for centuries. Without his arm, Sikasso will most likely be killed by ambitious underlings, and his vision of independence from the Inquisition will fail.
In desperation, Sikasso rummages through their stores of demon parts and finds an arm to attach to himself. This grants him incredible powers, but much like Nadan Somsak in the previous book, he will also become unstable, or even insane.
Meanwhile, Ashok Vadal and his company of rebels are on the hunt for the House of Assassins so they can rescue Thera. After Ashok killed Nadan, he took command of the Somsak warriors and added them to the rebellion. They head to a city called Niramporn (check spelling) where the smuggler Gutch has some underground contacts. Gutch and the noble soldier Jagdish enter Niramporn in disguise, however their mission fails and Gutch is captured by a rival criminal. Ashok enters Niramporn on his own to rescue Gutch, but he crosses paths with three Protectors who are hunting for him. Even without his sword Angruvadal he’s able to defeat them, but unfortunately kills one, an action he heavily laments. Ashok and Jagdish rescue Gutch and take his captor prisoner.
The excursion into Niramporn fails to produce a lead on Thera’s location. Shortly thereafter, Ashok crosses paths with a member of the House of Assassins. They fight, and Ashok kills him before he can interrogate him. With conventional means having failed, Ashok cries out to the Forgotten Gods in sheer frustration, and suddenly he meets a pair of Casteless workers who worked for [the assassin]. They tell him where [assassin] liked to travel by boat, and Ashok realizes that the House of Assassins is up the nearby river.
This marks the first real spiritual act by Ashok, and a major milestone in his progression from a devotee to the Law.
As the characters all close in on the House of Assassins, several huge developments occur in quick succession. Thera undergoes the Trials, where she’s required to harvest several bones from the Graveyard of Demons. She’s pursued by a demon into an evil shrine, where the god in her head starts fighting with a demon god.
Jagdish and the other rebels, who refer to themselves as the Sons of the Black Sword, are able to kill a demon with conventional weapons and military tactics, providing the men with a needed morale boost.
Ashok duels the wizard-hybrid Sikasso, and while Sikasso initially overpowers and defeats him, there is a fragment of Angruvadal embedded in Ashok’s chest that brings him back from the brink of death. In fact, he may have gone all the way there…
In the end, Ashok wins, Sikasso dies, the Sons rescue Thera, and they blow up the House of Assassins using “Fortress powder” (gunpowder.) The surviving assassins scatter, planning to regroup and rebuild later. Ashok begins to understand the nature of his arrangement with the Forgotten Gods, although he’s still got a ways to go as far as shedding his old ideas about the Law.
Other characters to check up on:
Grand Inquisitor Omand: He’s still pulling strings in the Capitol, figuring out who he needs to kill in order to keep his machinations from coming to light. We see him at the Tower of Silence, a giant dome where traitors are chained up to die under the scorching sun—this place has a growing role in the series. Omand is planning a takeover of all of Lok, replacing the Great Houses with a puppet king (Devedas), as well as his own ascension to godhood. In his final scene, we learn that Omand and the other Inquisitors have a demon captive in a saltwater tank below ground, and they regularly harvest its limbs for magic. They interrogate the demon from time to time, trying to learn more about the powers it serves.
Rada and Karno: Devedas assigns Karno to guard Rada on her journey as she travels to visit the head of her order, who knows more about the Casteless and the early days of the Law. This information is what Rada was after in the previous book, but she was deterred from finding it after the Inquisition threatened her. It reaffirms that the Casteless keep old religious traditions alive, and their ideas are a profound threat to the atheistic order of The Law. Rada and Devedas are in a romantic relationship.
Devedas: His role is slightly diminished compared to the previous book, but he’s in league with Omand to become the King of Lok. The difference is that Devedas is a True Believer and wants power for the benefit of the land, to end the regular squabbles between the Great Houses, and establish lasting peace. This will go about as well as it always does, but we’ll see how it plays out in his particular case as the series continues.
The next book is DESTROYER OF WORLDS. We’ll get some very welcome developments in that volume, including a budding romance between Ashok and Thera, a visit to the Isle of Fortress, and a long-awaited showdown between Ashok and Devedas. With Sikasso out of the way and the House of Assassins scattered, Omand will have to get even more ambitious with his next moves…
Thanks for tuning in, and keep following along for the next installment, coming soon.