Dresden Files Reread - Summer Knight Chapter 32

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This chapter opens with the assertion that cavalry charges are all about momentum, and that they flatten
everything in their way. This is...not accurate. Horses are not battering rams. I don't think that's necessarily a writing issue. Harry has very limited experiences of battles, and most of what he knows, or thinks he know, about them comes from the movies, where cavalry charges often work exactly like this. What we have here is actually both solid characterization and good use of earlier setup. Harry sets a ribbon of shield at the horses' feet, causing them to trip over it and, subsequently, one another. That this worked on more than just Lloyd Slate and Lord Talos, who were right in front, suggests that Talos may not know a whole lot more about cavalry charges than Harry does, because horses are generally fragile animals with notoriously fragile legs, and if your cavalry formation is not set up to accommodate the possibility that a horse goes down, it wasn't put together right. Honestly, with only about twenty fairy knights here, I don't think it makes sense for anyone to have been behind anyone else, but almost everything I know about cavalry charges that Harry doesn't is at the link up there, so don't set too much store by my opinion. I do know that "single line" is a perfectly legitimate formation for heavy cavalry (although so is "wedge") but there may be some reason it wouldn't have worked here. What's cool though is, Harry doesn't know shit about cavalry charges, but he does know horses, and this was established during the unicorn fight, as was the fragility of their legs. It didn't work quite how he was hoping on the unicorn, but it works very well here, toppling Slate and at least stopping a lot of the other Sidhe knights. Lord Talos's horse also falls, but he manages to jump clear, and comes after Harry with his sword. He doesn't have to drop his lance first or anything, because he didn't bring a lance, or any other weapon that's would extend farther forward than the head of his mount, further supporting my "Talos doesn't know anything about cavalry charges" theory. To be clear, some of his men brought lances, which to my mind makes it less likely than it otherwise might be that they were just that confident that Harry's little adventuring party would break and run. (Swords can work real good for fleeing infantry, just not for anyone who might hit back). 

Meryl gets between Harry and Talos, stopping his sword with her axe and machete, while he just bears down, slowly overpowering her by main strength, which is impressive given that Meryl can pick Harry up and throw him into a dumpster. They're at this long enough the exchange a few lines of dialogue, and if anyone on Harry's side had acted, instead of just standing around watching, things might have gone differently for Meryl. Instead, she breaks out of it herself by slamming her forehead into Talos's nose, but not in time to get out of the way before Slate runs her though with his sword. Harry, in a display of genuine cleverness, calls lightning up from the storm below them, and directs it at Slate's sword, electrocuting him and creating a shockwave that knocks down everyone except Talos. This is another moment I really like because it couldn't have happened in most scenes, even in this setting - how often is there a giant thunderstorm below you. Harry picks up his blasting rod and splashes useless fire against Talos's magic-repelling armor, then calls up a weak shield with his staff. While Talos is busy knocking his staff out of his hand, Harry pulls out his gun and shoots Talos. This also fails to penetrate the faerie armor, but drives Talos back and knocks him over, at which point Harry kicks him in the face, and then beats him about the head with the butt of the pistol until he stops moving. Given that the gun was steel, I think there's a chance he actually killed Talos here, but I don't remember if we see him alive later. Slate, whose favorite thing is apparently getting behind people while they're engaged with another opponent, hits Harry in the head with a broken spear from one of the Sidhe knights. He grabs Harry's gun, shoots at Harry, misses. Then Fix shatters his wrist with a big steel wrench, because wouldn't you know it, those bones are actually also pretty fragile on a human, too. Setup, reinforcement, payoff, or something. Fix proceeds to beat the absolute shit out of Slate, although of course we know this doesn't kill him, because he's still alive, technically, almost until the end of Changes. 

Both sides take a minute to regroup, during which Billy resumes human form to pull Meryl back behind his wolves, and check on Harry's injuries. He proposes running for it, here meaning, based on the responses he gets, running away, not continuing to run towards the Stone Table. No one likes this idea, but they don't have time to talk about it before Summer begins their second charge, this time on foot, only to be really dramatically interrupted by a body of Winter's cavalry rising up out of the river. They're let by Maeve, in pure white armor, who simply freezes one of her opponents from the inside out. This is important context for what Aurora, Maeve's equal and counterpart, might be like to deal with in a straight fight, which we're gonna be undertaking in a minute here. I think it's also the only time we see Maeve lucid, relatively sane, and on our side. She tells Harry that her forces have drawn Summer's further downriver, so they should have a clear path now. Then she tells Slate that they should "talk". 

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When they reach the base of the hill where the Stone Table stands, Meryl collapses. She asks Fix whether he'll get Lily home, and Harry whether he'll help. Harry reminds her that she paid for his help, which I think mostly is Harry trying to be funny when his new friend is dying, but also presages e.g. "Kincaid, can you be trusted?" "You're paid up through April." and reflects a solid understanding of the kind of cynicism a life like Meryl's can foster. If he says "Yes, of course, I'll help" or whatever, maybe he's just making the dying girl feel better, doesn't cost him anything to do that. "You paid for it" is more concrete. He also tells her to stay there, that she's done enough, but she says there's one more thing. On a first read, there's no reasonable way to know what's coming here, but it does make sure that Meryl's Choice, when it comes next chapter, doesn't feel totally out of left field. Harry has Fix stay with Meryl, which I guess is one definition of helping Fix save Lily, and heads on up the hill. 

Aurora already has Lily on the table, and is starting to pull the thread on the Unraveling. As it starts to work, it creates a kind of "dark gravity", which hurts against Harry's wizard's senses. I don't think we ever see anything else that feels like this, although it may not be totally dissimilar from Mordite. Harry uses ventas servitas to get it away from her, yells "meep meep" like the Roadrunner, and runs away. Aurora moves the earth under Harry's feet to knock him down, and then uses her own gust of wind to get the Unraveling back. She keeps him pinned in place with wind until she can summon a wall of thorns to immobilize him more securely. Harry starts trying to take it apart with his magic, slow and careful, since she's too much stronger than him for brute force to be effective, but his focus is broken when his allies start calling for help. His fear and anger would be an asset if this were a question of just blowing up the spell, but delicate work requires detachment. That's sort of interesting, given that Harry places a high value on emotional control, but is also by his own admission bad at delicate work. At least some of this is almost certainly that despite all his tricks for managing his emotions, it's really hard for him, but I think it's reasonably possible that practitioners with a higher affinity for precision spellwork also don't need to maintain the same degree of calm that he does to achieve the same results. And as if this weren't already bad enough, the last member of the Summer cavalry comes riding up, and aims their spear at his throat. 

We're very close to the end now, so that's exciting. Edits for Dissecting the Dresden Files are done up through Chapter Six of Storm Front, and most of those six chapters have been substantially expanded, so that's something to look forward to. Until next time, be Gay, do Crimes, and read All The Things!