Loose threads

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

In KoA, after the assassination attempt, when Gen and Costis are walking back to Gen’s room... It’s been noted (I missed this on I don’t know how many readings of KoA) that the comments about Gen’s bloody hand probably refer to  blood from the slice in his palm from the assassin’s long knife.  And when he wakes up screaming from the nightmare, and is staring at his bloody hand (and the blood spotted nightshirt), again it’s the sliced palm bleeding, not his sliced abdomen.  Is it fear of losing his remaining hand, and possibly his life, prompting the nightmare?  General flashback to when his right hand was cut off, and the entire health nightmare which followed?

 

Then, when Costis shakes him awake from the beginnings of the next nightmare (later, in the Queen’s bed), Attolia comes in and Gen says the “tell me you won’t…” bit – is this residual from the previous nightmare, combined with his close brush with death bringing back the “deaf, dumb, and blind” fear from QoA?

 

Because it’s not from the first nightmare, after the fight with his wife, that he is so shaken, and needs the “tell me you won’t …” reassurance – that comes after they’ve decamped to her room, and apparently reconciled their differences.

 

Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it all.

Comments

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

I think the nightmare was about having to kill people, possibly.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting idea.

What had bothered me before, with the nightmares being caused by Attolia smacking him, was the sequence. He wakes up totally shaken and needing reassurance the NEXT day, and the NEXT nightmare, not the original one.

I am inclined to think you nailed it Willow!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Maybe there is more than one nightmare. The original one: the dogs, the sword, Attolia dancing then stopping to watch. That's the one he had when the Magus was working in the library. He was shaken, but not stricken like he was in KoA. The second one: the eyes, ears, etc. More personal and reflecting his fear of Irene vs. the loving relationship that is growing between them.

Good point, Willow. His reaction in the dungeon with Relius shows his feelings about killing people along with his anger at the jailers and others who had hurt him, and the power he now holds as king.