Admiral, Marchwarden And Wyvan

The People Of The Wind, X.

(Although the pandemic curtails Christmas, some Christmas activities curtail blogging.)

Draun, introduced in Chapter IX, was the seventeenth major character in the novel. In X, after the farewell between Ferune and Daniel Holm, there is a teleconference between three already familiar characters:

Admiral Cajal, representing Terra;

 

Holm, now First Marchwarden (we are not told who, if anyone, has become Second);

 

Liaw of the Tarns, High Wyvan, Holm's colleague.

 

Cajal wants to negotiate the surrender and the two Avalonians pretend to think that he proposes to surrender to them! Holm boasts that his defense systems can resist any Terran bombardment. Cajal is convinced that a siege will suffice and that Ythri will cede Avalon after the war. But, before that, he pleads with them not to compel him to bombard. If he did, then it would be because he had decided to, not because they had compelled him to.

Cajal and Holm are two contrasting Admirals: the former neat and correct; the latter unkempt but defiant. Readers have no doubt whose side they are on.