Cinnabar Shadows Chapter 14: Pavek and Javed's Pursuit Into the Forest
Book: Cinnabar Shadows by Lynn Abbey | Series: Dark Sun - Chronicles of Athas, Book 4 | ISBN: 0-7869-0181-0
The Commandant
Chapter 14 switches back to Pavek, and it introduces one of the best new characters in the book: Commandant Javed.
Javed is an elf. Old. Career military. Six decades of service to Urik. Three rubies in his steel medallion for being named Hamanu’s Champion. Two diamonds for Hero of Urik. He’s commanded armies of four thousand. He rescued an ambassador from Raam. He sailed dust-schooners on the Sea of Silt and led an expedition across these same mountains to the Dragon’s Crown at the edge of the world.
And Pavek remembers standing on the King’s Way as a child, holding his mother’s hand, watching Javed return from a campaign against Gulg in a parade. That’s how legendary this elf is. He’s the kind of soldier that every young templar grew up hearing stories about.
So why is this living legend riding next to a freshly minted high templar, asking Pavek for orders?
That question hangs over their entire dynamic. Javed tests Pavek constantly. He frames his advice as questions. He drops facts like traps, waiting to see if Pavek will take the bait or think it through. When Javed suggests a two-day detour to Ject for a guide, Pavek has to figure out if it’s a real recommendation or a test.
The Decision
Pavek chooses to push straight ahead. No detour. The moons are converging in four nights, and whatever Kakzim plans to do, he’ll do it then. They can’t afford two extra days.
And Javed’s response? “Good. Better than I expected. Better than I’d hoped from the Hero of Quraite.”
He wanted Pavek to refuse. The old warrior was testing whether the young templar could resist the easy option. Pavek passed. And for the first time, there’s genuine respect in Javed’s voice when he calls Pavek “my lord.”
They push hard. Three days kank-back with barely a stop. Then they leave the kanks behind and scale the mountains on foot, losing two templars to carelessness on the way. Javed doesn’t slow down. Carelessness, he says both times. Keep moving.
Silk Shirts and Poisoned Arrows
At the forest-side base of the mountains, Javed orders everyone into silk tunics and leather armor. Pavek picks up his tunic and can’t believe it. Silk? On a military expedition?
Javed explains. The halflings use tiny bows with poisoned arrows. The bows look silly, but the poison will kill you. The silk works in two ways. Most of the time, the arrows just slide off. But when they don’t, the silk pushes into the wound without tearing. Pull the silk out and the arrowhead comes with it, poison still stuck to the fabric instead of your insides.
Pavek is skeptical. Javed tells him about watching a healer work an arrow out of a man’s gut near Balic, with silk as good as new and the soldier walking ten days later. “Been a believer ever since.”
I appreciate how Abbey handles military logistics in this book. It’s not dry or boring. Every piece of equipment tells you something about the world and the people using it. Silk armor says this is a military that has fought halflings before and learned from it.
Into the Forest
The forest hates them. Twenty templars hacking through undergrowth with broad-bladed swords make a lot of noise and do a lot of damage. The trees seem to watch them. The halfling hair that Pavek carries still points forward, straight and true.
Javed feels it too. “It’s too damned quiet. Trees. I hate trees.”
The ambush comes from the treetops. Poisoned arrows rain down. Javed orders a tight circle, everyone kneeling. “Defend your face! That’s where you’re vulnerable.” The silk holds. One templar gets grazed on the hand and drops unconscious from the poison, but she’s their only casualty.
They capture four halflings. None speak the common tongue. Or so they claim.
Cerk Steps Forward
Commandant Javed does what templars do. He threatens necromancy. He grabs a woman who was huddled close to one of the men. A sword at her throat, blood trickling down. He starts reading from a scroll with a heavy black seal.
Pavek steps aside. He’s good at intimidation. Born for it, they used to joke. Big and ugly, natural advantage. But he hates it. Now that he holds the highest rank imaginable, he never wants to professionally intimidate anyone again. So he lets Javed work.
The man cracks. He’ll lead them to the village. He swears he knows nothing about a blond halfling with slave scars.
At the village, Javed threatens to burn the tree-homes with the children inside. And it starts happening. A templar grabs a burning halfling child as it bolts from its flaming house.
Then a mind-bending shout hits everyone: STOP.
It’s Cerk. Beaten, bruised, walking on a crutch. He hobbles out of the underbrush and gives himself up. He tells Pavek everything.
The BlackTree Brethren used to be his home, but Kakzim took them over. Cerk came back to the forest and denounced what they’d done in Urik. He called on the elders to act, but Kakzim split the brotherhood with his mind-bending voice. The halflings who beat Cerk were the ones still loyal. The ones who refused were strung up in the black tree.
And Ruari, Zvain, Mahtra? Kakzim captured them. He plans to sacrifice them tonight when the moons converge. Their blood for the black tree’s roots. An offering to wash away his failures.
Javed wants to kill Cerk and be done with it. Pavek restrains the commandant’s sword arm. “He’s not Kakzim. We’ll let him take us to this tree.”
Cerk insists only Pavek should come. The maniple templars won’t be able to resist Kakzim’s mind-bending. Pavek refuses to go alone. Javed erupts because Cerk can barely walk. Pavek puts him on his shoulders.
“Tonight! We’ll get there tonight, if I have to carry you. Start walking!”
My Thoughts
This chapter is all about leadership and its costs. Pavek is growing into his role in real time. At the start of the expedition, he was playing a game with Javed, answering questions with questions, trying to seem wise. By the end, he’s snarling orders and carrying a halfling on his back through a hostile forest.
Javed is the highlight, though. He’s the kind of character you could write a whole book about. An elf who has served a tyrant for sixty years and somehow kept his honor intact. He tests Pavek not to humiliate him, but to make him better. When Pavek makes the right call, Javed backs him completely. When Pavek isn’t willing to do the dirty work of intimidation, Javed steps in without judgment. It’s mentorship disguised as military command.
The scene with the halfling village is hard to read. Abbey doesn’t shy away from what templars actually do. They burn homes with children inside to make adults talk. Pavek doesn’t stop it because he can’t stop it and still get the information he needs. His convenient conscience, as Ruari once called it, is on full display. He’ll step aside for the violence but won’t swing the sword himself.
Cerk’s arrival saves everyone, including Pavek’s soul. But the clock is ticking. The moons are converging tonight, not tomorrow as Hamanu calculated. Kakzim has his friends. And Pavek is carrying a halfling through a forest that wants him dead.
Previous: Chapter 13 - Ject and the Mountains | Next: Chapter 15 - The BlackTree Convergence