# Inhumi secrets and the ring *The Whorl list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 22 Jan 2000* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Alice Turner *22 Jan 2000, 10:30* Allan Lloyd theorized (apparently on Oct. 26, 1999): >> First, whatever happened to Horn in the pit was one of the most >> significant events in the novel. Horn says "With that fall the best part >> of my life was over. The pit was its grave." He may have been speaking >> of the betrayal of his wife to save himself, but I think it was more >> than that. When he was unconscious after falling I think Krait took much >> of his blood. The deal with Krait involved being given a transfusion of >> mixed blood from Krait. We know that inhumi can do this because Jahlee >> offered to return blood to the cow that she had fed from. (Horn didn't >> believe her, but he's a cynical, rather unpleasant person who sees the >> worst in everyone).<< This is certainly possible. Though I don't know about the returning of blood. Jahlee is a notably sarcastic creature (as is Krait), and this may be an instance of her humor. >> After a transfusion, the personalities and appearances of the donor and >> receiver tend to merge. Krait had previously eaten from Sinew, and >> Seawrack tells Horn how similar the three of them are, more so than just >> father/son resemblance. Also, after the pit experience, Horn's eyesight >> improves and he becomes a surprisingly good shot. So is the sharing of >> blood in some way good for humans who survive the experience?<< Certainly something happened there, a kind of death, but that it is "sharing of blood" is only a theory. (Actually, I am inclined to doubt it.) This is not the point where Horn's spirit goes into Silk's body, though--that, he says somewhere, happened later. >> Seawrack gives Horn a ring. This fairly trivial event gives a whole >> chapter its title. She tells Horn he must wear it because "he might fall >> in the pit again". Horn says that he never would have guessed that it >> would save his life on a ruined lander on Green. Does it protect the >> wearer from the vampiric Inhumi? This seems a bit simplistic, but could >> Wolfe be playing with the silver cross/vampire thing? The ring is made >> of some silvery metal that did not tarnish as pure silver would have. It >> also had a white stone that was very old.<< It is the ring that causes the Neighbors to choose Horn as the spokesman for humanity. We have to assume that the ring came from the Mother, who is or was a god of the Neighbors. It's indeed important, but I don't think it is a guard against the inhumi, necessarily. More of a Neighbor thing, and we know that the Neighbors were not able to guard themselves against the inhumi. >> The other thing that puzzles me is the dialogue on page 353 where Sinew >> claims that no-one gets bitten in Pajarocu. They agree that visitors do >> but natives of the town don't. Could it be the home brewed beer that is >> mentioned!<< Interesting! Wouldn't it be funny if that was the much-discussed "secret!" I had simply assumed that Pajarocu was a sort of DMZ, though--don't mess with us and we won't mess with you. -alga *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. ---