Triumph of the Drahvin (audio story)
Triumph of the Drahvin was the second story in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield audio anthology The Eternity Club 1, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Goss and featured Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield.
Publisher's summary
An archaeological expedition led by a Drahvin Queen. What secrets has she uncovered in the forgotten deserts of Parroon? And why are people dying?
Plot
At Pym's order, Benny joins Grizella's expedition to Parroon as support staff and is made to keep her disagreements with Grizella's theories on the City of Parroon to herself given that she is not acting in her capacity as an archaeologist. Grizella tells the story of how the city had belonged to warrior women who had once been nuns and, with the exception of Sister Lost, supposedly married Flarg the Great Bull. The Sun Queen supposedly became his "heavenly wife" and was protected in the psychic Sun Palace, but Benny disagrees with this interpretation and Grizella admonishes her after hearing her talking with Starll about it.
From the Sun Palace, Grizella leads the group to the toxic Well of Sorrows where the nuns tanned animal hide for the savage male tribes of the wastelands at Flarg's order and inside of which live strange creatures. Altazar and 312 are each attacked by a woman in the night and Starll is left blind by an attack from behind. Benny notices that only the men have been harmed and tends to them with a dermografter, her technical knowledge and analgesic bandages respectively. Upon being healed, 312 briefly remembers being attacked by a woman angry at the dark, the night and her own loneliness and wants revenge.
In the morning, Benny and Grizella discover that Don Erasmus has been dragged away from his tent and they follow the trail to the Well of Sorrows where they find his remains. Grizella continues with the expedition despite this and Benny confronts her with the truth; the men kept the women in the citadel for breeding and slave labour, the psychic stones that they carved were taken off-world and the Sun Queen was a hostage. Some of the remaining stones contain psychic energy with holographs to tell the women's story and Benny believes that the truth should be told rather than the story that Grizella likes.
Grizella admits privately to Benny that she knew the truth and twisted the facts, which she hoped that Benny would be an accomplice to. She understood when she left Drahva that she would no longer be revered as a woman and has been attempting to rectify how women in the wider universe are treated by revising history in a positive light. Benny shows her the ruins of Sister Lost's hut, which had been made of psychic stone which released her thoughts once it fell down, explaining the attacks on the men of the group. They see her ghost and leave the men waiting as Benny asks Grizella if she knows the reason Benny came to the Eternity Club, but Grizella does not.
Cast
- Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
- 312 - Simon Kane
- Starll - Dan Starkey
- Grizella - Naana Agyei-Ampadu
- Professor Altazar - Shai Matheson
Worldbuilding
- The group ride horses.
- The Suspension of Geren is on the expedition.
- Starll tries to eat a pillar.
- The City of Parroon was a citadel from which warrior women dominated the male tribes of the desert. In the spring, the men would fight until only twenty were left. Those twenty men would be permitted into the city for reproduction.
- According to legend, Flarg the Great Bull took all but one of the nuns to become his wives. The remaining nun, Sister Lost, was banished beyond the walls.
- Don Erasmus is on the expedition. He oversleeps.
- Benny brings cakes and eggs.
- The nuns tanned animal hide at the Well of Sorrows.
- Drahva has hyenas. Grizella finds them delicious.
- Draconians consider burial in sand to be the highest honour.
- Benny offers to perform the Ritual of the Sharpened Star for Altazar, but she is not certain of the middle verses.
- Benny puts analgesic bandages on Starll's wounds.
- Benny uses a dermografter on Altazar.
Notes
Continuity
to be added
External links
- Official Triumph of the Drahvin page at bigfinish.com
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