Murtagh (novel)

Murtagh

Author	Christopher Paolini
Cover artist	John Jude Palencar
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	November 7, 2023[1]
ISBN	978-0-5936-5086-8

Murtagh is a 2023 fantasy novel by American writer Christopher Paolini.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

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Set a year after the events of Inheritance, the story begins with Murtagh entering a tavern called the Fulsome Feast in a city called Ceunon. He strikes up a conversation with the daughter of the owner, who wants to run away. The man Murtagh has been waiting for, Sarros, enters and shows Murtagh a shiny black stone that Murtagh had paid him to find. Sarros, however, betrays Murtagh and threatens him with mercenaries. Despite mysterious magical protections on Sarros and the mercenaries, Murtagh kills them all with a magical fork. Just before dying, Sarros tells Murtagh he was protected by the witch-woman Bachel and the Dreamers, as they have enchanted the bird-skull amulets that prevent them from magical harm. Murtagh leaves the Fulsome Feast, giving his fork to Essie, and contacts the dragon he is bonded with, Thorn.

Notably, this scene from Essie's perspective was part of Paolini's 2018 book The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm.

Thorn and Murtagh reflect on the stone's origin, having received a warning in Inheritance about places where those stones were. They decide to leave Ceunon and fly to the city of Gil'ead, where a woman named Ilenna, who may know about Bachel. At Gil'ead, a werecat called Carabel finds Murtagh and tells him that she knows about Bachel. If Murtagh can free Silna, a werecat child held captive by soldiers of Captain Garven's guard, she will tell him. To join Captain Garven's guard and find the child, Murtagh must first kill Muckmaw, a huge fish infesting the nearby waters.

To catch Muckmaw, Murtag magically excavates a scale from the grave of the dragon Glaedr who Murtagh killed while under hypnosis a year before. With great regret, Murtagh does so, and learns Muckmaw's location from old sailors, as well as the fact that Muckmaw was created by a villain named Durza. Once he and Thorn reach that area, Murtagh sets the scale onto a fishing rod and fishes for Muckmaw. When Muckmaw is caught, Maurtagh finds his magic ineffective. After a ferocious battle, Murtagh finally kills Muckmaw falls unconscious. Upon awakening, he takes the head to Captain Garven and is soon allowed into the guard. That night, Murtagh sneaks into the city's catacombs, encountering magical laboratories and artifacts. When he finds Silna, he must fight his way out, and one of the spellcasters in the guard is revealed to be a Dreamer through a bird-skull amulet. Murtagh flees through some sewers to Carabel. Where it is revealed that Silna is the wearcat woman's daughter. Carabel allows Murtagh to alert Nasuada, the Queen of the Realm, of Garven's crimes. Carabel then tells Murtagh that Bachel and the Dreamers live far in the North, and Murtagh leaves, considering going to the capital city of Illirea and mounting an expedition to Bachel with Nasuada, who he also has feelings for.

While leaving Gil'ead, a man named Lyreth recognizes Murtagh and brings him to a secret house where enemies of the new government are hiding. Lyreth then traps him in a room that prevents him from doing magic. Thorn, fearing Murtagh would die, flies into Gil'ead and rips the house apart. However, as he grabs Murtagh, his wings are trapped inside, and his intense claustrophobia, remnants from the trauma he faced from the former king Galbatorix, leading him to lay waste to Gil'ead with fire.

Worried that they cannot face Nasuada after burning Gil'ead the pair fly to far north directly, landing in a small valley called Nal Gorgoth. It is filled with ancient buildings, and when Murtagh and Thorn enter they are greeted by Bachel, who is already aware of them. She is vague about who she is: saying that the Dreamers are the true disciples of the Dreamer Who Dreams. Murtagh is not able to get answers, so once they are given a room in a tower, they sneak out at night and discover that a Forsworn rider named Saerlith went to Nal Gorgoth int he past. Murtagh stays for three days, growing more and more disturbed by what he sees: people having the same dreams, Bachel moving a mountain, and a wounded man being killed by Bachel during a boar hunt. He also befriends a woman named Alín, who loves dragons and is fascinated by Murtagh's talk of the outside world. Seeing that Alín had been whipped for talking to him too much, Murtagh decides to leave and kill his guards along the way. Sidetracked, he investigates a sacred cave, and Bachel and her assistant Greave capture both him and Thorn.

Murtagh attempts to resist, but he gives up after torture and is made into a slave with Bachel's magical breath. He lapses in and out of consciousness, befriending another prisoner- an Urgal named Uvek. Bachel teaches him how she and the Dreamers worship Azlagûr the Destroyer, a being who wishes to raze the world when he wakes. After killing a tribe of nomads on Bachel's behalf, Murtagh convinces Alín, disillusioned with Bachel's treatment of Thorn, to leave the drug that keeps him sedated out of his food. Becoming blood brothers, Uvek gives Murtagh a gem with healing energy in it, but Murtagh still cannot use magic. Finally, as Murtagh is about to sacrifice a woman in a demented festival, the drug wears off and he uses magic to kill some worshippers. Chaos ensues, with Bachel fleeing with a captured Alín into the caves. Murtagh kills Lyreth, who is also a Dreamer, and Greave. Then, Thron stays with Uvek due to his claustrophobia, and Murtagh runs into the caves to save Alín. He fights several disciples and soon reaches a well, far beneath which he can feel Alín's consciousness. As he goes down small tunnels to that location, he encounters many horrible mountains and kills them with his sword Zar'roc. In a moment of inspiration, he uses the Name of Names to change Zar'roc's name, which meant Misery, to Ithring, which means Freedom. Eventually, Murtagh makes it down to the room where Bachel, Alín, and the twelve disciples are waiting.

Bachel reveals that she has the Dautherdart Niernen, a powerful weapon from Inheritance. Murtagh kills the disciples, throwing them down a hole in the middle of the room, and he is finally attacked by Bachel. At first, it seems a very lopsided fight, with Bachel overpowering Murtagh, but eventually, the room begins to shake around them, and Murtagh kills Bachel by dropping a giant crystal on her. However, Murtagh and Alín seem to be doomed by the collapsing room, until Uvek and Thorn, overpowering his claustrophobia, burrow down and save them both.

Murtagh then wakes at Illirea, where Nasuada is sheltering Murtagh and Thorn. Murtagh tells Nasuada what has happened, and she seems concerned, but she asks Murtagh, who she also has feelings for, to stay in Illirea for a while, and he agrees.

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