While I'll freely admit that Pagan In Exile wasn't as glorious on this reread as I had wished, Pagan's Vows made up for that and more, partly because things that were set up in Book Two get paid off here, and partly because the characterization feels more like it did in Book One (which, remember, I have yet to review but have read repeatedly). (view spoiler)[Roland and Pagan have left Bram for the Abbey of St Martin, and it should surprise no one that trouble has followed them here. Unfortunately, all the traits Pagan's picked up in order to survive serve him poorly in a monastery. He's mouthy, and the monks don't appreciate it, especially Clement, who immediately puts him in a one-novice honors program in Latin and rhetoric. The changes in Roland and Pagan, and between Roland and Pagan, make up the heart of the series for me. Roland's guilt over loving Esclaramonde in Book Two, and his subsequent grief, put a rift between himself and Pagan for a good chunk of the book. Roland's motivation now is not to lose anyone else he loves, which at this point is Pagan. However you read their relationship (platonic or would've-been-gay-in-the-21st-century) it's clear they're the dearest people to each other on the face of the earth. This monastery is their last chance at a peaceful life, and not only is Roland all torn up over losing Esclaramonde, he's terrified that Pagan's misadventures will get Pagan kicked out, forcing Roland to go after him because a life without Pagan is no life at all. Neither of them understand that what Pagan is getting from Clement is actually a top-notch education. One of the big reveals at the end of the novel, and the setup for Books Four and Five, is that no matter what Pagan tries to do, he'll never be a monk. He will, however, make a fantastic canon lawyer, given his sharp intellect and, shall we say, penchant for spirited discourse. Clement turns out to be rather proud of Pagan, his best student in many years. It's a sweet little turnabout. Pagan's motivation, past "fit in here for Roland's sake", is to bring Aeldred the almoner and Montazin the cellarer to justice. Montazin is blackmailing Aeldred, who was booted out of his last monastery for molesting the boys in his charge. Pagan takes a dim view of molestation, not merely because it's wrong but because the same thing happened where Pagan grew up -- never to him, but to a boy called Lambert. Sadly, Lambert isn't the only instance of which Pagan is aware. He considers this commonplace. Pagan will stop at nothing to see Aeldred removed from St Martin. Nobody's been hurt yet. He intends to keep it that way. Watching Pagan's problem-solving is as brilliant as watching his temper is painful. Oh, Pagan. Because there's always going to be a part of him that believes that violence solves everything. It's to be expected of a boy who had to fend for himself on the streets of Jerusalem, whose very birth was the result of a rape. We're never allowed to forget that the monastery is an exception to a brutal rule. Roland, newly converted to pacifism, cannot exist outside these walls. Pagan, with no such scruples, has fierce explosions of fury that wouldn't look strange anywhere but here. It's the "anywhere but here" that ultimately saves his bacon. Once Pagan gets proof of Aeldred's misdeeds at his former home, Montazin attempts to kill him for it -- and fails, but has already killed Pagan's ally and unlikely friend Raymond, rather a Malfoyesque figure to Pagan's Potter. Montazin's failure is only down to Roland's overriding instinct to protect Pagan: I'd rather forget Montazin. He may have deserved it, but [. . .] Once he was a man, and now he's -- what? Half a man? Sitting there blank-eyed, drooling, making vague gestures and uttering meaningless words. [. . .] I don't want to see him again. I don't want to see what Roland did to him with that candlestick.Montazin may have made Pagan deaf in one ear, but Roland inflicted a traumatic brain injury on Montazin and Montazin will never be the same. Somehow Roland is okay with this outcome, not only because Pagan's safe, but because he is slowly learning about God's mercy, not exactly a point of emphasis in that old-time religion. Reading Pagan and Roland's parting is always painful. -- Yes, Roland stays on to be a monk; he can't survive anywhere else. He can't go on to study at Carcassonne with Pagan, because Roland couldn't even read before he entered the monastery. He won't take up arms for anyone. So Roland's got to be a monk or he's going to starve. Still, it's a tearful goodbye for all of us: Roland, Pagan, and me. "What man doth live without affections?" asks Abbot Anselm. The only reason Roland can accept this parting at all is because Pagan will prosper by it. He'll go to university, which monks cannot. The last we see of Roland and Pagan, Pagan is sobbing in Roland's arms because this man has been the first to see anything worthwhile in him, the very first ever to care whether he lived or died, and again: however you read their relationship, it is abundantly clear that here is love. In a reversal of roles, it is Roland who acts the squire to Pagan, Roland who recognises that Pagan will rise to such great heights and that he must be content to have known him when. Roland helps Pagan dress, puts him in the saddle -- remember Pagan is still injured from his fight with Montazin -- and bids him farewell:"Pray for me. Think of me." He grabs my good hand and presses it to his lips. He folds my fingers around the reins. He steps back. "I'll see you again," he says, and slaps the white crupper in front of him.And for that reason, I can't imagine wanting to read the other books. I can't imagine Pagan without Roland, through some other narrator's eyes, and I'm not sure I'd enjoy the journey as much as I have with these two. Book Three feels very much like a proper ending, so much so that I'd divide the Pagan Chronicles into a trilogy and a couple of stand-alone sequels. I may read them, so I can find out what happened next, but I probably won't be reviewing them in this kind of detail. I probably won't even be thinking about them in detail. I'll rate them, but I may not be bothered to have an opinion because I'm so spoiled by the story of Pagan and Roland that the story of Pagan without Roland just doesn't interest me. They're David and Jonathan set in 12th-century France. What wouldn't I love about that? (hide spoiler)]
