Runig’s Rock
In which the treasures of the Clan are brought home.
The youngsters of the clan start to become involved in events, and show individual personalities. (Some of them, anyway. Though Shindi and Mik can probably be excused, considering their age.)
The obvious question is: what was that other ship waiting for? My guess is, it was waiting for Natesa. That is, not for her specifically, but for whoever might come to bring news of Korval’s situation, thereby increasing the number of Korval’s children who could be captured in one swoop.
(Another possibility is that there was some reason why they needed to watch someone actually pass through the outer defences before they made their attack; perhaps to check that they’d identified the number and location of all the defences. Against that is the fact that they apparently didn’t hang around to watch Natesa pass through the outer defences, but left to avoid being caught hanging around – which is interesting in itself, because it suggests they had some way of knowing she was coming.)
Another question is: If they hadn’t waited, and had attacked the Rock before Natesa arrived, would they have had any better success? I’m not sure they would; Luken is no Natesa, but it wouldn’t do to underestimate him.
Tomorrow: “Kin Ties”
It was my impression that the other ship waited to see exactly what the mechanical protections were and whether they could be penetrated. Are we to assume that because that ship no longer showed on their scans that it had no way of observing Natesa’s ship?
Had she not been there, I have to believe that Luken and Kareen (with the help of Quin) would have managed to save the precious Korval treasure. Although we saw with Daav’s mission in Ghost Ship that Korval is not always able to best the DOI without sometimes high cost to themselves.
Coming back to this, I have no new observation except that in the midst of everything else, it continues a process begun in “Daughter of Dragons” to give us an appreciation and care for Kareen.