In which Kiladi gets the third degree, Ride the Luck gets a job offer, and Clarence O’Berin gets a mixed reception.
This appears to be a chapter for Daav to encounter old acquaintances (“friends” is too strong a word for some of them, if not all). There is Clarence O’Berin, the Juntavas Boss who Daav met in “The Beggar King” (which is already 15 years ago, although one imagines they’ve met again a time or two since then). There is the merchant Gus Tav bel’Urik, who was one of the guests at the gather Daav held for his betrothed in Local Custom. And there is Scholar Expert Jen Sar Kiladi, who is clearly someone Daav knows well, though for now we are getting only hints as to how.
Clan Hedrede has gone up in the world. Aelliana notes here that they are High House; when last we heard of them, in Scout’s Progress, they were in the Mid rank. It was noted that they were in the top 5% of the Mid rank, but it was also noted that they’d been there, apparently content, for many years. And now, apparently, something has changed. One can’t help wondering if it had anything to do with that incident that occurred when last we heard of them.
The nature of Tey Dor’s establishment, at which Aelliana and Daav have an appointment following lunch, is not elaborated on here, but it’s established elsewhere that it revolves around guns and the shooting thereof. It would appear that firearm proficiency is one aspect of the preparations they’re making for the courier life.
As this is apparently a thing I notice now, Aelliana and Daav’s lunch is once again meatless; the soup is noted as being a vegetable chowder.
I like this chapter for the disagreement between Aelliana and Daav about whether or not Clarence is a friend. Aelliana’s proves that she sees past Daav’s own understanding of his thoughts/feelings toward Clarence, leading her to trust Clarence when she needs his help later.
Also, I note here Aelliana’s use of Terran, leading with the verb of the sentence: Practice, I need and later Kind it was. Do we conclude that this reflects Liaden syntax? Although in the second utterance, there is no proper subject in English, so does Liaden employ—like English—grammatical expletives?
Yes, I think that’s a reflection of Liaden syntax. If memory serves, there’s a scene in one of the prequels where Jethri is letting a Liaden crewmate practice her Terran on him and she does the same thing.
(It’s leading with the object, though, isn’t it, not with the verb? The verb is at the end in both those examples.)
(facepalm emoji here) Yes, of course those are the verbs are at the end! Don’t know what I was thinking. The first example leads with its object. The second example merely inverts the usual English syntax, which would have placed the expletive (dummy subject, placeholder) it first and the grammatical subject, kind, after the verb.