Vandar
Winterfair
In which the first day of Winterfair passes.
Seems Val Con’s taken Miri up on her promise to learn Low Liaden. (And he’s teaching her bows, too; she recognised the bow he gave the king during the medal ceremony.) Well, she did say she has a lot more free time now the king’s men have taken over repair and upkeep of the farm.
And that brings to mind something else I didn’t pick up on in that chapter: the king says something about having arranged for repairs to the farm because of the rebels having done extensive damage, but Miri made it sound like they repaired everything, including the general dilapidation that she and Val Con had been working on. And it doesn’t seem like the rebels would have had time to do a great deal of damage when they were concentrating on dealing with Miri. So was the state of the farm mostly just the state it had already been in before the rebels showed up? And if so, did someone genuinely think the rebels had caused it because they didn’t realise? Or does the king know what the score is, and is using the rebels as an excuse to help out?
The king also said that he was turning the farm into a national monument/museum and even station some military guards there (as protection from further invasions?). As to the repairs: He’s a king, not an insurance agent. It doesn’t take Liaden melanti to decide that having such an historically important place collapse would not work out well for the reputation of a king. The guards also need some space to live.
In effect, it seems as if the king buys the farm.