In which Ochin has been thinking.
I am curious about whom Cheladin intends to quote Ochin’s assessment to. I can’t think of any regulatory body that would be able to claim and enforce jurisdiction if he’s right about what’s going on.
Continue reading
In which Vepal and Sanchez go for a walk.
Commander Sanchez’s “easy security job on Panore” rings a bell; in “Quiet Knives”, Panore is the holiday planet for rich people that the protagonists were always saying they’d go visit some day.
Continue reading
Dutiful Passage
Andiree Approach
In which there may be trouble ahead.
We get quite a few new names in this chapters. There are the characters who have not been specifically referenced before, such as the crew of Pale Wing, and also characters who have been mentioned before but named, such as Dutiful Passage‘s third mate and the woman whose actions resulted in Hazenthull being brought along by Tocohl and Tolly.
Tocohl has a bit of a new name, too: this is the first time her surname has been mentioned. I wonder if it signifies anything, the way her forename does. (I wonder if it’s actually her surname, or just part of her cover?)
The third mate has the surname Tiazan, which is, as Padi recently reminded us, the name of Miri’s Liaden relatives. I did briefly entertain the amusing notion that Miri had for some reason joined the crew for this voyage, incognito, and that Shan’s comment about the third mate being “a bit stiff in the honor” was a joke. But of course we know that Miri is still back on Surebleak.
In which Diglon Rifle does what he may to help a teammate.
Poker was one of the first new things Diglon was taught after he came under the dragon’s wing, and he showed an immediate aptitude for it, so it’s good to see he’s continuing to develop it. In general, it’s pleasing to see that Diglon is thriving in his new environment – and a bit worrying that Hazenthull apparently isn’t, even now.
I say “even now” because the internal evidence suggests that it’s been over a year since the two of them came to stand with Korval: baby Lizzie, who was not yet born then, has progressed to standing up under her own power.
Lizzie’s development also means that although it’s early spring – “winter having been gone some weeks now” – it’s the spring after the one in which Lizzie was born, and so doesn’t tell us anything useful about that contested spring I’ve been worried about lately.
(It also means that I’ve scheduled this story too early, which is an acknowledged hazard of scheduling a story without reading it first. The actual position would be some time after Dragon Ship – and possibly one or two more novels as well, but since I haven’t read those yet either I’m not going to attempt a definite pronouncement.)
It’s nice that Alara has found a chance to make an alliance with somebody whose company she enjoys and who she has an attraction to, but I do wonder how she’s planning to explain her choice to her delm. It’s all very well saying that Diglon isn’t an Yxtrang any more, but is she going to be able to get away with not mentioning that he was? The delm did specify a “long lineage” as one of the criteria to look for, which means he’s going to want to know about Diglon’s antecedents.
One thing that might help is that, Clan Silari having made the decision to leave Liad, Alara and her clan are themselves, in a sense, no longer what they were either.
Incidentally, I notice that Diam, one of the two people who entertained Diglon on his evening off, is another of those for whom the authors have chosen not to constrain the reader’s imagination by specifying pronouns.
Next: Dragon Ship
Day 54
Standard Year 1393
Dutiful Passage
Jump
In which various people spend time in transit.
I haven’t been noting it every time a relevant detail has come up, but I think by now we have to acknowledge that in the Liaden universe cats are sapient and capable of dramliz-type abilities. Some cats, anyway. Merlin, at least. (Come to that, I wonder if Val Con knew how appropriate the name was when he chose it…)
I feel like I should say something about the scene with Hazenthull and Nelirikk, but nothing particular is coming to me.
It’s good to see Trilla again.
Day 50
Standard Year 1393
Lytaxin
Erob’s House
In which Erob’s house has many visitors.
This is one of those chapters where there’s potentially a lot to talk about, but I’ve read it so often nothing really stands out to me.
Well, there is one thing: I don’t know if it’s me being really unobservant or just having a bad memory, but I don’t remember having understood before that Hazenthull Explorer might have only been intending to stick around long enough to get her senior patched up. (I notice, by the way, that her senior finally gets a name in this chapter.) How she planned to get around having sworn an oath of loyalty to get that far, I don’t see; perhaps, as Daav says, she hadn’t planned that far ahead.
Another point of connection between the two separate plot strands of the novel is that they’re now both concerned with issues of appropriate behaviour between oath-holder and oath-sworn.
Lytaxin
Mercenary Encampment
In which two Explorers discuss their situation.
We learn the outline of Hazenthull’s recent history here, enough to understand the decision she has made, although there are details that she chooses not, or finds herself yet unready, to speak.
I’m not sure what significance to attach to the fact that the name of her senior is one of those details. It could just be that protocol calls for him to introduce himself, but other explanations suggest themselves.
Tomorrow: Another short diversion, via “Persistence”.
Day 50
Standard Year 1393
Lytaxin
Erob’s Grounds
In which collecting Yxtrang may be a genetic trait.
Because the sentry’s challenge is followed immediately by Diglon Rifle breaking cover, I thought at first that the sentry had spotted him, but if he and his seniors were keeping so quiet even Nelirikk didn’t notice them that seems unlikely. On further consideration, I think the sentry was challenging Nelirikk and the scouts, approaching openly on the path, but Diglon Rifle thought he’d been spotted and panicked. (I notice that Hazenthull Explorer did a much better job of keeping her head and keeping hidden, as is perhaps to be expected.)
It’s good to know that Explorers still exist. I remember Nelirikk worrying about that in the previous book, since it had been so long since he’d had word of their activities. (He doesn’t seem to give it particular note at the moment, probably because there are more immediate issues to attend to. Possibly also because the issue is not quite so personally important now; back then, the loss of the Explorers would have meant the loss of all he had in the way of comrades and family, which is no longer the case.)
Lytaxin
Erob’s Clan House
In which Val Con’s kin start arriving.
This chapter is still just as affecting, even though I knew what was coming.
The mention of Nelirikk wearing an arm scarf as a sign of troop affiliation reminds me that Miri wore an arm scarf when Val Con first met her, which got mentioned a few times and then never again. (I figure it maybe got left behind on Edger’s ship; if not that, perhaps when they had to leave Vandar in the Benish clothes they stood up, or in Miri’s case couldn’t stand up, in.) Makes me wonder if that was a marker of affilition too, and if so to whom.
Tomorrow: I Dare
War Zone
In which there is a battle for Lytaxin.
Of course the Tree is at the centre of the protected area. But I don’t think that means that Erob is not important to Korval, or that its inclusion in the protection is only incidental, only that the Tree is the most valuable of all the valuable things Korval sought to protect. Considered rightly, I think, it says how much honor Korval did Erob by giving them a Tree; it shows that a Tree is no mere ornament, but a thing which Korval is obliged to protect for as long as it stands, and there are many clans that Korval would not choose to allow to benefit from such protection, even incidentally.
This chapter sees the flowering of seeds planted near the beginning of this novel, or even earlier. The development of the Val Con and Miri’s lifemate bond is one of the more obvious. Another is Pod 77’s attack on the Yxtrang battleship, which uses a chain of events Nelirikk tried to point out, and was ignored, back when he was still Nelirikk No-Troop.