Tag Archives: Ken Rik yo’Lanna

Carpe Diem – Chapter 6

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Liad
Solcintra

In which Val Con’s eldest brother sends news.

I wonder if Shan’s joke about someone wanting to sell him a cloak is an indication that he’s still getting fallout from the skimmer cloak incident after seven years. Or maybe it’s a joke between friends that has survived even after the incident that started it is long over. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it and it’s nothing to do with the skimmer cloak at all.

The uncertainty with which Priscilla introduces the idea of crying lifemates implies that it’s the first time she’s put forward the idea as a serious suggestion. Shan doesn’t seem surprised, though; it’s a possibility that must have been on both their minds since Priscilla came to live on Liad, and I think by now they know each other well enough to know what they both think of the prospect, even without discussing it explicitly. If they haven’t seriously discussed it before now it’s perhaps because they’ve been comfortable continuing as they are, and perhaps because, as Shan says, the timing is not good.

Conflict of Honors – Chapters 38, 39 & 40

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 177
Second Shift
9.00 hours

Master’s Tower, Theopholis
Hour of Kings

Raggtown
Local Year 537

In which a delayed shipment goes by another carrier.

If memory serves, this is the first time in this re-read I have scheduled multiple chapters on a single day, except for a one-page interlude in Crystal Dragon. I can see why I did it, though; the three chapters are each very short, and they all relate to a single situation. In a book that didn’t divide the chapters by location, they might well have all formed part of a single chapter.

It’s instructive to compare the responses of the two Olaneks to learning that Dutiful Passage has taken Daxflan‘s cargo. Taam Olanek’s angry (and ill-directed) initial reaction suggests that there may be a family trait contributing to the way Sav Rid is, but at least after the initial outburst he is able to take himself in hand and consider the matter rationally. Sav Rid, though, continues raging, and his grudge against Korval seems to have parted company with rationality entirely. Which leads to another point of difference between them: the delm’s first thought on learning that his clan’s ship has caused a situation is to take responsibility for seeing the situation resolved; Sav Rid on the other hand seems utterly determined to place responsibility on anyone but himself.

There’s some interesting handling of bad language in this portion of the novel. In the first of the three chapters, there is Ken Rik’s uncomplimentary remark about Sav Rid, which is left untranslated, presumably to avoid bruising the sensibilities of the reader. In the third chapter, there’s Sav Rid’s uncomplimentary remark about Priscilla, which on the other hand is given a direct literal translation that doesn’t make it immediately apparent how insulting it is in the original Liaden.

And now, with the Passage and Daxflan both headed for Theopholis, and representatives of both their clans waiting to greet them, things are beginning to come to a head…

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 36

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 171
Fourth Shift
16.00 hours

In which Gordy seeks a dragon to accompany his tree.

I think this chapter heading also has an error in it. Several other chapter headings have said 16.00 hours, and they’ve all said Third Shift.

Shan’s approach to teaching piloting reminds me somewhat of his uncle’s in Scout’s Progress (or vice versa, when I’m reading in publication order).

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 35

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 171
Third Shift
14.00 hours

In which Shan receives news of a friend’s death.

I like the little details that enrich this chapter: Ken Rik is in a bad mood. BillyJo thinks Shan isn’t eating enough. The description of what else was in Shan’s mail before he hit the pinbeam from Sintia, because even though the other message isn’t significant to the plot, it is significant to Shan.

I have read the various parts of Priscilla’s story so many times by now that I don’t recall what I thought the first time I read the pinbeam from Sintia. I am pretty sure, though, that I could have been added to Shan’s litany of people who wouldn’t believe it meant Priscilla was a desperate criminal.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 29

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 155
Third Shift
12.30 hours

In which there are consequences of the encounter at the jump point.

When Kayzin Ne’Zame suggests to Shan that Priscilla should be promoted to second mate, I suspect that’s Shan being a trader and allowing himself to be reluctantly persuaded into the course of action he already wanted to take.

This chapter contains a hint that there’s an actual practical reason for Shan to carry that glass of wine with him everywhere. As he told Priscilla, he does drink from it sometimes. The rest of the time is perhaps so that the times when he needs it don’t stand out, to give away something that might produce a disadvantage.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 25

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 148
Fourth Shift
20.00 hours

In which even a Mendoza of Sintia must deal with graceless people at parties.

Though Priscilla welcomes the intercession of Mr dea’Gauss and Judge Zahre as divine intervention, she might reasonably be inclined to doubt that that was what it was after it results in Ambassador Grittle’s outburst. And yet, I wonder; we know from the Moonhawk stories that the Goddess is not averse to steering her children through uncomfortable moments on the path to good outcomes, so it’s possible that there was a divine intervention and that the outburst was as much an intended part of it as the intercession. (Indeed, there are times when I suspect that the entire course of Priscilla’s life from that day in Diablo’s has been part of divine plan that we have yet to see the end of. It’s a hard road she’s been walking, but certain people seem to have spent the last few centuries building roadblocks over all the easy ones.)

Speaking of roadblocks, I take it that Shan’s shadowed expression in the last scene of the chapter is due to the reminder that, for all that they’re able to be comfortable and joke together, Priscilla still thinks of him first of all as Captain yos’Galan, with all the limits that implies on how they might interact. If she’d understood that she had the option of replying to her friend Shan instead of to her captain, and if she’d chosen to exercise that option, the conversation might have proceeded very differently.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 23

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 147
Third Shift
15.00 hours

In which Mr dea’Gauss gets to work.

So, about three days to get from Liad to Arsdred in a hurry. (Dutiful Passage, I think someone said in a recent chapter, has taken about four months to get to Arsdred, but it was going the scenic route and stopping places for days or weeks along the way.)

The exchange rate for Terran bits to cantra is still (or again?) 35,000 to 1, as it was in Balance of Trade.

There are a remarkable number of ambassadors on board the Passage at present. Apparently, they’re here for an ambassadorial reception, but it says something about the ship’s melant’i, that it’s able to hold ambassadorial receptions — and more, that so many are in attendance when the ship is still in lockdown, with nobody allowed on board without specific authorization. (I get the impression from the ambassadors who have had speaking parts that some of them have come specifically because of the ship’s present situation, to show solidarity.)

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 21

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 144
First Shift
1.30 hours

In which the long arm of the law reaches toward Dutiful Passage.

The nature of the accusations against Shan’s ship offer food for speculation. The one about “illicit pharmaceuticals” might be a sign that Sav Rid Olanek has somehow got wind of Lina and Rusty’s thwarted venture with that remarkable perfume, or it may just be the old trick of accusing one’s adversary of one’s own sins. We don’t get any elaboration on the “proscribed animals”, but I’m inclined to look toward the norbears in the pet library; we know from Mouse and Dragon that they are proscribed on some worlds, though presumably Lina or somebody would have checked what the rule is for Arsdred and filed whatever paperwork was necessary to let them sit in orbit for the duration of the Passage‘s visit.

Trellen’s World has previously been mentioned, during Er Thom’s visit to the Passage in Local Custom, in a context that links it with Arsdred but doesn’t shed any light on why Budoc finds the thought of it so impressive here.

It would appear from Shan’s complaints of him that Val Con has inherited his father’s reluctance to settle for a temporary marriage to secure an heir. (Or perhaps he’s just too busy not-being the Delm-in-waiting.) Shan, on the other hand, apparently has no such troubles; this chapter also contains the series’ first mention of his daughter Padi.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 19

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 143
Third Shift
16.00 hours

In which Shan has some explanations.

This is a significant turning point for Shan and Priscilla, with Shan finally explaining what’s going on and the two of them agreeing on a future course of action.

We get another mention of that elusive person, Anne’s brother Richard, and perhaps the most extensive account of him, in Shan’s description of his conflation of Liadens with elves. Shan doesn’t say why Richard picked on Val Con for the role of “king of Elfland”, but presumably it’s because he had heard some account of the Contract which once prompted Anne to accuse Val Con’s father of being King of Liad. In which case, I’m pretty sure this is the first intimation, in published order, of the existence of the Contract.

Conflict of Honors – Chapter 18

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Shipyear 65
Tripday 143
Second Shift
10.30 hours

In which Priscilla reviews her contract, and finds it to be not what she expected.

Priscilla reviews her contract, and learns that it contains an extremely broad clause obliging her to “undertake any additional training or duty considered reasonable or just by [the captain]”. Which, to be fair, Shan did mention when he was giving her a verbal summary of the contract, though he might perhaps have laid more emphasis on it. Either way, Priscilla could have got herself into a lot of trouble by not picking up on it then: Shan might, as she decides, be trusted not to abuse a clause like that, but imagine the uses it might be put to in the hands of, say, the Trader or the second mate of Daxflan.

Priscilla learns that her official service record has mysteriously changed, and now contains no hint of blame to her regarding the circumstances under which she parted ways with Daxflan. Another thing for her to ask the Captain about, when he gives her the opportunity.

The central registry office for the service record is said to be on VanDyk, which was also mentioned in Local Custom as the location of the central registry of Master Traders.