In Vertu’s taxicab
Enter Yulie, Mary, Anna, Rascal
In which everyone is going to the same place.
Apparently the hill at the end of the Port Road is now named Undertree Hill — or perhaps that’s just what the Bedel call it and Yulie has picked it up from them.
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The Bedel
In which the kompani prepares for departure.
Udari defers to Droi as the luthia, which suggests she’s been accepted as the one who will serve that role for the kompani staying on Surebleak. It doesn’t appear that Udari has been chosen as the headman for the kompani; Droi tells him that a decision is the headman’s, not his. The way she says it suggests that the headman is somebody who has not yet had a chance to think and speak on the issue — which I rather think means that it’s Rys.
The Bedel
In which the ship is on its way.
Udari said earlier that he thought Pulka would choose to go when it came to it, but given his frame of mind at the beginning of this chapter the question may be still open.
We know it’s not going to happen this time, since some have already committed to leaving, but I wonder what would happen if all the kompani, aside from the two who have no choice, chose to stay.
Surebleak
The Bedel
In which Rys’s family receive news of his doings.
Here’s an entirely frivolous question: Does the placement of this scene, so many pages after the event Droi Sees, indicate that the authors have monkeyed with the chapter arrangement for dramatic effect, or does it take time for a Seeing to travel over interstellar distances?
Blair Road
Boss Nova’s House
In which Kezzi discusses the news with her brother.
I hadn’t thought about what the coming of the ship might mean for Malda, but it makes sense that pets wouldn’t be allowed. Which raises the question of why Kezzi’s family let her get attached to Malda in the first place. It might just be that, like Droi, they weren’t expecting the ship to come, but the decision would have involved at least Silain who would be required as a matter of policy to consider the consequences if the ship did come. Remembering that Malda was the only close friend Kezzi had before she met Syl Vor, that might have been why: that in the here and now she needed a friend, and the benefits would outweigh whatever problems arose if they faced separation later.
The Consolidated School
In which Anna is late for school.
A short chapter, and nothing non-obvious comes to mind to say about it.
The Bedel
In which the Bedel receive long-awaited news.
Back around the time Maysl first entered the story, I spent a while speculating about how she and her parents were going to manage when the ship came to pick up the kompani. It appears that Droi has been assuming that the question wouldn’t arise, that the ship which was already late would not appear in her lifetime.
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In which there is some excitement at dinner.
I notice that when Val Con and Miri are rendering Korval’s judgement, the placement of the quotation marks indicates that they are speaking alternate sentences, but there’s a lack of dialogue tags indicating who is speaking which sentence. In a way, of course, that’s only appropriate because it doesn’t matter — either way, it’s Delm Korval speaking — but I’d be interested to know whether the judgement itself is spoken by the half of the delm whose idea it was or the half who had to be convinced that it would work.
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Surebleak
In which Korval goes visiting.
Kamele has a come a long way in her understanding of risk and safety since we first met her.
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In which Val Con has tea with his brother’s sister.
No more character reintroductions in this section, only consolidating and expanding on the threads from the previous two sections.
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