Jelaza Kazone
In which Rys returns.
There have been three described cats in these scenes of the Bedel in the Tree Court, and I’ve been trying to match them against Korval cats we already know.
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Jelaza Kazone
In which all cats are Bedel.
The part I like about this chapter is the character interactions: Yulie’s way of showing concern, and Memit’s hunt, and Droi pondering her place in the kompani.
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.
Port Road
Yulie Shaper’s Place
In which Val Con receives news of his brother’s family.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen someone do the disappear-in-plain-sight trick. I wonder if there’s a reason we’re being reminded of it now.
The Bedel
In which Udari speaks.
I wonder which kompani Alosha and Silain will choose, if it comes down to it. Silain, as Droi mentions, has her own ties to the people of Surebleak, but she might feel that her duty takes her back to the ship. Alosha doesn’t appear conflicted and doesn’t have any particular ties that we know about.
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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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Warehouse District
Surebleak
In which the Bedel are far from defenceless.
That’s a neat trick with the meteor shielding. (And probably implies something about how meteor shielding actually works in this universe, if you’re a reader who’s interested in that kind of technical thing.)
After all the ways they’ve been thwarted, the Syndicate are probably going to make one big serious attempt to make their presence felt before the end of the book. Which reminds me that we haven’t had the shooting match yet.
I wonder if the shooting match is the meeting of Bosses that Pat Rin’s asked Quin to represent him at. Even leaving aside the excuse that the Emerald needs his presence, which has the virtue of probably being true, sending his heir to shoot in his place is a neat way of supporting his consequence without giving away anything about just how good with a gun he personally is.
Shaper’s Freehold
Surebleak
In which Yulie has visitors.
We get quite a bit of differentiation, in a short space of time, between the various members of the crew trying to break into the growing rooms. One of them is named Mort, which is a name we’ve seen before on Surebleak, attached to one of the muggers who left Rys dying on the doorstep of the Bedel back at the beginning of Necessity’s Child. I don’t think it’s the same Mort, though, because that one had a group of other ruffians he was usually seen in company with, and none of those names appears here. Also, he seems a bit smarter than that Mort.
With Rys getting training as a headman and Droi being reassured that she does have what it takes to be a luthia, if they do get together they’ll have between them the two roles needed to lead a kompani. I don’t know if that means Silain has foreseen them leading a kompani of the Bedel; it might just be that whatever group of companions they gather around them might benefit from including people with those skills.
The Bedel
In which several projects are underway.
Silain-luthia demonstrates another Healer-type ability. It makes sense that the luthia would have such abilities, given her role looking after the wellbeing of the individuals that make up the kompani. It makes me wonder about her apprentice, though: I don’t recall Kezzi showing any obvious signs of potential in that direction. Except her vision of the future in Necessity’s Child, which isn’t strictly a Healer-type ability, and anyway happened under the influence of a dream the luthia gave her. And that raises the interesting possibility that the dreams of the Bedel can instil psychic abilities in people who might not otherwise have them.
Somehow it does not surprise me that Kareen’s landau has made the journey to Surebleak with her. I’m impressed by its apparent ability to handle Surebleak’s roads, though.
Kamele’s offer to assist Kareen’s research is significant, because it offers a path that might lead to her choosing to stay on Surebleak for the long term. She’s not the type to have thrown over her scholarly career to stay on Surebleak just because her family’s here – the less so because Theo’s mostly not here and Jen Sar may never be here again – but if there’s scholarship to be done here…
Tantara Floor Coverings
Surebleak port
In which Quin has a date.
The shop’s name, “Tantara”, is a variety of rare and valuable carpet – specifically, the variety of which the bel’Tarda heirloom carpet, bestowed on Pat Rin by Luken in “Heirloom”, is an example.
I still consider Beslin vin’Tenzing’s idea of Balance unreasonable, but on reflection I think I see where a Liaden would say I went wrong. Proper behaviour for a Liaden is to look out for oneself, one’s kin and dependents, to lend a hand to an ally if asked, and otherwise to pay every other person in the universe the compliment of assuming them capable of taking care of themselves. The desire to find a solution that serves everybody harmed in the attack on Solcintra would not be admirable to a Liaden, but instead an unconscionable failure to mind one’s own business. vin’Tenzing’s duty is to do no more than find a solution that serves vin’Tenzing, and if in the process somebody else’s solution gets stepped on it’s up the other person to take it up with vin’Tenzing as a fresh matter requiring Balance.