In which yo’Lanna achieves a crush and Surebleak achieves a coup.
After Val Con commenting at the first inspection that the decor in the entrance hall was unsubtle but mendable, I was looking forward to seeing what had been done with it, but the narration skips past it and straight to the ballroom. Then again, perhaps Lady yo’Lanna hasn’t had time to do anything interesting with it yet.
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Jelaza Kazone
Tree Court
In which Miri has had a long rest.
I wonder about the yellow, orange and red flowers with the peppery smell. The description reminds me of the nasturtium flowers my mother used to grow and use the edible parts in salads. As I recall, they had a peppery taste, but I don’t remember what their smell was like.
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On the Road
In which Emissary Twelve appreciates flowers.
Even while Boss Surebleak stirs up trouble, life goes on. Somebody said, earlier in the book: that’s the only way to do it. You have to keeping planning for life After.
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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.
Basalial
In which the pilots receive their instructions.
A short chapter, even in a book with many short chapters, and again I don’t have anything to say about it.
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.
Jelaza Kazone
In which Rys’s brothers plan how best to aid him.
Here we start to see the pay-off of both the “my own lady holds my soul” conversation and the observation that Rys has connections to his brothers and sisters similar to a Healer’s connections to her patients.
Something tells me there’s soon going to be another landing in Korval’s back field to annoy the survey team.
Jelaza Kazone
In which Rys is on his way home.
The scare quotes in the sentence about Emissary Twelve and Scout yo’Bingim each taking a packet of cookies to share with their comrades suggests that the narrator expects them to account for their own packet without any assistance. If that’s the case, I assume it was Scout yo’Bingim who came up with the story about comrades; bending the truth in such a way seems more in character for a Scout than for a Clutch Turtle, and she at least can point to comrades on-world, which Emissary Twelve can’t (unless one counts the Bedel, I suppose).
Scout Commander Val Con yos’Phelium thinks that the consequences of the election are likely to be fascinating. And I still recall what Miri said a few chapters ago about what it means when Val Con judges something to be fascinating.
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?