In which the best service Er Thom might do Syntebra el’Kamin would be to arrange matters so they need never meet again.

We’re getting toward the climax of the story now, which means the pace is picking up, which means the chapters are getting shorter, which means that if one is reading a chapter per day the suspense is being agonizingly dragged out. Argh.

I don’t fault the authors for it, since it’s not in the least implausible, but it is remarkably convenient that Syntebra el’Kamin is so thoroughly unsuited to be part of Korval, thus leaving no shadow on our hope for Er Thom to get together with Anne.

I raised my eyebrows when Syntebra thought of Er Thom as “old”, and went to check the timeline. Er Thom is only 35 years old here, but Syntebra is only 20, so he’s nearly twice her age; she was born around the time of “Pilot of Korval”, when Er Thom was already a qualified pilot and old enough to be travelling on the Passage and getting himself into trouble in an adult’s melant’i.