In which Therny Chirs comes to Eylot.
I think I made the right call, for me, to leave this story until after the novel, even though it doesn’t directly relate to the plot. If I had read the story first, I’d have spent most of the novel trying to figure out how it connected, which would have been distracting.
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Bechimo
Minot Station
In which Theo has a plan.
If this were a movie, the latter part of this chapter would be the lock-and-load montage showing each member of the team preparing for the big action. And if this were a movie, I suspect it wouldn’t include Theo’s conversation with Bechimo; it’s good writing to show that the bonding takes time and effort and doesn’t just automatically go well, just as it’s good writing to show that gaining the trust of the pathfinders takes time and effort and doesn’t just automatically go well, but unlike the pathfinders it lacks the spice of imminent danger if it goes wrong.
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Bechimo
Bridge
In which Bechimo‘s crew consider their next move.
It looks like we’re heading into the big moment now, whatever it is; the book’s starting to do that thing where the chapters get shorter and closer together which is such a great trick for increasing the pace and sense of urgency when the reader isn’t reading them one chapter a day.
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Velaskiz Rotundo
In which Bechimo‘s crew increases.
The revelation at the end of the chapter is ambiguous, since there have been two Joyitas in this book, but it makes sense that it’s B. Joyita, because that’s the one Theo would definitely recognise and more importantly if the norbears don’t know about Bechimo’s copy they’ve got no reason to wonder whether Theo knows the original. So the implication I take from this is that Hevelin managed to notice and get an impression of Bechimo and Joyita despite them keeping quiet while there were passengers on board – and that the norbears, in an echo of Theo’s thought earlier in the chapter, consider B. Joyita to be a person.
That said, it would be interesting if Sinaya actually did know Jermone Joyita, either personally (how old do norbears live to? I’d say not that long based on how aged Hevelin is, but we don’t actually know how old he already was when we first encountered him) or through some version of a memory passed from norbear to norbear. (It would also be another point in favour of Bechimo‘s creation being during-after Jethri’s lifetime, since “Out of True” suggests that it was in Jethri’s lifetime that shipboard norbears became a thing.)
Speaking of Joyita, this chapter has another mention of the number of rings on his hand, currently still holding steady at three.
Meanwhile, in the far reaches of the plot, the Uncle is off to check on a mysterious project of which we have not previously heard, and he’s taking Daav along for want of a safe place to leave him. Which offers the tantalising possibility that Daav will resurface in good time to learn something about this mysterious project himself.
Lunch Break
Anlingdin Piloting Academy
In which everyone is talking about Theo Waitley.
Theo is the celebrity of the moment; there were news crews watching the air chase, and they caught her tricky landing too. She’s uncomfortable with all the attention, which, as Asu says, is better than if she were to start expecting it as her due.
We learn a thing or two more about Hap Harney, including that it was something of an understatement to say that Chelly knew him, and also that he’s been described as “public menace number one”. We still haven’t heard, though, what it was he actually did.
It’s maybe worth noting that this chapter has both a mention of Chelly having an ex-boyfriend and the fact that of the questions being fired at Theo by her temporary crowd of admirers, the sexually suggestive one comes from another girl. We’ve had enough such things happen in past books to get the idea that they’re not uncommon in the Liaden universe, but this is the first time we’ve seen them happen around Theo, so her reaction tells us something about her and perhaps by extension about Delgado. In the event, she doesn’t seem to find anything unusual about either thing, which I wouldn’t necessarily have expected given the way all the talk around First Pair in Fledgling seemed to take a heterosexual context for granted.