Tag Archives: Voni Caylon

From Every Storm a Rainbow

In which Sinit safeguards the clan’s treasures.

I’m always pleased to have another opportunity to spend time with Sinit, who’s one of my favourite characters in the series.

It’s also (speaking now as the presumptuous author of a suggested chronological reading order) something of a relief after the last few stories to have one that says up-front exactly where it fits chronologically.
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Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 30

In which Aelliana proposes a solution.

Once again it’s Aelliana who gets to make the decisive move instead of Daav swooping in and rescuing her. (I may be labouring this point a bit. But seriously, how many novels are there where that happens?)

I am particularly interested by the part of Aelliana’s proposal which has her paying the blood-price for Ran Eld’s death when Sinit becomes Delm. There are several things going on here. For one, it gives Mizel an inducement to accept Sinit as nadelm, where her mother’s actions have cast doubt on the hope that she might accept as much simply because it’s the sensible course. It also serves a practical purpose in ensuring that when Sinit becomes delm there will be an amount of money she can rely on, no matter how the clan’s fortunes may have suffered in the mean time. There’s also some shifty work going on with the melant’i of the situation. I still don’t think that Aelliana truly owes Mizel anything for Ran Eld’s death, but by accepting the blood-price as her debt she’s making sure Mizel can’t try to stick it to anybody else (such as Daav); and by specifying that the payment will be made to Birin Caylon’s successor, the result will be that Birin Caylon gets the promise of an apology but never the apology itself.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 12

In which Anne and Aelliana go shopping.

And now Anne is saying explicitly that being connected by a psychic bond doesn’t mean communicating becomes any less important, or any less work. I’m beginning to think this is, like, a theme the authors have deliberately built into the novel. 🙂

Meanwhile and elsewhere, Mr dea’Gauss reports that between what he’s giving Samiv tel’Izak and what he’s giving Aelliana, Daav’s finances have taken a discernable hit. Of course, those are Daav’s personal finances; no doubt the clan’s general finances are more robust. But the fact that Daav was willing to take the hit, considered it appropriate to bear these expenses personally rather than draw on the clan’s finances, says something good about Daav. Even if he does need to work on his communication with his loved ones.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 5

In which Aelliana does not feel safe under Mizel’s roof.

The heading quote is being pointed again, but in a slightly more underhanded way. Some of the people who constitute Aelliana’s clan do indeed frown on her conduct, but I am confident that this is a deficiency in them, not in Aelliana. (It makes a pair with the last time this heading quote appeared, which was the chapter in Scout’s Progress that revealed how much the clan’s beloved son Ran Eld was undermining the clan for his individual gain.)

The part where Delm Mizel accuses Korval of attempting to coerce Aelliana and valuing her only for her exploitable resources strikes me as one of those occasions where the guilt a person sees most readily in others is the guilt they would find if they looked straight into themselves.

And she does rather undo any mollifying effect she might have achieved (perhaps she was still counting on Aelliana to be obedient to the delm regardless) when she admits that regardless of Aelliana’s achievements she would rather have had anybody else if there had been anybody else to have.

Mouse and Dragon – Chapter 3

In which Daav and Aelliana are reunited.

It occurs to me that, even had nobody noticed the Jump ring on Ran Eld’s finger during the confrontation, it would have been surrendered to Mizel along with the rest of his finery when he died, so it would not have been necessary to pursue him to Low Port to get it back. I can understand that chain of thought not coming to Aelliana’s mind, though.

It appears that Daav and Aelliana do possess the lifemate bond to some degree, but that it only works at full strength when they’re in close physical proximity, as they are here, or as when they were dancing at the celebration.

This chapter includes the final four sentences of Scout’s Progress, all that was left from last chapter, with a few tweaks to punctuation and word choice but no substantive changes.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 37

In which there is a death in the family.

I do really appreciate the glimpses we get in this novel of Birin Caylon, the human being behind Delm Mizel. Possibly the more so because there are so few of them.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 36

In which Delm Korval goes visiting again.

This seems like a good time to mention a thing I like about this novel: Aelliana rescues herself.

She has had help along the way, and wouldn’t have done as well without it, but her achievements are her own, seized with her own hands. This isn’t a story about how she needed someone to save her. It was her own idea and decision to seek an escape, her own skill that won her her ship and her license. And, in these later chapters, she escaped from the house by herself, after rescuing herself from the worst effects of the Learning Module.

I love the bit where Daav is politely but firmly establishing his intention to stand in Mizel’s hallway as long as necessary.

(And speaking of Daav, it’s interesting to note at which points in the chapter Daav is “Korval” and at which points “Daav” comes to the fore.)

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 35

In which the first duty of the co-pilot is the well-being of the pilot.

This chapter is another with a quote that later got expanded into a story of its own with more to it than the quote implies. Like the Tinsori Light quote from a few chapters back, it seems to be being used here only for its obvious meaning (in this case, a reminder of the nature of co-pilot’s duty).

I like that Sinit knows about what Aelliana’s been up to, and understands its significance, simply because unlike her other siblings she pays attention to the world outside — and the detail that, thanks to the extra context from the news reports, she knows at least one thing about Aelliana that Aelliana herself doesn’t know.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 33

In which two women return to face that which they fear.

My reaction to the middle section of this chapter is rather like my reaction to Chapter 27 of Trade Secret (which, if you don’t recall it, consisted largely of the single word “Yes!“). Aelliana has come a very long way since the beginning of the novel.

Scout’s Progress – Chapter 32

In which Nadelm Mizel demands to see Master Binjali.

I had not noticed on earlier readings how much Ran Eld was bothered by Clonak’s facial hair. (Nor, consequently, that when Clonak strokes his mustache he’s probably deliberately playing up to see how much more bothered he can make him.)

Frad’s remark that Ran Eld doesn’t appear to appreciate Aelliana’s flight points out another aspect of Ran Eld’s blinkered view that I hadn’t considered previously. It’s not so much that he doesn’t know how impressive the piloting was, since I can see where a non-pilot might not grasp that — but there’s no indication, in the last chapter or this, that Ran Eld has even noticed that Aelliana helped save somebody’s life. As far as Ran Eld is concerned, this is apparently an entirely irrelevant detail.