We open the chapter with a bit of backstory about our setting.  It’s a land with seven kingdoms, and the old rescue-ee from last chapter is the father of the Lienid king.  Supposedly, there’s no reason anyone would want to kidnap him.

They shipped their gold to whoever had the goods to trade for it

King Ror […] made no treaties with the others, but he made no war

Wait, so, he’s rich and he has absolutely zero political allies?  And you’re flummoxed on why someone would kidnap his dad?

Um…hello ransom money?

In truth, Randa usually took care not to involve himself with the other kingdoms. His kingdom sat between Estill and Wester on one axis and between Nander and Sunder on the other. It was a position too tenuous for alliances.

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…

… …

Book, do you even know what alliances are?

So, Katsa tries to reason out who could have kidnapped Dad King, and she rules out King Murgon (who had him in the basement) because he’s a hired gun and never starts something on his own, and King Randa, because they’ve got enough spy eyes on him to know it wasn’t him.

…um, what about everyone else?

You know, all the people who inhabit those seven kingdoms?  What about them?  Why are you only talking about the kings as if there’s a mere seven people who do anything in this world?

And why the fuck would a king need to hire himself out?  He’s a fucking king.

Three more kings are all fractious and fighting all the time, which is the most accurate representation of small-country-politics we’ve seen yet from this book.

The seventh kingdom is Monsea.  But their king is chill and probably didn’t do anything.

You know, Katsa has a couple of times mentioned some Council that she’s on that seems to be some sort of vigilante group, but she seems to be the sort of ‘vigilante’ who thinks the people she saves are permanent and natural victims.  Not once has one single thought been given to the fact that anyone not a king has any agency in this plot.

But Katsa didn’t feel [the fighter from last chapter] was involved. She couldn’t explain it, but it was what she felt.

…subtle.

They reached Randa City

Fuck that what?

Really, you’re too lazy to come up with city names and just reused the king’s name?

There was no squalor in Randa City. Randa didn’t tolerate squalor.

So does he pay for the trash removal and building upkeep, or do only rich people live in town?  Because, I’m sorry, but you can’t just say “stop being poor” and expect that to work.  *coughcoughallpoliticiansfrombothsidesoftheaislecough*

a high doorway in a defunct section of the castle wall, the existence of which Oll kept carefully from Randa’s notice.

Why does anyone care if he notices it?  What about his guards, or seneschal, or…you know, whoever would actually be concerned with such things?

“To have beautiful eyes. Does it lighten the burden of your Grace, to know you have beautiful eyes?”

…fuck the what?

Katsa leads/carries the old man in the back door and off to Raffin, her princely cousin.

Shit, there really is no one in this book besides royalty, is there?  Even Katsa is technically part of the royal family.

After she drops off Old Man Prince with Young Prince, she scurries Princess-ly away, and this was a mercifully short chapter.  I don’t know if I could take any more stabs at worldbuilding in one go.