Some of the passageways were secret, and some were known by the entire court.

I think that’s the most reasonable thing this book has said yet.

Po and Katsa meet up with Raffin and Bann.  Bann is Raffin’s friend and also likes botany.  For some reason the book decided to take that last sentence and turn it into a page-long backstory.  Not even an interesting one.

Look, we don’t need that much explanation for boring things.  If something is curious, unexpected, requires an explanation to be understood, or at the very least interesting, then fine.  But taking that many words to say “they’re friends who share a common interest” is completely unnecessary.

The take Po to see his grandfather, then Raffin and Bann slip out.  Katsa, though she feels like she’s a third wheel, stays anyway.  Because…reasons.

“Move that lamp closer, boy,” Tealiff said. “What in the name of Lienid have you done to your face?”

I suddenly have the urge to start using country names as expletives.

“Oh my USA!”

“Ouch, stubbed my toe, that hurt like a Canada.”

“Oh yeah, well French you!”

The rest of this scene is so utterly bland and forgettable that I don’t even know how to summarize it for you.  They make small talk and Old Guy falls asleep.

Katsa had five rooms. 

Good Guam, really?  Generally speaking, castles are not that big compared to how many people live in them.  Very few people will get large, multi-room apartments, and even then they’ll have two, maybe three rooms.  Katsa may be a niece to the king, but she doesn’t seem to have any holdings or title or political power in her own right, at least not officially, so what’s she doing?  Hanging out in the empty queen’s suite?

wall hangings that Helda had chosen because Katsa had refused to form an opinion on the matter.

On the one hand, okay, she doesn’t have to care.  On the other hand, I feel the need to point out that wall hangings in a castle serve as insulation, not pointless decoration.  You’d be very cold without them.

The fifth room used to be her workroom, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d embroidered or crocheted

Seriously, Katsa.  Who the Fiji are you that you rate an entire room dedicated to knitting?  Space is valuable in a castle, and you’re wasting it, and I want to know why.

She fed her dress to the sleeping-room fire and watched its smoky demise with great satisfaction.

SPEAKING OF WASTING SHIT, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY MANHOURS GO INTO MAKING THAT MUCH SILK YOU SPOILED, SELFISH, THOUGHTLESS BRAT?

Old dresses can be (and most often were) cut up and the fabric used as contrast panels or accents or even the base for a new dress, because high-end fabric like silk is incredibly expensive in terms of both money and labor.  Even stuff that can’t be worn anymore can still be used for rags, but fuck that, Katsa decides she’s going to be burn all that perfectly good silk to show off that she doesn’t like dresses.  Wow, excellent reason there, yup.

Edit to add: And since I forgot to mention, silk has a lot of practical applications, too.  It’s lightweight and strong, very warm, and smooth.  Undergarments made of silk are great in the winter and for traveling, because you can keep warm and avoid chaffing.  It’s not a purely frivolous substance, but even if it were, don’t set it on fire just to prove a petty point!

Apparently they hold the council meetings in Katsa’s “spare room,” because having a bunch of people show up at the room of the most antisocial person in court isn’t suspicious at all, right?  As people arrive and see Katsa and Po looking like they were in a fight, most of them chuckle, but Giddon gets mad at Po.

On account of, you know, Po beat up his friend.

Po diffuses the situation by pointing out that it was a friendly fight, and then…

“I’m sorry to have insulted you, as well,” Po said. “I see now I should’ve taken greater care of her face. Forgive me. It was unpardonable.” He reached his hand across the table.

…

… …

What?

All Giddon got upset about was the fact that some stranger with motives unknown not only fought his friend, but was apparently good enough to be the first person ever to bloody her up in the process.  Po is the character who pops up and says “oh, is she your property?  Sorry I made her less pretty for you.”

Giddon’s angry eyes grew warm again. He reached out and shook Po’s hand. “You understand my concern,” Giddon said.

…

Damnit, Giddon, I was trying to like you.

Katsa gets rightly miffed over the whole exchange.

“Forgive me.”

Well.

Giddon was still a horse’s ass.

…So your excuse for talking about Kasta as if she’s property is…what?  “Everyone else is doing it.  I was just going with the flow”?

That lord guy from dinner opens up the meeting proper by telling everyone who didn’t kidnap Prince Old Guy.  Aaaand, that’s the whole meeting, just talking about how this list of people didn’t do it.  Which, while certainly helpful in a sense, has two problems.

1. We’re still stuck on the idea that only kings kidnap people and no one else could possibly have done it.

2. It’s boring as fuck to read about people not doing stuff.  Macau, people, do something.

“I trust you’ve recovered from your illness at dinner, Katsa,” Giddon said, “if you’ve been starting fights. Indeed, it sounds as if you’re back to your normal self.”

She would be civil to him in front of Po and Lord Davit, though he laughed now in her face.

Oll and Raffin both laughed at your fight.

And neither of them showed any concern.  I think the idea here is that the other two “know she can take care of herself” and Giddon is being all bad for “acting like she needs someone to defend her” but…Suriname, I can fight, too, and I’d still rather people look at my bloody, bruised face and at least ask “are you okay?” before making a joke of it. 

Bahamas, it’s not like Giddon doesn’t know she can fight.  He goes on her missions.  He knows.  In fact, he knows she’s untouchable, so seeing her with bruises would reasonably be more cause for alarm, not less.  “Holy shit, she can take on 20 guards at once, but now she’s got a bruised face????  What happened?!?!?!?!”

And then he, non-magical guy that he is, faced down the other magic fighter, hand on sword, ready to defend you against someone he has no hope of actually hurting.

And you mock him for it.

Tibet it, if Po gets a pass for ‘just going along,’ then Giddon should, too, since, you know, he was the one actually ‘going along’ and Po started it.

Katsa and Po decide that, since he wants to stay near his grandfather but they’re not going to officially announce his rescue, Po will pretend that he’s staying in Middluns because it’s a good ‘base’ of operations to search the other countries and also he can train with Katsa.

Then they talk about how one of Po’s rings was what cut her face and he stands there touching her.  While both of them mildly mock Giddon’s reaction.

he looked at her calmly, as if this were normal, as if friends she’d only just made always touched her face with their fingertips. As if she ever made friends. As if she had any basis for comparison, to decide what was normal when one made friends, and what was not.

Let me help you .  That ain’t normal.

Being concerned when someone you like shows up bruised is normal.

Just soes you know.

Bosnia.