Early the next morning, Po leaves for his assassination mission.  Before he goes, he gives Katsa one of his rings and claims she can use it to insist on passage back to Leinid and entrance to his castle to hide Bitterblue there.  All based on a ring.  You know, those very easily stealable bits of jewelry?

Here’s the thing: this doesn’t work unless the ring thing is just for royalty.  For a ring to be personally identifiable, it has to be unique, and not everyone in the country can have a unique ring.  On the other hand, the entire concept of rings being permission to act on another’s behalf only works for minor matters, because – again – rings are very stealable.  When there’s always a chance that a ring was stolen instead of freely given, you only use that as proof for minor things, not country-running things.  “Here, take my ring to Mom back at our bakery and tell her I need another dozen sticky buns” is a much different level of risk from “here, take my ring back to my country and take over my entire fucking castle.  Good luck convincing them you didn’t kill me.”

Katsa and Bitterblue wait all day, and just when they’re about to leave, Po comes back to camp injured.  His horse falls off the cliff by their camp and into a lake.

 Katsa’s feet as she tore down the trail to the gully, feeling nothing as her shins bashed against rocks and branches whipped across her face.

That doesn’t seem like much of a survival magic, there.  ‘Not feeling pain’ is generally considered to be anti-survival, actually.  Pain is useful; it tells you to get away from the hurting thing.

Now, if she’d just ignored pain because she’s tough as rocks and never gets bruised and she knows it doesn’t matter…

Katsa fishes him out of the lake and frantically does some first aide on him, since he’s got an arrow stuck in his shoulder, all the while trying to get him to talk.

This Katsa knew: that a man vomited if struck hard enough in the head, that he became forgetful and confused.

So you did know this, you’ve just been hitting people in the head all book because…you don’t care?

Po didn’t manage to kill Leck, so after he’s bandaged up, they have to start running away.

“You behind him,” Katsa said to Bitterblue, “so that you can see him. Pinch him if he starts to fall off, and call me if you need help. The horse will be moving quickly, as quickly as I can run.”

Did you know that a person can outrun a horse?

It’s true.

I mean, they’re not going to beat any short speed races, but if a horse is running and a person is patient, they can out-endure the horse, because the horse is going to get tired of running first.  And then it’s going to need to rest, at which point the person catches up and wins.  And this process happens twice as fast if the horse is burdened with carrying two people at once.

And that’s even without throwing in Katsa’s magical “never tired” ability.

Well, at least Katsa doesn’t run all night, despite her claims to the contrary.  Around morning they start looking for a place to stop, because she’s finally tired.  The horse, apparently, …isn’t?  Or perhaps Katsa just doesn’t care.

Once light came they wouldn’t be able to risk even the smallest fire.

…whut?

Po magically finds a cave for them to stop in, they make camp for several pages, and then it’s finally time for Po to tell his story.  It’s a short story.  Apparently Leck kept a ring of guards right next to him all day, so right next to him that Po couldn’t get a clean shot, which sounds super awkward and also not terribly feasible.  I mean, at some point, just the act of walking over uneven terrain would make a hole.  Anyway, Po decides to kill a guard to make an opening, but that just brings everyone’s attention to him and he barely escapes.

“We’re not moving fast enough,” he said several times that day. Katsa, too, chafed at their pace. But until his head improved, she wasn’t going to run the horse over the rocky hills.

Right, because if only Po’s head felt better, you’d so be able to do that.

At least the descriptions of the lingering effects of a head injury are pretty good.

When they stop that night, Po tells Katsa that she needs to leave him behind, because they’re not traveling fast enough with him slowing them down.  Katsa, understandably, resists the idea, but out of emotion and denial.  Po convinces her that it’s the only way for them to escape.

Running is the only hope for the child.

All those other children, though, psh.

You know, it’s not like I even mind them running.  I mean, what can they do while there?  It’s the base of Leck’s power, where the most people believe him the hardest.  Of course you’d want to get out and find reinforcements, or at least hide and plan in a place where fewer people are trying to kill you.  But the way they talk only about Bitterblue, not about coming back to rescue everyone else, really disturbs me.

You know what this book needs?  Deaf assassins.

For it was about Bitterblue. They’d come all this way for Bitterblue

Bullshit.  You didn’t even know she was in trouble until you found her.  You came all this way because Leck was shady as fuck and kidnapped Po’s granddaddy.

And because, before you even knew Bitterblue’s name, you knew Leck was killing the children that worked in his ‘animal shelters.’  Remember them?  Or did Leck’s undefined do-whatever magic abilities erase that part of your memory, too?