This chapter opens up with an infodump about the war, which has been going on almost 100 years. Apparently Lakelands have all the food, and Norta (Mare’s country) has all the technology, because they have “water mills” to produce electricity, thus attack.

Um…how is Lakeland growing food without water? I mean, I get it, they’ve got a giant lake, but water needs to flow to the fields unless you plan on living off cranberry bogs, and if water is flowing you can put a waterwheel in it.

And why did Norta not just sell their tech for some food? Trade! Turns out it’s a pretty important thing!

And if it’s been 100 years and Norta barely has enough food, then how are they supporting a protracted war? They attacked for the sake of getting some farmland, but that didn’t work, now they’ve got tons of manpower tied up in a futile war that produces nothing, and if they were pretty strapped to start with shouldn’t they be even more strapped now?

So much about this would be better if only it hadn’t been dragging on for so long. I mean, people fight over land, of course, but heavy fighting that goes on that long? Hell, the Hundred Years War wasn’t literally 100 years of war, it was a series of smaller wars close together and using stuff that produces way less of a body count that bombs and guns. And is there any reason in this book why it has to have been going for such a brain-breaking amount of time? Ten years is still a massively long war.

Anyway, back to the story, Kilorn is distraught at being drafted, and Mare insists that they’ll find a way to dodge the draft despite the fact that no one ever has before. She decides that someone in the black market must be able to smuggle people, if they can smuggle everything else under the sun, so she’s going to try there first.

She goes to Will, a guy who is a fence for a large black market network and sells everything “ from heavily restricted coffee to exotics from Archeon.” And now I have to ask…just what the hell kind of place is Stilts? I mean, there’s not a great description of this town except that it’s too small to be hassled by their local governor and all the houses are on stilts. We don’t know the size or wealth of the place, but Mare keeps talking like it’s a shithole, and even when mentioning Will she says again that Stilts is a small place.

So who the fuck is buying expensive exotic goods? Pretty much everything about this thievery thing needs to be toned down in order to work.

Will can’t help her, but he just so happens to conveniently have someone who can help her sitting in the back of his wagon. This lady is named Farley, she’s part of “The Scarlet Guard,” and she’s very terse but she does say she can help. Except they have to pay 2,000 crowns and have all of the money ready in two days. Since Mare doesn’t have any other options, she agrees.

When she gets back to Kilorn, he’s not happy with the news. He didn’t come to her for a way out, just someone to commiserate, and he doesn’t want her to give him false hope. He just wants to accept it and try to survive.

Mare goes back home, still unsure of what to do.

Gisa coughs in her sleep and it’s a courteous, tiny sound. Even unconscious, she manages to be ladylike. No wonder she fits in so well with the Silvers. She’s everything they like in a Red: quiet, content, and unassuming.

For all its other faults, I really do like the tone of the conflict between the classes, which is mostly conveyed in bitter lines like this.

While Mare is huffing over the fact that Gisa sews outfits rich enough to pay that 2,000 crown tag, she suddenly realizes that Gisa sews outfits rich enough to pay that 2,000 crown tag. Which means there’s people who can afford to buy those over in Summerton, people she can steal from.

The next day, Mare dresses in one of Gisa’s uniforms and goes with her to work.

They reach Summerton, which has frikkin diamond walls.

I can’t get a read on the tech level in this world. They can melt diamonds (4200 K, by the way) and make a building material out of them, but Lakeland can’t figure out how to make electricity on their own?

They make it into the town and spend a few pages describing things. Everything’s rich and sumptuous. Next.

There’s a nice little bit as Mare realizes how hard it is for Gisa to have to face all this opulence every day, taking on the stress of dealing directly with the oppressive class for the sake of supporting her family.

And then after a bit more instruction, Mare is off to do her rounds of thievery.