Chapter 88
Back at the inn, the locals from the beginning of the book come
into the tavern, interrupting the storytelling. Kote reverts back to tavern
keeper form. The smith prentice also shows up, carrying an iron bar. The locals
start telling legends about Kote, but they all have different versions and
distortions. Suddenly a man walks in, talking in a foreign tongue and not
responding appropriately to questions. Chronicler recognizes him as one of the
highwaymen who robbed him, and demands satisfaction. Bast tries to stop him,
but too late. The man breaks chronicler's sword and attacks him. Bast slams the
man's head onto the bar, but he shrugs it off and throws Bast across the room. One of the locals attacks the man but is killed. The smith's prentice
saves the day by killing the man with his iron bar. The official version is put
out that the man was a deserter and drug addict who went crazy, but the
prentice, Aaron, says to Kote he thinks it was actually a demon. Kote confirms
it.
Very interesting developments, what does it mean that a demon
showed up, and was it looking for Kote? If so, why did it not seem to recognize
him? We get clues that Kote isn't what he used to be - he either freezes up or
just plain can't use sympathy when he tries to set the demon on fire. Bast
obviously doesn't want to make a big deal about his and warns Chronicler not to
mention it. It felt like Chronicler was more aggressive in confronting the
highwayman than I expected him to be, did that seem out of character to other
readers?
Chapter 89
Kote gets whipped, 6 lashes this time. He hints at having taken
the same premedication, as he does not cry out or bleed again. Afterwards he
goes to Imre and buys a new lute and a few goodies.
Hopefully he had the sense to pay of Devi with some of that
money!
Chapter 90
Kote continues to explore the Underthing, finding a windy place
that Auri calls Belows/Billows. This is what Kote was looking for. He crawls to
a smaller opening to get to ... He doesn't tell us. Later he shows up at Fela's
dorm in the middle of the night. He tells her to meet a friend of his by the 4
plate door in the archive the next day. When she does, it turns out to be Kote
himself. He tries to get her to explain the filing system to him, but it's not
as simple as all that. We learn that due to conflicting filing philosophies of
multiple generations of librarians, the stacks are a confused mess.
Okay I'm sure I'm not the only one dying for him to put the
pieces together of how he found the way into the archives. Any thoughts? I
loved the discussion of the problems with the library organization, it has a
very true to life feel. Not sure what we're supposed to make of Fela nearly
naked inviting Kote into her room, but man did he dwell on it.
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