Name of the Wind 88 - 90

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.

Name of the Wind 40 - 42

Chapter 40

Kote is put on trial by the masters. He uses Heart of Stone to calm himself and make a good case. Some of the masters are on his side, and when it comes out that Hemme asked him to give the lecture and gave him one of his hairs, the charges of unauthorized use of sympathy and malfeasance are dropped. But he is still sentenced to a public whipping for reckless use of sympathy.  He proposes that the charges against him constitute proof that he has mastered sympathy, so he should be admitted to the arcanum. This is accepted by the masters. Word spreads around the school and he is a sort of hero to the students.

A little drama here. We've already been told that he will be expelled, so I wondered if it would come so soon. Luckily, Kote uses his wits to get out of a sticky spot and will skip ahead to the arcanum, sparing him and us the tedium of going through the basics of sympathy.

Chapter 41

Willem and Kote talk to pass the time before the whipping. Willem shows him where the infirmary is. He explains how they will treat anyone that needs help, but they will always need to pay in some way after. Kote has Willem buy some nahlrout from an apothecary and takes it prior to the whipping. Then he takes his whipping, careful to remove his shirt so it doesn't get ruined.

Not sure if they had mentioned earlier what nahlrout does, if so I didn't remember. There have been a couple of moments so far where Kote has rubbed me the wrong way for being excessively arrogant or proud, and this is one, where he refuses to have his hands bound.

Chapter 42

Kote goes to Master Arwyl to have his lashes treated. Arwyl questions him and finds out he took nahlrout. Kote confesses he did it because he didn't want to show weakness in front of the other boys.  Arwyl is sympathetic. Nola, one of Arwyl's students, stitches him up. Arwyl recruits Kote to come study under him.

Best part of this scene was Arwyl critiquing Kote's stitch job from Tarbean and Kote getting defensive. Arwyl proves to be pretty clever, rather than the absent-minded professor he had appeared up to this point.

Name of the Wind 40 - 42

Chapter 40

Kote is put on trial by the masters. He uses Heart of Stone to calm himself and make a good case. Some of the masters are on his side, and when it comes out that Hemme asked him to give the lecture and gave him one of his hairs, the charges of unauthorized use of sympathy and malfeasance are dropped. But he is still sentenced to a public whipping for reckless use of sympathy.  He proposes that the charges against him constitute proof that he has mastered sympathy, so he should be admitted to the arcanum. This is accepted by the masters. Word spreads around the school and he is a sort of hero to the students.

A little drama here. We've already been told that he will be expelled, so I wondered if it would come so soon. Luckily, Kote uses his wits to get out of a sticky spot and will skip ahead to the arcanum, sparing him and us the tedium of going through the basics of sympathy.

Chapter 41

Willem and Kote talk to pass the time before the whipping. Willem shows him where the infirmary is. He explains how they will treat anyone that needs help, but they will always need to pay in some way after. Kote has Willem buy some nahlrout from an apothecary and takes it prior to the whipping. Then he takes his whipping, careful to remove his shirt so it doesn't get ruined.

Not sure if they had mentioned earlier what nahlrout does, if so I didn't remember. There have been a couple of moments so far where Kote has rubbed me the wrong way for being excessively arrogant or proud, and this is one, where he refuses to have his hands bound.

Chapter 42

Kote goes to Master Arwyl to have his lashes treated. Arwyl questions him and finds out he took nahlrout. Kote confesses he did it because he didn't want to show weakness in front of the other boys.  Arwyl is sympathetic. Nola, one of Arwyl's students, stitches him up. Arwyl recruits Kote to come study under him.

Best part of this scene was Arwyl critiquing Kote's stitch job from Tarbean and Kote getting defensive. Arwyl proves to be pretty clever, rather than the absent-minded professor he had appeared up to this point.