Last time, Katsa suddenly realizes the king can’t force around the person he uses to force people around, and leaves.

Well, actually no, apparently she stayed the night and they’re only leaving now, in the morning. Why no one thought to poison her or stab her in the dark is a mystery for the ages.

Now she’s saying goodbye and it’s all very sad, apparently.

With Raffin there, there was no pretense, and she was unable to do anything about the strange painful water that rose into her eyes and throat, every time she looked at him.

The author really does think that’s a clever description, don’t they?

Raffin wants to know if the two super fighter nobility will be okay, and did they pack a healthy lunch and make sure to wear a sweater so you don’t catch a cold and do they have enough pocket money for the trip.

“Po’s a prince of Lienid,” she said. “Why do you think he rides such a big horse, if not to carry his bags of gold?”

Always gold. See, I would honestly rather the author went with paper or something, even, since that’s more possible than throwing around ice as anachronisms go while less repetitive than fucking gold. But really, any non-gold precious metal would be better.

And that’s assuming she’s being flippant. Otherwise there’s also the problem that gold would be too high a denomination for what they’ll probably be using it for.

Katsa goes on for a bit more about how leaving is the most awful thing ever, even though it’s not like she’ll even have to wait for Pandaman to die to see Ragamuffin again. I mean, they’re a mere day’s ride away from the capital of at least one of the other kingdoms, even if she’s officially exiled (and I doubt it) he could just meet her somewhere near the border.

Their first destination was an inn, south of Murgon City, three days’ ride from Randa City

See what I mean? These are tiny, tiny places.

Also what the fuck is with these names. They rename the main city for each king? Seriously, book, you’re that fucking lazy with names? I mean, I guess I should be grateful having seen what you think a good name is, I’d hate to see what would happen if you tried to force yourself further, but god. Could you make it any more obvious that this whole place is a flimsily made paper backdrop sloppily pasted onto the wall to give the illusion of a setting?

They don’t bother disguising themselves because they figure they’ll be obvious and also, for some reason, don’t think they’re suspicious.

Their purpose would be assumed, for it was well enough agreed that the Lienid searched for his missing grandfather, and it would now be supposed that the lady assisted him. Their inquiries, the route they chose, the very dinners they ate would be the stuff of gossip.
But still, they would be safe in their deception. For no one would know that Katsa and Po searched not for the grandfather but for the motive of his kidnapping. No one would know that Katsa and Po knew of Murgon’s involvement and suspected Leck of Monsea.

Uh, except for the kidnappers? Murgon knows damn well that Teaprince was stolen out from under his nose by some super-graced small fighter while Metaleyes was sniffing about, then Metaleyes immediately goes to hang out with the super-graced small Katsa of the next kingdom over, doing jack and shit to search for grandpappy all of a sudden as if he was no longer concerned, and now they’re running around his kingdom again. Not suspicious at all!

In fairness everyone in this book is so fucking stupid that may be true.

They stop for lunch and suddenly Katsa is awkward because she doesn’t want to be around him, even though also she does! I get it already, can we move on?

Katsa suggests that since he know what she’s thinking, he should tell her what he’s thinking. Naturally, what he’s thinking is complimentary.

let’s see. I’m very sympathetic about your having left Raffin. I think you’re brave to have defied Randa as you did with that Ellis fellow; I don’t know if I could’ve gone through with it. I think you have more energy than anyone I’ve ever encountered, though I wonder if you aren’t a bit hard on your horse. I find myself wondering why you haven’t wanted to marry Giddon, and if it’s because you’ve intended to marry Raffin, and if so, whether you’re even more unhappy to have left him than I realized. I’m very pleased you’ve come with me. I’d like to see you defend yourself for real, fight someone to the death, for it would be a thrilling sight. I think my mother would take to you. My brothers, of course, would worship you. I think you’re the most quarrelsome person I’ve ever met. And I really do worry about your horse.”

So apparently he can decipher all her other thoughts, but not the fact she wants to bang him. Or that she can’t stand Giddy – yes, he says he can only read what people think about him, but it’s not like Katsa’s got anything like a poker face, he shouldn’t need psychic powers when she puffs up like an enraged cat whenever Giddy speaks.

She looks at him and gets lost in his eyes once again and while she’s wondering what foul trickery this, Metaleyes speaks up.

“And now I’m wondering,” he said, “how it is you don’t realize your eyes ensnare me, just as mine do you. I can’t explain it, Katsa, but you shouldn’t let it embarrass you. For we’re both overtaken by the same-foolishness.”

What do you mean you can’t explain it? You’re the designated love interest! It’s because you two are in love and will be hooking up by the end of this book (it’s not a trilogy, so we should actually get an ending and plot resolution by the time the words run out).

…huh, so that actually does support the theory this is babby’s first crush and Metaleyes’ emotional competence has hit its limit.

…eh, but he must know what people being in love with him is like like, so even if for some reason he wasn’t making that leap immediately, he should recognize it from Katsa, and then realize he’s feeling the same.

Oh. Unless the idea is that they’re perfect soulmates and stuff and their love transcends that of regular people.

Don’t do that, book.

“I thought you might be doing it on purpose,” she said, “with your eyes. I thought it might be a part of your Grace, to trap me with your eyes and read my mind.”

This book is just one long demonstration of how no matter how simple and reasonable a magic system, it’s still possible for sufficient incompetence to send it to hell.

Every chapter I understand graces less.

“Your eyes are beautiful,” he said, and she felt warm suddenly, warm in the sun that dappled through the treetops and rested on them in patches. And as they climbed back into their saddles and returned to the forest road, she didn’t feel exactly comfortable with him; but she felt at least that she could look him in the face now and not fear she was surrendering her entire soul.

Those things actually have no connection to each other, Katsa. What you just said here, basically, is that flattery from a hot guy makes you disregard your other problems with him. Which is odd, because saying your eyes were lovely sure didn’t make you okay with Cousin Badtouch, which suggests either you’ve gotten dumber or the only reason you didn’t get molested as a child was Cousin Badtouch luckily moved a bit too fast.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stop in on King Murgon,” Katsa said, “and ask him your questions? It would be much faster, wouldn’t it?”
“He made it quite clear after the robbery that I was no longer welcome at his court. He suspects I know what was stolen.”
“He’s afraid of you.”
“Yes, and he’s the type to do something foolish. If we arrived at his court he’d probably mount an offensive, and we’d have to start hurting people. I’d prefer to avoid that, wouldn’t you? If there’s going to be an enormous mess, let it be at the court of the guilty king, not the king who’s merely complicitous.”
“We’ll go to the inn.”
“Yes,” Po said. “We’ll go to the inn.”

They were already doing that! And there’s no point in asking questions because Metaleyes already talked to the guy, so it’s not like this is a plot hole that needed addressing. This whole bit is pure disgusting filler – it even repeats the same thing at the end.

Also in addition to being badly written in general, god, who the fuck talks like this? There’s more to dialogue than vomiting exposition!

They stop for the night and Katsa heads out to get supper, finding a rabbit. Metaleyes compliments her and she decides that means picking a fight.

“Does it bother you? You’re welcome to do the hunting yourself. Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks, and scream if I hear any strange noises.”
He smiled then. “Do you treat Giddon like this, when the two of you travel? I imagine he finds it quite humiliating.”
“Poor Po. You may content yourself with reading my mind, if you wish to feel superior.”
He laughed. “I know you’re teasing me. And you should know I’m not easily humiliated. You may hunt for my food, and pound me every time we fight, and protect me when we’re attacked, if you like. I’ll thank you for it.”

…there was never any sign of that from Giddy. The most he did was act upset about her fight with Metaleyes, and she did come out of that actually bloody. (And he didn’t try to order her not to do it again, either.) This all seems like it’s a contrivance so Metaleyes can monologue about how he’ll be the best and most understanding boyfriend ever.

He then repeats that he’s humbled and not humiliated that she’s the better fighter, because we needed that anvil dropped yet again.

Katsa takes this as reason to emo again about how Metaleyes can use words to communicate feelings, and also somehow that means she’s a dimwitted monster who doesn’t have emotions at all, so it’s time for yet another pep talk from Metaleyes about how she was the one who decided to invent the non-secret council of meddling and then go on missions for it, and so she’s obviously a great person, she’s just not good at knowing her own thoughts.

“I wish you would remember the Council,” he said. “I wish you would remember that when we met, you were rescuing my grandfather, for no other reason than that you didn’t believe he deserved to be kidnapped.”

I really hope this section of the book isn’t going to be this getting repeated. The endless Katsa-thinks-she’s-violent thing was bad enough. I don’t want to sit through Katsa-thinks-she’s-evil-and-gets-told-she’s-not. So far the only things the book isn’t irritating me with is that no one’s making a big deal about how nice Katsa is and that Katsa’s physically stronger than everyone else. (Even Metaleyes being 0kay with things is tainted by the fact he seems to be doing it just because his character is based around being the perfect boyfriend, right down to the book making a big deal of him not minding.)

Anyway, so, let’s see.

Katsa’s self-loathing appears to have shifted somewhat from her earlier bits about being a bloodthirsty attack dog, but it’s just become broader and extreme, and also it’s set off by a far more minor thing. At least with Pandaman you could sort of see where she was getting confused because being around Pandaman or doing what he wanted was enraging her, and he always said she was inherently vicious when he was around her. Now she’s going on about being a stupid emotionless brute just because Metaleyes is more articulate than she is.

Katsa is already over the mindreading and it looks like now it’s just an excuse to get Metaleyes to open up, which is completely unnecessary because Katsa already sucks at emotions while Metaleyes is already happy to talk about his. Nothing in this chapter required mindreading. Katsa could easily have felt awkward that she’s an open book to other people in general and asked him to tell her what he’s thinking in return, or said she wanted to talk about emotions because she’s trying to figure out her own after the whole Pandaman thing. And Metaleyes shouldn’t need a mindreading grace to be guilted into it, because it’s not like agreeing means he has to share every embarrassing thought and indeed, nothing much of what he said was embarrassing.

Neither of them have figured out they want to fuck each other, despite one reading minds. I can only assume Katsa is so confused that not even Metaleyes can decipher it, and that for his part, he knows he’s into her but doesn’t want to make things awkward, particularly after seeing her relationship with Giddy crash and burn as soon as she learned the guy was interested.

So in sum, Katsa seems to have suddenly regressed compared to where she was in the previous section, which fits with my theory this is more like the start of a new story, with Katsa’s characterization being altered to provide a new character arc rather than flowing directly from the previous chapter.