The Name of the Wind

Kvothe goes to the nearest livery to bargain for a horse. The owner, Kaerva, shows him a beautiful, full-blooded black Khershaen and asks for two solid marks because of his pure color, which makes him even more valuable. The boy talks to the horse. He can see that the horse responds to Cealdish and asks him, “Tu Keth-Selhan?”—which he believes to mean, “Are you first night?” (495). He tells Kaerva that Keth-Selhan is the horse’s name, which disconcerts the livery owner enough that he drops the price to 16 talents. Kvothe and his new horse are on their way.

Near his destination, Kvothe meets a tinker in need of a horse, so he bargains to get rid of Keth-Selhan. The tinker thinks he is lying about how far the horse traveled that day, but Kvothe swears that as Edema Ruh he’d never lie to a tinker. When Kvothe mentions the horse’s color, the tinker laughs and calls him a liar again. He points out that Keth-Selhan’s left hind food has a dyed white sock—a deliberate act of deception.

The boy is incredulous, but the tinker asks if the name didn’t tip him off. He informs Kvothe that his language skills are rusty: “Ket-Selem” means “first-night” while “Keth-Selhan” means “one sock.