Up to Kumori saving Marcone’s man on Whacker and two thoughts struck me:-
(1) whatever Kumori did generated significant cold, forming ice which is indicative of Winter.
(2) she saved the life of one of Marcone’s men, Marcone owes her or whoever holds her vassalage. That’s important, it could have been any random passer-by but was she deliberately targeting one of Marcone’s men for exactly this purpose?
This would suggest Cowl engaged the outside contractor to deliberately engage Marcone’s man with Kumori waiting in the wings. Nameless may not have a penchant for healing as a Demi-god of Discord, requiring his use of Kumori in his stead, someone with a penchant for healing. Kumori doesn’t have a major talent for showy magic page 224 Dead Beat, Kumori wasn’t strong enough to wrestle the book away from Harry not using his magic, but even a minor talent can be honed with instruction and practise. Was Nameless gaining control over Sarissa by teaching her the Necromancers version of healing he learnt from Kemmler, but couldn’t use himself due to his nature?
We know in The Law that Nameless will go to work for Marcone, was this the favour he traded on to get a foot in the door? I can’t see Gard being agreeable to Nameless unless Marcone thought he had good reason to overrule her. Nameless was fully in Winter at this point as the attack on Arctis Tor which led to his exile had yet to come. This would suggest he was planning on exile at this point.
So a female Winter Mortal, with a penchant for healing, part of Mab’s Court where Nameless could gain a hold over her would suggest Sarissa is Kumori if Cowl is indeed Nameless. We won’t be introduced to Sarissa until Cold Days and it strikes me as very Nameless to target Mab’s Changeling daughter twin to her bully Maeve? Using Lloyd Slate as part of his plan to gain a hold over her? All the speculation as to Kumori from Dead Beat to Cold Days would be rendered irrelevant.
Jim certainly has a pattern of dropping something pertinent in one book which is seemingly inconsequential and then revealing a pertinent connection in a later book. Colin Murphy as a ghost for example in Dead Beat, revealing that ghost works for Uriel in Ghost Story after Uriel has revealed himself to Harry.
It would also seem that Nameless has a penchant for manipulating women, we see this directly in The Law with Miss Laplander, but this would include Maeve, The Leansidhe, so easily Sarissa as well. He would have figured she was the spare Winter Lady, I bet he stoked Maeves paranoia over this leading to Lily’s death, inadvertently freeing Sarissa from his hold.
In Summer Knight Mab says that this is the last time that Maeve hires the help. Did Maeve choose Lloyd Slate based upon Nameless recommendation? That Slate was always Nameless man due to his heroin habit? That he could use Slate to bully the Winter Changelings and manipulate them like Ace in engaging the Tigress to take out Harry? which is exactly what he did in Summer Knight?
Page 231 the Erl King is described as Wildfae in Peabodys book, written approximately a century before, but in Battle Ground is definitely part of Winter. Did the book or Kemmlers creation of the Darkhallow force the Erl King to choose Winter? Page 241 would suggest so, Mab knows about The Word and Peabody’s book and the danger that it represents. Who did she find that out from? The existence of the Word was known to Bob, the heirs and from The Law Nameless. Nameless may have traded that to Mab as his price for entry into Winter, gaining the Erl King as a powerful and unlike Nameless a TRUSTWORTHY Vassal. In return for a vow to not summon the Erl King or cause him to be summoned, could that be why Cowl is trying to destroy it at first? Could both Nameless and The Erl King being bound by Winter Law mean that Nameless/Cowl couldn’t use the summoning, but could hijack Harry’s if Harry isn’t doing it on Cowls behalf? Cowl was only destroying copies of the book, preventing others from using the Darkhallow, initially because it was no good to him.
Mavra knows about the Word but not about the Erl King, did Nameless trade knowledge of the Word to Drakul? But not about the Erl King? so Drakul couldn’t use it? Harry giving Mavra The Word means Drakul has only half the solution
Page 239 of Dead Beat, Mab has caught Lea and put her on ice forcing Cowl’s hand at this point is Cowl going back to the earlier plan of the Darkhallow to get enough power to break free from Mab?