#I mean Red Queen Throne of Glass Shadow and Bone and probably more

[longsightmyth]

Myth reads The Riddle, Chapter 1

Alrighty, folks. I can’t to a direct book-to-book comparison (there are seven ToG novels not including The Assassin’s Blade, which is a collection of five prequel novellas, and only five Pellinor books including the prequel novel) so I made a spreadsheet to figure out what should be read with what. The Riddle gets to be compared to Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, and a not insignificant amount of Queen of Shadows. The Crow gets the rest of Queen of Shadows, the entirety of Empire of Storms (Hem doesn’t deserve that but them’s the breaks), and a good chunk of Tower of Dawn. The Singing has the rest of Tower of Dawn and all of Kingdom of Ash, for which it has my sincere apologies.

The Bone Queen is going to be compared to The Assassin’s Blade on the premise that they are both prequels and that at some point I could use a break from doing anywhere from 40-90 pages at a time of ToG. I may do those two directly after The Riddle so I can have the aforementioned break.

I COULD, of course, read two books for every Pellinor book except the Bone Queen, which would still be read only with The Assassin’s Blade, but a, I didn’t think of that until I was already done with my spreadsheet, and b, that would involve reading exactly 1.628 pages (Tower of Dawn and Kingdom of Ash) with The Singing, which is 444 pages. As various friends correctly pointed out, that sounds torturous (and comes out to about 4 pages of ToG for 1 page of The Singing). After that discussion, I decided my spreadsheet should not be in vain.

Here we go.

The Riddle, being the second of the Books of Pellinor

Chapter 1

The Riddle

Do not twine garlands of myrtle for my forehead Nor pluck sweet roses to adorn me Make me a crown of somber violets For I am dying

The sweet lips of the maidens of Busk And the flashing feet of dancing goatherds Will never again quicken my desire For I am dying

Come to me merciful Meripon In your ebony chariot drawn by swallows From the dim halls beyond the Gates For I am dying

I kiss the peaks of Lamedon with my eyes And the white arms of the passionate sea Which loves this beautiful island that I love For I am dying

Thus begins the first chapter of the first section of The Riddle, called Thorold.

Yikes.

Maerad has a dream vision of a lot of armies marching through a desert, and not even a cool natural desert. Something about it feels bad and poisoned. She freaks out and falls…

Maerad woke, gasping for breath, and sat bolt upright. This was an unwise thing to do, as she was sleeping in a hammock slung below the deck of a small fishing smack called the White Owl. The hammock swung dangerously and then, as she flailed for balance in the pitch dark, tipped her out onto the floor. Still trapped in her dream, Maerad screamed, putting out her hands to break her fall, and hit the wooden floorboards.

Cadvan of course rushes to check on her. Maerad says she had a bad dream and apologizes if she cried out. Cadvan jokes that it sounded like there was a hull on the boat and asks if it was a regular nightmare or a foredream. Maerad says definitely foredream, definitely horrible, also she is not a fan of boats because she gets seasick.

Foredreams, in Maerad’s experience, we always horrible.

Cadvan, when Maerad tells him about it, says it definitely sounds like the place the Nameless One started out from when he marshalled his armies to bring about the Great Silence. Maerad asks hopefully if maybe she’s just seeing the past, and Cadvan says there’s always the possibility but he doesn’t think so in this case, because Cadvan is a negative nancy.

Maerad gives us some ‘last time on’ info while she and Cadvan consider the implications, including that Turbansk, Saliman’s Bard school and where he and Hem went, are going to have it rough.

“...even that vast force is only one piece in the great strategem the Nameless One is now unleashing. And you, Maerad, are as significant to him as that huge army. Maybe more so. Everything turns on you.”

Maerad bowed her head, oppressed beyond measure by Cadvan’s words. On me? she thought bitterly. And yet she knew it was true.

Cadvan, I don’t mean to criticize, but you seem to forget a lot that Maerad is a teenager who was pretty recently yoinked from slavery. Maybe, like. Chill for a second on the whole ‘the fate of the world is on Your Shoulders Alone’ thing? (It’s a different matter from how I feel that in ToG the books have forgotten that Celaena is a teenager pretty recently yoinked from slavery. If I fail to mention this in the comparison yell at me in the notes and I’ll talk about it)

More ‘last time on’ but I don’t mean it as a criticism: it manages to be couched into Maerad’s thoughts about Cadvan and her Foretold-ness, and honestly I feel like more books should have some ‘last time on’ thoughts when they’re sequels. If nothing else it would remind the authors themselves what happened in the last book.

Naming no names, re: sequel consistency (oh we’ll get to that)

They’re two days out from Busk, and Maerad, at a loss for anything else to do, offers to keep watch so Owan or Cadvan can nap, since they’re the only two who really know how to sail. They would have taught Maerad, but Cadvan has a magic wind still going, which makes teaching difficult, and when it’s not going he’s asleep and Owan is busy actually, you know. Sailing.

Maerad had already witnessed Cadvan’s powers of endurance, but his stubborn will impressed her anew: his face was haggard and his mouth grim, but he moved the with alertness of a well-rested man.

So many jokes I could make. I will refrain.

Maerad sees something in the water and alerts the other two. Cadvan tries to make them go faster but whatever it is keeps up.

It’s an ondril, which are usually pretty benign sea serpents. This one is big, they’ve already gotten out of whatever territory onril would normally defend, and they can’t see to outrun it.

Welp, says Cadvan (lightly paraphrased), guess we’re gonna have to fight. Let’s charge it.

Owan cocked his head and thought briefly. “Aye, easily enough, if you put more breeze in the sails,” he said. “Think you that’s a good idea?”

“I don’t,” Maerad said. “I think it’s mad.”

“We may be able to wrest the initiative,” said Cadvan. He looked at Maerad and smiled with a sudden sweetness that illuminated and transformed his somber face. “Come, Maerad. It is far better to put away fear than to be driven by it. You know that.”

Yes, I know that, Maerad thought sardonically. But I’m tired of having to be brave when really I’m so terrified I scarce know what to do.

He lets his wind die, has Owan turn them around, and whips of an opposite direction wind to charge the ondril. Maerad isn’t pleased but readies her sword and magic. Cadvan magically fastens Owan to the boat so he won’t get thrown out and gives age-old fighting advice: go for the eyes.

They do.

Anyway they have a battle, Maerad hits it with fire (some of which glances off), they run, the ondril pursues, both Maerad and Cadvan go for the remaining eye when it catches up, and they finally manage to escape. The men congratulate each other and Maerad.

Maerad looked away over the sea, feeling nothing but a vast emptiness. She had no sense of triumph, nor even relief. All she felt was a returning wisp of nausea. The only good thing about being frightened half to death, she thought, is that it makes me forget all about being seasick.

End chapter.

Throne of Glass

Are y’all ready for Crown of Midnight? I bet you aren’t!

Confession: this is the one I remember least, so we’re going on a journey together basically. I hope that comforts you as it has failed to comfort me. Anyway. Chapters 1-6 (and the first 51 pages) of CoM, here we come. (I also have to remind people that if I didn’t enjoy this on some level I wouldn’t be doing it: no one is forcing me. I’m just being dramatic)

Also can we discuss how I actually LIKE Crown of Midnight as a title, even if it’s pretty irrelevant to this book? Just saying.

We start with part 1, titled ‘The King’s Champion’ which is a departure from the first book, which was separated only by chapters. All subsequent books follow this format for reasons I don’t entirely understand, but we can talk about that in the comparison section, probably in more than one of these chapter/section comparisons.

Chapter 1!

Celaena sneaks into a house in a storm with many s words describing movement. She’s concealed in a black mask and hood, which is not a good way not to attract notice. Human-shaped splotches of solid black aren’t exactly blending in with the shadows (you’d want lots of different shades of brown and grey and black and yes even red, especially if there’s a lot of brick around. Fun fact: red is one of the first colors to register as grey to human eyes in the dark) and not exactly great for blending in with the crowd (unless that’s a new fashion in Rifthold?). She might have done better to disguise herself as a servant once she was in the house, or even to get in the house.

To give Celaena her due, she is trying to make An Impression on the dude she’s supposed to assassinate so he’ll take her seriously. To harp on my own pet peeve, making everyone around him less competent to make Celaena seem more badass is not the way to make a badass character (“the [servant] girl hadn’t noticed [Celaena’s] wet footprints on the floorboards,” really? She has to clean those floors. That girl is going to notice when they’re dirty).

We are two paragraphs into this book.

Anyway. I might also have to start counting uses of the word ‘wraith’.

Celaena notes that Lord Nirall’s wife is pretty and wonders what these nobles have done for the king to want them dead. Remind me to talk about Celaena’s weird compassion for high ranking Adarlan citizens vs everyone else in the world in the comparison.

She crept to the edge of the bed. It wasn’t her place to ask questions. Her job was to obey. Her freedom depended on it. With each step toward Lord Nirall, she ran through the plan again.

Her sword slid out of its sheath with barely a whine. She took a shuddering breath, bracing herself for what would come next.

Lord Nirall’s eyes flew open just as the King’s Champion raised her sword over her head.

Chapter 2!

Celaena’s walking down the hall to the king’s council chamber. I personally would have my assassin report to me in my study barring some really specific circumstances but I am but a young girl unschooled in the ways of politics and murder.

Also Rifthold is spelled Rift-hold for some reason. I assume it’s just a formatting error or typo.

Celaena bows to the king, notes Chaol and Dorian, and removes her hood when the king tells her to rise, which just makes these guards even more incompetent. You’re letting a hooded chick with a bloody sack just walk into the council chamber?

Wait why does the council chamber have the glass throne. Does the king just have multiple glass thrones? The glass throne has been mentioned all of once and it already has more impact in the book NOT named after it. Anyway.

Celaena produces a head (mauled unrecognizably) and seal ring, and then when the king asks about the guy’s wife she hauls a “slender, pale hand” wearing a wedding ring from the sack, saying that the wife is chained to the remains of her husband at the bottom of the sea. Dorian looks sick and Celaena decides she should give him credit for not throwing up.

The king says fine, and tells her that her next assignment is to root out and get rid of a growing rebel movement.

“There are several people on my list of suspected traitors, but I will only give you one name at a time. This castle is crawling with spies.”

Well that’s stupid on a scale rarely seen. You aren’t going to hand her a physical list, after all, that would be -

Chaol stiffened at [the comment about spies], but the king waved his hand and the captain approached her, his face still blank as he extended a piece of paper to Celaena.

- exactly what you’re doing. Okay.

Keeping her features neutral, she looked at the paper. On it was a single name: Archer Finn.

Celaena actually knows him - he trained for a bit with her, because he’s a courtesan and needed to be able to defend himself from his clients’ jealous husbands, apparently. No gay people in Rifthold, no siree. Celaena had a crush on him back in the day and she hasn’t seen him in several years.

“...she’d never thought him capable of something like this. He’d been handsome and kind and jovial, not a traitor to the crown so dangerous that the king would want him dead.”

Sounds like a perfect spy tbh.

Somehow despite Archer being a famous and highly sought-after courtesan, the king thinks it’s salacious that Celaena might know who he is. Then the king gives her a month to kill Archer or he’ll reconsider her position. When she’s killed Archer she’ll get the next name on the list.

Surely there isn’t an actual physical list somewhere of everyone the king considers a traitor. Surely he at least has it in code. Surely his spymaster has different bits of info kept different places or with different people. Surely he has a spymaster?

Leave me my hopes and dreams.

She had avoided the politics of the kingdoms - especially their rebel forces - for so many years, and now she was in the thick of it. Wonderful.

Ah. Sorry to mention this, but…

“We kill corrupt officials and adulterous spouses; we make it quick and clean…”

Maas, Sarah J.. The Assassin's Blade: The Throne of Glass Novellas (Throne Of Glass Series) (p. 41). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Killing corrupt politicians is not avoiding politics. I’m just saying.

The king tells her that her payment for killing Nirall is in her chambers. She pulls a salary and gets bonuses? Sweet gig. Aside from, you know, the murder.

She leaves the throne room, keeping the piece of paper with Archer’s name on it because this is Celaena we’re talking about, and we swap to Dorian’s PoV.

He’s worried because Celaena is killing people and not dressing up anymore and starts to think that maybe she just manipulated him into getting her the position of King’s Champion, which would make sense except for the fact that he pulled her out of the salt mines having never knowingly met her (and she doesn’t know they’ve met either: it’s a prequel thing) for the express purpose of making her King’s Champion, no seduction required.

Also, she’s an assassin who kills people for money. I am always surprised at how characters, knowing that fact, are surprised when she talks about killing people for money.

Dorian couldn’t bring himself to finish the thought. He’d visit her - tomorrow, perhaps. Just to see if there was a chance he was wrong.

But he couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever meant anything to Celaena at all.

Back to Celaena’s PoV!

She goes to the sewers to dump the body parts and Chaol follows her. She wonders why everyone seems shocked that she’s willing to murder people, which is the first and possibly only time Celaena considers that as far as I can recall.

Chaol gets mad at her for being unwilling to share her murder details because for some reason that links in to missing her? I guess bonding over working for the apparently murderous conquering dictator is one way to strengthen a relationship.

They hug because she realizes he was worried about her and we are reminded that Celaena is warm for Chaol’s form. He says she smells really bad. She complains that she wasn’t allowed to shower before going to see the king, which I will acknowledge is a fair thing to be peeved about.

Chaol walks her to her room and agrees to come back for dinner, after which Celaena gets fussed over by Philippa in summary and then ruminates on how she hadn’t actually killed Niral and his unnamed wife or the named first target (Sir Carlin). Apparently there are sick-houses that dump lots of bodies, so Celaena stole a couple that looked like the victims and slashed them up a little. Celaena thinks about how the pale and slender hand had come from a girl “barely past her first bleed” which marks the beginning of the interesting relationship these books have with menstrual cycles and somehow knowing if someone has them or not.

She tries to think of how she can fake Archer’s death and draws a blank because he’s so well-known (but somehow it was surprising that she knew who he was back in the throne room?), then that she still can’t believe he’s a rebel, then that she can’t think of what else the king could conquer unless he’s looking at the other continents.

There were other continents, of course. Other continents with wealthy kingdoms - like Wendlyn, that faraway land across the sea.

Celaena’s mother was literally from Wendlyn. It irks me that the book pretends she has no idea about the country.

Celaena thinks that if the king finds out what she’s up to he’ll destroy her.

Chapter 3!

Celaena has a nightmare where Cain and the ridderak chase her through the secret tunnels. Cain almost catches her and…

He whispered her name, her true name, and she screamed as he -

When the book acknowledges Celaena’s Super Secret Long Lost Heritage and when it doesn’t has never quite made sense to me, but here we are.

She wakes up, cuddles her dog, and goes back to sleep.

The next morning Celaena and Nehemia play fetch with Fleetfoot the dog who hates everyone and everything but Celaena per the text. Celaena considers that Nehemia is a spy but the king definitely can’t know about her or he wouldn’t trust Celaena to be his Champion.

Fleetfoot is apparently abnormally large, as a sidenote.

Nehemia wants Celaena to tell her anything Celaena figures out about the king’s plans, because Nehemia is a reasonably competent spy in enemy territory using every advantage. Celaena promises to do so but thinks that she won’t, actually, because the king promised if she worked against him he would murder Chaol, Nehemia, and Nehemia’s family one by one in that order, which is really the wrong order to go in if you’re an evil king bent on bending a mostly morally incompetent assassin to your will. You kill somebody just close enough to prove you’re serious first. You don’t give up your hostage grown princess or loyal captain of the guard until other options have exhausted themselves. The hostage crown princess keeps an entire country at bay. The loyal captain of the guard is a, loyal, and b, captain of the guard. Those are the people you get rid of when you’re just Over It. You won’t have anybody left to bargain with after you kill the people Celaena actually cares about.

Look if you’re going to write evil, calculating characters, make them evil and calculating. Moving on.

If Nehemia talked more about the rebels, [Celaena] didn’t know how much more of it she could take. Yes, she wanted to be free of the king - both as his Champion and as a child of a conquered nation - but she wanted nothing to do with whatever plots were brewing in Rifthold, and whatever desperate hope the rebels still savored. To stand against the king would be nothing but folly. They’d all be destroyed.

Nehemia talks about Calaculla, which is supposed to be a work camp even harsher than Endovier and reserved almost entirely for citizens of Eyllwe, and says that the king won’t meet with her to discuss the conditions there.

“Apparently, he’s too busy finding people for you to kill.”

Get her.

Nehemia calls Celaena Elentiya, which if you have forgotten means ‘spirit that could not be broken’ in the language of Eyllwe and which you might have REPRESSED that Nehemia gave to Celaena, possibly in a fairytale hope that if you name something you influence the nature of it.

Sorry, Nehemia. You tried.

Anyway she does that while demanding when they can actually act.

But when Celaena said nothing, when she promised nothing, just as she always did when Nehemia spoke about these things, the princess dropped the stick on the ground quietly and walked back to the castle.

Celaena thinks about how she has to go meet Chaol for a run in a few minutes and she’s going to go hang out in Rifthold afterwards.

After all, the king had given her a month, and despite her own questions for Archer, she wanted to get off the castle grounds for a bit. She had blood money to burn.

Chapter 4!

We start with Chaol’s PoV. He and Celaena are doing their morning run and it’s cold. He looks over at her.

Noticing his stare, she flashed him a grin, those stunning turquoise eyes filled with light.

I just wanted it noted for the record exactly how noticeable her family eyes (from her Wendlyn side) storied in song and legend are.

They tease each other and run faster. Chaol thinks about Cain and how he killed him and asks Celaena how often she thinks about the people she’s killed. She drags him to a stop and says he shouldn’t pass judgment on her before breakfast. In the book it’s not bantery, it just sounds that way in summary.

Chaol assures her he wasn’t judging, and when she asks if this is about Cain he says yes. Celaena launches into a speech about never forgetting the people she’s killed, which would be a lot more moving if we knew anything about the people she killed or if she actually, like, remembered them in her PoV. we don’t even know who the guy she killed when she was in the single digits (mentioned in ToG) was. This is what I mean by these books telling instead of showing. We’re in Celaena’s head for most of these books. We should know more things.

Celaena assures Chaol that what he did wasn’t dishonorable and that she’ll never forget he saved her. Chaol reflects silently that he doesn’t know who he’d chose if it came down to Celaena vs the king, which, uh. Really dude?

They run some more.

Celaena’s PoV!

They’re walking back to the palace through the gardens. It’s still really cold.There are lots of women out to ogle Chaol as he removes all his layers but his shirt. Celaena is irritated. Chaol offers to help her with surveillance on Archer, she says she doesn’t need help, and they run into Dorian and a blond young man.

Blond dude is Roland. He makes Celaena nervous, which I’m not actually going to make fun of. Sometimes dudes just give off unspecified Bad Vibes. Dorian introduces them.

They still used her alias whenever she couldn’t avoid running into members of the court, though most everyone knew to some degree that she was not in the palace for administrative nonsense or politics.

Administrative.

Nonsense.

Fine whatever.

Roland didn’t expect the King’s Champion to be so lovely, apparently. He’s here to take a position on the king’s council. Chaol gets grouchy. Roland ogles Celaena. Dorian breaks up the party.

Dorian’s PoV!

Roland comments that Celaena/Lillian is an unexpected choice even with the competition. Dorian hates him and remembers that time Chaol punched Roland in the face and knocked Roland unconscious. He says Roland deserved it but does not explain why, though apparently he deserved it enough that the entire court took Chaol’s side.

Roland asks some more questions. Dorian gives no answers and thinks about how Meah (where Roland is from) is a prosperous coastal city with no army and no political power, which makes me question everything. Also I wish the throwaway comment early about Celaena ‘killing’ a dude in Meah linked into Roland somehow, but that would mean this was a different book.

Celaena’s PoV!

Her salary as King’s Champion was considerable, and Celaena spent every last copper of it.

Where does all your money come from later if you spend it all? I guess we’ll talk more about that in Queen of Shadows.

She returns to her room to find Dorian waiting for her. They banter, mentioning Dorian’s flocks of ladies.

Actually, the thought of Dorian with other women made her want to shatter a window, but it wouldn’t be fair to let him know that.

Yikes.

Celaena says she has to head back out into Rifthold.

Dorian took a step closer, exposing his palms to her. “Do you want me to fight for you? Is that it?”

“No,” she said quietly. “I just want you to leave me alone.”

His eyes flickered with the words left unsaid. Celaena stared at him, unmoving, until he silently left.

Alone in the foyer, Celaena clenched and unclenched her fists, suddenly disgusted with all of the pretty packages on the table.

In a weird way, I think this might be one of the most telling passages about Celaena. When Nehemia tries to talk about helping people, Celaena goes shopping. When she reiterates to Dorian that she doesn’t want to date him, that is when she can’t stomach shopping.

It’s just interesting to me, is all.

Chapter 5!

Up on a rooftop reindeer paw, down jumps good old Celaena Sardothien.

Ahem.

On a rooftop in a very fashionable and respectable part of Rifthold, Celaena crouched in the shadow of a chimney and frowned into the chill wind gusting off the Avery.

She’s waiting for Archer to leave his current appointment. She remembers Sam Cortland and vague events from the prequel novellas, but not in any helpful manner. When Archer exits (apparently after two hours instead of the one his previous appointments took).

While she was in no hurry to seek out the truth behind her own capture and Sam’s death, and while she was fairly certain the king had to be wrong about Archer, part of her wondered whether whatever truth she uncovered about this rebel movement and the king’s plans would destroy her, too.

And not just destroy her - but also everything she’d grown to care about.

Later, Celaena and Chaol are chilling in his room (she notes that it’s one room with a bathroom, not the suite that she has). Celaena is studying Archer info. Chaol is presumably doing captain of the guard business, which should involve a lot of writing and accounting so at least that’s happening. Good for you, book.

Celaena learns that Wesley (Arobynn’s bodyguard) killed the crime lord who killed Sam. Arobynn apparently killed Wesley right afterwards.

Celaena ruminates on how Arobynn betrayed her and…

How much she’d make him suffer - and bleed for it.

Chaol asks why she cares, and she explains about Sam and being captured.

“I failed him,” she said. “In every way that counted, I failed him.”

Another long silence, then a sigh. “Not in one way,” Chaol said. “I bet he would have wanted you to survive - to live. So you didn’t fail him, not in that regard.”

I feel like it’s moments like these where my extreme disgust and disappointment in the way Celaena is handled as a character gets in the way. This would normally be a sentiment I’d be down with. It’s not terribly written. I just can’t make myself believe that Celaena really gave a damn about Sam.

It’s a problem.

Chaol opens up about his own romantic past, in which Roland stole his ladylove away and whisked her off to Meah, never to be seen again. I want to be clear that it wasn’t a kidnapping, it was Roland sleeping with Chaol’s girlfriend.

Look. Not to be all ‘ladies can’t make their own choices’ but I gotta say if the cousin of the current murderous dictatorial king was like ‘sleep with me’ I probably would out of fear for my own safety. The situation might not have been like that, but it kinda seems like that.

They banter. Chaol goes to walk Celaena back to her rooms and she asks if he’d do the same for Dorian or if he only does it for women. He doesn’t reeeaaally answer and walks her back.

Celaena tells him that if Lithaen (a wink and a nod towards Celaena’s secret identity in Queen of Glass) chose Roland over Chaol then Lithaen is ‘the greatest fool who ever lived.’

Please see above, re: consent being debateable.

Celaena is also grateful that Lithaen is gone.

Midnight! Celaena heads for the library, being unable to sleep. She plans to grab a book and hightail it back to her room unless there are still some fires lit in the library and I’d ask why she wasn’t reading one of the eighty zillion books she apparently bought earlier but I have been in the frame of mind where nothing you have works for your brain. It’s like with some people and clothes? But with books.

With the chill tonight, it was no surprise to see someone completely concealed by a black cloak, hood drawn over the face. But something about the figure standing between the open library doors made some ancient, primal part of her send a warning pulse so strong that she didn’t take another step.

It’s a librarian come to keep her away from the books. They know what’s going to happen when she brings her dog into the library and they know about those times when she was a kid and they figure out that she’s easily spooked by people in black cloaks.

I’m kidding. It’s creepy and evil and the Eye of Elena starts glowing to ward it off. Celaena closes her eyes.

When she opened her eyes, the amulet was dark, and the hooded creature was gone.

Not a trace, not even the sound of footsteps.

Celaena didn’t go into the library. Oh, no. She just walked quickly back to her rooms with as much dignity as she could muster. Though she kept telling herself that she had imagined it all, that it was some hallucination from too many hours awake, Celaena couldn’t stop hearing that cursed word again and again.

Plans.

Honestly I feel like that chapter should have just ended on ‘Celaena didn’t go into the library.’ It’s kind of funny but still conveys that the creature freaked her out.

Chapter 6!

Celaena is still walking back to her rooms in this chapter. I feel like that could have been better worded last chapter. She’s trying to rationalize still: reading is out of fashion, so maybe somebody was indulging in the middle of the night so nobody made fun of them.

Also it’s a lunar eclipse tonight.

Celaena decides to go see Elena in her tomb and sets off down the secret passageway. Celaena has scars from the Ridderak bite (“a ring of white scars punctured her palm and encircled her thumb”) that I don’t believe were mentioned before or are ever mentioned again. I could be wrong.

She reaches to open the door to the tomb and a bronze doorknocker shaped like a skull asks her if she’s going to knock. She freaks out and says the door knocker can’t really be talking because that would mean magic.

It was impossible - it should be impossible. Magic was gone, vanished from the land ten years ago, before it had even been outlawed by the king.

“Everything in the world is magic. Thank you ever so kindly for stating the obvious.”

She calmed her reeling mind long enough to say, “But magic doesn’t work anymore.”

“New magic doesn’t. But the king cannot erase old spells made with older powers - like the Wyrdmarks. Those ancient spells still hold; especially ones that imbue life.”

What the fuck ever, y’all. I give up on figuring out the magic vanished from the world stuff. Really it only vanished from this particular continent, too, you learn later. Does that mean it’s really only a forcefield? Does that mean water stops magic? Does the amount matter? Would a river stop magic? If you’re on a boat in Erilea, can you do spells?

No answer. Well, I live in hope, as the priest said to the princess (thank you Tamora Pierce for that saying, which I have used since I was seven)

The door knocker is annoying. Celaena is annoying. Their banter is annoying. I think reading 50 pages of this at a time is messing with whatever objectivity I was clinging to. Moving on.

Apparently King Brannon (first king of Terrasen, Elena’s father, hot fae dude with fire powers) put the door knocker there to watch Elena’s tomb. I have to ask what the door knocker’s powers are aside from speech, but I know I will receive no answer.

The door knocker (whose name we have now learned is Mort) says that her name is the funniest thing he’s heard in centuries.

Apparently Elena is recharging after helping Celaena and won’t be back for a while. Mort says he has a message from her to Celaena though. Celaena decides to put that off and examines the tomb more thoroughly.

There’s a sword of truth, wyrdmarks on the walls, and Gavin Havilliard’s armor but no sign of Elena’s. The lunar eclipse puts the tomb almost entirely in darkness and Celaena agrees to hear what Elena has to say.

Mort cleared his throat, and then said in a voice that sounded eerily like the queen’s, “ ‘If I could leave you in peace, I would. But you have lived your life aware that you will never escape certain burdens. Whether you like it or not, you are bound to the fate of this world. As the King’s Champion, you are now in a position of power, and you can make a difference in the lives of many.’ ” Celaena’s stomach turned over.

“Cain and the ridderak were just the beginning of the threat to Erilea,” Mort said, the words echoing around the tomb. “There is a far deadlier power poised to devour the world.”

“And I have to find it, I suppose?”

“Yes. There will be clues to lead you to it. Signs you must follow. Refusing to kill the king’s targets is only the first and smallest step.”

Celaena has the usual ‘why should I bother helping other people because my life sucked’ discussion with Mort, who does the wise old mentor parts right down to “you don’t mean that.”

Mort just glowered at her. “You’re that selfish? That cowardly? Why did you come down here tonight, Celaena? To help us all? Or just to help yourself? Elena told me about you—about your past.”

“Shut your rutting face,” she snapped, and stormed up the stairs.

End chapter 6.

Comparison

Accidental parallels ahoy! Neither Maerad nor Celaena want their destinies. Both are told the fate of the world hinges on them.

Of course, The Riddle has Maerad keep it on the down low and ponder things herself even as she keeps moving forward because she has had a crappy life, and she doesn’t want other people to have a crappy life. We also know who Maerad is and why she’s important to the grand scheme of things, while ToG is taking its sweet time confirming what seemed to me on first read incredibly obvious. I remember being confused when it was a reveal and flipping back through. That’s just the kind of book ToG is. Of course she’s a long lost princess. Of course she is.

I just wish the book didn’t pretend it was going to be a surprise.

We also have Maerad remembering the last book and some key points and having an action scene almost right off the bat. Celaena, the action murder heroine, has yet to have a fight six chapters in.If you took away Maerad’s experiences, she wouldn’t be the same character. If you took away Celaena’s, she would still be doing exactly what the plot says she should be doing, because nothing has formed or been formed by Celaena.

If that makes sense.

Stats

The Riddle

Pages: 18

Fragments: 14

Em-Dashes: 14

Ellipses: 6

ToG

Pages: 51

Fragments: 110

Em-Dashes: 116

Ellipses: 48

[darrowsrising]

Darrow and Vlad: #astrearants #maybeboring #youhavebeenwarned #historyandshite

By unpopular demand (and because @sevroaubarca ’s probably a fan of Vlad the ultimate muderous babe) I am writing a post about Darrow, the Reaper of Mars from Red Rising, and Vlad, the Impaler of Wallachia, historical person. I am not an expert. I will say only what I have learned at school and from extensive reading (I am a history nerd and Ion Bulai and Neagu Djuvara are awesome to say the least). Also, as Djuvara says in almost all his book, history is subjective so there is no way historians can be objective 100%. The are a lot of suppositions and hypothesis etc.

To me and romanians, Vlad was a ruthless, but fair monarch who protected his people and his throne by any means necessary, to Ottomans, he was a cold blooded monster, to the rest of the world, he is a serial killer, a cruel ruler etc. You get the idea.

Fitchner au Barca states in Red Riding that students at the Institute can be as ruthless as Vlad Dracul as long as they don’t lose like he did.

And I was like, dude, Vlad lost because people betrayed him. His plans weren’t that bad for a feudal monarch surrounded at all corners by mighty states. Here’s a brief history lesson:

He was first born to his father Vlad II Dracul and supposedly the daughter of the then Moldavian Prince.

His father won the throne with Ottoman support, but many boyars (romanian nobility) always conspired against him and the Drăculești dynasty.

Don’t get it wrong. Vlad Dracul won his throne, but he wasn’t an usurper. It was believed his dynasty had Mircea the Old as ancestor. It’s the ‘law’ of the royal bone. If you were related to someone who had the throne then you had the right to demand the throne.

The rulers of the romanian countries (Transylvania is debatable, because it was under other countries’s control over the centuries with little to no autonomy) are called Princes in english. But the actual term is 'great voivode and domn’. The first term means total military power. The second comes from “dominus”. Leader, master, ruler etc.

Vlad Dracul made a pact with The Order of the Dragon to ensure that the Ottomans won’t sack and conquer Wallachia. He wasn’t a great leader and his impossibility to deal with the Sultan cost him the respect of his people and his heir.

Vlad and his little brother Radu were given to the Ottoman Empire. It was a safety enssurence, but Vlad was trained to become a eniccesery in the Ottoman army. It was a normal practise then. The Romanian Countries paid tribute in gold and children so the 'merciful’ Sultan won’t conquer and sack their lands. The enemies of the Empire risked to face their own brothers, sons, nephews etc.

Vlad and Radu were kids then. But Vlad was the one who opposed the most. He was mercilessly tortured into obedience. Here it is were he learned how the Ottoman Army works and the most gruesome torture practises.

Radu The Handsome will become, as rumors has it, Mehmed II’s lover.(the old sleeping with the enemy thrope.). Hence 'the handsome’ (gay).

Vlad will go back to his beloved Wallachia. He will rule it on and off for short periods of time. He will quickly become feared through out the region.

His best tactics were made to compensate for the lack of men he had compared to the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire was a huge empire. Wallachia was a small country. Almost a quarter of Romania’s actual size (almost, search Wallachia map for more info). A small kid against a huge giant. But this isn’t David and Goliath. Vlad managed to hold the empire in check. He killed emmisaries and diplomatic convoys from the Ottoman Empire so their corpses will decorate the gates of the keeps. (It was easier to instill fear than reinforcing the keeps). He personally arraged the head of the Pasha and his sons on the iron spikes of the gates to reinforce fear and the myth of the bloodthirsty monster from Wallachia.

He got rid of ploys to dethrone him by inviting the conspirators at dinner then locking them in and setting the place on fire.

He ordered hangings, stakings and decapitatations of rapists, desertors, spies etc.

When the Ottoman Empire responded with armies and conquering, he ordered the salting of the earth, the poisoning of wells. It was a well known practise (nothing new, but very effective). The sad part was that many people thought the same with their boys: better dead than in the hands of the Ottomans. And even sadder it is that the Romanian Countries weren’t the only ones living under the shadow of the Empire. The Balkan countries were in the same position and worse, they were considered parts of the Empire.

In June 1462, Mehmed II himself went into a expedition to dethrone Vlad. Vlad set on fire half his army in a savage night attack with his army dressed in Ottoman clothes.

He had to retreat in the mountains and wait for help from Matthias Corvin, half romanian - half hungarian voivode of Transylvania. Matthias betrayed him, but instead of giving him to the Ottomans (Iancu of Hunedoara, Matthias’s father was the one who supported Vlad’s ruling fron the start of it), he arrested him and held him at Buda for 14 years.

The thing which also held back Matthias was, in my opinion, the fact that Vlad was married to Ilona Szilágyi. A noble hungarian woman, Matthias’s cousin and the Queen mother’s granddaughter - Elizabeth Szilágyi.

When Vlad tried again to gain back his throne, not only Mehmed II jumped out of his arse, but the boyars started to militate for Radu as the rightful ruler. There were many fights for the throne, but with Mehmed as his supporter and some noble families backing him up, Radu won, but only because traitors eventually stabbed Vlad in the back.

Btw, Radu (who is Vlad’s little half-brother and who converted to Islam while in the Sultan’s care) didn’t have a great rule either, he battled for the throne with a no-one-cares-about and he was killed by Mihnea the Bad, Vlad’s only surviving heir. (Proud papa is smirking fron hell).

Darrow uses the Reaper myth to instill fear, to freeze his enemies, to make them play after his rules.

He was trained and taught by the Society he was trying to break (and eventually did break).

People he considered brothers turned against him (Cassius and Roque, although in Vlad’s case we can only talk about Radu and someone from his enturage whom he trusted, but we can’t compare them to Cassius and/or Roque).

There were many situations when Darrow had less people in his army than his enemies, but he always found a solutions around that.

Radu The Handsome was indeed handsome. Vlad on the other hand had a savage appearence: wild, wavy, soulder lenght, black hair, crooked, acviline nose nose from fights, black moustache, high cheekbones, black, deep set eyes. Darrow is described as being handsome in a savage way. Cassius and Roque have classic beauty, which is inviting, trust worthy, maybe intimidating a bit. But Darrow’s beauty is wild. He is has this aura of restlessness, anger. He is not only intimidating, he is scary; there are even rumours that he eats glass.

After infiltrating in the Society he eventually comes back to his roots, not longer a child.

Some historians think that Vlad was married to a romanian girl before Ilona. There was speculation that after their children died in either childbirth or because of illnesses, she threw herself down a tower’s spiral stairs. On the other hand, Vlad’s love with Ilona is recognized and it’s supposed to have been happy. Vlad’s cousin, Ștefan the Great, Prince of Moldavia (and in my opinion a tad more badarse than Vlad), had enough daughters if Vlad wished to strenghten his ties with Moldavia. Radu married one of those daughters to assure his throne and allies. Vlad and Ștefan helped each other a lot, but they were also rivals. But instead of forcing bonds, Vlad chose Ilona (he didn’t have an extraordinary relationship with Matthias Corvin and the Hungarian Kingdom either, because the majority of the population in Translyvania was romanian and they were discriminated against). So to say he might have loved her isn’t exactly a stretch.

Darrow’s marriages aren’t totally similar to Vlad’s, but there are some elements here and there which match.

Mihnea is the only child which was recorded from the marriage of Vlad with Ilona. There aren’t notes of bastards (the concept isn’t really that of the western view. Radu has as much right to the throne as Vlad and they were half-brothers. It’s called the 'law’ of the royal bone (os domnesc, the bone of the dominus), not the hereditary law.) Just like Pax is the only child, Mihnea was the only one to carry his father legacy.

The difference is that Darrow learns that people need a reason to follow you. And that using them and using only cruelty and fear will get you stabbed in the gut. Vlad didn’t have Ilona at his side or hidden in the woods to mend his wounds like Mustang did to Darrow. So it was too late for Vlad to fix things.

I admit that by the standards of today, Vlad is a serial killer. But Ștefan, for example, wasn’t too far either: he killed people because they were getting on his nerves, he hated when people were more talentated than him (he killed a teenager for hitting a target with an arrow, a target he couldn’t hit), but he was a good ruler, a strong diplomat, a great strategist. His people prospered for 47 years under his rule and protection. Vlad didn’t really managed to have a constant rule.

Anyway, I wrote this because 🇷🇴 #pride and because there are a lot of instances where Darrow is compared with Achilles, with Mars, with Ares, with Selenius au Lune (indirectly. He is compared to Iron Golds and Selenius was considered an Iron Gold), with Scipio, and a lot of other people of legends and myths and reality. I just wanted to put my favorite character face to face with one of my favorite historical figures.

[cutemoniic]

  You thought of it, initially, as an easy and even fun job to do. Your new people already love you, seeing you as an avenger of their meek destiny under the blood-stained fist of a tyrant. That you are much, much kinder and intended to make your Hell a better place was a thing… but acting on it was another.

  Almost a whole year passed since you healed up, ready to descend – and all you could do was procrastinate your ascend, unable to mentally prepare yourself since you heard that the traitors emerged shortly after you left to return home and recover… but your time has come, and it is finally the day that you will be forced to leave the safety of Wrath’s house and return. The travel through bloody pentagrams was easy, but you’re nervous.

  As Charon’s boat slowly dives on the waters, easily traveling into the dull caves, spectral hands come up to grab at your vest, mouths of the dead opening to chant your names before his ruthless oar makes them crawl back, the water moving for a second before they sink again into the dephts of the green, sick-looking water. Your fingers clench at the hem of the boat, before you turn to glance at your unlikely traveling partner: Wrath.

  He looks focused enough, his gaze scanning the surroundings and his ears sharp, most likely to hear danger approaching. While you’re surprised that he agreed to come, But the inner chambers are silent, while your heart roars worry for your people’s destiny, and scolds itself for taking so long. Your hand reaches back to touch his, cold fingers twining with his as if he had been waiting for you to do that; his hold is comforting, but your skin is gelid, and the goosebumbs are masked by the cape hugging around your body and dress. You’re less appariscent, more hidden. The cloack is made of shadows, and your hood masks half of your face by throwing a rather large shadow on your eyes. You’re masked, unbent for now.

  Charon’s boat takes a turn just before the Doors, and he swings it to their left side, revealing a canal hidden by sickeningly brown lianas: he murmurs that you’re almost at your palace halfway through the secret passage you barely knew about, unused and dusty with webs. Wrath’s hold on your hand tightens, perhaps feeling your unfamiliarity with the place. As soon as the wood clacks against the stony surface of your new kingdom, you pull the sin into the hidden entrance of the palace, a door that disappears at your single touch.

  The red light shimmers on, and it pokes you to take a sight of something you really, really didn’t wanted to see.

  Curled in a corner, there is a group of three, shivering people. As soon as you leave Wrath’s hand, the tallest two immediately shift to their feet in a bolt and bow deeply to you – and a the dark skinned one, little and sobbing his eyes off, runs to your arms immediately. You’re too busy admiring the two teenagers in front of you, alabaster smooth skin and curly hair, big eyes looking at you with reverence, that the smallest kid crashing into your legs almost startles you. The palest kid immediately brings an hand up to his mouth in horror, only for his expression to change into disbelief when you take the crying child up in your arms. You see a glimpse of red, damp eyes before he buries his face in the crook of your neck.

  There’s an incredulous silence following you shooshing the poor kid: you sneak a glance at the other two, discovering that they’re staring wide eyed at you – and that they seem to be almost twins: same black, soft hair, but different eye color and skin tone. The horrified one has light gray eyes, and the taller one has dark violet eyes, and a much more tanned skin than his sibling. He’s backing away, and when you extent an hand he stops abruptly, before the other one speaks.

  “It’s… a pleasure to finally see you,” he starts, voice soft as silk. It’s almost musical, and you inch closer to him when he bows again, a nervous smile creeping on his face. “We weren’t expecting you so s–”

  “I was supposed to arrive much earlier, I admit,” you interrupt him, and he whips back like you just smacked him. You place your hand on his arm, and he jerks back – revealing a bruise from under his tunic. Looking at him and what you presume to be his sibling, you are able to spot various bruises on the skin that their clothes are leaving in the open. The older one has his eye badly bruised, but his back is still as straight as a fuse, eyes shimmering with pride.  The younger one’s back is hunched under many years of strain, and you suddendly realize that you might be in front of the previous Lucifer’s servants and cupbearers.

  And that they’re just very scared, thraumatized familiars.

  Your eyes softens, and the little kid in your arms gives a last sob before he waggles away from your neck, looking at you with his pleading eyes. The younger sibling immediately begins speaking, cringing visibly. “I–I’m sorry, my Queen. He snuck in the palace during the assault, we couldn’t just… leave him behind…” He swallows, and you’re quick to nod before he starts crying. He very well looks like he could.

  “You did alright. We do not leave innocent souls behind, ever,” you praise, and he seems to light up. You smile back at him, and for a moment you’re at a loss of words: what to do now? Your eyes wanders over their bruises, their shaky hands and how they look at you, with nothing but pure reverence and the smallest hint of fear. You recollect that He might – no, He definitely did. A single glance can tell, and you take some steps closer to the younger one to place the little demon in his arms, backing away. You lean in to examine the older of the two statuary siblings, and his red eyes seem to stare right at your soul, and for a moment you’re chilled to the bone. His eyes show an amount of pain that would suffice for a lifetime, and when you spot him swallowing – you chill even more.

  “… Open your mouth.”

  He freezes.

  “Please. I need to see.”

  For the second time today, you are not prepared: you feel like someone just slapped you across the face with a screw-built mace when he complies.

  He has no tongue.

  Just the start of it, a stump that has been healed thanks to some sort of enchantment. The way he swallows, his lack of words… your blood turns into ice, and your vision red. How much damage did your previous predecessor left for you? How many mistakes of his will you fix, how much damage do you have to arginate? He snickers in your mind, and for a moment you contemplate ripping his soul off your body and crush it, wouldn’t that mean loss of power.

  “I promise – no one will touch you like He did. Not again. You will be safe with me.”

  You join foreheads with him for a minute, and slowly – he untenses. When he reopens his eyes, they’re lucid and wet for your promise, and he swallows strangely again to thank you. The poor kid has been mutilated far enough, in both the spirit and his young body. You turn to Michael once more, and his back straightens to hide the tears.

  “We need to organize on what we do. Please, report me the situation.”

  His eyes shift, and he turns serious. He trades a glance with his brother before he speaks.

  “They… assaulted the palace, once or twice. They wanted the throne, but us and the servants made them back away… we do not know for how long, unfortunately. All I know is that they have brought death and destruction upon the wounded people.” His lower lip tremble, and he looks away before possibly tearing up again.

  You understand that you came late, and your hand places itself, warm and intending to be comforting, on his cheek. “I will fix it.”

  He looks a bit better. He nuzzles into your hand quietly, and you turn to Wrath with a serious look, determined and stone cold.

  “Escort me to my rooms, please. They will provide for my dresses, and the food.”

  Somehow, what once was His closet is now filled with night gowns and dresses. There are various dark capes like the one you’re sporting, and as Wrath is experiencing how soft your bed can be, you take a step away. Michael enters the room as quiet as the wind, peeking over the door and bowing tentatively. He’s carrying a tray of raw and cooked meat both over to Wrath, timid gray eyes peering at him from under the unkept mess of soft hair he has. He offers him a little bow, recognizing that he is your escort and someone powerful.

  “Your majesty, we are providing for the food… and we have recapitated your message to the traitors. They shall be coming soon, and it’s probably better if you get ready…”

  His voice comes to the farthest away possible. You’re staring out of the glass wall on the north of the palace, staring down at the burned ground and flames that erupt from the ground. You can hear Him snicker in your ear, asking you if this is what you so longed for, if it was worth His death. A desert land where you can barely see anyone, terror created by his influence that is still working.

  You sigh as Michael helps you get dressed: you opt for a black cape, and a dark dress underneath that is free from garnments, lets you move freely without impediments of any sorts. Your back is turned at him, facing the door as you intake a deep breath. The scars on your back shows up for a moment, shimmering along with the lights that Michael is lighting along the long, long corridor.

  You intake a deep breath.

  “… Let’s go.”