Book Review: Empire of Storms

Title: Empire of Storms
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Magic

What It’s About:

Elena looks out on the land, and sees the dreadlord’s army camped out with fires all across the land in front of them. Gavin comes out with his trusted advisors and talks to her, assuring her that her father will come. Elena tells him that her father is fading and will not be able to do anything to help, and she doesn’t have the fire power to take out Erawan. So she asks him to come with her and distract Erawan while she does something to contain him. Gavin tells her that it means just putting the war onto someone else’s shoulder in the future, and Elena tells him that they are the second wave already since ancient times fighting against this evil, and that maybe when the third wave comes, they will be able to defeat them.

Part 1

Elide keeps walking through Oakwald Forest north towards Terrasen, occasionally checking that the parcel that Kaltain had given her is still safe. She hears Wyverns coming through, and hides behind a tree so that they will not feel or see her. Once they are gone, she gets the feeling that she is being watched by another being, and looks around but finds no one. Lorcan watches Elide—had been watching her since she stumbled upon the same spot that he was hidden, away from the Wyvern. He is surprised that she could sense him, because usually when he hides, he is never found, but somehow the girl had sensed that someone was watching him and even glanced in his direction. He smells her scent and decides to follow her because she smells like Valg and might be a good source of information. He had, after all, tortured some of the other witches to get information out of them about the Wyrdkeys—specifically a yellowlegs witch that he had broken in two hours.

Aelin is by the stream, trying to use her water magic, having gotten up early as she couldn’t sleep. Rowan comes to speak with her, and they talk about what they want to do together physically, but he tells her that he will not take her for the first time against the tree. They return to the camp, and she briefly talks to Aedion. When the time for the meeting with the lords draws near, a messenger arrives telling them that Lord Darrow, Lord Murtagh, and Ren are all waiting at a nearby inn because of the downpour, and the fact that Ren doesn’t want his grandfather out in the rain. They hold onto the messenger and then make their way to the inn, where they meet with the lords. The meeting, unfortunately, doesn’t go well as Lord Darrow reveals that Aelin is not the Queen of Terrasen because she has not had her coronation nor has she been confirmed by the Lords, and they can choose a different queen or king as per the laws of Terrasen. Aedion gets mad because it seems like Lord Darrow, who has been doing a lot of the legwork of ruling in Terrasen continues to want to fashion himself as a royal, when the seat rightfully belongs to Aelin. The Lord gives Aelin a letter signed by him and four others that they do not want her or do not recognize her as the Queen, leaving her as a Princess of Royal blood. He takes issue with the fact that she was an assassin, and that Rowan shares her bed, which is further worsened by the fact that he learns that Rowan had sworn the Blood Oath to her, something that is sacred in Terrasen. He also does not recognize Lysandra as a Lady, even though Lysandra had been given the land Aelin had purchased from the Allsbrook family—Murtagh and Ren. They further reveal that since there is no monarch, the army including the Bane, is now managed and ordered by the Lords themselves. Suddenly, the messenger runs in, and tells them that Rifthold is being attacked by Ironteeth Witches on Wyverns. Aelin gets into action right away, and orders Rowan to go fly to Rifthold to save Dorian—without Dorian they will lose an ally—and she tells him to meet them at Skull’s Bay, as she plans to have Murtagh write a letter to Captain Rolfe asking him to act as their blockade runner. When Murtagh returns after writing the letter, she hands Evangeline (Lysandra’s protégée) and Fleetfoot (Aelin’s own dog) over to him. She explains to a crying Evangeline that Fleetfoot wouldn’t be safe where they are going, and she is entrusting Evangeline with his care. She then threatens Murtagh if anything shall happen, it will be his fault and she will coming for him. Murtagh promises to take care of them as if they were his own, though Darrow asks if she is really threatening the people in her court again. Aelin, in her discussions with her own court, told them that they will play by the rules and laws, so they will leave Darrow alone for now and won’t enter Orynth either as that could cause her to not win the crown, but she does have a blood oath for him—that she will come to his defense when he calls, regardless of what has happened that day. She then walks away with her group, and when he asks her where she is going, Aelin tells him that she is going to get him the army that he talked about—of assassins, magicians, thieves and more.

Manon is back in Morath when her grandmother arrives with her own coven, including a woman that is currently warming her grandmother’s bed. The Matron and Manon go to meet with Duke Perrington to discuss what has happened, but first the Matron asks her if they figured out what went wrong—Manon tells her that she doesn’t know, but it is suspected that the girl with the shadow fire is the one that took them out, though as she is dead, they can’t confirm this. The Matron tells her that it is suspicious that Manon had complained about the Yellowlegs being used as breeding mares, and then suddenly they are all dead. They go meet with the Duke, and Lord Vernon, though they find that there is a golden-eyed man instead of the Duke. He reveals himself to be Erawan, and they talk—he tells Manon he is sending her to ransack Rifthold alongside a couple of covens under Iskra Yellowleg’s command, and asks her to bring back Dorian. The man has refused to accept Dorian as his King, and Erawan wants to bind him back under his power. Manon suggest that he write an edict that makes them look like the saviors, as doing so without this kind of notice may make them look like conquerors and cause him to lose the subjects as people would rebel against him. Erawan loves this idea and tells her that this is why she is the wingleader. Manon and her Thirteen, along with two other Blackbeak Covens ride to Rifthold, but her Thirteen manage to be faster than the other two Blackbeak covens, so they have to leave them behind. She hopes to make it to Rifthold before Iskra shows up, but alas, when they arrive, Iskra’s contingent is already ransacking and destroying the palace. Manon hopes that she knows what she is doing as she lands on the grounds of the palace, and goes running.

Dorian has been enjoying the silence of the castle, and hopes that Aelin has arrived in Terrasen, though it is worrisome that he hasn’t heard from her. He is enjoying some time looking out the windows of his tower, when there are bells ringing, and he sees a cloud of wyvern show up. Later, he is running around, using his magic as much as he can to keep the wyvern away from destroying things and to kill them from his balcony as his guards do not let him leave the tower. Specifically, when the Ironteeth witches come close enough to him, he uses his magic and ice to shred them and their wyvern to pieces, but he realizes that he wished he had learned how to do magic and had asked Aelin for some lessons. Suddenly, something hits the other side of his tower, it shudders, and he find himself face to face with a wyvern and a sentinel of the yellowlegs clan. He is not able to get past it until a smaller wyvern attacks the one on the tower, and Manon arrives after decapitating the Yellowlegs Sentinel. He puts a name to the face quickly even though he barely remembered her, and Manon helps him get out of the tower, herding him towards Rowan, who had arrived late from Terrasen, but who had managed to use his magic to keep other witches and wyvern away from the tower. The two of them use the hidden passageways from Dorian’s mother’s room, and make their way out onto the water. Dorian asks him for help with mastering his magic, and Rowan tells him that he will teach him how to control, but that he doesn’t really know anything about raw power, so they will find someone else once they get to Skulls Bay.

Elide is at a stream, taking a break and breaking down as she knows she has been hunted, and she hasn’t been able to lose the predator of her tail, but now she’s lost. She hears howls, and finds herself next to a man—fae male—and he helps her to get to safety. Lorcan had decided that he would not let the girl die after having followed her around the forest in her attempt at making him lose her tail. They get separated because Ilken—beasts that look like men but with claws and snouts—come after them, and he decides to give her time to get away. Lorcan manages to defeat them and kill them, but Elide also gets corralled in by a group of them, though she uses her mind to send them off in a different direction, pretending to be Manon and Asterin. The ilken run off from her, and she later finds herself faced with with the fae male, who introduces himself as Lorcan. She introduces herself as Marion and reveals that she is looking for Celaena Sardothien and Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, whom unbeknownst to her are one and the same person. But Lorcan doesn’t tell her that. Instead, he offers to protect her in exchange for information into Morath, since she is the only one who escaped the area. They walk together to the river, and along the river all the way to where soldiers have a checkpoint. Elide tells him how to change up his look to make things look differently, and she also gets rid of her riding leathers. Once they reach the checkpoint, Lorcan knows that they will be waiting a while, so he tells her that they should eat at the inn. They happen to find a group, nearby where a traveling carnival group is, and Elide chats them up when she realizes that they are trying to figure out how to get over the bridge with the considerable fee that they will have to pay. She offers to join them, making up a story that she and Lorcan, who is supposed to be playing her husband, were previously working in a carnival group, and Lorcan is a great sword thrower, while she is an oracle/ fortune teller. The group eventually does take them on when they go back outside to wait in line. Elide and Lorcan travel with the group from location to location, sleeping in the wagons, which gives Elide and Lorcan space from being together or sharing a bed. Every day they go out gathering some wood for fire or other types of things that the camp may need, and she tells Lorcan bit by bit about Morath and where things are. At one camp, Elide tells him a little bit about the catacombs and the prison beneath, but is hesitant to say anything more. Lorcan tries to push her for more information, but she shuts down because she doesn’t want to give him all of the information fast enough so that he would leave her—what else will she tell the carnival group. He reveals to her the Celaena Sardothien is in the employ of Aelin Ashryver Galathynius when Elide confronts him that he knows them, but he doesn’t say more than that. He also realizes that she will not be useful to him in this condition, as he has known when men break and speak but also when they break but are useless, because they’ve gone too far. So he backs off and offers to stick around. They find out that evening that the carnival group has set up a tent for the two of them alone, a little further away, as they are a married couple after all. Lorcan has water brought in for Elide to bath, and he realizes that she’s been a slave at Morath, and potentially before that, even though she’s hesitant to tell him more about the injury that she has on her ankle. He washes her clothes for her, and comes back with food for her as well, but he isn’t able to figure out what Elide had hidden under her mattress before bathing.

Aelin, Aedion, and Lysandra make their way to Ilum, where Aelin gets pissed off that Adarlanian soldiers had taken over the city. Aedion says that they should have gone elsewhere, and that Ilum would always be the first one attacked since they are so close to the borders. Aelin and Aedion get into a discussion about how symbols are important, and Aedion laughs at her when he realizes that she is thinking about the legends of the Mycenians, who supposedly disappeared from these lands that they had long inhabited due to a disagreement with the King of Terrasen. That night, they fight off the soldiers, reclaim the town and Aelin burns away the dirt on the temple walls. Lysandra explores and takes note of the big mosaic containing a sea dragon. Aelin then walks around, and walks up to the first stone that Brannon stepped on, when he arrived in this continent. There she ends up talking to Brannon, who tells her that he had called her to meet with him here to tell her that she has to go to the Stone Marshes to get the Lock. Aelin is annoyed because the King doesn’t tell her much about it at all, beyond that she has to get it, though he does tell her that they would have gotten along. Aedion and Lysandra join her after she is done with that conversation, and they end up facing the Overseer from Endovier that Aelin could not forget for what he did to her. They get ready to fight him, only to find out that he had been possessed and he has a heart made of wyrdstone and iron—something that impacts Aelin. As the heart pushes its way out of the man’s cavity, Aelin finds herself speaking to none other than Erawan, who tells her that this is just to show her what he is capable of and what is waiting for her. Then they get on a ship and head towards Skulls Bay to meet with Rowan, as planned, though Aelin is in a hurry because Erawan’s messages appears to indicate that he is also hunting them and she wants to get to Dorian and Rowan first before they are found.

Manon returns to Morath, where she faces a Witch Trial council—Iskra had arrived ahead of time to complain to the Matrons that Manon had killed a fellow witch. Manon argues that she did not; that the witch had gotten in the way of her quarry and that as a result, the quarry—Dorian—had gotten away, stolen from her by the Fae Prince. Petrah speaks up on behalf of Manon at the trial, saying that she did not have to save her, but that she did save Petrah when Iskra’s bull tried to kill her, and that they shouldn’t take away Manon’s role as a Wing Leader because she is a skilled one. The Matrons agree, but Manon’s grandmother, the Matron of the Blackbeak clan tells Manon that witch blood had been spilled, and it has to be made right. As a result, Asterin will be executed the next morning as Manon had killed Iskra’s second in command. Manon spends the night getting ready, sharpening her tool, and planning out what she should do—she plans to ask for the right of execution so that she can give at least that to Asterin, not so that they can punish her endlessly, as that will be brutal. The execution is held outdoors, and Asterin tells Manon to take her back to the cabin—the cabin where she had spent time with the human man that she had loved. As the Matrons ask anyone who wants to take part in the punishment to line up, Manon asks for the right of execution, and the Blueblood Matron approves it—now they will not be able to go against that once the words are spoken, ands Manon can give her cousin peace. The Thirteen give her the sign of respect towards a Witch Queen, and as Manon contemplates things, she realizes that she has had guilt over the Crochan’s murder, and guilt that she won’t have more time with Asterin. She gives the order for the Thirteen to run, as she attacks her own Grandmother. The grandmother easily defeats Manon, but then reveals that the Crochan witch that Manon had killed was her half sister—that she had killed Manon’s mother for having a relationship with a powerful but rare Crochan prince, and that he never stopped looking for her. She reveals that Manon is an Ironteeth witch, but also the Last Crochan Queen, and calls her Kinslayer for having killed the Crochan witches, who are her brethren. Manon jumps off the cliff, preferring that to being forced to be a breeding mare for the Valg, while holding onto her abdomen. Abraxos catches her as she falls down, and together they sail off, with her feeling content that she gave the Thirteen a chance to escape and run away—it won’t be for long, as surely they will be coming after the Thirteen, but at least it has given them a chance. Abraxos takes them into Oakwald forest, and Manon passes out. When Manon comes to, she realizes where she is, and tries to make her way to the river to drink some, even though she continues to bleed. Suddenly, she finds herself with a beast that she realizes is the bloodhound—the beast had tracked her scent all the way from Morath to the Oakwald forest. She gets away in time, by getting it stuck in a tree, and gets onto Abraxos, who then is cunning with how he attacks the Bloodhound when it breaks free. She gets back into her seat, and tells Abraxos to fly somewhere safe, before promptly passing out.

Several days later after their departure, the Dorian and Rowan arrive in Skulls Bay, and both of them feel a strong, ancient pull in the city, so they go looking for it, only to find themselves in front of Captain Rolfe, who reveals that Perrington has decreed that he saved the people of Rifthold and Adarlan from Dorian’s cruelty, and that it was signed with many Lords and Ladies of Adarlan. He also reveals that Hollin is Perrington’s heir, as Perrington has crowned himself a King. They find out that Fenrys and Gavriel are in Skulls Bay, and when they have a chance to further talk, the two fae members of Rowan’s former cadre tell him that Maeve has prepared an armada making its way for Ellywe. They had been sent to hunt down Lorcan, who had gone against the blood oath, and ask for Rowan’s help to find him. Rowan tells them that he had washed his hands of them in Spring, and does not tell them anything about where Lorcan is because he doesn’t know. But he does ultimately get them to agree to help Aelin and her Court in the upcoming war in exchange for Lorcan, by telling Gavriel that he has a son, and revealing that Lorcan will be circling back to them anyways. For two weeks after that, Rolfe refuses to meet with them, until Dorian makes up some scheme that he received surprising news. Rolfe invites them all over and takes them to his office, where he finds himself face to face with none other than Celaena Sardothien. It pisses him off, but Celaena has friendly banter with Rolfe and flirts with Rowan in front of the Captain. She introduces Aelin, who is actually Lysandra in disguise, until the shifter turns around and she reveals that she is truly Aelin and wants an alliance. Rolfe gives her two week to get out of his town, telling her that he wants nothing to do with her or doesn’t want to help her. Dorian had picked up on the fact that Rolfe is afraid of the Valg, as this is what struck him the most when they were talking during their first meeting. Rowan relays this to Aelin later when they have some time alone. But Gavriel demands to meet his son, as they leave the office of the Captain, and Aelin tells him that it’s not up to her—it’s up to his son to make the decision. Aedion had disappeared off with Lysandra before he came face to face with Gavriel.

That night, Aelin has Lysandra where the Amulet of Orynth, and for Aedion to pretend like he is meeting with a whore to get her services. It is set up to be further ways in a dead end alley, because they want to see if Rolfe’s map actually works, and Aelin thinks that Rolfe will be interested in the Amulet. It takes a while, and Dorian even shows up to check on them before the barmaid comes from Rolfe’s own tavern in town, making it clear that his map works. While they waited for Rolfe to come find them, Aedion and Lysandra talked about him meeting his father, and he asked her to come with him the next morning. The next morning Lysandra runs through Aelin’s room, grabbing clothing for Aedion, before they head out to meet Gavriel. When Aedion finally meets him, he lashes out, telling that his mother died because of Gavriel—that she refused to get help from the fae healers because it would put him in that path of Maeve, the bitch that Gavriel serves, and his mother did not want him to be discovered by Maeve. So he tells him that he wants nothing to do with him, and then Aedion leaves with Lysandra.

Aelin, her court, the two fae and Dorian meet with Rolfe again. Once again Rolfe refuses to help, but Aelin uses her magic to send out a bit of a power blast—there is an island nearby of Valg and Sea Wyverns, something that Rolfe is terrified of. He is in shock about her knowing that he is a Mycenian, and when he realizes that the Valg are coming, he agrees to help get her an armada and find all of the remaining Mycenians to fight alongside her—in exchange he wants to be a Lord of Ilum, and a King of Skulls Bay. Aelin agrees to it, and so does Dorian agree to recognize him, as a King of Adarlan. Then they go out to fight, and Aelin plans the battle out. They get on Sea Dragon with Gavriel, Fenrys, Rowan and Lysandra. Aedion is sent to fight at the tower, and Dorian is sent to fight at the other side of the little curving land, across from Aedion, so that he can use his magic. The ship leaves the harbor into the calm waters of the bay, and Aelin tells Lysandra to jump now, and Lysandra goes into the water, transforming into a sea dragon, which jumps out of the water, before following the ship underneath. One of the guards near Aedion exclaims and wonders if it will be helping them, to which Aedion explains that yes, realizing why Aelin went to Ilum beyond liberation—symbols indeed.

On the ship, once they leave the bay, Aelin gets chained in Iron to the dock of the ship by Rowan, and she chains him as well, before they both cut their palms and she starts to access Rowan’s well of power. Slowly but surely she goes deeper and deeper into the well, going even further down into her own power than she had ever before. And when she is ready, she creates a column of fire around her, meant to be a signal to other peoples that she is not just a princess playing with magic, but actually come to make a difference. Except, suddenly, she rips the last shreds of Rowan’s power from him, and then is pushed aside by a much older being—one whom Rowan correctly guesses is Deanna, the Goddess of the Hunt. Deanna tells him that they need to get the lock, and then she uses her hand to pull out some magic, and then focuses her magic onto the shore. Rowan realizes that it’s no longer fire, but rather moon fire, and jumps in front of her. This causes Aelin to fight back and push the goddess out of her body in anger, before quickly moving her arm with the fire way from the land. She decimates much of the ships, but also the Sea Dragon—leaving three ships full of Valg and two sea Wyverns. Fenrys uses his magic to skip from location to location while pulling Aelin, but by the time they get close to the coral near Rowan, he is spent, so they swim the rest of the way. Under the water, Lysandra realizes that something has gone horribly wrong, and goes to help all of the people from the ship, and then she attacks one of the three ships coming their directions, making a hole in the hull before goes down. She then takes out both of the sea wyvern, only for the group to find out that these were actually babies, and there are three more adult sea Wyvern coming their way. She kills one by jumping over a ship and smashing one of its masts, where the wyvern lands and impales itself. A second wyvern she brings closer to Dorian, when he calls for her, and he uses his magic to freeze it and then destroy it. And the third one she cannot find, until Fenrys and Gavriel spot it and amplify their voice to tell her where it is. She brings it towards the enclosed Bay, and jumps, just as Aedion shoots the spear, and kills the wyvern through the head. Lysandra swims for the beach, and comes out but is unable to shift, while Aedion runs towards the beach, and then finds himself in front of her, telling her that she better not die because he is marrying her. The Sea Dragon seems to find it amusing that he is telling her that they will marry, but it doesn’t let him get too close because it’s more animal than human until Lysandra is able to muster the energy to shift, beside she had to give herself over to its instincts. Aelin comes over, and she apologizes to Lysandra, and Aedion is pissed at her for putting Lysandra in harm’s way by asking her to do that. But he offers to sit with Lysandra for however long it takes until she is able to shift. And so he sits, while the Lion watches from nearby, in awe of the Wolf, the legend he is becoming already—as that shot had been legendary, and he wonders if he will be remembered alongside his son.

Aelin stalks off the a corner of the beach after her temper tantrum with Rolfe telling him that she lost control of her powers—not willing to admit that a goddess had taken over her body. Rowan backs her up, telling Rolfe that she is still new and learning her powers, and they are maturing, so it’s a challenging thing to deal with. Rolfe accepts this, and agrees to go through with his agreement of finding the Mycenians. While they’re on the beach, they talk—Aelin burning in anger, even burning her clothes, while Rowan soothes her. Afterwards, they end up having sex three times on the beach before they return to the Inn. Even after that, Rowan is not satiated and content—he wants more, and he can tell that Aelin feels the same way. They had hoped to not have to face their friends, but there is no luck in that, when their friend’s light is on. So they go and talk to Aedion, Lysandra (who had recovered) and Dorian. Aelin reveals that she was wearing the Amulet of Orynth, which contains the Wyrdkey, and that Deanna had taken control of her body. Everyone is stunned, and then she tells Dorian that it’s time he meets his ancestor, while pulling out the eye of Elena. She studies the book, and draws a Wyrdmarks, that brings Elena to them. Of course, at first Elena is very distant, but when Aelin mentions that Deanna possessed her and that she wants to know what it means that she was the Queen who was promised, Elena solidifies. She admits that she had lied about killing Erawan, because she couldn’t, and she ended up using the Lock, which was meant to only be used one time, in order to contain Erawan. Elena tells her that she has to go if both Deanna and Brannon had told her to go find it, imploring her to do it because the Lock was forged by her own mother, who gave up her mortal life to create it for Brannon, and tells Aelin where to find it. Aelin asks her who is her mother, and Dorian doesn’t know the answer. Elena tells her that she is the one who loved Brannon and gave up her immortal life to tie herself to him, before revealing that Mala Fire-bringer was her mother, which is why Aelin has her powers—she realizes that she has a well of it because of her connection to Mala Fire-Bringer. Dorian also appears to have been blessed by that because Elena and Gavin were his ancestors. Aelin decides that they will be going to the Stone Marshes, with one fourth of Rolfe’s Armada, while the remaining one fourth stays behind to protect the bay, and a half of it goes searching for the remaining Mycenians. Aedion tells her that she can’t be picking a fight with Maeve or Erawan, whose ships will be located on either side of the marshes, and Aelin tells him that she’s not intending to start a fight—she’s going for the Lock only.

The next morning, they are out on the ship with a map of where the Lock may be, courtesy of Rolfe. And as the group head out into the sea, keep sailing three days later, a cloud comes towards them. The sailor start preparing for attack, but Dorian recognizes it—a lone wyvern—and as it comes closer, he recognizes the silver haired rider on its top, so much blood loss and spread everywhere, that the witch is listing to the side. He orders everyone to not fire, for fear that they will hurt her, and Aelin is the one who puts a stop to any attempts at shooting her with an order. The Wyvern comes nearer to the ship, when the witch topples over and falls into the water.

Part 2

Dorian decides to take the role of watching Manon as she comes in and out of consciousness, while Rowan and Aelin mend and heal her. At one point, she asks him if an Elide Lochan is with them, and this results in Aelin coming in and pestering her about it, but Manon does not remember any of it. She has been chained to the cabin, and on a different night, Dorian insinuated that they could get a bit frisky, getting her close past the threshold of want, but then pulling back. Manon does reveal to Aelin and her friends that her own grandmother had been the one who had cut her abdomen apart because of her actions, and that she is the Last Crochan Queen, which she hadn’t known until she was told that. She did implore Dorian to find her Thirteen, but they are on the ship so they aren’t able to find out much more information. At one point, Dorian argues for them to let Manon out of her chains, because it wouldn’t feel good for the rest of them to be cooped up. So the group goes down, and Manon gets introduced to Fenrys, to which she responds that it isn’t him. And suddenly, Fenrys changes into a bloodhound, one of the creatures that had chased Manon across the continent from Morath. The creature claims that Erawan wants her back, but the whole group fights back against the creature, and even Fenrys shows up, taking none too kindly to being impersonated. Unfortunately, a battle breaks out on deck, as Ilken descends on the ship. Aelin, Gavriel, Fenrys, Rowan, Lysandra, Dorian, Manon, and Aedion fight against the ilken, but Aelin has to use the hottest magic against them in order to kill them. She focuses on healing Fenrys’s who had been hurt in the battle with poison, as one of the ilken gets away, and when Lysandra asks if she has to take care of it or they will, Rowan grabs Fenrys’s bow and shoots the Ilken from the distance.

They continue around the coast, and find that Eyllwe is burning. Aelin uses her magic to bring the fire down, and Rowan always flies in to try to figure out who does it. At first the inhabitants of these burning towns along the coast do not say anything because they do not know, but then there are different rumors including that Aelin was the one that set the fires on these towns. Rowan tries to dissuade them, but ultimately tells Aelin to ignore them. At some point, they wonder if Maeve had something to do with it, and whether she would pay a price for something, to which Fenrys comments that Nameless is Maeve’s price. This has Aelin spiraling and she runs to her quarters with Rowan on her heels, and promptly throws up in the bathroom. She asks for Lysandra, and this has Rowan spiraling in a different direction, so he flies off to clear his mind. Later, Aelin confirms that she is not pregnant. They make the round and find themselves in the stone marshes. Aelin tells Manon that her wyvern, Abraxos, has to be gone and hidden while they are out in the Stone Marshes. Manon is none too happy with this and bitterly looks at the Queen, but tells Abraxos to go away, and the wyvern flies away from them disappearing for a very long time. Then, Manon, Aelin, Dorian, Aedion, Lysandra, Gavriel, Fenrys and Rowan get off the boat and make their way through the stone marshes for several days straight, trying to find the Lock in the Stone Marshes. Rowan scouts ahead, and they finally make it to the Lock, which is inside a part of a temple that used to be there. Aelin opens the box containing the lock, and Manon reveals that this is a witch mirror of some sort.

Lorcan and Elide continue traveling with their carnival group until they come upon a town. Elide acts as the oracle, but in this town in particular, there aren’t that many folks interested. Instead, she finds out that they are interested in Lorcan’s sword throwing abilities, so she takes a peek at it and finds out why—he is well chiseled and shows off his chest, drawing attention from the females and the males. Lorcan takes notice of Elide and realizes that she is beautiful—something that he hadn’t noticed until seeing her in a headdress and make up, the girl having filled out from her wraith-like look since they started traveling together. He ends his act sooner than he had intended, because of that, but she quickly leaves the circle and he follows her. They talk, when suddenly the Ilken show up in camp, and Lorcan tells her to run and hide. He goes towards the campfire, where he sees one of the ilken kill a villager and ask for a girl named Elide Lochan, whom he realizes is the person truly traveling with him under the name Marion. He and two other individuals from the carnival group fight off the Ilken. Elide is hiding inside one of the wagons, until everything quiets and she decides to take her chances to run and hide. She comes out of the hidden compartment in the wagon, and comes face to face with Lorcan, who confronts her about her name. She does tell him some of the truths about herself, including that Marion was her mother’s name. They continue to travel with the group, but the two individuals who helped Lorcan keep their distance. They come upon a town on the river, and it starts raining. Elide decides to take a walk in the rain and Lorcan follows as if he were her husband—keeping the ruse that they had selected.

Elide goes into the tavern, having realized that it would be raining and that tends to drive everyone indoors. So that means that there will be a lot of gossip and rumors going around. The two of them go through three different taverns, where Elide gets confirmation that Aelin Galathynius is heading to Eyllwe in the South, not Terrasen, which is confusing since they don’t know why Aelin would be tied to Eyllwe. As they are walking out, they quickly realize that their carnival group had sold them out to the soldiers, and so Lorcan and Elide get on a boat. The boat’s owner gets on and wants to fight them, but Elide implores him to help them and that he can get off the boat at the bend. She stays inside while they maneuver the boat, and then Elide hears a splash off the boat. When Lorcan comes in, claiming that the man had dived off the boat and swum to shore, she quickly realizes that he is lying and points out to him that even though his hands are washed, parts of him are specked in blood and when she finds the spot of blood she asks him how he would explain that to her. In anger, Lorcan reveals that Celaena Sardothien and Aelin Galathynius are one and the same individual—that the same accusations Elide is leveling at him, she better be ready to level at Aelin, for having killed as an assassin for many years while her own people suffered. Elide is in shock, but then tells him that she will be the one to judge the character of Aelin and then goes back into the cabin to get away from him.

The two continue to travel in quiet anger, until Elide gets her period and requests that they dock so that she can get supplies. They stop in a town, and Elide starts buying supplies as well as new clothes from the innkeeper. While she is doing that, Lorcan decides to buy food and other supplies from a different seller. He returns to the boat, but she is nowhere to be found, which he finds strange since Elide was much closer to the boat than he was. Sensing through his power, he realizes that something has come for her. Elide in the meantime had been shown by the innkeeper to room to try out the clothes, and instead she finds herself face to face with her uncle, who tells her that he is taking her back to Morath; that he had been protecting her from the horrors at Morath. And he has the Ilken pick her up and take her screaming out to the carriage that he has waiting for them—one that the Ilken would be flying back to Morath. Realizing that she wouldn’t want to return, Elide concocts a plan—when the Ilken attempt to shove her into the carriage, she trips, grabs her uncle’s dagger and points it at herself, choosing to kill herself before being dragged back. The stone that she has from Kaltain, pulses at her wrath. Lorcan is horrified and terrified at Elide’s actions—which he had watched from the rooftop where he had tracked the enemies too, and had hidden his weapons around the rooftops to fight the ilken. He manages to down most of them, but does not kill Elide’s uncle, letting him go, but warning him off that he shouldn’t come for her again, as his wife. They return back to the barge, and Lorcan softly asks Elide what it is that she is carrying—she had refused to tell him before when he had felt it, and he looked into the Amulet of Orynth, realizing that it was a fake from Aelin, throwing it out in anger—but she finally reveals the stone, showing it to him, and he chooses not to take it from her.

They continue traveling south, until he feels the hands of the death god nudging him to the Stone Marshes. They travel through the stone marshes, trying to avoid the creatures in the water, and around, and one night they spend inside a domed building, where they share their first kiss. The next day, Lorcan sees the Ilken, and a horde of 500 of them at least, so he uses his shadow magic to pulse and send out warnings as he and Elide run the same direction that the ilken go.

Rowan, Aelin, Gavriel, and Fenrys sense the pulsing of Lorcan, and quickly realize that these are warnings as they see the Ilken head towards them. Gavriel and Fenrys tell Rowan that they may end up having to carry out the kill order of Lorcan as required by their Blood Oath from Maeve, since Lorcan is somewhere in the vicinity. They decide to worry about it later as they prepare a trap from the ilken, with Aelin at the front, using her magic. The ilken come towards them, as everyone prepares. Lorcan runs towards the group with Elide in tow, and quickly realizes that they had used the time that they had from the warnings to set a trap for the ilken. He also realizes that they are too north of the demarcation line, and that Aelin is about to explode with her magic on purpose. Just as he does, he throws himself upon Elide, and uses his magic to shield them. He feels it battering his magic, and feels Rowan’s magic meeting hers. Both of them watch in shock as Aelin takes out a large majority of the ilken, with the few that are not killed by her, being taken out by Gavriel, Fenrys, or Gavriel’s son. He watches as Rowan makes his way towards Aelin, walking into her fire and brings her back down from the edge. Elide and Lorcan make their way towards Aelin, but Lorcan doesn’t realize that Gavriel and Fenrys had disappeared. Elide feels the nudges from the goddess, Annieth, to see, and sees the attack coming from Gavriel. She calls out to Lorcan, who turns around and only notices him in the last minute. While the two males are fighting, she notices the wolf coming for Lorcan, and calls out, but Lorcan is otherwise engaged and unable to turn around in time, so she throws herself to protect Lorcan’s back, and gets mauled by the white wolf, who happens to look horrified at her. Rowan shows up and tells Gavriel and Fenrys that they need to stand down as Lorcan is under the protection of Aelin. These words work around the blood oath, and they are able to stand down, while Aelin comes towards Elide, and Gavriel works on healing Elide for them. Aelin teases Lorcan about the Amulet, and Manon shows up alive, to Elide’s relief. At this point Elide explains to them that Kaltain Rompier had given this piece of stone to her on a fabric cut from a cloak that Celaena had given to her once upon a time as a kindness to stay warm in the dungeons. Aelin is surprised that Lorcan hadn’t taken the Wyrdkey from Elide, and he tells her that it was not his to take. Dorian, on the other hand, is shocked that Kaltain had done what she did and killed herself while at it, giving them a chance to turn the tide of war.

The group heads back towards the lock, and Fenrys and Gavriel grab the witch mirror to carry it back to their ship. As they arrive on the beach to get on the boat back to their ship, they find out that there is an armada amongst their ship, and they come face to face with a hooded woman. Aelin tells them to stand down, that she is not here to harm them, and the woman flips her hood, revealing that Ansel of Briarcliff, who calls herself the Queen of the Wastes, has come to their aid. She blanches at the sight of Manon, who claims that she is not the Queen of the Wastes—the rightful heirs are the witches, but Ansel answers that at least she has been taking care of it while the witches are nowhere to be seen, so she has the right to speak for the people. Aelin tells them to sort their mutual distaste later, and then Aedion is in shock—he had asked her in anger earlier, criticized her about where is that army that she had promised, and Aelin had just taken it. Ansel reveals that she had gotten the message when word came out that some young lady was using Ansel’s name in the fighting pits in Rifthold all those months ago, and so she had started to prepare to come to Aelin’s aid. Then, she got a letter from Aelin explaining who she really is, and then another one as they were en route, in which Aelin had given her a specific set of instructions on what to do. Due to those instructions, Ansel had taken over Melisande and their armada—their fleet is now theirs to command.

The group including Ansel get back on their ship, and spend some time together catching up. Lorcan spends time with Elide and stay the night swinging in nearby Hammocks. Rowan had been okay with letting them Dorian and Manon have sex finally, and it is the first time that she lets a man be on top of her. The next day, everyone runs for the decks as Maeve’s Armada shows up. A lone longboat comes towards them, and tells them that Aelin needs to surrender by dawn the next morning, or else they will have a fight. Aelin tries to find more time, she keeps wishing for more time. Before dawn breaks, Rowan leaves Aelin in their bed and shifts then goes towards the Whitethorn banners in the Armada, starting first with Endymion, his cousin closest in age. He tells Enda about Aelin and asks them to help. Then he repeats that with every ship that carries the Whitethorn banner. That same morning, Dorian asks Aelin and Manon to meet with him, and takes them to the mirror—revealing that the riddle that Deanna had given them meant that both Manon and Aelin have to go together in order to enter the mirror. They look at each other, and grabbing their hands, they run through the mirror just as Aedion enters. Rowan returns and Aedion tells him what had occurred, having even punched Dorian. They are forced to tell the Armada that Aelin is not here, and Rowan establishes order—moving Fenrys and Gavriel towards the back of the armada, away from Maeve, because if they are seen helping Maeve’s enemies, they will be killed or worse. Lorcan asks that Elide gets taken out of the ship with some guards, and Rowan agrees, so she gets sent off to the coast.

The fight begins and they use whatever magic they can, including volleying back arrows when they can. Lysandra attacks ships from beneath the waves, especially the ones that had been marked by Rowan—she had modified the sea dragon body in many ways, including adding a SpiderSilk element to her body to protect her from the arrows. Eventually, as Maeve’s armada gets closer, the Whitethorn contingent takes it upon themselves to attack the Armada from within, throwing the whole battle into chaos. And towards the end of it, just as everyone is out of magic, and the fae ships are upon them, Abraxos shows up with twelve other wyvern—the remainder of the Thirteen. Asterin speaks to Rowan briefly, but with their help, they destroy the remainder of the Armada except for the Whitethorn group. Dorian uses some of his magic to come up to them and tell them that Manon and Aelin are up the coast, having been dropped off there by the mirror, and that he senses an ancient power—Maeve with them. Lorcan is horrified because that is where Elide is, and he heads for that location. Gavriel and Fenrys had disappeared a while back, their blood oath pulling them to Maeve.

Aelin and Manon had entered the witch mirror together, and they were in ghostlike bodies there. A light came closer to them, and it was a memory—one in which Elena had sealed Erawan inside the lock, and the gods and goddesses had been horrified at what she had done—she wasn’t supposed to have stolen the eye of Elena to seal him in the tomb; her father was going to open a Wyrdgate to send the beings into a different realm, along with Erawan, where they would have destroyed him. They tell her that she has to pay a price, and Elena accepts it—it is the Queen Who Was Promised. Elena shows up then, and they see different memories—Rhiannon Crochan (who looks similar to Manon) working with Elena and Brannon to the future, Brannon making the Amulet after Elena’s death with the Wyrdmarks on them to warn Aelin, Brannon leaving the Wyrdmark inside the tomb, something that he had made by his own hands. And that he left the last wyrdkey in Malta’s temple, before entering the molten lava, and joining Mala herself. They see Nehemia making her way to the box in the Stone Marshes, and talking with Elena, who tells her that she is not the one who will pay the price, but asks her to take part in putting things in motion at the cost of her life. Nehemia agrees and Elena tells her that Aelin will be back, giving her information on how she will recognize Aelin. There are memories of the two speaking at the castle in Rifthold and Elena reminds Nehemia of her promise to fulfill. Aelin realizes then that she did not survive the fall and the river by sheer luck, and Elena reveals to her that as she fell down, the gods and goddesses had asked her to take Aelin and have her forge the Lock anew—it will take all of Aelin’s magic and all that she is to forge it, meaning that she will have to give up her life, which she has figured out that morning when she threw up in the bathroom and asked for Lysandra. So they had given Elena a physical body, and she had jumped in to save Aelin from the water, pulled her out, and then decided that she could not force her to use her magic to create the Lock; that she wanted to give Aelin time to experience life itself, so she woke Arobynn from his slumber—he had been living in Terrasen during that time—and he had come out to save Aelin, taking her back to his home, and hiding the Amulet of Orynth. She had known that this is what Arobynn would do—train her to be an assassin, but at least she would live. In exchange, Elena gave up her after-life, she will be going into the darkness and will not see her husband or her children or her parents in the afterlife. And she’s accepted that. She then shows Manon and Aelin what Aelin has to do to forge the Lock.

The two of them are dropped near Elide, who is in Maeve’s crutches—a sword at Elide’s throat, held by a fae soldier. Aelin and Maeve talk, where Maeve reveals that she had been waiting for Brannon’s line to weaken of fire, because he had stolen the Wyrdkeys and she was going to get them back then. But then she saw the future, and saw Aelin, who would be mated to Rowan. So when Rowan was born, she wanted him under her control, and it was so easy to change things psychically—making Rowan think that Lyria was his mate, and sending the soldiers towards the town where she lived while she was pregnant, and having them kill her, to break him. She tried to get Evalin to bring Aelin so that she could forge her into what she wanted—which she did at Mistward—and that she had let them go at the time when she had visited Doranelle. Aelin has known that Rowan is her mate, but had never said anything because she did not want to hurt him considering his feelings around Lyria. At some point, Lorcan is holding onto Elide, and Aelin pushes Manon aside, giving her the wyrdkeys. Aelin and Maeve begin fighting, but Maeve had purposefully set those fires onshore, and then had sent Morath Aelin’s location so that it would cause her to spend her magic. Elide realizes that Maeve had to do this because Aelin is much stronger than Maeve, and Maeve fears her. She implores Lorcan and Manon to do something, but Lorcan is unable to do anything due to his blood oath, and Manon refuses to do anything either. Eventually, Maeve gets Aelin under control, and has two soldiers grip her. By this point Gavriel and Fenrys had arrived, and they all try to ask her to let her go, but Maeve decides against it. Instead, she tells Aelin that if she does not go willingly, she will also take Elide with her and have her be beat by Cairn, who has that gleam in his eyes showing that he enjoys torture. Aelin agrees to go on her own free will, and Maeve lets Cairn whip Aelin—she demands that Aelin count, otherwise they will start the whipping all over again. Aelin refuses to count, causing them to stay there long enough that one of Maeve’s soldiers come, telling her that the others are on their way. Maeve has Aelin placed in an iron box, and leaves Elide alone—Manon had dragged her out of the way of hearing when she had a chance, by claiming Elide belongs to the Blackbeak clan. They overhear Maeve strip Gavriel and Lorcan of their blood oath, with dishonor, and watch as Maeve forces Fenrys to get on the ship in his wolf form along with the box containing Aelin. Manon prays that Aelin will survive just so that she can be killed to reforge the lock. They also watch as Lorcan crawls towards Maeve. Then Maeve and her longship disappear, just as the wyvern show up with the Ironteeth Witches, along with Rowan, Aedion, Dorian and Lysandra.

Rowan immediately puts a sword to Lorcan’s neck and asks him where is Aelin. When Lorcan does not respond, he asks again, this time asking about his wife. Lorcan begins weeping for the first time in his life. Rowan and Aelin had gotten married at Dawn two days prior in front of the ship’s captain and Aedion and Lysandra as witnesses. Aelin had known what would happen, had known that Lorcan’s pulses of warning were a trap set for her because he thought he was heading into enemy territory with Elide, and wanted to save Elide. And Aelin had saved her anyway. Between Manon, and Elide, the truth of what happened comes out in the mirror and with Maeve, including Elide revealing that Rowan and Aelin are mates. Rowan later sits on the sand after the conversation is done, realizing that he had known all along—stepping in front of Aelin as Deanna because mates can’t hurt each other—but he hadn’t wanted to face it because of Lyria, whom he thought was his mate. It also comes out that Aelin had hatched a different plan—Lysandra would go on pretending to be Aelin, wearing her skin, for the rest of her life at Rowan’s side. And that she would sire children with Aedion to give them the Ashryver eyes. Everyone is in shock, and Manon reveals that she has the Wyrdkeys so she couldn’t save Aelin, as she didn’t want Maeve to know that Aelin didn’t have them.

They sit on the beach for a few moments, when suddenly a longboat shows up with a dark haired man, whom Aedion recognizes as Galan. He shows them that he had received a message directly from Aelin—no one else had received it but him—asking if Evalin Ashryver is still remembered, because Terrasen had not forgotten, and asking to bring his gods-damned assistance. He had shown up with his whole armada of Wendlyn, as he had been a blockade runner. Next, Ilias of the Silent Assasins shows up with hundreds of his own assassins. And Ansel also gets onto the beach. Each one of them wants to know where Aelin is, and both Aedion and Rowan are in shock—Aelin had promised Darrow that she would come to his aid, that she would get an army by calling in life debts, oaths and favors, and if they get the army from the Southern Continent where Chaol is, it will be an army that will rattle the stars. And Aedion is gutted that he had not believe her when she said that she will—she had just been afraid of failing. Lysandra shows up as Aelin, and pretends to be her, even using Aelin’s wicked smile. Aedion is about to roar, but Rowan holds him back. Lysandra-as-Aelin starts to talk to her friends, but looks at Rowan, grabs him by the hand as a consort would and tells him to go take care of something for her before joining them all to the north. Rowan understands Lysandra’s look—to go find Aelin—before she turns to speak with the newcomers about how they will split the assassins across the ship. Manon gives the Wyrdkeys to Dorian, telling him that he is of Mala’s line too, and then she decides—after having seen how Aelin accepted her crown and her duty—to look for the Crochans. The Thirteen tell her that they have heard everything, and they still wish to follow, because maybe the pure blooded Ironteeth couldn’t have done anything to get them back to the wastes, but that maybe Manon will. So they get ready to head to search for them, and Dorian decides to go with them to help, leaving Rowan, Aedion, Lorcan and Gavriel on the beach. Aedion decides to stand by Lysandra-as-Aelin because it would look odd if her General isn’t with her, while Rowan accepts Lorcan’s and Gavriel’s help to find Aelin. Elide wants to go with them to help find Aelin.

My Thoughts:

I love the progression of Aelin’s story; her craftiness, and her fears that made her keep her plans away from everyone in her Court. I feel like Aelin is playing masters-level chess with Maeve, a Fae Queen many many centuries older than her, and somehow coming out on top, which is basically the whole trope of an underdog. Elide and Lorcan are an interesting couple, and how there is tension. What does really bug me about this whole thing is that unlike with ACOTAR, these Fae males don’t seem to realize when they had met their mate—there doesn’t seem to be anything snapping into place. This is inherently a different story than ACOTAR, and we can argue that Maeve really did a number on them, as seen with Rowan’s own story, where she twisted the mating bond, but still—the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any ounce of thought behind it, along the lines of “wait a second, why am I getting such a strong reaction to this person?,” is a bit wild. After all, these males are centuries old, they should be aware or have a lot more knowledge than they appear to have. So it seems a bit convenient for the plot that they don’t realize this, just to kind of draw out the story much longer. I do not know if I mind it though.