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Summary
Chapters 51-60
Chapter 51
At the Illyrian war camp, Rhysand gives directions to his soldiers and Mor disguises Feyre’s faerie features with magic. Then, the group winnows to the estate of Graysen’s father, Lord Nolan, in the human realms. Feyre is skeptical that the fort could withstand faerie attack for long but feels that the humans would still be better off there than elsewhere. At the gate, Elain introduces herself as Graysen’s fiancé and requests sanctuary.
Chapter 52
The group is escorted through the fortified estate but are not permitted into the keep of the castle. Nesta admits to Feyre that, after her experience in the Cauldron, she no longer feels comfortable getting into a bathtub and instead washes herself with buckets, surprising Feyre. Lord Graysen and Lord Nolan enter. Nesta explains that she was turned against her will into a faerie by the Cauldron and that the wall has come down, threatening the safety of all humans. She acknowledges that the other members of their parties are faeries but does not divulge the truth about Elain. Elain requests their assistance, begging Nolan to allow the evacuated humans into his fort for their protection. Nolan, however, reveals that he knows the truth: that Elain is also a faerie. He accuses the faeries of deception as Jurian enters the room.
Chapter 53
The faeries are shocked to see Jurian, but he explains that he is there on his own, without any other agents of Hybern. Feyre realizes that he is not truly mad but has only been pretending. By allowing Hybern to believe that he wanted revenge against Miryam and Drakon, Jurian has been working against Hybern as a double agent. Further, Jurian expresses his surprise and hurt that Mor and Rhysand, who knew him during the war, so readily assumed that he would fight against humanity, when he is in fact fiercely loyal. As the faeries and humans process these revelations, Jurian states that Tamlin has betrayed them to Hybern, and that Hybern plans a land invasion of the Summer Court the following day.
Chapter 54
Feyre is shocked to learn that Jurian is their ally. He informs the group that the sixth queen, Vassa, was sold out by the other mortal queens who desired immortality. Now, she is being held captive by a powerful death-god. Elain apologizes to Graysen for deceiving him, but he spurns her, claiming that she is now the possession of the son of a faerie High Lord even as she insists upon her love for him. Feyre demands that Nolan allow the fleeing humans into his fort for protection and insists that he will need their defensive magic to ward off the invading Hybern forces. Nolan, who is hesitant to admit commoners into his castle but confesses that he does not command a large army, proves surprisingly willing to accept the plan after Jurian reminds Nolan that he fought alongside Nolan’s ancestors. Graysen, however, rudely calls off his engagement to Elain, prompting Elain to cry and Nesta to smack Graysen.
Before things can get out of hand, the faeries call an end to the meeting and the human lords retreat. Jurian uses his knowledge of Hybern’s armies to advise Rhysand on military formations and strategies, claiming that he will continue to pretend to hunt for Miryam and Drakon while secretly sowing discord among the kingdoms of the mortal queens on the continent. In his farewells to Feyre, Jurian claims that he began to trust her after she avenged the Children of the Blessed by killing Brannagh and Dagdan.
Chapter 55
Feyre and Mor discuss the recent revelations, and Mor admits that she never bothered to discover whether Jurian was truly mad. They note that Elain has been distraught since Graysen rejected her, undoing much of the progress she had made. That night, Feyre and Rhysand comfort each other, expressing their fears that many will die in battle the following day.
Chapter 56
Jurian’s claims about the movements of Hybern forces prove true the following day. After using his magic to conceal his army, Hybern’s forces are shocked as they are attacked from the air by the Illyrians and on the ground by Keir’s Darkbringers. Feyre and Mor watch as Cassian defeats a Hybern commander and the Hybern forces are whittled down. Some attempt to surrender but Tarquin, who has final say on his own land, refuses to accept, using his water-powers to drown them. After the battle, Nesta dresses Cassian’s wounds but leaves when they are interrupted by Mor. Feyre tends to the injured through the night, and when she returns to the tent she shares with Rhysand, they have sex. The next day, Azriel reports that Hybern is sending troops north, between the Autumn and Summer courts towards the Winter Court. Varian suggests that they use magic to create the illusion that they are still camped in the Summer Courts while traveling north towards the Winter Court, concealing their movements with an invisibility spell to surprise Hybern.
Feyre, Rhysand, and Cresseida, sister of Tarquin, work on the illusion spell that will create the false impression of a large, encamped army in the Summer Court. Under the veil of invisibility, they meet the Hybern forces advancing on the Winter Court and another fierce battle begins. Exhausted, Rhysand and Tarquin join the battle, fighting by sword rather than magic, but there is no sign of the King of Hybern, nor Jurian or Tamlin. Realizing that their strategy is not sustainable, Feyre decides to find the Suriel, a monstrous faerie that is bound to truthfully answer any question, in order to locate the bulk of Hybern’s army, which has been concealed.
Chapter 57
Feyre tells Mor to join the battle and help Cassian and the others. She finds Elain in the camp and asks her to use her prophetic powers to help her locate the Suriel. The Suriel, she learns, is hedging towards an ancient forest in the Middle, near to the home of the Weaver of the Wood. Feyre winnows to the woods and begins to search for the Suriel when it suddenly announces its presence to her.
Chapter 58
The Suriel notes that this is the third time Feyre has sought out its knowledge. Feyre implores it for help finding the Hybern army, but the Suriel notes that it cannot see the army as it is hidden by the magic of the Cauldron. However, the Suriel claims that Nesta, whose powers derive from the Cauldron, might be able to find the army by using bones to divine its location. When Feyre asks why she was unable to destroy the Cauldron in the past, the Suriel notes that Feyre gave up too quickly and that destroying the Cauldron will take her life. Feyre then asks about the Ouroboros mirror, and the Suriel responds cryptically. As the Suriel gives its final advice, informing Feyre that the secrets sought by Amren can be found in the second and penultimate pages of the Book of Breathings, an ash arrow slices through its throat. Feyre dodges other arrows and encounters Ianthe, accompanied by two Hybern soldiers.
Chapter 59
Ianthe claims that she has been tracking the Suriel using a robe she gave to it, hoping to find Feyre. The dying Suriel urges Feyre to flee and, her magic depleted, Feyre runs through the trees and leads Ianthe and the soldiers to the Weaver’s Cottage.
Chapter 60
Feyre rushes into the cottage but uses the last of her strength to keep the door from shutting, which would lock her in. As Ianthe prowls outside, the Weaver notes that she can smell the scent of her brother on Feyre. Feyre hides in the shadows as the soldiers and Ianthe cross the threshold into the cottage, then she rushes out, offering them to the Weaver as “dinner.” As she treks back to the dying Suriel, she hears the screams of Ianthe and the soldiers as the Weaver kills them. The Suriel tells Feyre that it knew Ianthe was tracking it but it nevertheless desired to help Feyre due to the kindness she displayed in the past. As it dies, it asks Feyre to make the world a better place. As Feyre cries, Helion shows up, respectfully incinerates the body of the Suriel using his sun-powers, and winnows her back to the camp.
Analysis
Feyre’s trip to the mortal realm shows that humans are afflicted by many of the same prejudices that mark faerie society. Indeed, Lord Graysen and Lord Nolan exhibit a highly bigoted worldview. They are deeply distrustful of faeries, yet they also look down upon “common” humans. When Feyre proposes that they take in the evacuating humans, protecting them from faerie attack in their well-fortified tower, Nolan balks at the idea of allowing “riffraff” into his estate, reflecting the elitism that continues to color his perspective even at a crucial moment in the war. Graysen’s rejection of Elain due to her transformation into a faerie reflects the broader distrust between the two species, in many ways analogous to a form of racism. Those like Elain, who are trapped between the faerie and human worlds, often find that they are not fully welcome in either. Additionally, Graysen’s comments underscore the sexism that runs deep in both human and faerie society. After learning that she is Lucien’s “mate,” he cruelly rejects her as another man’s “possession,” even though Elain insists that she has not accepted her mate-bond with Lucien. This objectifying treatment of women is a major theme in the novel and the series at large. Graysen is one of many characters who, like Tamlin, do not accept the right of women to make choices for themselves.
Many of these same forms of prejudice are displayed by the Illyrian soldiers in the army camp high in the mountains at the north of Prythian, revealing that inequalities mark both human and faerie societies. One of Rhysand’s generals dismisses Feyre and her sisters, noting that they are not truly High Fae, which suggests that not everyone in Prythian is willing to accept humans who have been transformed into faeries. Further, Feyre learns that there are no female soldiers in the Illyrian army. She makes a note to try and reform the army after the war but understands the urgency of their present situation and hangs back while the generals and soldiers take commands directly from Rhysand, whom they respect because of his experience and strength but also because of his status as a male. During the second battle against Hybern’s troops in the Summer Court, Mor and Feyre hang back. Though they wield immense power and could be an important asset. they understand that their presence will disturb the troops, who are used to fighting in their all-male formations. Ultimately, however, when the tide of battle appears to turn in favor of Hybern, Mor enters the fray in order to clear a path to Cassian. In a crucial moment such as this, sexist attitudes are set aside.
This section further develops the novel’s exploration of trauma, portraying varying responses to the war. Mor and the others accept Jurian’s pretense of being “mad” because they assume that he was “broken” by his centuries-long imprisonment by Amarantha. Jurian, however, demonstrates great inner strength, maintaining his loyalty to the human race despite his traumatizing experiences. Ultimately, Mor concludes that she and the others are “all broken” in their own ways and realizes that she was wrong to write off Jurian so quickly.
Feyre provides another example of a character navigating the landmines of trauma. She watches the battle and, reflecting upon her own past experiences of bloodshed and pain, realizes that she is not yet ready to participate in direct warfare. Though she feels ashamed of what she considers to be her cowardice, Rhysand reassures her that she must take her time not risk setting back her recovery by rushing into experiences that she is not emotionally prepared for. While Feyre, with Rhysand’s encouragement, protects herself emotionally, and Nesta begins to open up both to Feyre and Cassian, Elaine, in stark contrast, suffers a major setback after her rejection by Graysen, returning to her earlier lifeless, dazed state. For her, the termination of her engagement symbolizes the finality of her transformation, forcing her to confront the fact that she cannot return to her old life. The uneven and varying recovery experienced by the three sisters suggests that healing is no simple and predictable process.
