King of Scars

Hanne and Nina meet Adrik and Leoni before dawn. Adrik and Hanne dress like soldiers and drive the wagon, while Nina and Leoni wear Springmaiden dresses and sit inside. They make it past the checkpoint. The guards at the gate are more hesitant, but Hanne plays her part perfectly, and they let them pass.

Nina leads them to the ward, and Adrik, Leoni, and Hanne are shocked by the sight. They dose the women with Leoni’s sedative and lead them to the wagon. Adrik and Hanne finish loading the women while Leoni and Nina pant bombs throughout the factory. Jarl Brum catches Leoni and questions her, but before Nina can save her, Hanne knocks him out with a wrench. She is distressed that he knew about the drugged women, but she refuses to leave him behind, so they drag him to the wagon. Nina runs back to light the bomb fuses. The Wellmother with a group of guards catches her. Nina summons the voices: They rise from their graves, “up through the earth, clawing through the soil, they came, a mass of rotting limbs and broken bones. And some of them crawled” (457). The dead devour the guards and attack the Wellmother.

Nina races back to the wagon. They burst through the gates and approach the checkpoint, but the soldiers refuse to let them through as Commander Brum gave orders that no one should pass. One soldier checks the wagon and orders the drivers be seized and the prisoners returned to the factory.

Zoya stifles her panic as the sap rises around her. She is confused by what’s happening. Yuri betrayed them. Nikolai will die. Zoya remembers the dark sickly tunnel in Elizaveta’s spire; that is where she kept the Darkling’s body. She watches Yuri approach the monster shadow, and it attacks him. Zoya must free herself from the sap. Using the skills Juris taught her, she melts the sap and breaks into a run, heading to the palace, to Juris. She finds Juris lying on the floor dying; Elizaveta tricked him into drinking fuel, and his own flames burned him from the inside. Juris tells Zoya to kill him and wear his bones as amplification. After deliberating, Zoya pulls the broadsword and drives it into his heart. The dragon’s claws pierce her chest, spilling her blood, but Juris heals her as he dies. She takes a dagger and scrapes off his scales. She fabricates two scale cuffs around her wrists. Juris’s strength flows through her, and Zoya becomes one with the dragon.

Nina spots the fishermen over the soldier’s shoulder and calls for help. Fjerda culture ingrains a “belief in helpless girls. They were taught from a young age to protect the weak, particularly women” (467). Nina relies on this cultural mandate to escape. The babies cry, drawing more attention. The fishermen demand to know what’s inside the wagon, and more townspeople gather at the commotion. The wagon doors open. A fisherman asks about all the women, and the soldiers lie, mentioning quarantining for a disease. Nina explains that the soldiers have been experimenting on them. The townspeople move closer; they recognize some of the women. The soldiers say they are Grisha prisoners, but the townspeople rally behind their own.

Just then, the factory explodes. Leoni and made the bombs too powerful. The dam shatters, and poisonous river water rushes down the mountain. Adrik splits the wave in half, so it passes around the townspeople. Leoni draws the poison from the water into a cloud of yellow dust, and Adrik blows the cloud into the guardhouse. Nina reaches into the flood waters and touches the bones of the dead women. Using her power, she crafts a great ash tree of bone. The townspeople see the tree as a miraculous sign and praise Adrik and Leoni as Saints.

Zoya flies across the sand. She finds Grigori spread over the thorn wood protecting Nikolai and the shadow monster from Yuri and Elizaveta. Elizaveta’s thorns stab Grigori while her insects gnaw on his flesh. Yuri hides behind Elizaveta as Grigori is consumed. Before Elizaveta can reach Nikolai or the monster, Zoya shoots flames toward her. Surprised by Zoya’s return, Elizaveta tries to sway Zoya to her side, but Zoya is loyal to her king and country.

Zoya keeps Elizaveta talking by asking about the Darkling and their plans: Elizaveta wants to be free to feel her power again. The shadow monster slowly seeps into the Darkling’s body, and Nikolai’s blood drains into the sand. Zoya raises her arms, revealing the scales. Elizaveta sends thorny stalks toward Zoya, who raises a sandstorm and dives for the Darkling’s body. She sets it on fire. While Elizaveta tries to stop it, Zoya snatches the thorn stake from Yuri, leaving him buried in a dune. She drives the stake back into the shadow monster’s heart and pulls the real stake from Nikolai’s heart. The thorn wood grows tight around Zoya. Elizaveta charges. Zoya focuses her power turning the thorns outward, impaling Elizaveta. It is over.