Previously, Hybern attacked the Summer Court, and the Night Court crew go to help save the day. Somehow, Feyre gets stuck in Rhys’ mind (????) just as Hybern himself is about to confront Rhys!
A Court of Wings and Ruin Chapter 37:
The King of Hybern wore his own colors: slate gray, embroidered with bone-colored thread. Not a weapon on him.
It amuses me in these stories when we’re meant to be in this tense moment, and it’s like THIS IS WHAT THE KING WAS WEARING.
Rhys and Feyre start telepathically arguing about how to handle the king–I guess he’s just standing there staring at Rhys in the meantime?–and Feyre begs Rhys to let one of the inner circle come help him.
Information rippled into me, brimming with all Rhys had seen and learned. Taking the king alive depended on whether Azriel was in good enough shape to help. He and Cassian had taken a few blows themselves, but— nothing they couldn’t handle. Nothing to spook the Illyrians still fighting under their command. Yet.
Huh? Also huh? Even more also, seriously, is the king just standing there watching Rhys?
Time. Rhys needed time—
Rhys lunged toward the king’s mind— and met nothing. Not a trace, not a whisper. As if he were nothing but wicked thought and ancient malice—
God that is somehow the best description of Hybern yet. He’s literally just evil ’cause evil. Although, presumably if he has wicked thoughts, Rhys wasn’t met with nothing.
“I’d heard that you were a charmer, Rhysand. Yet here you are, groping and pawing at me like a green youth.”
I guess someone who’s made of wicked thoughts and ancient malice can’t be expected to have witty banter.
Feyre tells Rhys again to kill him, but he’s like, NO WE CAN’T YET GOTTA FIND THE SOURCE OF HIS SPELL THAT HAS A HOLD ON OUR POWER! I feel like he could kill him and then figure that out?
The king and his wicked thoughts continue to taunt Rhys:
“The last report I received from Amarantha,” the king went on, sliding his hands into his pockets, “she was still enjoying you.” The soldiers laughed.
I thought hands sliding into pockets was Rhys’ move! How dare! Also WAIT THE KING HAS POCKETS RIGHT NOW ON THE BATTLEFIELD? HOW CASUALLY DRESSED IS HE? I take back my jokes earlier, I need an updated fashion report!
While they banter, Rhys telepathically explores the ship…Again, not sure why he can’t kill the king and then figure this out? Unless it’s because with the spell he’s not strong enough to do so, but that’s not clear.
Hybern starts talking about how much Tamlin hates them and the revenge he has planned. Oh boy. Yay. More Tamlin.
They taunt one another some more, and then Rhys asks Hybern why he’s doing this. I’m surprised he even has an answer considering he’s just balloon full of evil air.
“For humans, lesser faeries, for half-breeds. In this new world of yours, there was room at the table for everyone— so long as they thought like you. But the Loyalists … How you delighted in shutting us out. Looking down your noses at us.” He gestured to the soldiers monitoring them, the battle in the bay. “You want to know why? Because we suffered— when you stifled us, when you shut us out.”
I do understand this to an extent, but I don’t really get what Hybern would have done with a seat at the table. Does this mean he was willing to concede he’d lost the war and tolerate everyone else at the table? Or was he going to have a seat at the table and try to destroy any progress being made and throw racist comments out at everyone at the table that wasn’t like him?
“I have no interest in spending another five centuries seeing my people bow before human pigs— seeing them claw out a living while you shield and coddle those mortals…”
So his motivations are actually I was EVIL and I want to stay EVIL! Okay, to be fair, it does make sense that if they were living the good life before when they held the power over the marginalised communities, they’d want to reclaim that power and presumably start living the good life again. I just have a hard time reading him as a nuanced villain.
Rhys finally attacks, but it turns out the king isn’t really there at all, it’s just an ILLUSION! He’s like, “LOL, did you really think I’d show up here in person?”
Illusion!Hybern fades away, but first he promises this battle is just a taste of what’s to come. His spell disappears too, though, so Ryhs’ power comes back in full force and he fights off the rest of the soldiers. Oh, sorry, he didn’t actually fight, he “turned them all into nothing but red mist and splinters floating on the waves.”
Illusions are awesome during combat, especially when the enemy is as trollable as Rhys here. In a RPG I play, a buddy of mine plays a character who specializes in doing illusions and then goading opponents into reckless behaviour and unwise tactical steps by illusionary mocking and speechifying (… and then he turns into a giant-sized cheetah and eats them, but ah, well, if they let themselves get ambushed, they had it coming, right?).