Previously, Hybern destroyed the wall separating the Fae territory from the human territory. Feyre and co come up with a plan to send Elain to her ex’s house to…convince him to take some people into his Anti-Fae property.
Also, Feyre and Amren decide to pay a visit to Bryaxis, the monster who lives underneath the library, to make a new deal.
A Court of Wings and Ruin Chapter 50:
This chapter opens with Feyre talking to good old Bry-Bry.
“There is a war,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “A terrible war about to break across the land. If I can free you, will you fight for me? For me and my High Lord?”
The thing—Bryaxis—did not reply.
I nudged Amren with my elbow. She said, her voice as young and old as the creature’s, “We will offer you freedom from this place in exchange for it.”
Bry-Bry: Nah.
Feyre: What do you want??
Bry-Bry: Uhhh stars and maybe the moon and shit.
Amren: How about a window?
Bry-Bry: OMG YAAAAAAS!!!!
Feyre: But we’d have to dig like really far in the mountain…and it’s just a win–
Amren: STFU!
Bry-Bry is also super into the fact that he’ll be able to do a whole lot of murdering and blood drinking in the war. PLUS HE GETS A WINDOW OMG!!!!! He is but a simple evil creature living underneath a library.
I still can’t get over how ridiculously easy and silly this bargain was.
Later, Feyre meets with the rest of the crew, but she keeps this whole plan a secret from them, and she’s not even sure why. But she does tell Rhys as soon as they’re alone, so at least there’s that.
Again, we silently looked around the town house, taking in every last detail, the quiet that now lay like a layer of dust upon it.
Rhys said softly, “I wonder if we’ll see it again.”
I knew he wasn’t just talking about the house. But I rose up on my toes and kissed his cheek. “We will,” I promised as a dark wind gathered to sweep us to the Illyrian war-camp. I held tightly to him as I added, “We’ll see it all again.”
And when that night-kissed wind winnowed us away, away into war, away into untold danger … I prayed that my promise held true.
And with that we end Part II! Onto part III!
Chapter 51:
They arrive at the Illyrian camp and Feyre regales us with information about the weather. We get details like, “It’s cold, but that’s better than it being hot! Everyone is cranky in the heat!” Why is this book like 6000 pages long?
Mor and I remained on either side of Nesta, who had changed into a dark blue, practical dress and now surveyed the camp, the winged warriors, the sheer size of the host assembled in the camp around us.
Ah it’s 6000 words because we always have to know what everyone is wearing too. Of course.
Feyre reminds us the Ilyrians are shitty to women, so they’re all hanging back. She decides to handle their sexism if they all survive the war, which seems kind of fair.
In case you were wondering what Rhys is wearing, I can tell you that he’s not wearing the usual Illyrian leather that the rest of the army is wearing.
It’s because they already know I trained with them, am one of them. They need to remember that I’m also their High Lord. And I have no intention of loosening the leash.
The words were a silk-covered scrape of nails down my mind.
What on earth does that mean??
Suddenly Devlon–a Lord…I can’t really remember what that means for the Illyrians but OK–sees Nesta and is like WTF IS THAT. Cassian gets defensive, “She’s a High Fae!” and the Illyrians are like, “R U SURE THO?” Devlon basically says, “Okay, I don’t care what she is, keep her away from everyone.”
Anyway, after that they get ready for Elain to talk to her ex, and the chapter ends with Elain and Feyre’s arrival at his estate.
I like how the book tries to have the dramatic tension of “we’re going to war” and then immediately just goes and does something else that isn’t anything like war.
Reminds me of when I read Mists of Avalon decades ago. There was constant talk about the great, big, final, decisive ™ battle against the saxons, but it either didn’t happen or was postponed or forgotten by the author or when something like that super-important battle actually happened ny sheer coincidence, it happened offscreen and was treated as unimportant for the story.
Well, I can understand when an author doesn’t want to really write something like this. When I write stuff, I’m not very good at fighting scenes myself and if I write about larger scale fighting or whole wars, I always have the feeling I somehow fuck up tactics and logistics.
Not always very elegant, but most of the time sufficient solution: I rarely make such things the focus of my stories.
I do that as well and it really seems like it should be the first solution.
“I knew he wasn’t just talking about the house” indeed. Rhys was talking about Fluffy, his hamster