Previously, they battled and continue to battle! And Nesta and Cassian had a shippy moment. And then Matthew had an existential crisis about why we’re reading this book.
Chapter 57:
Feyre convinces Mor to leave her and Nesta to fight so that Feyre can sneak off to capture the Suriel.
Mor frowned deeply, bounced once on her toes. “Just—be on your guard. Both of you.”
I gave her a wry look—right before she rushed for her tent. I waited until she’d emerged again, buckling on weapons, and saluted me before she winnowed away. To the battlefield.
Right to Azriel’s side—just as a soldier nearly landed a blow to his back.
Mor punched her sword through the soldier’s throat before he could land that strike.
How can Feyre so easily see all these individual people in battle from her vantage point? It sounds like she’s just standing in the middle of the fray.
Feyre goes to Elain and asks her to help track the Suriel. I am so confused, but sure, I’ll go along with this. Granted, I’m not entirely sure what Elain’s new powers really are, but I’m surprised that Feyre is able to basically upload an image of the Suriel to her mind and Elain is able to just…think really hard and locate it. Remember when Feyre used to be a hunter? I kind of miss that.
Using Elain’s internal Fae GPS system, they track the Suriel to the forrest where none other than the Weaver of the Wood lives! I smell a fun reunion coming up.
Feyre winnows to the Suriel, and he’s so clearly over her shit: “Have you come to kill me, or to beg for my help once again, Feyre Archeron?”
Chapter 58:
Its over-large teeth clacked faintly. “Thrice now, we have met. Thrice now, you have hunted for me. This time, you sent the trembling fawn to find me. I did not expect to see those doe-eyes peering at me from across the world.”
I didn’t realise Elain’s GPS system was so unsubtle.
“You wish to know where Hybern is hiding its army.”
“Yes. And other things. But let’s start with that.”
A hideous, horrific smile. “Even I cannot see it.”
My stomach tightened. “You can see everything but that?”
Feyre, darling, don’t you realise that the magic in this book works and does not work when it’s most convenient for the plot? I think the technical term is plot!magic.
He tells her that since the Cauldron’s magic is older than him, she should be using Nesta to track it since Nesta’s power comes from the Cauldron, which is also powered by plot!magic.
Feyre also finds that to have nullified the Cauldron, she would have had to sacrifice her life when she joined the books. Feyre then asks if they have any chance of winning the war.
“Would the Bone Carver make a difference?” And Bryaxis.
The Suriel had no eyelids. But its milky eyes flared with surprise. “I cannot see—not him. He is not … born of this earth. His thread has not been woven in.” Its twisted mouth tightened. “You wish to save Prythian so much that you would risk unleashing him.”
She asks some other plotty questions like, “Will the Ouroboros drive me crazy if I look into it” and the Suriel gives answers like, “Only you can decide what drives you mad/prevent forest fires.”
Then he randomly offers this advice:
The Suriel again listened to that phantom wind. “Tell the silver-eyed messenger that the answer lies on the second and penultimate pages of the Book. Together they hold the key.”
“The key to what?”
The Suriel clicked its bony fingers together, like the many-jointed limbs of a crustacean, tip-tapping against each other. “The answer to what you need to stop Hy—”
It took me a heartbeat to register what happened.
What happened was that the Suriel got an arrow to its throat.
And then its labored, wet breathing filled the wood. Until a lilting female voice crooned, “Why does it talk to you, Feyre, when it would not even deign to speak with me?”
I knew that voice. That laughter beneath the words.
Ianthe.
Ianthe was here. With two Hybern soldiers behind her.
Ugggg BOOOOO!!!!
Chapter 59:
Feyre, hiding in the trees, knows she could winnow away, but the Suriel isn’t dead and she wants to help it somehow. Ianthe takes this time to monologue about what’s been going on with her lately.
“It took the King of Hybern days to unravel what you did to me,” Ianthe purred, her voice drawing closer. “I still can’t use most of my hand.”
[…]
“I’d heard from Tamlin how you captured this one,” Ianthe went on, coming closer and closer. “So I adapted your methods. And it would not tell me anything. But since you have made contact so many times, the robe I gave it …” I could hear the smile in her voice. “A simple tracking spell, a gift from the king. To be triggered in your presence. If you should come calling again.”
[…]
“The king built shields in my mind,” Ianthe prattled on, “to keep you from harming me again when I found you.”
The Suriel keeps mouthing at Feyre to run. I’m like, yes, please go so we can stop hanging out with Ianthe. Instead, Feyre reveals herself to Ianthe and is like, “YOU WANNA TAKE ME TO HYBURN? U GOTTA CATCH ME FIRST, BITCH!” And she runs away.
The forest…helps Feyre? It clears a path for her but makes it harder for Ianthe and her two soldiers. Anyway, Feyre gets to the Weaver’s house and makes sure Ianthe and co can hear her begging for help, and Feyre runs inside the cottage.
Chapter 60:
The Weaver recognizes Feyre and calls her a thief. She also can “smell” her brother on Feyre and knows she’s seen him (the Bone Carver. Fun fact: I accidentally wrote the Boner Carver and almost just left that in.) Ianthe threatens to kill anyone who is inside with with Feyre.
The Weaver seems excited that Feyre has brought people to her. What a fun and fresh plan to have the Weaver kill Ianthe.
“Who did you bring, little wolf? Who did you bring to me?” Ianthe and her two guards stepped over the threshold. Then another step. Past the open door. They didn’t see me in the shadows behind it.
“Dinner,” I said to the Weaver, whirling around the door—to its outside face. And let go of the handle.
Feyre runs away as Ianthe and the soldiers are attacked by the Weaver. She runs back to the Suriel and he tells her to save what little magic she has left. She stays with him as he dies and I am a little touched by it.
“Stay …,” it breathed. “Stay … until the end.”
I took its hand in mine. “I’m sorry.” It was all I could think to say. I had done this—I had brought it here.
“I knew,” it gasped, sensing my shift in thoughts. “The tracking … I knew of it.”
“Then why come at all?”
“You … were kind. You … fought your fear. You were … kind,” it said again.
I began crying.
“And you were kind to me,” I said…
I mean like…it’s dumb and feels like a bit much for these two characters, but I’m a sap. But not for this next bit:
A small smile on that lipless mouth. “Feyre Archeron.” A labored breath. “I told you—to stay with the High Lord. And you did.”
Its warning to me that first time we’d met. “You—you meant Rhys.” All this time. All this time—
“Stay with him … and live to see everything righted.”
“Yes. I did—and it was.”
“No—not yet. Stay with him.”
“I will.” I always would.
So I guess everything is definitely going to be fine.
As the Suriel dies he asks Feyre to make the world a better place, so I guess the Suriel was a saint all along? The fuck?
Helion shows up and is like, “Feyre let’s go.” Wtf, why is Helion here??
Feyre covers the Suriel in Helion’s fine robes and they burn him with the power of the sun. So I guess that’s why Helion was here conveniently. He takes Feyre back to camp.
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