penwalla

ch. 36
the letter left for xylon gives them a choice: they can flee to the headquarters of their wing to continue the War Games, but if they do, the tradiing post nearby will be destroyed and so will the civilians. but if they stay they'll all probably die.
if dain has proof of xylon's treachery and took it to his dad, why don't they just...arrest him and everyone involved? execute him? like i'm not understanding this plan of sending them out to this outpost they've cleared out and asking them to fight a losing battle. xylon could just get on his dragon and flee.
four venin are closing in on them. and seven gryphons. the gryphons are on their side, though--they tell the riders to flee, because two venin can take out a whole city and there's no way to defeat four of them. dragon fire doesn't work, only the daggers xylon has been bringing.
xylon tells the others that he intends to fight and die, but all of them can leave. obviously no one is willing to do that. violet thinks that the rebel kids watched their parents die to keep this secret, while her mother sacrificed her brother to do that same. then she says she'll fight, too.
violet tells her golden dragon to hide and run once she and Big T are dead.
as the riders get ready to go into battle, a dragon none of them recognize flies by overhead.
but it's not a dragon. it's a xyvern!
fight scene. i won't run thru it beat by beat but it's decently written. the venin can only be killed if they're stabbed by the special daggers and they can also dessicate people who get too close, so it's not easy to kill them. violet is trying with her lightning, but her aim is bad. to yarros's credit it continues to be bad for a decent chunk of time. xylon's dragon has to swoop in to save Big T once. so far some of the wyverns are dead, but they outnumber the dragons.
liam has his dragon throw him onto a wyvern's back so he can slit the venin's throat. another wyvern then attacks, and liam gets thrown off his dragon. (again, why is every rider not strapped on. this is stupid.) violet catches liam, subluxing both of her shoulders. she straps him in with her as Big T tries to save liam's dragon.
liam's dragon dies, and so does he. before he dies he of course tells violet he risked his life saving her because they're friends, and also tries to tell her they have to take out the venin, not the wyvern.
this is actually a meaningful death scene--the first one in the entire book.
a huge crowd of wyvern come in, and the battle resumes. apparently violet is the best shot they have at killing them all? i don't really get this bit. the wyverns are powered by the venin--shouldn't they just need to kill those two? difficult, yes, but not a job suited for violet, whose hand to hand combat sucks ass. she should be using her lightning to fend off the wyvern while xylon assassinates.
violet announces internally that for the past year she's tried to prove she's not like her mother, something we never learned back when it would have been actual characterization. then violet takes out a wyvern--and is immediately hit by another one.
this chapter ends on a cliffhanger, which is silly. ma'am this is a book. we can turn the page.
ch. 37
a venin lands on Big T's back and starts stabbing him with a sword. violet tells him to stay level and unstraps herself so she can fight with the venin, daggers in hand. she's like, this is just another challenge, to psych herself up. girl you have NEVER won a challenge.
and yep! violet immediately tries to block a sword with her forearm and her arm is now broken and she drops her knife, so now she has only one knife and one useful arm.
the venin starts monologuing about how violet doesn't even know how powerful she is. she also drops the fact that she has a Sage. wow, great that the villains are taking time off from murdering violet to infodump!
xylon helps, throwing shadow to make everything dark, and then violet throws one flash of lightning to orient herself and stabs the venin to death. so they're down one venin, which takes out half the wyvern, just as liam was trying to tell them. as usual, violet now figures out what i, the reader, put together a chapter back without any effort. but there's still two left, and violet's been stabbed and is bleeding to death.
violet decides she has to take one more out, no matter what, and starts sucking as much power from Big T as she can, fully expecting that she'll die. golden dragon helps her by stopping time, and violet kills the venin. the very next moment, xylon kills the last remaining one. but it's too late. violet passes out and falls off Big T.
yeah we're at 96%. let's finish the book.
ch. 38.
violet is falling to her death. her golden dragon rushes in, stopping time and trying to catch her, even though she's not strong enough to lift her. xylon catches her then. violet's in agony from her stab wound, which was poisoned with something that both paralyzes her and cuts off her magic. violet manages to look at xylon once, and then passes out.
violet's lying there in agony, listening to the other riders talk about what to do. she can't move and can't sense her dragons or her power. they're trying to decide whether to take her back to the war college, or somewhere else closer that is clearly a risk, but violet might die in the interim. xylon decides they have to get violet to "him" and starts moving her. she passes out again.
this is the one time the short scenes and scene breaks are acceptable.
violet wakes up while she's being flown, and despite being in unbelievable agony and poisoned and dying, recognizes the cliffs she's flying over. she passes out.
i've been bitching but these scenes are actually good. you feel violet's despair, her agony, but also her acceptance of death. for once it's fun that she doesn't know what is going on but we, the readers, do. (they're taking her to her brother, right?)
xylon tells a mysterious and familiar stranger that "you have to save her." chapter end.
ch. 39. xylon POV.
xylon is sitting at violet's bedside, as he has been for three days while she slept/was unconscious? it's not clear to me. he's upset because she might die and he feels guilty that she got hurt because he brought her with him and he's also guilty that liam is dead.
so yeah, xylon is gone for violet. he completely accepts her anger towards him and that he was at fault for not telling her about the venin, even though violet's reaction is actually a great example of why no one told her shit. but it's worth noting that in one paragraph about being in love with violet, xylon can name specific events and personality traits that endeared her to him, way beyond physical attraction. that's more than violet has ever said about him.
as xylon is castigating himself, violet wakes up. xylon is torn, still in love with her and wanting to avoid her being mad at him, but violet assures him that he isn't going to lose her and kisses him. xylon asks her if she remembers what happened, and it's clear that she doesn't immediately,
while she's talking to her dragons, xylon lets us know that goldern dragon is now huge and her time-stopping gift is gone. violet freaks out when she realizes she's in an unfamiliar room and wearing a robe. now she remembers; she asks where they are and tells xylon not to lie to her.
xylon is very impressed that violet figures out where they are immediately based on some drawings she's seen. they're in the burned down city where the rebellion started. she asks why she didn't know the city was being rebuilt, and then works it out herself: the general of the army, the one who can see the outcome of any battle, can't see any future with more than 3 rebel kids in it, because of the marks they have. which is why they're not allowed to assemble, and also why sending ten of them on a suicide mission out of bounds was a dumb thing to do.
xylon apparently still owns the land here--presumably it was his father's prior to the war.
xylon is also so impressed by violet's brain here, and you know what? she's dumb, but i appreciate that xylon admires parts of violet that aren't her body.
she asks if liam is really dead, and xylon gives her the carving of the golden dragon liam was working on before he died. xylon then blames himself for his death, saying it would have been fine if he had told violet the truth beforehand. violet does not refute this, because she sucks. that's just not true and the kind thing to do would be to tell him so.
violet kicks xylon out so she can dress, and he's sad because she uses his last name.
xylon talks to one of the other riders. two of the gryphon fliers survived. the venin were looking for a small box hidden inside the clock tower in the village they were attacking, which the riders retrieved and are trying to figure out.
violet and xylon have a convo about love and trust. she's willing to fight with them, but won't be with xylon because she can't trust him. xylon tells her he loves her and she still loves him, and he intends to prove himself to her now by being completely honest, no matter how long it takes.
the door opens and violet's dead brother walks in. he says "welcome to the revolution, violet" and the book ends.
well. that was. that was an adventure we all went on together. final wrap-up post to come.