penwalla

~~I will not die today.~~
I will save him.

—Violet Sorrengail’s personal addendum
to the Book of Brennan

Meh. I get what this chapter's opening quote is trying to do, but have we ever gotten the set up that Violet addends the Book of Brennan? Would this not be more effective on the page? Yes, it would be. And actually it was on the page during the prologue explicitly, so I don't need the reminder at the beginning of chapter 1.

Chapter one opens with a timeskip: two weeks have passed.

Violet is flying through bad weather, on her way to the Senarium, which seems to be some kind of government meeting. The Poromiel peace talks are apparently going badly. It's day four of the talks, and the Poromiel delegation has said they're walking on day seven if terms can't be reached, so Violet's now been summoned to the king's council to assist.

Inviting a rebel leader to your peace talks is an interesting choice, and opens up a lot of questions that I'm curious to see whether the book will answer. We've skipped a lot of stuff here; the entire political situation has clearly changed dramatically, and Yarros has chosen to drop us into the middle of it rather than walk us through it in real time. So have the rebels worked out an agreement with the Navarre government? Is the rebellion over, or are they also working on peace terms? Because if not, it seems like a bad idea for Violet to appear before the king's council, because it could be a trap to capture her, and she would also be a bad choice to help negotiate because the rebels and Poromiel have an existing relationship and should be able to form their own terms, which might not align with Navarre's interests.

Side note: there's a nice moment here as well regarding Violet and her mom.

“You shouldn’t fly in this,” I agree, looking for any sign of Ridoc and Aotrom, but there’s only walls of white. My chest tightens. How are any of us supposed to see topography or our squadmates, let alone spot a dark wielder hundreds of feet below in this mess? I can’t remember a more brutal series of storms than the ones that have battered the war college in the last two weeks, but without—

Mom. Grief sinks the tips of her razor-sharp claws into my chest, and I lift my face to feel the stinging bite of snow against the tops of my cheeks, focusing on anything else to keep breathing, keep moving. I’ll mourn later, always later.

Andarna is complaining because she's not on the patrol roster, but this is in part because the venin are still around picking off Riders on patrol. Why does Yarros keep referring to them as 'dark wielders' now when she already has the word venin? This is book three, your readers can remember all the made terminology by now.

The storm is making it visibility kind of shit, and Ridoc's dragon nearly collides with Tairn because neither of them can see. Tairn is clearly in a bad mood, and it's because he doesn't approve of Violet's attempts to save Xaden and instead regards him as beyond saving. He even made Violet repair her own saddle (and she did a bad job.) Which she should really know how to do herself, considering she's the only Rider who has one and she needs the saddle to live.

“Sorry about that.” Ridoc cringes and lowers his voice. “He wants to go home—back to Aretia. Says we can launch the search for the seventh breed from there.”

Rhi nods, and Quinn presses her lips in a firm line.

“Yeah, I get that,” I say—it’s a common sentiment among the riot. We’re not exactly welcome here. The unity between Navarrian and Aretian riders crumbled within hours of the battle’s end. “But the only path for an alliance that can save Poromish civilians requires us to be here. At least for now.”

Okay, so the rebels are split; some want to return to Aretia because the non-traitor Riders at Basgiath all hate them, some want to stay because of the peace talks. Ridoc's dragon wants to return, Ridoc doesn't. And Xaden wants to stay because the wards suppress his venin-ness, which protects Violet from him.

Side note: the venin attack and the subsquent Poromiel peace talks should have confirmed for everyone that the rebels are right and the government is straight up lying to all of them. I'll be interested to see how that plays out--seems kind of dumb for the non-rebel Riders to be insulting the others by calling them deserters. But people are pretty dumb in real life and often don't change their minds in the face of evidence.

Violet meets with Imogen on her return to Basgiath, who is part of some secret plan along with Mira that Violet is working on for Xaden. This involves trying to find the rest of Andarna's kind aka the secret seventh dragons. But Imogen wants Violet to consider not sleeping in the same room as Xaden, for her safety, which she refuses to do.

Violet then goes to meet with the rest of the squad, including Sawyer, in the infirmary because Sawyer is missing a leg and is still laid up. And then:

“She’s dead!” A cadet in infantry blue stumbles in and falls to his hands and knees. “They’re all dead!”

There’s no mistaking the gray handprint marking the side of his neck.

Venin.

My heart seizes. We haven’t found them out on patrol—because they’re already inside.

Not bad as a chapter ender. See ya'll in chapter two!