A Dawn of Onyx

His family rushes to help him inside, and Arwen treats his various injuries. Ryder reveals that he has deserted the army. Arwen worries for Halden’s fate, but Ryder admits that he hasn’t seen or heard from Halden in months. He explains that just a few weeks ago, his convoy fell into a trap set by an Onyx battalion; his comrades were slaughtered, and he barely escaped with his life. After the enemy left the area, Ryder found a bag of Onyx coin on the ground, took it, and fled home. Now, he claims that a band of Onyx men that he encountered outside town is pursuing him and the rest of his family. He insists that they all flee to the Garnet Kingdom rather than staying and getting killed by the Onyx warriors or by the Amber king, who would punish Ryder for deserting. Ryder doesn’t believe that the Kingdom of Amber will win the war, and he reasons that fleeing to a safer kingdom might be their best chance at survival.

When Arwen agrees, they all hurriedly begin packing. Arwen is reluctant to leave her animals and fears that she may never see Halden again. They all begin walking to the dock in the next town, but when Leigh realizes that they forgot their mother’s medicine at the house, Arwen decides to return for it. She promises to meet them at the docks, but when she returns home, she finds 11 Onyx soldiers seated around her kitchen table.

Arwen tries to flee but is yanked back by her hair. She notices a wounded Onyx soldier on the ground with a gaping wound in his torso, but his comrades do not seem “at all bothered by the gruesome scene” (29). The leader introduces himself as Lieutenant Bert and informs Arwen that he and his men are in pursuit of a young man who stole a significant amount of coin. When he asks Arwen where the man is, she claims to be a neighbor and says that she knows nothing of the thief. Lieutenant Bert instructs his men to kill her, but Arwen offers to heal his wounded soldier if they agree to let her live. Lieutenant Bert orders all his men out, and Arwen is forced to use her unusual magic to miraculously heal the injured soldier. Arwen attempts to escape again but is soon caught, so she offers to work for Onyx as a healer if they promise to leave her family alone. Lieutenant Bert reluctantly agrees.

Arwen’s hands are bound, and they walk for hours. She notices that the Onyx men have no gear, no campsite, and no carriages, and she wonders how they’ve survived. Eventually, they come to a clearing and wait until a large black dragon arrives. Arwen gawks at this legendary monster, and as they all mount it, she meets the dragon’s eyes, which soften somewhat. During the flight, Arwen becomes increasingly unnerved when the injured soldier stares at her as if mesmerized.

Arwen has a dream in which she is being beaten by a belt while she tries to heal a patient’s gaping chest wound as an orange glowing eye stares at her. She awakens with a start, and the soldiers dismount from the dragon, which leaves them behind at a gated keep called Shadowhold. Arwen is taken to the dungeon, where she will stay until the Lieutenant decides what to do with her. As panic sets in, Arwen calms herself with a technique that her mother taught her—to focus on three things until her breathing slows. She focuses on the nearby cobwebs, then the lanterns outside the cell, and finally the buckets in the corner.

A man speaks to her from a neighboring cell. He insults her for crying and makes a crude joke about her body, effectively distracting Arwen from her panic. When the lantern illuminates his face, she is annoyed to realize that she finds him attractive. He notices her shivering in her thin shirt, so he offers her his fur cloak, claiming to be used to the chill. After this brief exchange, Arwen attempts to ignore him, but he prods her to talk. She admits her disdain for the Onyx King, declaring that he has decimated “an innocent kingdom for their meager wealth,” taken “thousands of innocent lives,” and trained “his soldiers to be more brutal, bloodthirsty, and violent than any other army” (57). From the man’s reaction, Arwen suspects that he is native to Onyx. He keeps calling her a “bird,” and when Arwen asks him why, he only says that the epithet seems, fitting “given the cage” (58).

The next morning, the man is gone, and Arwen worries that he has been executed. The soldier that she healed yesterday comes to her cell, introduces himself as Barney, and gives her bread and a black dress. After she dons the dress, Barney escorts her to the joint apothecary and infirmary and explains that he will keep an eye on her as she works. She will be escorted back to the dungeon at the end of the day. Arwen’s first patient is a middle-aged man named Owen, who has bramble poisoning. She treats him quickly, then spends the rest of the day browsing the apothecary and learning all the new information. Meanwhile, she tries to think of ways to escape the keep, but she cannot find a viable option.

Around sunset, a red-headed woman named Mari comes in, claiming to be looking for a sock that her father, Owen, left behind earlier. When Mari asks Arwen why she came to Shadowhold, Arwen explains she arrived yesterday to fill the open position; however, she does not reveal her status as a prisoner. Mari rambles on, informing Arwen that the nearby Shadow Woods are not safe. She also reveals that King Ravenwood is at the keep, possibly to plan Onyx’s next attack on Amber. Mari doesn’t understand by Onyx is attacking the Amber Kingdom in particular, but her gossip soon moves on to the king’s reputation as a “sadist and womanizer” (72). The king supposedly sleeps with many women but has no plans to choose a queen, and Mari surmises that he doesn’t want to share power. Mari reveals that there is a very high turnover of lieutenants; other than Commander Griffin, no soldiers hold their positions in his army for long. Arwen is surprised when Mari claims that chimeras, ogres, and goblins are real and reside in the woods.

After Mari leaves, Barney escorts Arwen back to the dungeons. In passing, Arwen overhears a conversation between King Ravenwood and his commander. She learns that the king’s soldiers are disappearing at very high rates. She also discovers that the two speakers are searching for something; according to a seer, time is running out, leaving them with less than a year to find it. She is unable to hear more because Barney leads her out of hearing range.

The following day, an older man named Dagan is working in the apothecary. Still mulling over the conversation that she overheard last night, Arwen plans to subtly ask Dagan about seers, but he excuses himself from the room before she can speak to him. Suddenly, the arrival of a new patient interrupts Arwen, and she is surprised to see that he is the male prisoner that she met on her first night in the dungeons. He is badly wounded and is weak from blood loss.

As she treats him, she distracts him from the pain by asking how he escaped. Rather than answering, he assures her that she won’t get in trouble for healing him, as the soldiers have bigger things to worry about. He asks how she ended up in an Onyx dungeon, and Arwen reveals the deal she made to save her brother’s life after Ryder stole something from the king. When the man asks why she judged her own life to be worth less than her brother’s, Arwen is startled into silence. She doesn’t have an answer, but she blushes in shame that she does feel that way.

She asks him to help her escape, but he refuses, claiming that he has business to attend to here. He advises her not to brave the woods alone. After Arwen uses her magic to finish patching his wound, she suddenly grows drowsy. He implies that this fatigue happens to him too, but when someone enters the next room, he cuts the conversation short and escapes through the infirmary window. When Arwen rushes to look out the window, she discovers that he has completely disappeared. Suddenly, a man with honey-colored hair and blue eyes bursts into the room and asks where “he” is. Arwen feigns ignorance, asking who he’s looking for. Finding the room empty, the man leaves without answering her question.