Curse of Shadows and Thorns

Two Ettan serfs and Elise’s best friends, Siverie and Mavie, tell Elise they have been looking for her, the “Kvinna”—a name given to a secondary royal. Both women are angry that Elise left without them, and they tell her that the Ravensguard who were sent from her uncle’s home at Ravenspire Castle are on high alert because a mysterious masked figure called the Blood Wraith has been spotted. Elise had an encounter with the Blood Wraith years ago: The figure cut off two of her finger tips as he swung his ax at her, but she escaped. She knows that no one has ever escaped an encounter with the Blood Wraith alive, and fears he will come back for her, and that no one around her will be safe.

Siv and Mavie tease Elise about going to the game hall just to see the handsome Legion Grey, and they are shocked when they hear that she spoke to him in passing. When Elise gets back to her room, Bevan, the palace’s steward, tells her that her father has allowed the king to start preparing her for a marriage bid. As the second daughter of the king’s sister, Elise knows she is expected to marry a Timoran nobleman at her uncle’s discretion, yet this is something she has always dreaded.

Elise goes to a feast celebrating her older sister’s engagement to the king’s son, and greets King Zyben, who tells her to stay close to him that night. He implies that if she doesn’t go along with his plans for her marriage, he can harm her fatally ill father, Leif. As she steps away from the king, a mysterious child tells her a prophecy: “‘When you see the beast within, let him in to let him go’” (25).

Frightened by this but forced away by guards, Elise meets with her older sister Runa and her fiancé/cousin Calder. Runa tells her that Jarl Magnus, a noble from the Eastern Kingdom, is there and likely to make a bid for her hand. Runa introduces the two as Zyben announces that he has opened up bidding for Elise’s dowry. While fathers in the kingdom usually arrange marriages, since Elise’s father is ill, Zyben has passed the duty of arranging Elise’s marriage on to the man who brokers his other vows and bargains: Legion Grey.

Elise believes this is the worst option and begins to hate Legion for what he represents. Jarl mentions that he will be bidding for her hand and asks her to dance. When Elise speaks to an Ettan woman, Calder makes fun of her. Jarl laughs, and Runa doesn’t reproach her fiancé. Overwhelmed, Elise goes outside to the balcony, where she runs into Legion, along with an Ettan man named Tor, whom he mentions will be helping him with her marriage arrangement.

The day after the king announces her eligibility for marriage, Elise receives five bids for her hand, and the only man she knows among them is Jarl. Her friend Mattis, a local carpenter, comes to bring gifts from one suitor, Bjorn Svart, along with Legion, whom Elise feels is out of place among her friends.

Elise is uncertain what Legion thinks as she talks easily with Mattis, Siv, and Mavie, all people well below her station. She is surprised when Legion invites her inside because he wishes to get to know her better. Elise is angry when Siv and Mavie don’t help her escape the situation.

Elise is unnerved as Legion follows her as she goes about her day, including reading a bawdy book about the Night Folk that Mattis gave her. She is surprised when Legion admits that she is nothing like what he expected, and mentions that he recognized her at the gaming hall. Elise is once again shocked when Legion mentions that he hadn’t even thought about using this knowledge against her, and that he is sympathetic to her lack of interest in marriage.

They discuss some rumors about Legion’s origins when he mentions that he is not Timoran. He reveals that he was an orphan who was taken to New Timoran on a ship as a child, but he refuses to tell Elise his full story about how he rose to prominence, as it is something he has never told anyone else before. Elise feels relieved knowing Legion better and having more trust in his ability to find her an acceptable husband. After he leaves, Elise gets dressed to sneak out of the palace in secret.

Elise sneaks away to a place in the forest called “the bell tower,” where Mattis, Siv, and Mavie meet her. They have all brought blades and practice fighting one another, and here Elise feels that she, the two Ettans, and the half-Ettan, Mattis, are all equal. While Mavie is fighting Elise, Legion suddenly appears with Tor and Halvar, the stable hand. Elise’s friends all fear for their lives because they have been caught fighting the Kvinna, but Legion and his companions have no intention of telling anyone about this.

Legion asks if he and his companions can join them in sparring, and Elise is surprised to feel comfortable with this awkward arrangement. Mattis encourages Elise and Legion to spar against one another, and both are surprised at how capable the other is, while also feeling the sexual tension as they fight. Elise and her friends disperse as Legion and his men stay behind. Forgetting her lantern, Elise turns back to see that Legion and his companions have drawn their weapons and frightened Siv away. Elise begins to doubt what she knows of Legion and if she can trust him after frightening her fearless friend.

Elise plans to confront Legion about what happened to Siv at the bell tower, but a servant mentions that he had a day off on the final day of the moon cycle, and he looked ill when he left the palace with Halvar. Elise runs into her father, who suspects she was out late the night before and accuses her of sleeping with a man. Her father calls her selfish and commands her to stay with Runa so she cannot be alone.

In her sister’s chambers, Elise learns that Runa has been studying the last of the Ettan royals who ruled the kingdom a hundred years before the Timorans enslaved them. She questions why her namesake, King Eli, who usurped the throne, had not united the Timorans and Ettans. She also sees that the Ettans often had magic blood, as they married fae. There are rumors that Valen Ferus, the “Night Prince” who was the third heir of the last Ettan king, survived, which is what spurs local “Agitators” to act out against the Timoran royals. Siv arrives, and she and Runa escort Elise to meet with Herr Willem Gurst, one of her suitors.

Elise meets with Herr Gurst, who smells worse than anyone she’s ever met, but stays until nightfall. After dismissing the man, Runa leaves Elise to her servants. When she is alone with Siv, Elise tells her about what she saw the previous night and asks her if she is alright. Siverie tells Elise that Legion did not threaten her, but was wary of her superior fighting skills as a serf. Siv told him about her past and how her father taught her how to fight before she became a serf, and she mentions that Legion is not a threat, but Elise is still suspicious.

Elise goes to sleep still questioning this, but she is awoken by Mavie and the sound of screams. Just outside the gates of the palace, a group of Agitators has taken over a nearby settlement, and the serfs have spotted a man in a red mask, whom Elise knows must be the Blood Wraith. Mavie wants to take Elise to safety in the cellars, but Elise wants to fight so she can help the others. She equips herself and her maids with weapons from a secret trunk she keeps under her bed, and they sneak away into the forest. The three women reach an abandoned building, but before Elise can go in, someone grabs her and pulls her back.

Halvar has stopped Elise, and is surprised when she says she wants to stay and fight. He tells her that Legion asked him to protect her, but when Halvar mentions that Legion is recovering in town, Elise fears for him as she knows the Agitators are coming from that direction. Halvar joins the women at the top of an old stone bell tower, assuring her that Legion knows how to take care of himself.

They watch as Agitators attack the Ravensguard, and Elise and Siv fire their arrows at the Agitators from above. As they get closer, Elise sees that the Agitators’ eyes and mouths have gone black with dark blood. One attacks her, stabbing her in the foot, but before he can land a fatal blow, he begins to wheeze and collapses. All the others do the same. When she looks outside, Elise sees the Blood Wraith and fears he has returned for her.

As Halvar takes Elise to the stable to tend to her wounds, she confides in him that she thinks the Blood Wraith came for her, as she has never told anyone outside her family about her encounter with him. She asks Halvar how all the Agitators died at once, and wonders if the Blood Wraith has a kind of magic called “fury,” which he could use to slaughter and control the Agitators.