Dark Age

Virginia and Holiday ti Nakamura, who is the “Dux” (right hand) of Virginia’s bodyguard (or Lionguard), discuss Luna (Earth’s moon) as they arrive at the capital city of Hyperion, where the two major political factions—conservative Optimates and progressive Vox—have begun fighting. Virginia tells Holiday of Silenius’s Stiletto—the “narrow path” the first Sovereign found between anarchy and tyranny.

Dancer O’Faran, a Red who became a leader of the rebellion and the founder of the Vox, calls, disagreeing with Virginia’s wish to send ships to Mercury; he also expresses concern about being assassinated. Virginia remains confident in her plan, telling Holiday, “Silenius walked his stiletto. I’ve no doubt we’ll walk ours” (159).

Virginia gathers the politicos in the office of Gold senator and Optimates founder Daxo au Telemanus, though Daxo is not present, as he is meeting with a senator. She goes to Daxo, finding him with Publius cu Caraval, an Orange senator known as “The Incorruptible.” At first, Publius refuses to vote for Virginia’s plan, but he considers changing his vote when Virginia suggests that she will have the Silver senators’ support. Publius departs, and Daxo and Virginia discuss Sevro. Virginia asks if Daxo designed his life around the depiction of Lucifer from Paradise Lost, and he is glad she has noticed. Daxo and Virginia return to the politicos, pressing them to garner support for her in the upcoming vote to send fleets to Mercury.

Ephraim wakes badly injured after his ship crashes, processing his surroundings in fragments: “Fear. Bickering. A child’s body dragged out. Limp. Heavy cutting laser. Going to help me” (169). He wakes in a medical bay in Olympia on Mars, with Pax holding his engagement ring. He refuses to give the ring back until Ephraim deals with his addiction to zoladone, then Pax walks away.

Ephraim ti Horn, a Gray and former resistance fighter who now has a grudge against the Republic, wakes after deliberating crashing a ship stolen from the Syndicate, a criminal organization, to escape from it (as recounted in Iron Gold). He pulls out his IV, checks himself over—finding a synthetic leg—and then sets out. He puts on a pair of slippers left for him and finds a large shaman named Ozgard. Ozgard explains that the Syndicate attacked Ephraim’s ship and that he was saved by the elite skuggi (a class of assassin) Obsidian fleet, led by Freihild, an Obsidian who is close to Queen Sefi, leader of the Valkyrie tribe of Obsidians, which initially participated in the uprising but has since distanced itself from Darrow. He then says Valdir the Unshorn—soldier and concubine to Queen Sefi—is coming. Scared, Ephraim climbs out the window and tries to escape but is caught by Sefi’s griffin, Godeater, and Valdir.

Valdir takes Ephraim to Ozgard, and then they go to meet with Sefi. Walking through the city, Ephraim sees several Obsidians, along with Electra and Pax, training in combat (Pax is Darrow and Virginia’s son, while Electra is the daughter of Sevro and Victra; Ephraim helped the Syndicate kidnap them but then changed his mind and escaped with them aboard a Syndicate ship, ultimately resulting in his crash-landing on Luna). Ozgard notices that Ephraim cares for Pax but says that Pax is “dangerous.” Pax fights large Obsidians, winning and stabbing one in the neck, narrowly missing the man’s carotid. Pax then scolds the watching Obsidians for not helping Darrow on Mercury (during the fighting recounted in Iron Gold), which impresses Ephraim.

Ephraim is taken to Sefi. She explains that she ordered his life to be saved, and she criticizes his zoladone addiction (zoladone increases dopamine but suppresses emotions). She speaks of Alltribe, which is new to Ephraim, so she clarifies that Alltribe is the name of her Obsidian nation. She takes him to see the skuggi and talks of her plan to create an Obsidian homeland—Volkland—which they have been denied. Sefi wants Ephraim, who is now a mercenary, to stay as a guest and teach the skuggi “unconventional warfare.” Xenophon, a White, steps forward and explains that Volga—an Obsidian and Ephraim’s friend—and a young Red, Lyria, have been captured by Victra. If Ephraim agrees to help Sefi, she will pay the ransom for Volga and Lyria. Ephraim agrees to teach the skuggi in return for a ship, payment, and Volga. In return, Ephraim must not take zoladone and must help Sefi gain Pax’s trust.

Ephraim begins teaching the skuggi, who are skeptical of him. He explains that he will be teaching them how to manipulate rather than kill people. However, he stops the session because the skuggi don’t speak Common, the Society’s language, and therefore can’t understand him.

Virginia visits influential Silvers at a major corporation, Sun Industries. These Silvers have become exceedingly wealthy due to the prevalence of violence: “Now they represent the machine of war—Drachenjager factories, shipyards, textiles, pharmaceuticals, rubber plants, shipping interests, silicon products” (200). Virginia needs the Silvers’ support, their technology, and their helium, which powers the ships.

Silver Senator Krieg lays out numerous conditions for Silver support. After Krieg finishes her list of demands, Virginia slowly eats an apple and then shoots an expensive sculpture. She scolds them for using this situation for financial and political gain, targeting Quicksilver (also known as Regulus ag Sun, the CEO of Sun Industries), and walks out after vaguely threatening them.

Virginia receives word that Sevro has killed the chief assassin of the Syndicate, and she worries that Sevro will find the Duke of Hands (a lieutenant of the Syndicate who was involved in Electra and Pax’s kidnapping) before she does. Sevro has been extremely violent, having been sent out by his wife, Victra, to find Electra and Pax. In return, the Queen of the Syndicate has put a large bounty on Sevro, attracting assassins. Virginia wonders if she is “being played” while looking at the collection of puzzles made for her by her now-deceased brother, Adrius, also called The Jackal. Holiday comes to Virginia and tells her they’ve captured the Duke of Hands.

Virginia travels to the interrogation room where the Duke of Hands is being held. She is informed by Theodora, a Pink who now serves as Virginia’s spymaster, that he has an abnormally strong “pheromonal defense mechanism” (210), accounting for her sexual attraction to him. Virginia takes salts to counteract the pheromones and goes in to interrogate the Duke.

She interrogates him multiple times, using a device called a psychoSpike derived from Octavia’s Pandemonium Chair, which could edit memories. The psychoSpike infiltrates and records the Duke’s memories, showing Virginia the location of the Queen of the Syndicate. Then, Sevro arrives.

The Duke panics after hearing of Sevro’s arrival, and Virginia leaves the room. Sevro and Virginia argue, with Theodora and Holiday chiming in. Sevro asserts that he has everything under control, but Virginia disagrees. He refuses to tell her Victra’s plans but allows Virginia to guess. She guesses (correctly) that Victra plans to pay Sefi’s ransom—helium mines on Mars—for Electra and Pax. Victra kept the plan secret because she thought Virginia would disagree; however, Virginia asserts that she will not interfere.

Virginia sends Sevro in with the Duke of Hands; he is to shoot the Duke if the memory wipe Virginia is about to perform fails. Virginia then wipes the Duke’s memory; his mind resets, and he isn’t able to correctly answer what color his eyes are. Seeing this, Sevro leaves the room without shooting the Duke. In the Duke’s memories, Dancer appears to be a traitor, and Virginia plans a meeting with him.

After figuring out how to communicate, Ephraim uses a card game—Karachi—to teach the skuggi how to read body language. The skuggi have been “playing dumb,” having been socially conditioned to hide intelligence. Ephraim got the idea for the game while talking to Pax, who still has Ephraim’s ring.

Ephraim bribes the skuggi, who love gambling, for a deck of cards, sending Freihild to a dueling arena the Obsidians believe is haunted by Gold spirits for lying to him about not having a deck. He then plays and wins against Xenophon, demonstrating the power of reading people. He sends the skuggi to play cards against each other, demanding that they use real bets. Ephraim notices sexual tension between Valdir and Freihild and then speaks with Xenophon about how Valdir inspired Sefi’s plans. While talking with Pax, Ephraim’s suspicions are confirmed—Freihild is sleeping with Valdir. Ephraim alludes to an emergency plan to rescue Pax and Electra if something happens.

Virginia sits in Pax’s room listening to pachelbels (a kind of bird) singing outside. Deanna O’Lykos, Darrow’s mother, comes into the room; they speak about Virginia’s missing husband and son, and Deanna argues that their family members—dead or absent—would want them to carry on living.

Dancer arrives, angry to find that Sevro is also attending the meeting with Virginia. Sevro and Virginia tell Dancer that Pax and Electra were kidnapped. Dancer believes Virginia has been “compromised,” but she asserts that the Queen of the Syndicate has been compromised—she is working on behalf of someone other than herself.

They show Dancer a recording of the Duke of Hand’s memories in which Dancer was sleeping with the Duke. Dancer is offended, thinking they are blackmailing him for his orientation, but then startled to learn that the man he slept with was involved with the Syndicate. They tell him Sefi has the children, and they ask for Dancer’s help in gaining political support with the Vox, which he founded. Virginia believes that Publius, not Dancer, is the traitor allying with the Queen of the Syndicate and that Atalantia is manipulating the Queen. Dancer agrees to vote in Virginia’s favor.

Virginia reflects on a lesson from her father while standing in the Ocular Sphere, a device that allows her to access different video feeds; she once revered it but finds it dissatisfying now that she owns it. She wonders if, like Octavia, she could continue on if her husband and son died. Using the Ocular Sphere, she looks at Mercury and thinks of Darrow. Then she looks at the Citadel, where the vote will take place.

Sevro, Daxo, and Kavax au Telemanus, a Gold who partially raised Virginia, enter. Kavax speaks to Virginia, telling her she deserves to be reunited with her family. He leaves, not wanting to partake in the political event. Sevro wants to clone Kavax, arguing that Electra could marry the clone. Daxo adds that he would like to raise a child. Sevro leaves for Old Tokyo on a mission to kill the Syndicate’s Queen.

Virginia arrives at the Citadel for the vote to a mixed audience of supporters and condemners. She begins the process by announcing her plan to rescue Darrow and the Free Legions on Mercury, then she gives the senators the floor. Publius passes on his turn to speak, letting Dancer speak first. Dancer hiccups while speaking, and Sevro calls over the comms to tell Virginia that there were Boneriders—Adrius’s band of fighters—in Old Tokyo. Dancer dies, followed by several other Vox surrounding him, and Publius blames Virginia, calling her a tyrant.

Virginia and the Optimates try to flee while the Vox attack. Virginia, Daxo, and the Optimates try to fight but are overpowered. Daxo is killed, and Virginia takes numerous stab wounds. Her failing body is passed around, and she sees Lilath, a Bonerider who Virginia now realizes is the Queen of the Syndicate.

Darrow is still healing and has radiation poisoning from the nuclear bombing. They have gathered as many of their fallen soldiers as possible and are holding a funeral. Darrow knows Atalantia’s forces have been weakened, as she has not tried to attack. Colloway returns from a search with Orion’s body. They move it to rest with the others, and the bodies are cremated.

Darrow gives the orders to destroy the station that connects Tyche and Heliopolis, having given up hope that Alexandar will return. He talks with Rhonna about how Alexandar may still be alive and might return through the Kylor Pass instead of the station. Darrow says he let Alexandar go because he respected Alexandar, not because he was trying to “dispose of him” (273). He learns that Alexandar saved 83,426 people from Tyche and reflects on how that will soon be forgotten.

Darrow talks with Harnassus and Thraxa about their dwindling supply of anti-radiation medicine, and he asserts that they will share their remaining rations with the civilians. Screwface enters and says they have almost no chance of escape. Darrow argues that they should have faith in the Republic and that Virginia will come for them. Their meeting is interrupted by Rhonna, bearing news that Atalantia wants to speak with Darrow.

Darrow has a holographic meeting with Atalantia. She compares Darrow to the Greek king Pyrrhus (whose costly battles against Rome inspired the term “Pyrrhic victory”) and then shows him footage of the deaths in the Citadel, which Atalantia is calling the Day of Red Doves. Atalantia calls for Darrow to surrender, promising to torture and kill only high-level Republic members; if he does not, she will destroy the city. Darrow calls her bluff, arguing that she won’t destroy Heliopolis because angry Society members would depose her if she did.

Afterward, Darrow shows the conversation to his high command, arguing that he cannot make an unbiased decision, so he is leaving it up to them. If they choose for him to surrender, he will.

Lysander reflects on a memory of falling and breaking his arm when Octavia made him carry a large boulder down the stairs. He is in intense pain, and his burned face is infected. He walks with the other struggling survivors, searching for Society members. They stop to rest, talking about several topics, including Darrow, their chances of rescue, Lysander’s father serving lion meat, and Octavia’s tendency to collect information. Cicero au Votum tries to convince Lysander to take the supplies and leave the others behind, but Lysander refuses.

Darrow almost shoots Screwface when Screwface sneaks into Darrow’s room. He leads Darrow to a congregation of soldiers, and Darrow gets mad and leaves, feeling he can no longer join in their communion. Screwface follows, and they stop when they see the shield over Heliopolis flicker. Several obelisks land in the area, carrying the supplies and message from Virginia.

Darrow returns to the meeting of his high command, who have decided to refuse Atalantia’s offer of surrender. In response, Atalantia drops bombs, which are destroyed by Heliopolis’s particle cannons. Retaking his seat at the head of the table, Darrow sends for Glirastes.

Lyria, imprisoned by Victra, has been purposefully starving herself to escape torture. She reflects on how the world seemed to make sense before the Rising, as compared to the senselessness of the “assimilation camp” and her family’s deaths. (The Republic established assimilation camps to house Reds who lived and worked underground before the liberation of their mines; Lyria’s family died during an attack on one such camp by an extremist faction of Reds during Iron Gold). Lights flash, noise blares, and gravity is inverted to prevent her from sleeping, and she does not know how long it has been since she was injected with something by a Brown and put in the room. She is fed and waste is taken away through tubes, and she has been visited once by Victra.

As she reflects on past events and her role in them, she experiences a change of heart and begins fighting to survive. She ties herself up to prevent being woken from the gravity alterations. While doing so, she spots a note in the vent. It’s from Volga and states that she is a prisoner. Lyria hates Volga because she shot Kavax (who took an interest in Lyria and taught her to read) during the kidnapping of Pax and Electra, but she tears off a nail and part of her clothing to write a note back.

Ephraim and Pax are talking while writing messages in code with peas when Electra fetches them and Ozgard for Sefi; they are led to a ship. Ephraim hears something spoken in an old language, Tetkjr, that was spoken before the Dark Revolt—a myth about Obsidians rebelling against the Society long before. The legend says that a branch of Obsidians—now Ascomanni—led by a man named Volsung Fá roam the Kuiper Belt, a region near Neptune. Atlas was sent by Octavia to search for them, disappeared, and returned several years later.

Four days later, Ephraim’s ship meets with Sefi’s, The Heart of Venus. Ephraim, Pax, Electra, and Ozgard follow Freihild to Sefi. Sefi forces a Pink named Amel to sing and then executes him for betraying her. She then tells Ephraim and the others of the violence at the Citadel. Pax and Electra leave, and Sefi tells Ephraim that she is sending the skuggi to forcefully take Cimmeria, a continent on Mars, as their homeland.

Walking in the Ladon, Lysander and the others find a hydra burrow and are then hit with a sandstorm. Lysander does not make it to the shelter and must hide in the hydra burrow.

Lysander is in the burrow with the hydra: “I can sense it moving, judging the creature that has invaded its home” (326). When the storm passes, he climbs out and sees that Kalindora and the others have been taken to Heliopolis. He is confronted by Seneca, a Core Gold who demands that Lysander teach her the Mind’s Eye. Lysander refuses and is surrounded by seven Golds. He detonates a warhead, blinding himself and his opponents and using the Mind’s Eye to find and kill all but Apollonius au Valii-Rath—the Minotaur. Apollonius wants Lysander to join him, but he declines, continuing on his own.

Ephraim watches as the Obsidians prepare and is joined by Pax. Ephraim tells Pax that Pax doesn’t have to save the world. Ozgard comes for Ephraim to take him to the Kjrdakan ceremony—a prelude to war. The ceremony is gory, with the Obsidians killing, cooking, and eating an aurochs. The soldiers, including Ephraim, each offer wagers over the aurochs’s skeleton, with both Ephraim and Sefi wagering their hair—or their honor—that they will win the battle, while the male Obsidians make insultingly low wagers.

Ephraim is resentful in the moments preceding the battle, upset that he does not have zoladone. He worries the skuggi were not ready for their mission. Sitting next to Ozgard, he grabs one of the walnuts that Ozgard snacks on, listening to Ozgard talk about nightgazes that live on Mars’s south pole. Ozgard grabs Ephraim and forces him to regurgitate the walnut, telling him that it is a psychoactive fruit—a spirit berry.

Ephraim experiences severe hallucinations. When the ship lands and the soldiers pour out, Ephraim loses his fear and charges out, seeing that the skuggi have successfully infiltrated the mines and will therefore win. He runs into battle but stops, terrified, when he realizes he is facing deadly robots with a mop. Sefi and Valdir appear, and violence ensues.