Rose in Chains

Six hours earlier, Briony sits at the desk in her bedroom, using her magic to manipulate the steam rising from her teacup into various shapes. She reaches for the thread of magic between her eyes to control the steam; she often finds it easier to use her magic for unimportant things, especially as the war rages around her. Rory enters her bedroom, and Briony tells him not to say goodbye to her. He warns her that Didion will want to say goodbye, too, and Briony tells him that Didion would have taken the hint that she’s not interested in him romantically if Rory hadn’t already proposed to Cordelia. Rory reminds her that she did take midnight walks with Didion, but Briony promises Rory that her virtue is intact. Rory asks if anyone else has caught her eye, but Briony denies it.

Briony instructs Rory how to cast the protective boundary around Claremore Castle, the lake, and the Eversun school. Briony’s father, King Jacquel, asked Briony to help Rory succeed in school when they began studying magic at 16. As the heir to the Eversun throne, Rory needed to seem competent more competent than his sister. Rory sometimes struggled academically, so Briony often completed his assignments and helped him appear more capable. Briony never forgave her father for asking this of her.

Rory tells Briony that General Meers doesn’t like their plan to cast a protective ward, but the Rosewood bloodline is strong in protection magic, which Jacquel and his forefathers argued gives the Rosewoods the right to rule Evermore. Rory must protect the Eversun people, or whatever is left of them after four years of war with Bomard, a nation that has pushed the Eversuns farther and farther south. The Bomardi want to destroy Rory, as he is the prophesied Heir Twice Over. A prophecy from over 500 years ago states, “When the sun shines at night, he who will bring an end to war on this land shall be victorious. He shall be an heir, twice over, and a rightful sovereign over the continent” (6). The prophecy did not come true at the end of the Moreland Civil War that divided the continent into Eversun and Bomard, so when war with Bomard broke out, people began to believe Rory was the prophesied heir.

Briony tells Rory that he must use Heartstop to kill Veronika Mallow, the leader of the Bomardi war effort. Heartstop is banned in Evermore, as it is a dark magic spell that crushes the heart in the target’s chest. It has a steep cost, as it rips the caster’s heart with each casting. It is heart magic, practiced by the Bomardi, while the Eversuns practice mind magic, so Rory had to learn it himself, practicing with General Meers on animals around Claremore. The Bomardi vilify mind magic, with Mallow calling it mind control—a slander she uses to turn the Bomardi against the Eversuns and justify the war. Mind magic pulls from the head and doesn’t cause exhaustion, while heart magic takes a great toll on the physical body. Heart magicians sometimes use animal familiars to keep their strength up, and since Mallow took power in Bomard, some Bomardi use human familiars. Using another magician’s heart can offer more power, creating a heartspring bond that would ensure a magician’s heart doesn’t become exhausted.

Briony’s thoughts are interrupted by the screech of Mallow’s dragon. Mallow has untold power because of her bond to the last dragon, which gives her a longer lifespan and new abilities, like the power to read minds, something even the most accomplished mind magicians struggle with. Rory asks Briony if she believes in the prophecy, and she assures him that she does. They’re interrupted by Didion, who seeks to speak to Briony alone. Briony remembers her walks with Didion Winchester, the kisses and intimate touching they shared. She never felt a strong spark with Didion, though she tried. Didion asks Briony for her mother’s pin or a lock of her hair, but she refuses. He wants a promise that she’ll be there when he comes back from battle, but Briony also refuses. She is one of three Rosewood women available for a political marriage once the war ends, so she’s uncertain of her future. She thinks of the various Bomardi men her age, along with an unnamed man who inspires fear and yearning in her heart. She promises Didion that she’ll be happy if he survives, which is all she can offer.

Hours later, Briony stands in the courtyard as Rory, Didion, Briony’s cousin Finola, General Meers, and the general’s son Sammy Meers prepare to go off to battle. Briony says goodbye to Finola and Sammy before addressing Rory. She refuses to hug him, saying it isn’t goodbye. The dragon screeches as the eclipse begins.

As Briony and Cordelia run down the castle stairs into the castle itself, Briony sees a sea of figures wearing blue coats, indicating that Mallow’s forces have breached the castle. Briony watches a man use magic to slice a maid’s throat, and she saves a footman from being killed by dropping part of a stone statue of Vindecci, the father of mind magic, onto one of Mallow’s men. She recognizes the man as Lag Reighven, who has taken special interest in Briony since the outbreak of the war and haunts her nightmares. When the stone hits Reighven, breaking his concentration but not killing him, Briony watches as Mallow’s forces recognize her and Cordelia.

Briony and Cordelia run into the castle, desperate to escape, and Cordelia pulls Briony into a linen closet. They hear the voices of Caspar Quill and Hap Gains, two men whom Briony has previously seen at state functions and whose children, Liam and Larissa, attended school alongside her. Quill tells Gains to round up the girls before leaving. Briony listens in horror as Hap and his partner find a maid and attempt to rape her. Briony bursts out of the closet and uses her magic to break apart a wooden door. She launches the wood stakes into Gains and his partner’s thighs, and the maid swings a candlestick at them, distracting them as Cordelia uses her magic to launch wooden spikes at their chests, piercing Hap’s stomach and his partner’s shoulder.

The maid leads Briony and Cordelia out of the room and towards a passage to safety. Briony remembers that the maid and her brother recently came to Evermore from Shutarth, and her brother was the only Shutarthian non-magician to join Rory’s army. As they approach the secret passage behind a portrait of Briony’s mother, they hear an explosion, and Briony watches as the passage caves in atop the maid and Cordelia.

Briony escapes the passage before she’s crushed. She shouts for Cordelia but hears only approaching footsteps. Realizing that she’s vulnerable in the open, she runs. She approaches a staircase and sees Anna’s corpse. She wonders why Anna was coming towards the staircase that leads to the castle’s bedrooms, but then she remembers the secret correspondences on her desk, which list safe houses and countries that would offer the Eversuns refuge. Briony runs to her bedroom and grabs the papers before hiding in the armoire as she hears someone approach.

Briony recognizes Toven Heart immediately, with his blue-flecked gray eyes and nearly silver hair. The last time she saw Toven, he was hunting her through the woods. She watches him search her room, and she focuses on holding a blending spell to make herself invisible to others. Toven’s best friend Finn Raquin tells Toven that Mallow knows he’s there and that they have to go. Toven says that something hasn’t been called off, that there’s still time, but Finn drags him away. Briony realizes that Toven is looking for her, hunting her again. She flees her room but crashes into Gains, who knocks her out with a spell.

Eight years earlier, Briony is a student in Bomard. She takes longer to adjust to the cold of Bomard than her Eversun classmates. The Eversun and Bomardi students are schooled together for the last five years of their magical educations, with school years alternating locations between the two nations; the first year takes place in Bomard. Though there’s a divide between heart and mind magic, the basic principles are similar. The sources of power differ, as heart magicians feel the source of power in their chests and mind magicians feel it between their eyes like a thread. Heart magic is easier to master but easier to deplete, while mind magic requires more consistency to learn.

Rory and Briony leave their private dorms and collect Didion, Cordelia, and Katrina, a girl who lived for 15 years in Bomard before returning to Eversun with her father after her Bomardi mother’s death. They run into Toven and his friends, who mercilessly mock Briony, bowing and throwing flowers at her in the hallways. Briony cried for the first week, but now she tries to ignore them. Larissa Gains makes a cruel joke implying that Briony and Rory have an incestuous relationship, which prompts Cordelia to verbally attack Larissa while Briony attempts to keep her composure.

The classroom is full of trees, as if they sprung up overnight. Briony is cold, and she realizes Toven is using magic to push a breeze towards her; she uses her own magic to counteract it. Tutor Amelia questions the class about the eight magical gestures, and Briony uses magic to make the answers appear on the page of Rory’s notes. He gets the answer correct, and when Amelia asks Briony a question, she lies that she doesn’t know the answer, allowing Rory to answer again.

Amelia instructs the class to use magic to carve their initials into the trees, and Briony pushes her magic toward Rory to make him seem more competent than he is. Rory manages to carve his initials first, getting top marks. Toven looks at Briony suspiciously as Rory carves a whole poem into his tree before most others carve their initials. Toven succeeds easily, and Briony wonders about his power, given how the Hearst family often manifests magical gifts, like Toven’s father Orion’s ability to cast multiple spells in a single casting. Bomardi student Liam Quill becomes frustrated and is close to husking, which occurs when heart magicians use all their magic, becoming a husk of their former selves. Liam asks Toven if he’s boosting, and Toven denies it before Liam gestures, boosting off Katrina and making her grab her chest before using his magic to slice into the tree. Larissa does the same, boosting off an Eversun girl. Rory confronts the Bomardi for boosting, and Toven tells him that’s ironic, hinting at his awareness of Briony boosting Rory. Briony doesn’t know what boosting is; she previously assumed her ability to amplify Rory was because of their twin relationship. Amelia overhears and reminds the group that boosting is grounds for expulsion and even illegal in Evermore.

After class, Briony asks Katrina about boosting. She explains that pairs of heart magicians can share their magic, creating a heartspring bond that makes both more powerful. It’s usually done in Bomardi marriages. However, boosting can also be non-consensual, like when Liam took from Katrina’s power and caused her pain. Katrina says some marriages in Bomard happen solely for power, and one person in the heartspring bond can take all the magic for themselves. This practice is becoming more common, and some servants are even used as a magical wellspring. Briony asks how this is legal, and Katrina asks her what she knows about the civil war 600 years ago. Briony says it happened because Vindecci discovered mind magic, and Bomard refused to learn it. Katrina challenges that historical interpretation. Briony wonders why her father knows about this and does nothing to stop it. She also realizes she’s been boosting Rory their whole lives, and now Toven knows about it.

Back in the present, in the aftermath of the battle, Briony wakes in a dark room full of bodies. Cordelia is cradling Briony’s face, trying gently to wake her. The room is full of women with chained hands and collars around their necks, including Fiona’s younger sister and Briony’s cousin Phoebe. Cordelia explains that the collars suppress their magic. She’s not sure if they’re made with the Gowarnus herb from Shutarth, which suppresses magic, or some other mechanism. The women also have the names of the people who captured them tattooed on their arms. Briony’s arm says “Hap Gains.” The last thing Briony remembers is the day the castle fell, which Cordelia tells her was days ago.

Larissa Gains tells Briony the truth, and Briony is shocked to see her detained, given she’s Bomardi. Briony doubts that Larissa is a traitor to Bomard, but Larissa says she can believe whatever she wants. Larissa says they’re being kept for the auction. Briony has a memory of their third year of shared school, after the Seat of Bomard was assassinated and during the time when Mallow began to seek further power, convincing the Bomardi succession line that mind magic was duplicitous and evil. The Bomardi students began to discuss executing King Jacquel and auctioning off the Eversun people to the highest bidder like in ancient Daward, to be used as heartsprings and drained of their magic. Some, like Liam Quill, also spoke of using them for sacral magic, a sexual magic that strengthens the heartspring bond, until Toven reminded him that sacral magic has to be consensual to work.

Briony comes out of her memories and tries to make a plan. Larissa tells the women that they’re probably in the Trow Estate, the home of Genevieve Trow and her son Canning. Two women with fighting experience pledge their loyalty to Briony, one named Velicity and one unnamed with black hair, as does a young 16-year-old named Eden. They want to try to fight their way out, and Briony feels overwhelmed, unsure how to decide who will risk their lives. Reighven and Gains enter the room and tell the women it’s time for medical examinations. Reighven forces Phoebe, Cordelia, and three other women to go first.

The other women hope that the first group can map out where they’re being held so they can form an escape plan. One of the women asks how Rory died if the prophecy is true, and Briony doesn’t know. The prophecy didn’t come true at the end of the Moreland civil war, and though Rory became the Heir Twice Over after Evermore won the allegiance of an island nation (making Rory heir to the throne of two nations), the prophecy failed to come to fruition. Briony feels guilt for all the times she promised Rory that the prophecy was real. The first group of women return and tell the others what happens in the medical exams: showers and medic visits, including pregnancy tests. Phoebe draws a map in the dust of the floor showing where they were brought. They also confirm that the auction for heartsprings is happening. They tell Briony that there are windows on their current floor and the floor with the shadows; though they’re in the dungeon, the Trow Estate is built into the side of a mountain, so every floor has a window, though it’s hundreds of yards in the air. Briony wonders if anyone can climb with the chains on their wrists.

Phoebe tells the women who volunteered to fight to make sure Briony gets out and to leave the rest of them behind. As the last Rosewood from Jacquel’s line, she must rally what remains of Rory’s troops. Briony objects, as the heir of Evermore must be male, but they’re interrupted by Gains and Reighven coming for another group. The two women who volunteered drag Briony over, and they’re joined by Katrina and Eden. Briony realizes that they have no plan, and she struggles to remember Phoebe’s map. When they reach the first window, the Velicity and the black-haired woman attack Gains and Reighven as Eden tries to open the window. They struggle, and Briony manages to break through the collar’s hold and use heart magic to slice at Reighven. The men subdue the women and tell Briony to surrender or they’ll kill them. Briony hesitates, and Reighven uses heartstop to kill Eden. Briony runs, and when Reighven almost catches her, she attempts to use heartstop on him, but she fails because she doesn’t truly want him to die. Reighven threatens to kill Katrina unless she surrenders, and Briony can’t stomach more death, so she drops to her knees.