Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow

Morrigan brings Hawthorne and Cadence to sit with her in the Rinaldi box at the Trollosseum to watch the Winter Trials. Gundy the Great, a champion dragonrider, has come out of retirement to ride Alights on the Water. At Cadence’s prompting, Morrigan questions Uncle Tobias about where he was during the cake-cutting, and he says that he was checking on Lady Darling. The dragon performs poorly and injures her rider. When Gundy lands, the dragon is instantly sedated, and her ranking on the scoreboard drops.

At the Feast of the Manyhands, Morrigan considers how little the flower tribute resembles the Guiltghast or, she suspects, the real Manyhands. Uncle Tobias notes the irony that the Silver District admires a patron of weaving and industry, though they look down on working with one’s hands. Morrigan remembers that Uncle Tobias had to leave his trade when he married Margot.

Several guests want to know when Cosimo is going to select a new rider for Alights on the Water. Vincenzio, Dario’s father, insists that they must preserve the Rinaldi legacy. Morrigan suggests that Hawthorne would make a good rider, but Vesta says that he is much too young and that they need someone with experience. The Vulture has a table at the feast, filled with a raucous and motley assortment of guests. The Devereaux have very few at their table. Morrigan speaks with Vesta, who admires the Vulture; he designed her mechanical chair, which has eight legs, like an arachnid. Vesta named her chair Spiderlily.

Noelle Deveraux pulls Morrigan aside to make it clear that she doesn’t believe Morrigan deserves a place in the Silver District. Noelle claims that Morrigan doesn’t understand the importance of family legacy. Morrigan believes that Noelle dislikes her because Noelle placed 10th in the entrance trials for the Wundrous Society, and only nine people, including Morrigan, were accepted into Unit 919 (the events of Nevermoor, the first book in the series). Morrigan asks Noelle where her sister, Gigi, is and reveals that on the night of the wedding, she overheard Gigi and Dario discussing running away together. Noelle says that she isn’t allowed contact with her sister and doesn’t know where she is. She also claims that the Darling family has been plotting against the Devereaux House for years. Out of spite, she gives Morrigan a book from the Silverborn Saga series: Madeleine Malcontent, which is about the scandal that Morrigan’s mother, Meredith, created by running away.

Morrigan reads the blurb for Madeleine Malcontent and is eager to read the book. She wonders if the blurb’s claims about Meredith feeling overshadowed by her glamorous sisters are true. Morrigan then encounters Aunt Margot, who is angry at the sight of the novel. She claims that Morrigan would dishonor the family by reading that book and throws the novel onto a bonfire.

Morrigan asks Anah to find her another copy of Madeleine Malcontent. Meanwhile, Morrigan continues to practice various Wundrous Arts with Squall, who pushes her to improve. When she masters one of the Arts, she gains a small seal, like a tattoo, on one finger. So far, Morrigan only has the seal for Inferno, and there are 10 Wundrous Arts in all.

Morrigan argues with Squall until he agrees to create a ghostly hour for her. They combine energies, which Morrigan thinks “[feels] like a force field. Like she could do anything, create anything, be anything. It [is] a wonderful, dangerous feeling” (403). Morrigan finds the process a bit nauseating as Squall spins through time. However, when she sees the moment she wants, she reaches out to grasp it. In her hand, she finds a soft sphere of sunset orange. She stretches it to a long slit, like an entrance, and steps through.

The ghostly hour that Morrigan enters is the scene of an argument in Meredith’s bedroom. Meredith, around 16, is angry because she does not want to wear the gown Margot has selected, nor does she want to meet with their guests. Morrigan recognizes that the object of contention is the peach gown Modestine gave Morrigan to wear at her wedding. Continuing the argument, Margot insists that Meredith needs to behave and uphold the family honor, telling her, “You are a spoiled, selfish girl with no idea of how precarious our family’s position is, nor the work it takes to protect it” (409).

Meredith calls Margot “Lady Liar” and “Lady Horrible.” Margot says that she knows Meredith has been sneaking out with a law scholar and Kitty Beauregard. In their anger, the girls strike one another. When Margot leaves, Meredith scratches, “I hate Lady Horrible” (411), into her bedpost. Morrigan watches the ghostly hour over and over, wanting to be in the room with her mother but uncomfortable recognizing that Aunt Margot has misrepresented Meredith to her. She also shows the hour to Cadence and Hawthorne, who wonder what else Margot is lying about.

Morrigan feels less and less at ease in Darling House. Aunt Margot is planning a party for Morrigan’s 14th birthday, but she seems agitated about it.

The classmates of Unit 919 gather to discuss the murder investigation and update their suspect list. Anah mentions that Madeleine Malcontent is considered one of the “nosedive” books in the Silverborn Saga series because of its lesser quality. Anah reads a passage that contains a phrase Lady Darling used in her letter to Morrigan: “I would gladly trade ten years of my future to have shared just one week of your past” (424). Morrigan suspects that Lady Darling is Hillary D’Boer, writer of the Silverborn Saga. Later, Morrigan runs into Jupiter, who sees the suspect list and becomes angry.

The night before her birthday, Morrigan pretends to be sick and stays home to investigate Lady Darling’s study. She finds her grandmother there, not looking well, with the room a mess and the safe open. When the maid takes Lady Darling away, Morrigan looks inside the safe. She sees a small bottle made of green glass, a broken spear tip, and a packet of letters.

Morrigan reads the letters, which are written from Jupiter to Lady Darling. The earliest dates to when Morrigan was seven. In it, Jupiter informs Lady Darling about Morrigan’s existence. He mentions that the superstitions around Morrigan’s birth falling on Eventide have made life difficult for her. Jupiter assumes that Lady Darling will want to take in her granddaughter. Over time, however, his letters become pleading and then angry as he continues to ask for Lady Darling’s help getting Morrigan passage to the Free State. It appears that Lady Darling suggested Morrigan would be “a blight on [the] family’s good name” (441). The last letter is addressed to Lady Margot, explaining that Jupiter will allow her to pretend that she didn’t previously know of Morrigan’s existence. However, he warns her that he will be watching and that he has Morrigan’s well-being at heart.

Morrigan feels numb learning that the Darlings lied about knowing of her existence. She is jolted from her thoughts by Lottie and Louis, who arrive to tell Morrigan that Lord and Lady Devereaux have gone to the police station for questioning: Someone called in an anonymous tip informing the police of Gigi’s conversation with Dario about running away together. The twins are excited because a new lintel has appeared in Beauregard House, and they want to break into the house to add the lintel to their map of the network.

The windows of Beauregard House seem to be made of unbreakable glass—another invention of the Vulture’s, Morrigan believes. She uses her knowledge of the Wundrous Arts to gather Wunder: “It was pure instinct. She felt the eagerness of the energy surrounding her, felt it weighing her actions and intentions and running with them, amplifying her creation. It felt like Wundersmith and Wunder were a partnership of equals, a perfect collaboration” (454). With this power, Morrigan manages to break all the windows of the house. Lottie and Louis run away before the police arrive, but Morrigan is arrested.

The Vulture comes to jail to collect Morrigan, claiming to be her uncle and telling the police that he invited her to visit but forgot to leave out the key. He signs his name Bertram Crow.

Morrigan remembers her childhood home and the portrait gallery in the Hall of Dead Crows. She was told Bertram Crow, brother to her father, Corvus, died at the age of nine. Now, Bertram leads her to a mechanical spider that he calls Arachne. Morrigan recognizes it as the same type of vehicle that Jupiter used to smuggle her from the Wintersea Republic to the Free State. She learns that Bertram, too, was born on Eventide and considered cursed. His mother, Ornella Crow, agreed to smuggle him to Nevermoor, where he joined the Wundrous Society. He was part of Jupiter’s unit, and the bonds between classmates are as strong as those of siblings, which is why Jupiter referred to Bertram as his brother during the conversation Morrigan overheard.

Morrigan wants to know why Bertram never bothered to contact her. She guesses that Bertram has been watching her at Jupiter’s request, which he confirms. Bertram explains that he was happy to upset the Silver District residents by showing up at their events, as he has nothing but disdain for them: The Great Houses can no longer afford their expensive lifestyles, especially since they don’t work to earn money. He admits that he hates those in the Silver District because of what they did to Meredith. Meredith had confided to Bertram that she meant to run away to the Wintersea Republic, but he didn’t believe her or try to stop her. Bertram is angry that the Darlings declared Meredith a traitor instead of trying to help their own child return to Nevermoor. He gives Morrigan a copy of Madeleine Malcontent.