The Captive Kingdom

The fourth installment in the Ascendance Series opens a year after sixteen-year-old Jaron Artolius Eckbert III, the Ascendant King of the small kingdom of Carthya, won a war to defend his country. In previous books, Jaron was sent overseas at age ten and lived for years as a presumed-dead orphan named Sage until he reclaimed the throne from Bevin Conner, a regent who murdered Jaron's parents and brother Darius. Now restless with peace, Jaron is surrounded by his closest companions: Mott, his protector; Imogen, his betrothed; Roden, captain of his guard; Tobias, a physician-in-training; Amarinda, a Bymarian princess formerly betrothed to the Carthyan throne and now betrothed to Tobias; and Fink, Jaron's thirteen-year-old adopted brother.

Returning from a trading voyage to the foreign kingdom of Bymar aboard the pirate ship the Red Serpent, Jaron's group is intercepted by a warship called the Shadow Tide. Its captain, Jane Strick, identifies herself as Prozarian, a member of a people Jaron believed to be extinct. Strick demands Jaron's surrender and kills Erick, the pirate king, when he tries to defend the ship. Roden and Tobias each claim to be Jaron, buying time, but all three are taken aboard alongside Amarinda. Imogen escapes on a decoy lifeboat. The Prozarians sink the Red Serpent, and Jaron fears Mott and Fink have gone down with it.

Aboard the Shadow Tide, Jaron picks his manacle locks with a hidden pin and begins scheming. He meets Wilta, a young woman who claims to be a prisoner from Belland, a small volcanic country across the sea, punished for leading a rebellion. She agrees to share information in exchange for Jaron's promise to free her people. Jaron plants a lodestone, a naturally magnetic rock, near the ship's compass to shift the course by four degrees and sabotages the rigging. Strick pressures Roden, offering him the chance to become a king if he breaks Jaron's spirit.

Strick claims to have evidence that Jaron murdered his own parents. Roden privately tells Tobias that the throne belongs to someone else. Meanwhile, Jaron discovers Fink stowed away in a weapons crate in the cargo hold. Through a hole Jaron and Tobias cut from the sick bay into the captain's quarters above, Amarinda passes down items from Strick's locked closet: gold coins, a notebook, a brass viewing device called the Devil's Scope with one glass lens, and a crown and sword belonging to Darius. Strick insists Darius is alive on Belland and that the ship is heading there to bring Jaron to his brother.

When Fink is caught, Jaron is forced to surrender the sword. During a public confrontation, Roden stabs Jaron in the thigh to prove loyalty to Strick. Jaron triggers a pre-rigged pulley system, launching Fink to safety and collapsing the sails. He and Fink drop into the sea, where Tobias waits in a stolen lifeboat. Wilta jumps in after them, but Amarinda remains trapped aboard. At nightfall, they encounter a fishing boat carrying Mott and Imogen, both of whom survived.

Wilta explains that the Devil's Scope is an ancient device believed to map the location of a legendary treasure. The Prozarians possess the scope and its first lens, which led them to Belland. The second lens is supposedly held by the person claiming to be Darius. The Prozarian Monarch is arriving to claim the treasure during a narrow two-day window. Jaron insists on going to Belland, arguing he cannot abandon Darius if there is any chance his brother is alive.

On Belland, Jaron goes inland and overhears a voice he recognizes with certainty: Darius is alive. His brother speaks with Trea, a woman present at Darius's birth. Mott sees Trea and is visibly shaken, revealing a deep love for her from their years working for Conner. Strick arrives on the beach and forces harsher terms upon Darius. Roden, brought ashore beaten, secretly guides Jaron to board the Shadow Tide, where Jaron breaks into Strick's office and recovers both swords along with a locked tin box.

The tin box contains old coins, a note in Jaron's mother's handwriting, and a love letter from Mott to Trea. These items lead to a devastating realization, later confirmed by Trea: Darius was adopted. Queen Erin, unable to conceive, accepted the child of a handmaiden who died in childbirth at Conner's estate. Jaron is the only biological son of King Eckbert and Queen Erin. Trea asks Jaron to keep the secret, and he agrees.

Darius, unaware of his origins, demands the throne and accuses Jaron of killing their parents. He has agreed with Strick to bring Jaron to Belland for trial, after which Darius plans to return to Carthya as king. When Prozarians attack as a distraction, Darius alerts Strick to Jaron's presence, and Jaron is captured. In prison, Imogen shares her belief that Darius's biological father was Conner. Jaron refuses to use this against his brother.

At a public trial, Strick frames Jaron for his parents' murders. Mott and Tobias testify to his innocence, and handwriting analysis disproves Strick's forged evidence. But when Darius learns Amarinda is betrothed to Tobias, he turns against Jaron and hands over a forged second lens that he and Trea crafted. Strick sends Jaron into the Great Cave, a massive volcanic sea cave, to find the third lens, with Wilta accompanying him to prevent trickery. Before descending, Jaron publicly identifies Wilta as the Prozarian Monarch, citing her plague scars, a false claim about Bellander customs, and her distinctive accent. The first descent yields clues but not the lens.

Roden then challenges Jaron to a public duel for pirate leadership. Jaron deliberately loses, allowing Roden to banish the pirates to the north side of Belland, positioning them for Jaron's later plans. Strick forces Jaron back into the cave. This time, he dives into a volcanic lava tube, swims through underwater tunnels, and discovers a carved chamber containing an ancient sword and the third lens embedded in rock. Prying the lens free triggers a catastrophic flood. He emerges unconscious on the north side, where Tobias and the banished pirates await.

Jaron's master plan unfolds. While aboard the Shadow Tide, he loaded gunpowder into the five weapons crates from Bymar. When the crates were distributed across the Prozarian fleet, each ship became a bomb. His captured friends, deliberately separated onto the ships, light the fuses and escape before each explosion. At Jaron's signals, four ships detonate in succession. Wilta surrenders, and Jaron claims the Shadow Tide, leaving the Prozarians only their flagship.

During the confrontation, Strick publicly reveals Darius's true origins, declaring he has no royal blood and that the Prozarians planned to control him on the throne. Darius looks to Jaron, who confirms the truth. Strick also reveals her personal motive: Edgar, a Prozarian orphan boy Jaron knew as a child, was her son. Conner took Edgar from the orphanage and used his body in Darius's burial. Strick blames Carthya for Edgar's death.

After the Prozarians depart, the brothers reconcile. Darius acknowledges Jaron as the true king and chooses to remain on Belland, where the people have asked him to rule. He accepts Amarinda's choice to be with Tobias. At an evening ceremony, Jaron crowns Darius King of Belland, and Darius in turn affirms Jaron as Carthya's Ascendant King.

Jaron and Imogen reconcile, and the group boards the Shadow Tide to sail home. In a final scene, Jaron reveals he secretly possesses both the Devil's Scope and the third lens, hidden in a gap in his belt. He looks through the completed scope and smiles, but knows the Prozarians have realized the scope is missing and are headed for Carthya.