59 pages • 1-hour read
The Prison Healer
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Chapters 19-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of sexual violence, self-harm, death, and addiction.
Kiva walks through the medicinal garden and thinks of her father and the first years of their imprisonment. She reflects that this same stomach sickness also appeared in the prison population nine years ago and left hundreds dead, including her father. Kiva wants to finish what Faran started and find the cure that will stop the illness. Kiva writes down everything she knows about the illness, just in case she dies in the trial or has to leave suddenly.
Kiva goes to the refectory to eat because she wants to know how the other prisoners feel about the trial. In their collective attitude, she senses their anger toward Tilda and their anger toward Kiva for failing to find the cause of the stomach sickness. She also overhears that the rebels tried to break into Zalindov but could not get in. As a result of the attempt, the guards have been doubled at the outer perimeter. Kiva is devastated by the information and leaves without eating.
As she is walking away, a guard called Bones makes her come with him to the guards’ barracks. The guards are having a party, and the barracks also contain prisoners in various stages of undress; they are all clearly under the influence of drugs. Bones takes Kiva to a prisoner in the Butcher’s lap. Upon assessing the person, Kiva states that the prisoner has overdosed. Naari arrives and says that Kiva is needed in the infirmary. Bones tries to stop Kiva from leaving and hurts her wrist; Bones says that Kiva can replace the woman that just died. When Naari states that the Warden is waiting, Bones lets her leave but threatens Kiva.
Even after she returns to her own pallet, Kiva thinks about what almost happened. Jaren joins her and explains that Naari told him about the incident. Kiva cries, and Jaren holds her. Afterward, she falls asleep.
Chapter 20 Summary
Jaren comes to see Kiva in the infirmary; he is confident that she will survive the trial even if she is not. Naari arrives and tells Jaren that the other prisoners are being assembled; he needs to join the other tunnellers before anyone notices his absence. Kiva still does not know what her trial will entail. She acknowledges that her family is not coming for her, and she needs to save herself. Kiva asks Naari why she did not punish Jaren for being in the wrong place. Naari explains that she believes all the prisoners are being punished enough. Kiva tells Naari that she appreciates her being different than other guards. When Bones arrives to escort her to the trial, she grows terrified. She gathers her courage, but it flees when Bones leads her away from the gallows and toward the crematorium.
Chapter 21 Summary
Kiva feels sick from fear. She realizes that she thought the second furnace was being started because of the stomach sickness, but it is really meant for her trial. Warden Rooke asks if she has any last words, and Kiva shakes her head. Naari is quietly supportive as she leads Kiva to the furnace. Grendel explains that the furnace will be started once Kiva is inside; it will remain on for 10 minutes. Kiva is nearly hyperventilating when she is brought into the furnace, which smells of burned hair and flesh. Naari tells her to take slow breaths and stay low. As they close the door, Kiva begs them to come back. She hopes the furnace will break or that Grendel will find a way to sabotage the process, but her hopes are crushed when the grates open, “and then came the inferno” (234).
Chapter 22 Summary
The firestorm surrounds her but does not burn her. The bright light from the amulet creates a barrier, protecting Kiva from the flames. Kiva remains crouched and counts down the minutes. The heat and smoke are growing, and the amulet’s flickering suggests that it is running out of power. Kiva’s clothes burn because the amulet is only trying to protect her skin. Kiva can feel her throat blistering from the toxic smoke. Finally, the furnace is turned off. Naari comes into the furnace and drapes cloth over her.
When Warden Rooke realizes that Kiva was given an amulet, he is furious. Rooke makes Kiva walk out even though she is suffering from both smoke inhalation and heat stroke. Rooke announces to the crowd that Kiva has successfully completed the Trial by Fire. Before Kiva leaves, Rooke tells her that if anyone helps her with the Trial by Water, there will be consequences. Grendel apologizes for her part in the trial; she did not know why she was made to prepare the furnace. Kiva tells Grendel that it is not her fault.
As Naari leads Kiva to the infirmary, Kiva’s legs give out. Jaren picks her up and carries her to the infirmary. She loses consciousness and later wakes to find herself in bed. Jaren and Naari follow Kiva’s directions on what medicine she needs, and Jaren rubs aloeweed gel on her arms and hands. When he asks her about the old scars on her thighs, she tries to deflect, but he persists in his questioning. Kiva realizes that she wants to tell Jaren the truth. She admits that she used to engage in self-harm after she carved the Z onto the prisoners, feeling that she needed to atone for the pain she caused them. The self-harm became an addiction, but she eventually made herself stop because she knew it was not good for her or her patients. Jaren thanks her for trusting him with this confidence. He tucks her in, holds her hand, and tells her to rest.
Chapter 23 Summary
After she is recovers, Kiva goes to test the farms on the outskirts of Zalindov in hopes of determining the cause of the stomach sickness. Naari questions Kiva about how she plans to pass her next trial, but Kiva is focused on investigating the stomach sickness. She spends the rest of the week testing different areas within Zalindov, but none of the rats that she tests show symptoms. When Kiva tests areas on the grounds of Zalindov, Naari escorts her even though she does not require an escort. Kiva still wonders whether Naari and Jaren are romantically involved, reasoning that the two are very relaxed when they interact.
Mot questions Kiva about the Trial by Water, which she believes will involve Zalindov’s aquifer. Kiva knows how to swim, which makes her slightly more confident, but she is still terrified. She does not believe that the rebels will come to save her, so “her hope was in herself. Whether or not she survived the Trial by Water was wholly dependent on her own skill, her own strength, her own will to succeed” (259). Mot offers to try to find a remedy to help her survive the task, and she appreciates the gesture.
Kiva returns from testing some remaining buildings and is surprised to find that Tipp is absent. When she goes to collect ingredients in the medical garden, Jaren walks with her. They talk about Tipp beneath the moonlight, then nearly kiss before Jaren says he needs to tell her something. Suddenly, they hear a low moan. Kiva runs toward the noise and finds Tipp on the ground; he has been stricken with the stomach sickness.
Chapter 24 Summary
Tipp is extremely ill, and Kiva forces multiple remedies into him. Jaren and Naari stay with Kiva, and Jaren even skips work to help. When Tipp wakes up, his hands are ice-cold and clammy: a symptom that none of the other patients share. Tipp asks if he will die, and Kiva reassures him. She holds Tipp until he falls asleep, then finds an excuse to go to the medicinal garden. Jaren follows her and comforts her as she cries. Kiva tells Jaren about her brother’s death and explains how she was taken to Zalindov. Jaren tells Kiva that she is not alone, and his words mean the world to her.
Kiva remains beside Tipp unless she is checking on other patients. Meanwhile, more of her patients continue to die from the stomach sickness. When Tipp wakes up later, he does not have symptoms that other patients with the stomach sickness have had. Kiva suspects that Tipp may not have the stomach sickness at all, and her suspicions are confirmed when his fever breaks.
Chapters 19-24 Analysis
This section of The Prison Healer develops the growing romantic relationship between Jaren and Kiva and deepens her connection to her found family, thereby highlighting the novel’s focus on Community Support as a Tool for Survival. Significantly, Kiva lets down her guard with Jaren in this section and allows him to become emotionally close to her. He provides her with much-needed support in the aftermath of her most recent traumas. Kiva is acutely aware of her own powerlessness, but it is not until Jaren comforts her in the wake of the guards’ abuse that she finally allows herself to cry. Notably, Jaren does not offer her any platitudes; he just gives her the comfort of his physical closeness without making any demands of her. This new level of closeness is further advanced when Jaren later notices the self-inflicted cuts on Kiva’s thighs and encourages her to tell the story behind them. After Kiva confides in him, she marvels at “just how much she had revealed to Jaren, how she’d bared her wounds to him, quite literally” (249). In this moment, her sudden confidence in their growing connection shows the extent of her own inner growth; her current demeanor is a far cry from her harsh behavior toward him at their first meeting. Their blossoming relationship therefore illustrates the themes of Community Support as a Tool for Survival and Overcoming Oppression with Hope and Resolve.
While Kiva and Jaren’s moments together provide points of optimism amidst the many forms of torment that abound in Zalindov prison, Kiva’s days remain beset by the ever-present threat of the exploitative, abusive guards, whose behavior illustrates The Corruptive Influence of Unchecked Power. For example, when Kiva is almost sexually assaulted by Bones and the Butcher after being brought to a traumatic “party” in the guards’ barracks, this tense situation reinforces the powerlessness of all the prisoners at Zalindov. In this moment, Kiva knows that it is dangerous to go into the guards’ barracks with Bones, but she is powerless to evade his orders, and only Naari’s intervention saves her from assault. The incident reveals that even a more privileged prisoner like Kiva—who is widely known to be favored by the Warden—is still not seen as fully human.
However, neither Kiva’s burgeoning romance with Jaren nor the habitual threats of the prison environment can distract her from the intense trauma and danger of the Trials that she undergoes on Tilda’s behalf, and these periodic events provide a succession of clues to the broader rules, laws, and political intrigues that govern the world of the novel. In connection with this dynamic, the amulet’s importance culminates when it saves Kiva’s life in the Trial by Fire. Because Kiva has ambiguous feelings about using an amulet supplied by Mirryn Vallentis, a member of the very family whose political power led to the deaths of her father and brother, it is clear that her interactions with the royals hold much greater implications for the course of the series as a whole. For the moment, however, she takes the pragmatic approach that she would rather survive than reject Mirryn’s help, utilizing this unusual form of Community Support as a Tool for Survival.
This section of the narrative also advances the mystery surrounding the origin of the stomach sickness. In addition to providing another external conflict, this issue also allows for new insights into Kiva’s traumatic past, revealing the fact that this same illness led to her father’s death years ago. Kiva’s awareness of this fact raises the current epidemic’s emotional stakes for her, and her anguish is further exacerbated when Tipp falls ill as well. In many ways, Tipp represents Kiva’s younger self, even as he occupies the unofficial role of her younger brother. Notably, Tipp is the only person whom Kiva has allowed herself to care for prior to building a new rapport with Jaren and Naari. For this reason, she becomes even more determined to cure the illness and save Tipp’s life. Her emotional struggles reveal that her true difficulties with caring for others stem from her vivid understanding that life holds little value in Zalindov. She also knows that if she wins the trials or the rebels come, she must leave Naari and Jaren behind.
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