48 pages • 1-hour read
The Traitor's Game
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Chapters 38-48Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section includes discussion of graphic violence and death.
Chapter 38 Summary: “Kestra”
Kestra realizes that her identity means it will be impossible for her and Simon to be together, as he has sworn to kill anyone Endrean. He wants to help her, but she won’t tell him where the Olden Blade is.
Simon tells her that if she refuses to share her secrets and bring them closer, she should let him go and stop his torment. They kiss, but Kestra remembers all that comes between them and pulls away. She thinks, “I wanted to believe him, just as I wanted to believe in him, and that somewhere ahead was a tomorrow that belonged only to the two of us” (297).
Chapter 39 Summary: “Simon”
Simon struggles as he realizes that his falling in love with Kestra will make Tenger question his loyalty to the Coracks. He wishes he could understand her thinking.
Before they can talk further, the driver of the wagon discovers them and threatens to sell Garr’s ring, which he finds in Simon’s satchel. Kestra gives him the ruby necklace that belonged to Lily. The driver recognizes her.
As they walk to Silven, Kestra reflects on how Celia betrayed her to the Coracks. Simon guesses that Kestra gave the Olden Blade to Gerald. He warns her that Endrick will go after Gerald, in that case.
A Corack and friend of Simon’s, Gabe, approaches. Simon asks for his help, but then Tenger appears.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Kestra”
Tenger takes control of the situation. He sees how Simon feels and questions whether Simon’s loyalties are to Kestra or the Coracks. Kestra demands to see Darrow. Gabe identifies her as Kestra Dallisor, and Kestra answers that she’s not a Dallisor any longer.
In town, Kestra sees Celia and accuses her former maid of betraying her. Celia replies, “I never forgot who you are, the kind of person you’ll eventually become” (314). Kestra responds that she was a friend to Celia, but Celia was never a friend to her.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Simon”
Tenger tells Simon he will be reassigned to another mission. Simon asks Kestra about her plan for the Olden Blade. She refuses to tell him.
They dine with Tenger and Trina inside a bookshop. Tenger puts the false Olden Blade on the table and threatens Kestra. To protect her, Simon speaks up and says the Olden Blade is out of reach.
Gabe brings in Darrow, who is still injured. A physician, Loelle, comes in with him. Tenger says Loelle can heal Darrow if Kestra cooperates. Kestra pulls the Olden Blade from beneath her skirt and lays it on the table.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Kestra”
Simon leaves the room. Kestra wonders if she should have trusted him with the truth. Loelle gives Darrow medicine, and Kestra asks Tenger to let her and Darrow leave. Trina is angry that Kestra lied to all of them and says she had tried to be Kestra’s friend. Kestra reflects, “I had been raised by [the Dallisors], my opinions and attitudes shaped by their prejudices and desire for power” (328). Tenger wants Kestra to join the Coracks, but she refuses. Tenger puts her under guard.
Kestra asks Darrow why he didn’t tell her she was Endrean. Darrow tells her to avoid magic, because Endrick will be able to sense it and come after her. Darrow says Kestra needs to claim the Olden Blade.
Simon returns and says the alarms are going off that warn of the approach of Dominion soldiers. He feels the bump on the back of Kestra’s neck and guesses Endrick put something there that allows him to track her.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Kestra”
Simon brings Kestra outside, insisting she leave Darrow behind. Dominion soldiers are attacking. Kestra climbs atop a wagon and rallies the people to fight back. Someone gives her a sword, and she leads the charge, remembering what Darrow taught her as she fights.
As Kestra approaches the bookshop to help Darrow, riders atop condors blow up the shop. Kestra is shocked and stunned. She realizes, “I had made myself a traitor. Abandoned my family name and with it, every comfort, every security I’d ever known. All to save Darrow” (342).
Simon, on horseback, grabs Kestra and carries her out of town to meet Trina, Tenger, and Gabe. Trina says she can remove the tracker.
Chapter 44 Summary: “Kestra”
Kestra grieves that she didn’t help Darrow escape. Trina takes a knife and cuts the tracker from Kestra’s neck. It is the same ball put into the Ironheart soldiers. Trina says she could have killed Kestra, but Kestra still says they will never be friends.
Tenger announces that they will travel to the Hiplands to bring the Olden Blade to the Halderians. Kestra wants to attend the ceremony and wonders what Simon will do afterward. She wonders if he could ever love an Endrean. Once again Tenger invites her to join the Coracks, and Kestra responds, “I’ll fight on my own, or leave on my own.” Tenger responds, “Then you’ll die on your own” (351).
As they ride, Simon tells Kestra that Tenger wants to separate them. Kestra says she wants to be with him, but she is reluctant to share all of her plans. She feels an obligation to fight for her country and prove that Endreans can be good. Tenger says that once the Infidante claims the Olden Blade, the real rebellion will begin.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Kestra”
They enter a Halderian town and find that it is thriving. Tenger wonders if Reddengrad has been helping the Halderians regroup. The townspeople are gathered in an open field while Thorne addresses them. As they draw near to listen, Simon collapses. Tenger claims someone struck Simon and ran away.
Tenger carries Simon to a cobbler’s shop and ties both Kestra and Simon to the workbench. He says he cannot trust their loyalty. Kestra wonders who Risha’s heir is, the one who will claim the Olden Blade, and Tenger says it is Trina, who is Risha’s daughter. Once Trina claims the blade, she can decide who will be the next king. Kestra sees that Tenger expects Trina will name him. Kestra decides she will keep fighting to save Antora.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Simon”
Kestra rouses Simon and informs him that Trina plans to claim the Olden Blade and put Tenger on the Scarlet Throne. With great effort, Simon lifts the workbench and Kestra works herself free.
They approach the ceremony, where Thorne is explaining that the blade will choose the Infidante. He warns that wielding the blade will bring hardship and sorrow with no guarantee of success. Trina steps forward. Some claim she is a traitor’s daughter because her father served the Dominion.
Kestra confronts Trina, and someone in the crowd identifies Kestra as Endrean. The crowd calls for her to be killed.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Kestra”
Tenger restrains Kestra while Trina tries to claim the blade. Trina declares that she is the Infidante and puts her hand on the dagger. Kestra can see it beginning to freeze her. Simon tries to make Trina drop the blade. Kestra suddenly realizes that her mother had claimed the Olden Blade and was the Infidante.
Thorne tells Kestra to claim the blade. Kestra tells him it rejected her. Thorne asks Kestra who her father was, and she guesses it was Darrow. This makes her also Halderian, and thus able to wield the blade.
Kestra claims the blade, which lights up as she takes it. She realizes she is the “One to Vanquish” referred to in the saying Anaya carved into the dungeon wall (378).
Chapter 48 Summary: “Simon”
Thorne tells Kestra she can choose who will rule. Kestra looks at Simon, who shakes his head. Of Kestra’s dilemma, Simon thinks, “I couldn’t imagine how it must feel to be given the quest of killing the last of your blood, to save a people who wanted you dead” (380).
The next morning, Kestra saddles a horse to ride away to perform her task of killing Lord Endrick. Tenger and Trina both step forward to say the Coracks will help her. Kestra tells Simon that Garr, his foster father, must have been Gareth, the exiled King of the Halderians, and that he made Simon his heir by giving him his sword and ring. Kestra says that after she kills Endrick, she will name Simon king.
Simon offers to help her, but Kestra insists she must do this alone. She rides away, and Simon vows to follow.
Chapters 38-48 Analysis
This final, dramatic act of the narrative shows a number of key characters Coming to Terms with Identity and Heritage as the climax reveals who is the Infidante and changes the terms of each character’s role in the coming rebellion. Kestra’s character arc comes full circle, and while several questions are answered, both her quest and Simon’s quest are reframed in ways that set the stage for the second novel in The Traitor’s Game series. In a sense, the conclusion of the novel shows Kestra engaged in much the same action as she was at the beginning: She’s setting off to fulfil her duty. However, that duty, and the way she understands herself, has substantially shifted.
Kestra’s newfound understanding of her identity captures the novel’s use of the trope of the chosen one, popular in fantasy literature. Nevertheless, the ways in which one is chosen in this novel raise questions about the nature of authority and foundations of power. The assertion that the Olden Blade will choose the Infidante initially implies this choice will be a matter of qualities. In actuality, the claim to being the Infidante rests entirely on bloodline. Trina, who acts as a foil to Kestra, believes she should wield the Olden Blade because she is Risha Halderian’s heir. However, Kestra proves the strongest candidate because her mother was the previous Infidante and her father, Darrow, is Halderian as well, thus strengthening Kestra’s claim through her dual heritage. In contrast, Endrick’s seizure of the Scarlet Throne, to which he has no other claim, furthers the suggestion that rule, at least for this world, is legitimized through bloodline or inheritance.
The theme of heritage is complicated, though, by the warring alliance and the enmity between the three different tribes that Kestra can lay claim to. She was raised by Dallisors, who tried to instill cruelty and cold-heartedness in her; her Halderian birth father means she is one of the rejected Banished; and her birth to an Endrean mother gives her a bloodline and a legacy of magic which everyone else finds suspect. Though the power of mentorship is acknowledged by Simon’s fostering by Garr and to some extent Trina’s tutelage by Tenger, Kestra’s mentorship by Darrow contained a genetic relationship. However, Simon’s fostering by the deposed King Gareth—the man he knew as Garr—suggests that appropriate qualities can make a candidate ideal for a position of power, even if bloodline does not. Kestra herself recognizes this in desiring to make Simon king.
Kestra’s travels in this section offer her new information about life in Antora and the shape of the coming rebellion as she learns about the Corack base in Silven, then discovers the Halderians are rebuilding their strength in the Hiplands. Whereas in earlier sections, new information caused her to question her loyalties and commitments, the information she discovers in this section confirms her commitment to The Importance of Challenging Injustice and Abuse of Power. Kestra’s claiming of the Olden Blade and her inherited role as the Infidante gives her the authority to reframe her rebellion in the ways she sees fit. Kestra’s concerns about Tenger suggest that she does not believe he would be a substantial improvement over Endrick; instead, she wants to see different qualities in Antora’s ruler, which leads her to question whether Simon could be the next king. Her reflections and deliberations reflect her newfound maturity and growing political awareness.
In another parallel to the opening of the novel, the conclusion ends with Kestra still feeling alone. Although she worked with Simon, Trina, Gerald, and Tenger to locate the Olden Blade and exit the Dallisor dungeons, this collaborative effort has not left Kestra with any belief in the power of teamwork. Instead, at the end, she rejects offers of assistance from everyone and decides she must make the effort to assassinate Endrick entirely on her own. She began the book in exile and ends it in a kind of self-imposed isolation, with her refusal to accept advice or aid speaking to the book’s larger questions about the exercise of power and the social consequences of individual decisions. Kestra decides she alone is capable of behaving honorably and trying to right injustice, which implies that she is overestimating both her own capabilities and her tolerance for total self-reliance.
In contrast, the other alliances in the book—Risha and Anaya, Gerald with the Halderians, Trina and Tenger, and Simon’s alliance with Kestra—suggest that partnerships can be more powerful and successful rather than individuals acting alone as Endrick often does. Kestra’s refusal to accept friendship casts doubt on the efficacy of her quest and foreshadows the emotional growth she has yet to undergo, which introduces suspense for the events of the next book, The Deceiver’s Heart.
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