Chapters 8-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Adelina Amouteru”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, illness and death, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual content, and self-harm.
Adelina wakes from a nightmare: She was comforting Violetta during a storm and then realized Violetta was Formidite, Angel of Fear, daughter of Death. It is morning. Adelina considers running away but decides she has no choice but to try to become a Dagger.
Raffaele fetches Adelina and takes her into the catacombs beneath the building. They wind through passages that connect parts of the city and pathways that go to Elite safehouses. The twists and turns are too complex for memory. Raffaele prays to Moritas, goddess of Death, when they arrive at huge, locked doors. He works a gemstone lock to a cavernous chamber where Enzo and other Daggers await: Spider, Star Thief (with an eagle on her shoulder), and Windwalker.
Enzo asks the Daggers to help Adelina summon her powers of illusion by provoking her. The light disappears, which scares Adelina—the threat of blindness is always a fear, as she has but one good eye. In the dark, bats fly at her. Spider attacks her physically, slicing her arms with a blade. The Daggers jeer and insult her weakness. Windwalker makes a screaming wind sound in Adelina’s head and sends her flying against a wall.
Now, Adelina’s fears begin to merge with thoughts of her abusive father. She strikes out at a vision of him, but it turns out to be Windwalker; Adelina slashes her across the throat with her nails. Enzo tries to scare Adelina by trapping her in a ring of fire, touching her lower back with his fire-hand and almost lighting her dress. The energy she feels from his touch is terrifying; it takes her back to the panic of the execution stake. But it is also thrilling. Her illusions come to life in the form of giant black demonic silhouettes, but they disappear as soon as Enzo takes his hand away. Adelina likes this power and wants to see what else she is capable of.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Adelina Amouteru”
Tensions in Estenzia are escalating; the economy is terrible, people are struggling, and everyone is blaming the malfettos.
Raffaele gives Adelina Tamouran silks and headscarves to cover her silver hair. He also supplies her with a beautiful half-mask to cover her missing eye. Disguised in this way as a consort (sex worker)-in-training, she will have the freedom to move about the brothel (the Fortunata Court). Raffaele explains that his Elite power is sensing energy within people that connects to their abilities, motivations, and objectives. He also reveals that when he made his debut as a young consort, Enzo bid the highest for his first night on the job—not for sex but to talk about the Dagger Society’s goals. Raffaele admits to Adelina that if Enzo reclaims the throne, he can quit his job as a consort. Enzo comes in and is momentarily speechless at the sight of Adelina, but he only states that she can begin pretending her role as a consort in training the next day.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Teren Santoro”
Teren uses a whip to flagellate his back, which is a horror of scar tissue. He is a malfetto marked by pale eyes, but he also has special regenerative powers: skin that begins to heal immediately upon being torn. He recalls that day’s court when the drunk king laughed off concerns about rising taxes angering his people. He also recalls how, when he was 12 and Queen Giulietta was 16, she asked for his pledge of protection; in exchange, she would forgive him for being a malfetto. He agreed at that time that Enzo, young and sick from a poisoning attempt, could not become king as he was a malfetto. He continues to hurt himself as he self-pledges to intensify the search for Adelina.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Adelina Amouteru”
Adelina spends time in the cavern below the court building, watching and learning more about the Dagger Society. Star Thief can manipulate the minds of animals. Spider had been a blacksmith apprentice. The nation of Beldain in the Skylands ousted Windwalker. The Architect trains as an artist and can “unwind” objects to move them to other places. Adelina’s thoughts of Violetta become rare.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Teren Santoro”
A street urchin reveals to Teren that a one-eyed girl who wraps her hair is at Fortunata Court.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Adelina Amouteru”
At a masquerade gathering of consorts and guests of the court, Raffaele performs a seductive dance to drumbeats. While everyone’s attention is on Raffaele, Teren, masked, approaches Adelina. He says he will not arrest her if she complies. He tells her she must become his spy and share information about the Young Elites with him. First, he offers her redemption in the role of “savior” and claims he will “destroy” her if she refuses. Then, he threatens to harm Violetta. She asks for time. Teren tells her to come to the Inquisition Tower in a week with information he can use to defeat the Elites. His threats sicken Adelina, but she feels she has no choice.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Adelina Amouteru”
In the cavern, Adelina watches Enzo and Spider spar with swords. Enzo wins. Raffaele reveals that before his fever, Enzo trained with Inquisitors. Adelina tries to summon her powers without being directly threatened or terrified. She concentrates on her internal fear of spying for Teren and produces a small black silhouette. Spider scoffs at her progress, which increases Adelina’s annoyance and anger. She causes an illusion of a snakelike, hissing phantom that scares Spider. He responds by threatening Adelina with a dagger to her neck. She warns him she will soon know more about her powers. Spider insists he was joking around. Raffaele tells Adelina Spider is jealous that Adelina has much of Enzo’s attention now. Enzo returns to collect Star Thief and the others; they all leave Adelina. She realizes she can secretly visit Teren at the Inquisition Tower.
Chapters 8-14 Analysis
Teren’s brief scene of self-punishment establishes him as the most complex secondary character. He is situated in a role of power as Lead Inquisitor and Giulietta’s lover, and he now reveals that he is a Young Elite able to heal spontaneously. Yet his healing power is only physical, demonstrated as his torn skin mends; mentally and psychologically, the whipping does not seem to heal anything, though it introduces Teren’s need to punish himself for being a malfetto. His scars indicate that he seeks forgiveness through physical penance often but finds no redemption; in his current conflict, he self-soothes by pledging to find Adelina. His actions constitute dramatic irony because only the reader knows about his Elite power; his secrecy foreshadows future revelations. Additionally, this scene introduces the theme of The Impact of Secrecy of Power, Corruption, and Redemption as Teren is a complex mix of all three.
Masks and disguises become a pattern in this section. The most notable disguise is Adelina’s consort-in-training costume, complete with a half-mask that changes her outward identity altogether. This disguise covers Adellina’s two most remarkable physical attributes—her hair and her lost eye. Putting on the clothes, makeup, head scarves, and mask is a process readying her for great internal change; ironically, she dismisses the dry humor in masking herself in a way that will help to reveal who she is. Ironically again, it is the headscarves and mask that point Teren directly to her, complicating her clear goal to train. Her transformation represents a step away from her younger self toward the complex conflicts inherent to coming of age and helps to develop the theme of The Journey to Understanding and Fulfilling One’s True Purpose.
Adelina is not the only wearer of masks and disguises; Raffaele wears a dancer’s costume for his performance and guests and consorts all wear masks. Teren’s Inquisitor’s uniform turns out to be a disguise in a metaphorical sense as it hides his powers. In this section, disguises begin to symbolize the idea of illusion; they are the real-world tricky counterpoint to true illusions that appear to exist but do not.
Structurally, plot complications intensify and twist Adelina’s overarching conflict. Teren’s ultimatum that she spy for him sends Adelina down a dual path; in addition to gaining control of her powers, she must offer Teren enough real or fabricated info on the Elites to keep Violetta alive. Ironically, Adelina was just starting to allow herself to concentrate on training. As soon as Teren whispers his threats, however, Violetta rises to the top of Adelina’s priorities—or at least pulls even with keeping herself alive by becoming a Dagger. Her shifting motivations contribute to complex layers in the rising action.
Sensory imagery and textual parallels in this section depict the setting more fully. Though Kenettra is speculative, visual details such as fabrics, bedchamber furniture, weapons, canals, and food bespeak a Renaissance city setting. Word clues such as the names of months and characters, and some vocabulary (e.g., malfettos) are reminiscent of Italian. Raffaele and Michel allude to Renaissance greats Raphael (painter and architect, 1483-1520) and Michelangelo (artist, architect, and poet, 1475-1564). Adultery, spies, secrets, and power takeovers call to mind the corruption (and fascination) of the palace intrigue that filled the era of the Medicis in Italy while the army of royal police (Inquisitors) allude to the terror of the Church’s Inquisition in Rome and Spain. These parallels to a historical period juxtapose with fantasy elements like the balina (a fantasy creature), bringing depth to the novel’s setting.
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