King of Scars

Another khergud soldier captures Tamar and Tolya in a net, but Nikolai jumps on her back and drives his dagger into her throat. Afterwards, he looks for Zoya and spots her struggling with her captor high above them. Zoya summons lightning, zapping the metal wings of the khergud, and they plummet. Nikolai races to reach them, becoming the monster to catch Zoya in the air. She zaps him with her power as they fall from the sky. Zoya catches them on an air pillow. Nikolai returns to his human form, and they hide the khergud bodies until Tamar can collect them later. Tamar rouses the unconscious priest, who hit his head during the commotion. They tell him a beam from the cathedral overhang broke and knocked into him and the statue. They take him into town for medical attention before heading off to the local governor’s house. While Yuri played along with the lie about the cathedral beam, he wants the truth about Nikolai’s monster.

That night, Nikolai shares his story with Yuri. He describes how he was captured and tortured by the Darkling, Yuri’s Starless Saint. The Darkling infected Nikolai “with a living darkness” as “payment for helping the Sun Summoner escape his grasp” (201). The darkness inside Nikolai perished when Alina killed the Darkling; that is, until recently, when the monster re-surfaced. Nikolai concludes his story, noting today was the first time the monster appeared during the day. He needs to eliminate the monster before the general public finds out. When Yuri suggests that this curse could be a blessing, Nikolai argues that the Darkling cannot become a Saint until all of his power is destroyed and his martyrdom complete. Yuri approves. They discuss what they’ve learned so far about the obisbaya ritual. Yuri and Tolya leave to study the religious texts further, and Tamar follows, leaving Zoya alone to administer Nikolai’s sedative.

Before Nikolai succumbs to sleep, Zoya asks why he schmoozes the governors and tolerates the pageantry. Nikolai admits that “Ravka is broken, and I’ve seen the way it breaks people in return,” but “I think I can fix it” (216). Nikolai chooses to love his people more than the power that comes with the throne. He wants to be different from the rulers before him. He tells Zoya that if the monster can’t be exterminated, he wants her to shoot him to protect Ravka.

Nina and Hanne pass the night dozing and talking. The next morning, Nina tells the men to visit Lennart Bjord for their reward while she and Hanne stop at the convent. They find Adrik at the campsite, and Hanne accompanies Nina and Adrik on their way back to the convent. Nina promises not to say anything about her Grisha powers. Hanne believes her power is a sin and would be in danger if it were discovered. Nina offers to help her control it, saying she had a sister with the same abilities who was taken away. Nina suggests using language lessons as a cover: She can teach Hanne about Grisha power while they outwardly pretend the lessons concern language. Hanne will think about it, and she rides off for a final gallop before returning to the convent.

Nina and Adrik arrive at the convent. They find Leoni in the stables working on the water samples. When she stands up, she collapses against the wall; while isolating the pollutants from the water samples, she absorbed some. They keep Leoni in the stables and treat her with a charcoal tonic. She reveals that the girl dragged by her horse through the river died because the river water seeped into her head wound, poisoning her. Nina now mentions the graves behind the reservoir. With the medical kit out, she dresses the poisonous wolf bite on her arm. By nightfall, Leoni is well enough to return to the convent, proving “that whatever she’d found in the water was not parem. So what was wrong with those wolves, and what had been in their bite? And what had killed the novitiate?” (229).

The next day, the Wellmother summons Nina to her office. Hanne has requested language lessons. Nina gives Hanne some papers to copy of a beginning Zemeni lesson. They spend the next two hours exercising Hanne’s Heartrender powers, and Hanne confesses to feeling different growing up, never fitting in as a lady. She has dresses and trousers hidden all around the convent for quick escapades. The Wellmother is none the wiser.

Zoya, Tamar, and Nikolai stay in a Kribirsk boardinghouse while Tolya and Yuri stay across the street. This stop on the miracle tour is a secret; a decoy golden coach travels ahead to Keramzin. They spend the morning dealing with matters of state. Afterwards, they “travel to the Fold in disguise: high-collared coats and cloaks of peasant roughspun” (244). They take a skiff across the sands to the pilgrim encampment. Zoya notices that distant water is actually a mile long black stone disk. When they meet a pilgrim of the Starless Saint at the encampment, Zoya is confused by why all these people love the Darkling when he caused so much death and destruction.

Nikolai gives orders for Tamar and Tolya to walk the perimeter of the disk and find out where it came from. Zoya, still upset by the pilgrims’ worship of the Darkling, unleashes her rage by creating a storm: Sand swirls, “blocking out the sun and plunging the camp into darkness” (251). Nikolai commands Zoya to stop, and the sand drops. The encampment is gone. Nikolai, Zoya, and Yuri have been transported to another place. A sand palace stands before them. Dark figures run out from the palace.