Queen of Shadows

Queen of Shadows ends the King of Adarlan’s position as the primary villain of the series. The revelation that he’s been possessed by a Valg his whole life softens reader perception of his cruel and abusive personality. As the king emerges from Valg control, he once more becomes Dorian’s human father and shows compassion, shame, and regret for his actions. However, there is some confusion about whether the king is indeed innocent of the despotic behavior he has exhibited. He claims that he’s protected Erilea against the Valg King Erawan by banning the use of magic; but if he had the power to resist his possession enough to plot such complex maneuvers, it would also stand to reason that he could resist abusing his son. The novel does not clarify whether the king’s deathbed confession is self-serving, as Dorian kills his father immediately on hearing it.

The series now refocuses on Duke Perrington, who is possessed by the Valg King Erawan, whose plans to conquer her world are traditionally evil.

Dorian Havilliard has so far been one of the main characters of the series. In this novel, however, due to his possession and imprisonment by means of Wyrdstone collar, Dorian takes a step back from the main narrative.

Although he is for the most part a model prince, living a relatively simple and comfortable life, his resistance to his father’s tyrannical rule and abuse has been increasing. This imprisonment is the direct result of this rebellion, as the King of Adarlan enables Dorian’s possession in service of the Valg. Gripped by the grief he feels after Sorscha’s loss and slowly losing his identity to the Valg prince who controls his mind and body, Dorian spends the novel fighting to maintain his humanity.

After he is freed from the collar, Dorian kills his father and shatters the glass castle that has been his prison, almost killing an entire city of his people. Before he can assume the throne, Dorian will have to deal with the psychological fallout: “The guilt—that would be as heavy a burden for Dorian as his grief” (629). With the knowledge that he was raised by a Valg in control of his real father, Dorian will struggle to reform his identity and come into his role as the new King of Adarlan.

Chaol Westfall is a major point-of-view character in the novel and former love interest of Aelin while she was Celaena Sardothian. Chaol has bronze eyes and a white scar on his cheek from when Aelin attacked him after her friend Nehemia’s death. Chaol’s relationship with Aelin is altered by Nehemia’s death, as Aelin blames him for her inability to save Nehemia and deems it “the one thing she could not forget, could not forgive” (39). Their relationship ends when Aelin reveals her true identity as the lost heir of Terrasen; feeling lied to, Chaol stops trusting her and begins to fear her fire magic.

Chaol feels self-hatred and shame after he decides to flee his post as the Captain of the King’s Guard and abandon his best friend Dorian in the glass castle after Sorscha’s murder at the end of Heir of Fire. Though Chaol joins the rebels and makes efforts to help Dorian, he sees himself as an “Oath-breaker. Liar. Traitor” (124).

Chaol’s injury at the end of Queen of Shadows sets up his journey to the Southern Continent, where he will heal both internally and externally as he learns to forgive himself for his perceived shortcomings. His romantic life is also revived as he reconnects with his ex-girlfriend Nesryn, a 22-year-old city guard turned rebel originally from the Southern Continent. Well-trained, but “slender enough that most opponents underestimated her—to their own misfortune” (57), Nesryn is described as icy like Rowan and rarely shows concern. Chaol “never expected coddling from her. Never wanted it” (57). Her heritage makes her the best ambassador to accompany Chaol on his journey to the Southern Continent.

Arobynn Hamel is an antagonist of Queen of Shadows in particular rather than the series as a whole. In Aelin’s early life, Arobynn was positioned as a mentor, a flawed father figure whose approval Aelin sought: “the man responsible for that initial brutal training—the man who had been savior and tormentor, but never declared himself father or brother or lover” (11). After finding Aelin as a young girl, he trained her to become a skilled assassin through physical and emotional abuse. However, Arobynn has always been an underhanded manipulator: He had Aelin’s lover Sam Cortland killed and stole her prized family heirloom, the Amulet of Orynth. In this novel, Aelin must defeat this childhood monster to grow into a woman capable of facing demons, reclaiming her kingdom, and saving the world.

A man in his late 30s, the wealthy Arobynn has the fine-boned face of an aristocrat, silver eyes, and “silky auburn hair that grazed his shoulders” (14). A major investor in multiple Rifthold establishments, including the Vaults pleasure rooms and Clarisse DuVeny’s brothel, Arobynn also has toned muscles and countless scars, as befits the King of Assassins. Arobynn craves dominance and control over others, and delights in playing mind games that involve cunning half-truths. The novel makes it clear that Aelin’s ruthlessness and amorality come from the childhood she endured raised by a man who slaughtered his way to his self-made assassins’ throne. Arobynn is a round character whose death represents the end of Aelin’s life as Celaena and her embracing of the identity Arobynn tried hard to stamp out.

Aelin’s cousin Aedion Ashryver, a prince of both the Ashryver and Galathynius houses, is an extremely loyal half-Fae warrior for Terrasen, nicknamed The Wolf of the North. He’s also the General of the Bane, a legion of Terrasen soldiers. Aedion resembles Aelin in looks and personality: They have the same turquoise eyes, golden hair, and brash confidence: “They’d been forged of the same ore, two sides of the same golden, scarred coin” (186). Aedion’s bravery and loyalty resemble those of his biological father, the warrior Gavriel—biological parentage that Aedion learns about in this novel.

Like Aelin, Aedion struggles with The Ethics of Survival. Despite his loyalty to Terrasen, he’s served the King of Adarlan as general since Terrasen was conquered. In Heir of Fire, Aedion finds redemption in aiding the rebels seeking to undermine the king. However, in this novel, Aedion questions the tenets of his identity and the importance of his devotion to Terrasen after learning of Rowan’s blood oath to Aelin—the blood oath Aedion feels is his birthright. Eventually, Aedion can accept Rowan’s place by Aelin’s side and agrees to eventually take a second blood oath in contravention of Terrasen tradition, showing his ability to change.

A secondary point-of-view character, Manon Blackbeak is the ruthless 117-year-old heir of the Blackbeak Witch-Clan—one of three Ironteeth covens—and the leader of the Thirteen, an elite “unit capable of sacking whole cities by themselves” (71). Manon is described as having the customary iron teeth and nails of Ironteeth witches, an impossibly beautiful face, “eyes like burnt gold […] a lean, honed body; and a steady, fluid grace in every movement, every breath” (166). Manon is also the Wing Leader of the King of Adarlan’s aerial host, spearheaded by Duke Perrington; she rides the wyvern Abraxos.

Manon is known as the “White Demon” for her ruthless hunting and killing of Crochan witches, who are the mortal enemy of the Ironteeth. Her ruthlessness extends even to her own family: She killed Rhiannon, her Crochan half-sister, and often beats her cousin Asterin for disobedience. Manon is a dynamic character, who shows significant growth as she considers her identity as a witch, wondering whether Nature Versus Nurture has made her into a monster. The compassion and loyalty of Manon’s Thirteen show her that the Ironteeth have been made into weapons—and that if they were made, they can be unmade.

Manon trusts the Blackbeak witches of the Thirteen with her life. Significant in the novel are: Sorrel, Manon’s third-in-command, who is “built like a battering ram” (68); Vesta, who has “red hair, creamy skin, and black-and-gold eyes […] enough to stop most men in their tracks—to keep them distracted while she used them for pleasure, and then let them bleed out for amusement” (66); and Ghislaine, who is dark-skinned with black, curly hair and sea-green eyes—the “eldest and cleverest of her Thirteen” with “razor-sharp intelligence” and human mannerisms Manon finds peculiar (171).

Manon’s second in command is golden-haired Asterin, who has “a tendency to say what [she] think[s] and consider the consequences later” (69). Manon considers Asterin the “flame to Sorrel’s stone… and to Manon’s ice” (69). Asterin’s wildness comes from her doomed romance with a mortal hunter and her grief for their stillborn baby. Led by these feelings, Asterin is directly disobedient to Manon in ways that eventually inspire Manon to question the Ironteeth Matron’s leadership.

18-year-old Elide Lochan is a secondary point-of-view character in the novel. She. As the daughter of Lord Cal Lochan of Perranth, Elide is a Terrasen noble and the rightful Heir to Perranth. After her father was executed as a rebel leader when Terrasen was conquered by the King of Adarlan, Elide’s uncle Vernon stole his title and went on to mistreat Elide when she became his ward. Elide is described as having midnight hair, dark eyes, a pale face, and a mangled right ankle with the foot “twisted on its side, glossy with scar tissue” (104). Her injury is from a fall when she was eight years old that Vernon never allowed to be healed. At Morath, Elide wears chains around her ankles so she may never run away.

Though Elide has physical limitations, her strength comes from her cunning and intelligence. She feigns a stutter to appear afraid, so the witches consider her “subservient, docile, and terrified” (104). Manon sees Elide’s carefully constructed gentle demeanor as “meek and breakable and unworthy of a second glance” (105). Elide is also brilliant; though she cannot read, Elide has been taught by her nursemaid to “take note of things, to listen, and to think […] to mark the little details—each stitch—while also never losing sight of the larger image” (166). This allows Elide to survive in and escape the most dangerous place on the continent.

Through learning she has Ironteeth ancestry, Elide allies herself with the Blackbeaks—specifically Manon and her Thirteen—earning their loyalty and protection. After Manon frees Elide to repay the life debt she owes Aelin, Elide sets off on a quest to find the Terrasen queen and deliver a Wyrdkey from Kaltain Rompier. This open-ended conclusion suggests an increased significance for Elide in the next novel.

300-year-old Rowan Whitethorn is a point-of-view character and Aelin’s newest love interest. He is described as having a “harsh, unforgiving face” with silver hair and a tattoo “stretching from his left temple down his neck, over his shoulder, all the way to his fingertips” (98). The tattoo tells the tragic story of his dead mate and child. Rowan is a Fae Prince of Doranelle, a former member of Maeve’s blood-sworn Cadre, and the first blood-sworn member of Aelin’s new court. Rowan is a seasoned warrior with the ability to wield wind magic and shape-shift into a hawk and “the most powerful full-blooded Fae male alive” (214).

In Heir of Fire, as Rowan and Aelin work through their traumas together, they connect over the loss of their former loves, Sam and Lyria. Their deep union is shown through their carranam bond, which allows them to share each other’s magic. Queen of Shadows transforms this friendship into romance as Rowan acknowledges his feelings for Aelin and gains the courage to seek happiness despite the guilt he feels at betraying Lyria’s memory.

Lysandra is a supporting character whose friendship buoys Aelin after the death of Nehemia. Lysandra, a courtesan working for Clarisse DuVeny, is a beautiful woman with ivory skin and dark hair. She has “large, slightly uptilted green eyes, sensuous lips, sharp cheekbones, and a pert nose combined to create a rare, staggering beauty that caused men to lose all common sense” (76). Aelin also recognizes “a wicked, feral gleam” in her eyes (120).

When Aelin was a child, she and Lysandra hated one another and were rivals for the attention of Arobynn Hamil and Sam Cortland. While Lysandra envied Aelin’s freedom, Aelin disdained the ease and luxury of Lysandra’s lifestyle; however, neither understood the horrors and struggles of being an assassin or sex worker.

Lysandra has an adoptive 11-year-old daughter, Evangeline, whose face she’s irreparably scarred to save the child from a life as a courtesan—a hint at Lysandra’s attitude toward the sex work she’s obligated to perform. When Lysandra and Aelin reconnect in Queen of Shadows, Aelin finally sees beyond Lysandra’s seductive presentation: Lysandra has spent her life shapeshifting to survive until she was found by Arobynn and sold to Clarisse, working ever since to pay off her debts. Lysandra and Aelin become friends when they realize their similar childhoods of abuse and manipulation; they quickly strike up an alliance to take down their mutual enemy Arobynn.