Ruthless Vows

Two weeks after the attack on Avalon Bluff, Iris Elizabeth Winnow walks down Broad Street in her home city of Oath and ignores the eerie feeling that someone is trailing her. She arrives at her workplace, the Inkridden Tribune, and speaks with Thea “Attie” Attwood about Roman Carver Kitt, Iris’s husband and their fellow war correspondent, who was declared missing after Dacre’s attack on Avalon. During the attack, Iris’s brother, Forest, dragged her forcefully away from the chaos, leaving a badly injured Roman behind. Iris reads the most recent letter from her and Attie’s hostess in Avalon, Marisol, who has survived the attack and escaped to the town of River Down, where she stays with her sister.

Chancellor Verlice, the ruler of Oath, visits the Inkridden Tribune to speak with the boss, Helena Hammond, about censoring the paper’s recently published articles detailing Dacre’s attacks on Avalon Bluff and Clover Hill. Helena asks Attie and Iris to become war correspondents once again and report on the war from the front. Helena believes that their articles will better prepare the people of Oath for Dacre’s impending arrival. When Iris returns home after work, she’s confronted by Roman’s father, who asks about his son’s whereabouts.

Roman’s father has never liked Iris, who he believes is far beneath him, and is especially unsupportive of her recent romance with Roman, which led Roman to flee the city, quit his prestigious job as a columnist at the Oath Gazette, and break off his engagement to a wealthy young woman. Iris admits that Roman was left behind in Avalon Bluff. Roman’s father accuses Iris of selfishly leaving Roman behind to save herself and leaves the premises.

Forest returns home and tells Iris that he’s been interviewing in hopes of finding a job. Iris reveals that Helena has asked her and Attie to return to the front, which Forest is resistant to. Forest’s anger exacerbates the pain of his former abdominal wounds, which has begun to return since he left Dacre’s employ: Dacre’s magic steals a person’s memories and heals their wounds just enough to keep them compliant, but once the memories return, the wounds’ effects come creeping back. Forest is aware that Iris worries for Roman, but having experienced Dacre’s machinations himself, Forest reminds Iris that Dacre has likely healed Roman and stripped him of his memories too.

Later that night, Iris is awoken by violin music. She slips out of bed and goes to the living room. There, she finds her mother, Aster, who encourages Iris to listen to the notes. It is not until Forest wakes her that Iris realizes the music and her mother were a dream. Iris arrives late to work, where Helena offers her a copy of the Oath Gazette. The first page contains a headline article written by Roman Kitt that praises Dacre for saving many wounded individuals in Avalon Bluff.

In the days since waking up after being healed by Dacre, Roman has struggled to recover his missing memories. He remembers someone “with him, holding his hand” during the attack on Avalon (33), but no particular details. He first woke in an empty chamber with no door in the under realm (Dacre’s doman) and was retrieved and brought to Dacre by a lieutenant named Gregory Shane. Dacre presented him with two Alouette typewriters: magical typewriters that once belonged to Iris and Roman’s grandmothers and their friend Alouette and that came into the possession of Roman and Iris in Divine Rivals. Dacre asked Roman to identify which was his. Roman could not remember but felt a familiar pull toward one that he believed to be his own. Dacre recruited Roman to report for him—to tell Oath Dacre’s side of the story. Upon returning to his room, Roman discovered that Dacre had destroyed the typewriter he identified as his own and given him the other one instead.

Iris believes that Roman’s writings in the Oath Gazette are his attempt at staying alive among Dacre’s army. Roman mentions a museum in his article, which gives Iris the idea to sneak into Oath’s museum and steal the third and final Alouette typewriter; she can then contact him through its magical letter-transmission capabilities. Iris calls the Oath Gazette and speaks with her former coworker Sarah Prindle, who agrees to meet Iris at Gould’s Café. Iris questions Prindle about how the article was delivered and learns that a man hand-delivered it to the Gazette’s editor-in-chief, Zeb Autry, along with a demand that Autry publish everything the mystery man would deliver going forward. Prindle agrees to help Iris break into the museum and steal the third Alouette.

Roman dreams of his sister, Del, who calls him by his middle name, Carver. The dream turns into a nightmare when he relives the memories of her drowning. Jarred awake, Roman goes downstairs for a glass of milk and finds Dacre studying a table of maps. Dacre asks if Roman’s memories have begun to reemerge, and Roman becomes suspicious that Dacre switched out the typewriters because he was afraid that Roman’s old typewriter might trigger his lost memories. Dacre reveals that Roman’s latest article has been published in the Oath Gazette, explaining that Oath is 600 kilometers east. He also reveals that he’s bringing his army to the city to reunite with his wife, the goddess Enva. Dacre speaks of Enva’s betrayal of their marriage but tells Roman that he “do[esn’t] expect [him] to understand, given that [Roman is] mortal and unmarried” (53). Roman wants to argue with that statement but doesn’t understand why.

Roman shares the details of his nightmare, and Dacre tells Roman of his own sister, Alva, who he believes is still sleeping in the south (long before the events of the duology, humans placed the five remaining Skyward and Underling gods in an enchanted sleep, though Divine Rivals suggests that it was actually Enva who did so). Alva has the power to traverse dreams and nightmares. Dacre attempts to convince Roman that his dream did not involve real events but was an expression of his longing for a family. Roman doesn’t quite believe this: The article Dacre shows him from the Oath Gazette was written by Roman C. Kitt, and Roman is now certain that the “C” stands for Carver.

Prindle provides Iris with information on the museum’s security measures, which Iris and Attie use to sneak into the museum through an unguarded window. Iris breaks the Alouette’s glass case with a baseball bat while Attie retrieves Prindle, who was tasked with restraining the guard on duty. Iris returns home with the Alouette and writes a letter to Roman—using vague language in case it lands in the wrong hands. She then slides it under her wardrobe door, which is how the Alouette typewriters communicate with one another. While the letter disappears, she does not receive a reply.

Roman wakes to find a letter waiting near his wardrobe door. It asks the recipient to answer questions about the author: the name of their pet snail, their middle name, and their favorite season. Roman is confounded by the letter; he doesn’t know who it’s from or the answers to the questions, but he feels as though he should.

Dacre gives the order to leave Avalon Bluff and move east toward Oath. The following day, Iris says goodbye to Forest as she prepares to head to the front as a war correspondent once again.

Iris is trailed on her way to work by the same mysterious gentleman as before. When she confronts him, he presents an offer from Roman’s father, Mr. Kitt. He offers her a thick envelope of money in exchange for her signing a document to annul her marriage with Roman, which Iris refuses. Iris meets Helena and Attie outside the Inkridden Tribune, where she also meets Tobias Bexley. Tobias is “one of the most prestigious post runners in Cambria” and will be driving them to the western warfront by roadster and delivering their articles to Helena (76). Helena plans to station them with Marisol in a town called River Down first; they will then go to Lonnie Fielding in Bitteryne. After a few hours on the road, Iris and Attie reunite with Marisol and meet her sister, Lucy.

Iris agonizes over whether to send Roman another letter since her first has gone unanswered, but she ultimately decides not to endanger him with another attempt. Meanwhile, Roman decides to keep his mysterious letter secret from Dacre and types out a response that he slides beneath his wardrobe door.

Back at River Down, Iris, Attie, and Tobias enjoy dinner with Lucy and Marisol. The soft music from the radio is interrupted by a broadcast from Chancellor Verlice, who demands that all refugees arriving in Oath register their presence with the Commonwealth Ministry. Marisol’s wife, Keegan, has written to divulge that Enva’s army continues to retreat and that Dacre’s growing forces will soon make a hard press for Oath.

After dinner, Iris receives a letter from Roman via wardrobe door inquiring about her identity and the magic behind their communication. The letter reveals just what Iris feared—that Roman does not remember her. Iris explains the magic of the typewriters and discovers that Roman is using hers. Rather than reveal her identity and put him at risk, Iris tells him to refer to her by her middle name, Elizabeth, in further correspondence.