Sorcery of Thorns

Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas enter the Codex but find that Ashcroft has already forced Prendergast to reveal his secret and departed, leaving the artificial dimension in a state of ruin. Prendergast is horrified to see Balthasar Thorn’s descendant, but Elisabeth assures him that Nathaniel is nothing like his ancestor. Prendergast explains that Cornelius the Wise built the Great Libraries in the shape of a pentagram with the intention of summoning the Archon, “a being of almost limitless power” that rules the Otherworld (352). Ashcroft tortured Prendergast into revealing the Archon’s true name. For this unprecedented ritual, the destruction of the Maleficts takes the place of the candles lit around a pentagram. Like his ancestor, Ashcroft sees the Archon as a potential resource that humanity could utilize, but summoning this entity will destroy the veil between the worlds and leave humanity vulnerable to demons. Prendergast urges them to stop Ashcroft from completing the ritual and gives them a vial of his blood, which can transport them to the Great Library of Harrows. Elisabeth asks Prendergast if they can take him from the collapsing dimension, but he tells them, “My time is finished. Pray that yours meets a better end” (354).

Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas materialize on a cliff near the Great Library of Harrows, which is built like a fortress. Silas remains outside because the wardens are trained to attack demons on sight. Sentries open the massive iron gate for Nathaniel and Elisabeth when they explain that they have reason to believe that the saboteur will strike that night and Elisabeth shows them Demonslayer. Although no one is allowed inside this library, the wardens eventually agree to let Nathaniel and Elisabeth see Director Hyde after binding them with iron shackles as a precaution. News of Ashcroft’s treachery has yet to reach Harrows, and Nathaniel and Elisabeth wish that they had thought to bring a newspaper or some other proof of their words. The Director sees the strand of silver in Elisabeth’s hair and is appalled that she has dabbled in sorcery. He considers her a traitor to the Great Libraries, and he blames Nathaniel for corrupting her. Hyde has them both thrown into the dungeon.

Nathaniel assures Elisabeth that Silas will come for them. She remembers that Balthasar Thorn’s Chronicles of the Dead is now at Harrows, and this information makes Nathaniel even more alarmed at the urgency of the situation. Elisabeth apologizes for dragging him into this struggle, but he tells her, “It’s an honor to fight by your side, Elisabeth, for however long it lasts” (373). Silas frees Nathaniel and Elisabeth from the dungeon and leads them to the armory so that she can reclaim Demonslayer. Harrows’s vault is guarded by a Malefict that is bound in iron chains, blinded, and covered in scars. Elisabeth begins to understand that humans are to blame for provoking the ferocity of the Maleficts by treating them as creatures of pure evil. Hyde enters the vault, and Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas follow him at a distance. The Malefict rushes at Elisabeth and Nathaniel, but Silas knocks the creature aside easily. As they follow Hyde, they pass a warden who is fast asleep. Elisabeth realizes that Ashcroft is controlling Hyde, but he enters the vault before she can stop him.

Speaking through Hyde’s body, Ashcroft taunts Elisabeth and reveals that he learned how to control people’s minds by studying The Book of Eyes. He enchanted the Great Libraries’ Directors, including Irena, and forced them to sabotage the institutions they loved. Elisabeth realizes that the aetherial combustion she smelled in Summershall’s reading room was the lingering odor of the enchantment that Ashcroft cast on Irena. Elisabeth urges him to stop, but he believes that summoning the Archon will end poverty, sickness, and war and usher humanity into “a glorious era in which all is possible, and every dream made real” (386). Nathaniel and Silas are unable to reach Hyde with their magic because the vault is sealed by an iron portcullis. Ashcroft reaches the Chronicles of the Dead and damages the ancient, beating heart on its cover.

As the grimoire transforms into a Malefict, Ashcroft releases Hyde from his control. The monster steals Hyde’s life force with a touch, and his body crumbles into dust. The Malefict takes the form of a tall, gaunt figure with antlers, and Elisabeth realizes that Balthasar Thorn took the heart on the grimoire’s cover from a forest spirit. The Malefict asks Nathaniel to join it in a voice that only he can hear and then leaves the vault. Elisabeth urges him not to listen, and they hurry after the monster together. Harrows’s wardens battle the Malefict, but it grows larger and more powerful with each life it takes. Some of the wardens assume that Nathaniel is responsible and try to attack him. Elisabeth and Silas defend Nathaniel while he strikes the monster with lightning, which convinces Hyde’s replacement that the sorcerer is on their side.

Elisabeth and Nathaniel know that destroying the Malefict is exactly what Ashcroft wants, but they see no alternative. Nathaniel tells Elisabeth that he has a plan and asks her to trust him. When he approaches the Malefict, it tells him, “The greatest power springs only from suffering […] Kill the girl [you love]” (402). Nathaniel strides toward Elisabeth, seeming to be in a trance. Elisabeth stays where she is, deciding to trust him and knowing that he is “tortured by the darkness within him only because he [is] so good” (404). Elisabeth takes Nathaniel’s hand, and he uses the last of Prendergast’s blood to transport them from Harrows.

Nathaniel, Elisabeth, and Silas appear in a manor house near the Royal Library, along with the Malefict’s severed head. Weakened from the efforts of his spellcasting, the sorcerer collapses. When he awakens, Elisabeth tells him that she loves him, too. As they hurry toward the Royal Library, Nathaniel explains that he hoped taking part of the Malefict away from Harrows would ruin Ashcroft’s ritual. However, golden lights appear in the sky, indicating that Ashcroft has already summoned the Archon. Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas work together to defend the crowd gathered outside the library from the stream of fiends pouring out of the building. Nathaniel expends much of his remaining power to turn the library’s statuary into an army of stone.

Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas hurry into the library, where rifts to the Otherworld have begun to appear and block off many of the usual routes. For the first time, Elisabeth tries to speak to the entire library. She explains that they want to stop Ashcroft and asks the books to guide her. The library rearranges itself at her request, creating a path that leads Elisabeth and her friends to the restricted archives. She unchains the grimoires, realizing that the “library wants to fight back” (420).

Elisabeth frees as many grimoires as she can, understanding that she was always meant to be a liberator, not a warden. The grimoires defeat the demons coming through the rifts, and many books sacrifice themselves to try to close the breach. Nathaniel and Elisabeth confront Ashcroft, who is able to draw power from the Archon even though he has yet to make a contract with the Otherworld’s ruler. Elisabeth subdues Ashcroft and binds him with iron, but the Archon is too powerful to be dismissed. The luminous demon reaches beyond the summoning circle and nearly flattens Ashcroft, but Elisabeth pulls him to safety, hurrying to Nathaniel’s side.

Believing that she and Nathaniel will soon perish, Elisabeth frees Silas in the hope that he may escape their fate. Now in his true form, Silariathas (Silas) grips Nathaniel’s throat and nearly succumbs to his hunger. Nathaniel tells him, “I forgive you” (436). Silas kisses Nathaniel’s hand and tells Elisabeth that he can end the ritual and force the Archon to return to the Otherworld. He asks a tearful Elisabeth to take care of Nathaniel and then walks toward the Archon.

Silas stops the Archon, but in the struggle, Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Ashcroft remain trapped under the rubble. The Royal Library’s wardens rescue them, and Elisabeth explains everything. Weeks later, Mistress Wick summons Elisabeth and Katrien to her office. Unbeknownst to Elisabeth, Finch was illegally smuggling grimoires to private buyers, and Katrien exposed his crimes. Wick commends the young women’s courage, revealing that she knew Elisabeth’s identity all along, and has Katrien transferred to the Royal Library. Elisabeth is no longer certain if she wants to continue her apprenticeship, but she is moved when Wick gives her a new greatkey as a promise that she is “always welcome in the Great Libraries” (443). Elisabeth feels hopeful about the reforms that will take place in the libraries now that the pentagram’s purpose has been exposed.

Nathaniel meets Elisabeth outside the library, walking with a cane due to injuries from the recent battles. Since he’s refused to summon another demon after Silas’s sacrifice, he can no longer channel magical power. Rumors circulate that he and Elisabeth are in a romantic relationship, but there’s less societal pressure on Nathaniel to marry now that the spells in Balthasar Thorn’s grimoire are destroyed. Ashcroft is sentenced to life in prison, and the institutions he funded, including Leadgate Hospital, are shut down. Elisabeth hires Mercy, the kindhearted nurse who tried to help her during her brief time at Leadgate. Thorn Manor is filled with memories of Silas, whom they believe to have perished in his struggle against the Archon. Elisabeth lights the candles in the summoning room as a sort of memorial for him. Despite her and Nathaniel’s repeated efforts to summon him back using his Enochian name, Silas has yet to appear. Elisabeth suddenly has the idea of invoking him by his other name since “his other side […] emerged victorious, proven true” (452). When she calls to Silas, a breeze fills the room and snuffs out the candles.