The Beatryce Prophecy

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Parts 3-4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “Book the Fifth”

Part 5, Chapter 43 Summary

As they walk, Edik reflects that the true meaning of bravery is love. He remembers the promises Beatryce made to him and Jack, and he offers his own promise to the morning air: “Beatryce, we are coming for you” (192).

Part 5, Chapter 44 Summary

It is cold and dark in the castle dungeon, and Beatryce thinks of her friends, because otherwise, the darkness will consume her and “she must stay herself” (194). She pretends to write Edik’s mermaid story, which banishes the darkness and makes her feel surrounded by light.

Part 5, Chapter 45 Summary

The group comes across the robber who killed Jack’s parents. Jack disarms the man and puts the sword to his throat, but at Cannoc’s warning, he hesitates to kill the man, even when he admits he brought the soldier to find Beatryce. Instead of violence, Jack thinks about words and light and the goodness in the world. He takes the robber’s knife and leaves him alive, saying, “It makes no difference to me whether you live or die. None at all” (200).

Part 5, Chapter 46 Summary

The king’s counselor comes to the dungeon and reveals himself as Beatryce’s first tutor—the one who taught her to read and whom her mother sent away when he professed his love. In the time since, he manipulated a randomly chosen boy into the position of king to fulfill a vague prophecy, and as he leaves, he tells Beatryce to know who is in charge because “it is no longer [her]. Or [her] mother” (204).

Part 5, Chapter 47 Summary

Beatryce reels from the idea that prophecies might be meaningless. To keep from losing herself, she continues to tell the story of Edik’s mermaid, who goes above the water when she shouldn’t because she likes to look at the stars. At first, Beatryce wonders if she can truly create a story without light or writing tools, but in the dark, she decides that “no one can stop [her] from telling this story” (205).

Part 5, Chapter 48 Summary

As Jack and the others get closer to the castle, Cannoc becomes more weighed down by memories of his past. He and Edik discuss the prophecies in the Chronicles of Sorrowing and whether they believe in them. Edik admits that what he most wants is for Beatryce to know they came for her, not to see the prophecy fulfilled, and Cannoc tells him, “What you believe in is love” (210).

Part 5, Chapter 49 Summary

In the dungeon, Beatryce tells more of the mermaid’s story. A human king hears of the mermaid with the jeweled tail and sends soldiers to capture her so he can keep her in a tank in the throne room. Trapped in the tank, the jewels on the mermaid’s tail fall off and become regular rocks. The story king demands the mermaid turn the rocks back into jewels, but the next part of Beatryce’s story is interrupted by the arrival of the real king. Beatryce wants to tell him, “You tried to kill me. But you failed” (215), but instead, she starts to tell him the mermaid’s story.

Part 5, Chapter 50 Summary

Two guards stand at the drawbridge to the castle. They laugh at Jack’s group until Edik wildly announces that he comes with a dire prediction for the king, and Answelica makes a high-pitched sound that makes the words feel otherworldly. The terrified guards lower the drawbridge, and “Jack Dory felt a wild shot of joy go through him” (221).

Part 5, Chapter 51 Summary

Beatryce nearly finishes the mermaid’s story, matching it to her own—the mermaid being a prisoner in the king’s palace while loved ones search for her. She stops before the end, and the king says, “You must tell me how the story ends,” to which Beatryce replies, “Must I?” (225).

Part 5, Chapter 52 Summary

Jack’s group parades into the throne room, where the counselor demands to hear the prophecy. Cannoc reveals himself as the true king, and as the throne room descends into chaos, Jack tells Answelica, “Take me to her” (229).

Part 5, Chapter 53 Summary

Before Beatryce finishes the story, she demands to know if her mother is alive. The king confirms she is, and Beatryce says that a boy helped the mermaid escape and return to the sea, pausing again when the boy is uncertain where to go next because “the king will never forgive [her] for what [she has] done” (232). When the king asks again how the story ends, Beatryce doesn’t answer because she hears the clatter of Answelica’s hooves.

Part 5, Chapter 54 Summary

Answelica unlocks Beatryce’s cell by headbutting the door until it breaks open, and her friends surround her, glad she’s safe. The king wants to know how the mermaid story ends, but instead of telling him, Beatryce informs him the counselor is a lying trickster before Answelica headbutts the king away. The group finds Beatryce’s mother bound and gagged in another cell, which Answelica similarly opens. Beatryce’s mother could hear the mermaid story, too. When she asks how it ends, Beatryce throws herself into her mother’s arms and says, “This is how the story ends” (234).

Part 5, Chapter 55 Summary: “Book the Last”

The final book of the story is a chapter in itself. Cannoc takes the throne long enough to exile the false king and his counselor before crowning Beatryce’s mother queen and sitting as her counselor.

On a cliff overlooking the sea, Beatryce stands with Jack and Answelica, and the three of them rejoice that they will “go out into the land and teach the people to read” (242).

In Cannoc’s tree home, Edik writes and illustrates the mermaid’s story, which he finishes with the mermaid’s jewels returning and her telling the boy who helped her that he will find his way.

Part 5 Analysis

This final section of the book reveals the final plot points and wraps up the story. The counselor admits his true identity and motives, confirming that the prophecies are not otherworldly powers. In truth, they are only words that anyone can use to their advantage, much like he has. The endings for Cannoc’s and Edik’s characters embody the themes of Being True to Oneself and Destiny Is a Choice. Cannoc reclaiming his throne shows the sacrifices that sometimes must be made for change to happen. Cannoc doesn’t want to be king, but he chooses to do so because taking up the crown will get it off the head of the false king, which will, in turn, remove the counselor’s power. Cannoc also knows that his knowledge and experience put him in an ideal position to be in charge, and passing the crown to Beatryce’s mother allows him to remain useful without the weight of the responsibility that once dragged him down.

Similarly, Edik embraces all the things that his father disliked about him to help rescue Beatryce. His final role in the story calls to Beatryce’s observation about stories and prophecies in Chapter 10. Beatryce said she’d rather tell stories because they have fun and light, whereas prophecies were all darkness. Edik has also embraced this transformation as he transitions from writing sorrowful prophecies to beautiful stories complete with illustrations that are sure to be beloved by many.

Though Beatryce learned that she must rely on herself, not others, to bring her through dark times in Part 4, she still struggles with darkness in Part 5, which shows how knowing something and being able to accomplish it consistently are not the same thing. Beatryce comes to understand that self-reliance does not mean she will no longer struggle with something. Rather, it means that she is now equipped with the tools to help herself, which is what she does in these final chapters. The darkness of the dungeon scares her, but instead of falling into memory, she uses hope and the mermaid’s story as a new security blanket. Unlike Answelica, these things are inside Beatryce, meaning she has learned how to soothe herself and not expect others always to do so. The arrival of Jack and the others illustrates the benefits and importance of true friends. By learning to care for herself, Beatryce removes the pressure on her friends, which makes them more willing to help her because it is not an obligation or necessity in the relationship. Beatryce’s care for her friends has made them care about her, and the group’s coming together is the ultimate form of light for Beatryce. Similarly, finding her mother is the culmination of everything she’s endured, and though Beatryce will always have darkness in her past, the light in her present and future tempers it in a way it couldn’t before.

In addition to being a type of internal security blanket, the mermaid story is also a way for Beatryce to deal with what’s happened and provide more support for stories in the process of Coping with Trauma. At first, Beatryce wants to tell a story of light to help her through the darkness, but once she realizes how the counselor manipulates events, the mermaid story becomes a weapon of truth. Though it’s fiction, it illustrates the trials that have befallen Beatryce (being captured by a king for something he wants) while all she wants is to have her family and freedom again. Telling the story to the king is Beatryce’s way of trying to make him see what his useless quest for power has brought him. Rather than fulfilling a grand prophecy, the king has been duped, and his royal status means nothing, meaning that he does not have the power to keep what he’s gained. In the story, this is represented by the mermaid escaping the castle and reclaiming her life and loved ones in the sea. The boy who helps the mermaid embodies how Destiny Is a Choice. He takes a risk to do what he believes is right, leaving himself unsure of what will happen to him. He isn’t afraid, though, because he understands that fate is not prewritten and that he challenged his fate once and thus can do it again.

Jack’s character arc is resolved in Chapter 45, which supports both Coping with Trauma and Being True to Oneself. When Jack first sees the robber, he is still processing his character arc, which means he reacts as he would have at the beginning of the book—by attacking the man. Cannoc’s advice speaks to the problem of revenge. Exacting revenge does not bring people back or fix wrongs that were committed. All it does is continue the cycle of darkness, and this is the decision Jack faces here—whether he will take the robber’s life and continue the cycle or leave his trauma behind to embrace the light. Jack’s choice to stop caring about the robber completes his character arc and represents how people give others power over them. When Jack stops caring about what happens to the robber, the robber can no longer manipulate Jack. Revenge and seeing the robber fall are security blankets of a sort for Jack, and like Beatryce, he casts those securities aside to step forward into the unknown and deal with whatever comes next. Jack also realizes that rescuing Beatryce is far more important than the robber. By finding people to care about and who care about him, Jack finds he no longer needs the desire for revenge to feel like he has something. The love his friends offer is more fulfilling than revenge.