The Hero and the Crown

Aerin sulks in her room until her servant and surrogate mother figure, Teka, brings her a meal that she had forgotten to eat. Teka reminds her that her horse, Talat, missed her. Aerin watches the soldiers bustling around outside her window and contemplates her lack of a Gift—the small magical powers granted to people of royal blood. This magic enabled Tor to mend the plates that she broke as a child, but now Aerin is an adult and still has no trace of power in her, so she uses common earthenware plates to ensure she doesn’t break the royal dishes she cannot mend by herself. Galanna once insulted Aerin for breaking a royal plate, and Aerin fought her physically until forced apart from her. Now, she reflects that “Life had been easier when her ultimate goal had been murdering Galanna with her bare hands” (14).

Aerin asks Teka about her mother; Teka speaks only respectfully of her but tells Aerin that she was small, frail, and dying even before childbirth killed her. Aerin asks if her mother bewitched her father, and Teka says that they were in love, which is enough of a spell to count. Teka also asserts that more people liked her mother than Aerin believes. Aerin wonders why she cannot ride into battle when Damar’s mythology celebrates the goddess Aerinha, who taught men how to forge swords. Aerin bitterly reflects that if she is good enough with weapons to kill dragons, she should be able to ride to war. Teka talks her down kindly and leaves her for the evening. Aerin sneaks down to the stables to visit her horse, Talat. Talat was once her father’s warhorse and is as old as Aerin is; his coat is entirely white from age. As Aerin brushes him, her mood evens out.

The narrative shifts back in time to describe Aerin’s youth and position within her family. In Aerin’s youth, she loves Talat. Talat, however, is grievously injured in battle when Aerin is 12. Talat remains standing after the battle even though the muscles in one leg have been nearly severed. Although he eventually heals, he is permanently disabled and is retired to a pasture, where he languishes. He is too weak to sire foals and becomes cruel and aggressive toward both people and other horses.

When Aerin is 15, she gets into a fight with Galanna that ends with Galanna daring her to eat leaves from the surka tree, which is reportedly poisonous to all who lack royal blood and dangerous even to those with the Gift. Galanna has hated Aerin since her birth because Aerin’s status as the youngest in the royal household disrupts Galanna’s place as the center of attention. Aerin accepts Galanna’s dare and stuffs a handful of leaves into her mouth, then passes out, gagging. Aerin is sick for weeks and suffers horrible hallucinations. She grows melancholy afterward, which further limits her recovery. Aerin eventually recovers enough to get out of bed but struggles to move on her own.

Aerin eventually makes her way to Talat’s pasture, using a cane to guide her way. She does not try to move away from Talat when he charges her, and he eventually stops and grazes near her. She takes books from the library to the pasture and sits with him, and Talat slowly warms up to her enough to eat a treat that she leaves for him.

As the teenage Aerin continues to recover from the surka, Teka discovers Aerin’s attempts to bond with Talat but does not stop her. Today, the ancient book that Aerin reads describes the ways of dragons, who used to be large and terrifying but are now dog-sized vermin (although still quite dangerous). The book says that anyone wanting to kill a Great Dragon should hunt the small ones to learn how to kill them most effectively. The author insists that one ancient dragon, Maur, was never confirmed dead and might still return. Aerin reads about a substance called kenet that reportedly protects against dragonfire. She decides to make it for herself. As she paces and thinks about the recipe, Talat walks alongside her and lets her lean against him for support. She brushes him the next day and asks the groom, Hornmar, about his condition; he says that Talat is likely well enough to move somewhat normally but is out of practice on his bad leg. Aerin begins to ride Talat and eventually gets him to trot for a while without stopping.

The surka wears off in time for Aerin to remain obligated to attend Galanna’s wedding to Perlith. The politics surrounding the wedding are complex; Tor, for example, is obligated to be Perlith’s attendant, despite his higher rank, but Galanna excuses Aerin from holding a similar position on her side. The wedding is the first major event since Tor’s coming-of-age ceremony a few years previously.

Aerin finds Talat’s royal tack and agrees to have supper with Tor. The dishes at the meal are made of fine metal in the shape of animals, which she enjoys. She asks him to train her in swordplay like he did when she was a young child, and he agrees. They begin lessons, somewhat infrequently, and Aerin drills with the sword on her own. She strangely begins to grow taller, despite being 17, and she hopes that she will outgrow her pony and be given a real horse so she can fight on horseback.

Talat grows healthier and stronger; she rides him with the royal tack but discovers that she cannot control both him and a sword at the same time. She accidentally cuts the rein with a blade and decides to ride without a bridle entirely. Delighted by this, Talat breaks into a gallop, which Aerin cannot control; he leaps the fence and runs for a while. Unable to get him back in the pasture unnoticed, Aerin breaks the fence and lets him step over the low stones. The exertion makes Talat very sore for days, so Aerin focuses on remaking the saddle to suit her purposes while she works him through the pain.

At Galanna’s wedding, Tor’s inability to look away from Aerin—despite her relatively simple dress—starts a rumor that she has bewitched him as her mother is believed to have bewitched Arlbeth. Galanna, who hoped to make Tor jealous that he had not married her, uses this incident to start new rumors about Aerin’s mother. Aerin notices none of this and returns to her usual life with Talat. In her endeavor to make kenet, Aerin asks Teka about redroot, an ingredient that she doesn’t recognize, and learns that it is also called astzoran and grows in meadows a few days’ ride away. Teka invites Aerin to join her on a ride to gather herbs. Aerin’s initial mixtures do not work and result in several burnt fingers. She begins to wonder if kenet is real at all.

At Aerin’s 18th birthday party—an event that she wishes was not held at all—Tor watches her adoringly the entire time. She does not notice this, but Arlbeth does and feels pity for Tor. Afterward, Tor finds Aerin privately and gives her a sword, to her delight.

The sword gives Aerin confidence. After two years of experimentation and visiting the city to buy herbs in substantial amounts—inadvertently improving her reputation with the townspeople—she manages to make kenet just before her 19th birthday. Her mind is so distracted by everyday things that she only notices that the wood isn’t burning when the tongs nearly burn her hand from transferred heat. She becomes so distracted the rest of the day that Teka is forced to tie fashionable ankle ribbons around her stockings because she forgets to darn them. Teka wonders if she has fallen in love and decides to look at Tor to gauge this.