58 pages • 1 hour read
Mary E. PearsonVow of Thieves
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 26-36Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Kazi”
While planning to free Lydia and Nash, Kazi prepares for dinner with Montegue. Her plans shift to panic when she discovers that her escort for the night is Zane, the man who kidnapped her mother. After a tense confrontation, they reach a détente through mutual threats. Zane swears Kazi’s mother is still alive and promises to take Kazi to her if she does not reveal his betrayal to Banques.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Jase”
Jase struggles to understand how King Montegue managed to take over Hell’s Mouth. He meets with Aleski, a former employee, who claims that Kazi is working with Montegue. Jase insists she is not and teams up with Aleski to catch the soldiers off guard by decorating the town for the Winter Festival.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Kazi”
What Kazi assumed would be an intimate dinner with Montegue turns out to be a party at the Ballenger Inn in honor of the townspeople decorating for the Winter Festival. At the event, Kazi encounters a seer she previously met with Jase. The seer warns Kazi about betrayal but refuses to answer questions about Jase. Distracted by Zane’s presence and the trauma he evokes, Kazi struggles to eat. Montegue coerces her into sharing a riddle with the guests. Later, Kazi meets with Oleez, who is Lydia and Nash’s nanny, and warns her to disappear.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Jase
Jase sees the party at the Ballenger Inn and considers going inside to see Kazi and discover Montegue’s leverage over her. Instead, he meets Aleski again, who arrives with his sister.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Kazi”
Montegue summons Kazi to interrogate her about her apparent hostility toward Zane. Kazi claims she dislikes Previzi in general, not Zane specifically. Montegue urges her to let go of her animosity.
As part of her plan, Kazi convinces Montegue to return to Tor’s Watch the next day and to stop at God’s Pavilion on the way, making him believe both decisions are his own. When Montegue asks about Jase again, Kazi deflects and gets Montegue to reveal how he took over Hell’s Mouth. She learns that he began planning for it 11 years ago. Montegue attempts to kiss Kazi, but she refuses, despite claiming an attraction to him.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Jase”
Aleski and his sister speak with Jase, and they recount the downfall of Hell’s Mouth. Jase asks why no one attacked Montegue, and the siblings reveal that Montegue has taken Lydia and Nash as hostages. Jase then realizes that Kazi’s apparent cooperation with Montegue is due to her concern for Lydia and Nash.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Kazi”
Montegue brings Lydia and Nash with the entourage to Tor’s Watch. During the journey, he kisses Kazi, much to her dismay. Lydia and Nash interrupt, claiming they need to relieve themselves. Kazi accompanies them along with a guard. Seizing the opportunity, she kills the guard and leads the children to the Ballenger family crypt. She hides them in their sister Sylvey’s empty tomb, promising they will be rescued later that evening.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Kazi”
Kazi returns to Montegue, pretending Lydia and Nash are searching for eyestones. Montegue shares his plans to send the children away and start blasting the Ballenger’s mountain vault. When he and his guards realize Lydia and Nash are missing, the search begins, with Montegue growing increasingly frustrated. Dinah, Oleez’s friend and coworker, betrays them by revealing that Oleez knew the children would not return. Montegue then turns on Kazi, and she implicates the murdered soldier in the children’s escape. Enraged, Montegue lunges at Kazi.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Kazi”
Kazi stabs Montegue and flees, narrowly missing arrows and launcher blasts. Kazi dislocates her shoulder as she runs and hears Montegue scream upon discovering that she has stolen his vial of stardust. Kazi hides the vial in a crevice and continues running.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Jase”
Soldiers lock down Hell’s Mouth since they are searching for something. Jase grows increasingly concerned about Montegue’s army’s strength and powerful weapons. After two days, the soldiers reopen the roads. To signal Kazi, Jase ties a red ribbon around a tree, hoping she will recognize it.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Kazi”
Kazi flees, leading the soldiers away from the graveyard. The following morning, exhausted and sore, she finds solace in the thought that Lydia and Nash should now be safe. Arriving at the cave where she arranged to meet Paxton, Kazi explores her surroundings and unexpectedly encounters members of the Ballenger clan.
Chapters 26-36 Analysis
In Vow of Thieves, the Vendan gifts, particularly the characters’ prophetic abilities, play a significant role in shaping the narrative. Kazi’s unique ability of seeing Death drives the story forward and symbolizes hope, deception, and survival. From the beginning of the series, Kazi asserts that her mother is dead. Early in Vow of Thieves, Jase questions this belief, prompting Kazi to recall a vision of her mother walking arm in arm with Death. This vision, which Kazi interprets as proof of her mother’s Death, is the catalyst for her gift. Throughout the series, she encounters Death multiple times, viewing Death as an adversary to defeat. Despite her struggles to understand Death’s messages, she never questions its presence.
However, Kazi’s insistence on her mother’s death is a form of self-deception, which recalls the theme of Secrets and Deceptions that runs through the novel. Her hope that her mother might still be alive resurfaces when she encounters Zane, her mother’s kidnapper. Despite her initial intent to kill him, she stops herself when he claims that he can take her to her mother. Kazi clings to this hope, thinking, “He was only searching for a way out of this. A way to keep me quiet. She wasn’t alive. But what if— Only this morning I had thought Jase was dead too” (207). Although she knows Zane’s offer is likely a ploy, she cannot help but hope her mother might still be alive. As a result, she makes a deal with Zane, despite detesting the man for so many years.
Jase’s struggles mirror Kazi’s self-deception. He finds it hard to accept that Montegue has taken over Hell’s Mouth, preferring to believe that his family betrayed him rather than acknowledging his misjudgment of Montegue. Jase exploits Montegue’s desire for popularity by encouraging the townspeople to decorate for the Winter Festival, creating an illusion of normalcy and acceptance of Montegue’s rule. This deception works, as Montegue throws a party to celebrate the townspeople’s supposed change of heart. Similar to how Zane takes advantage of Kazi’s hope, Jase exploits Montegue’s.
Likewise, Kazi deceives Montegue by feigning romantic interest, even enduring his kiss to distract him. Her deceptions allow her to discover Montegue’s long-term plans to take over Hell’s Mouth; she also succeeds in temporarily diverting his attention from Lydia and Nash’s disappearance. However, Dinah’s betrayal ultimately disrupts Kazi’s carefully crafted plans. The constant betrayals and deceptions in the novel create an environment that is treacherous and constantly shifting.
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By Mary E. Pearson
