43 pages • 1 hour read
Colin MeloyWildwood
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2011A 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 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Enter the Bandits; An Ominous Note”
In Wildwood, Curtis watches as Alexandra assembles her troops. She says that they are about to battle a bandit army hiding in the forest across a ravine. Meloy describes the scene: “The entire far ridge was crowded with people, a people swathed in tattered clothing and holding a strange and wild variety of weapons: rifles, knives, clubs, and bows” (150). Alexandra gives the thieves a chance to leave in peace, but their Bandit King, Brendan, refuses.
When the battle commences, Curtis watches from the branches of a tree. The fighting grows fierce as swords, arrows, muskets, and cannons are deployed. Curtis jumps down from his tree perch after its roots ignite. He sees a nearby cannoneer struck down and rushes to light the wick of his cannon. The blast tears a hole in the enemy line.
In South Wood, Prue remains in her guest room in the North Tower. When she looks out the window, she sees the Avian delegation leaving the mansion. She also notices a note addressed to her on the windowsill. Owl Rex asks her to come secretly to his home that night because she may be in grave danger. Prue waits until dark to sneak out of her room. She manages to lock the corridor guard into her bathroom and runs down to the foyer. Before she escapes out the front door, Penny shows her a way out of the mansion through a tunnel system that runs under the town.
Chapter 11 Summary: “A Soldier Distinguished; Audience with an Owl”
In South Wood, Prue emerges from a manhole cover in the woods. A passing rickshaw driver offers to take her to the owl’s residence. Once there, she is shown into his study and offered tea. When Prue asks if he can help rescue Mac, Owl Rex explains that he has no control over the actions of the crows. They defected from the Avian Principality.
He says that the politics of the region have changed for the worse since the death of Grigor Svik, the uncle of the current governor. Grigor was married to Alexandra, and their only son was tragically killed in a riding accident. Grigor himself died soon afterward. Alexandra changed for the worse in the wake of these tragedies. After consulting black magic practitioners, she fashioned a mechanical doll instilled with the spirit of her dead son, Alexei. Owl Rex explains:
Her grief was eating her from the inside out, and she became distant and withdrawn to those who knew her best. She isolated herself in the Mansion and kept very strange company: soothsayers, gypsies, and practitioners of the black arts (182).
In Wildwood, Curtis is celebrated by the coyote army for his cannon blast. Alexandra appears on horseback to take Curtis to another part of the forest where the bandits are attempting to aim a howitzer cannon up the side of a gully. If they succeed, they can wipe out the coyote forces. Curtis sees a tree on top of the ravine that is ready to plummet downward. He and Alexandra manage to topple it over, and it smashes the cannon below. The bandits retreat as the coyotes cheer their victory.
The coyotes continue to celebrate Curtis’s exploits during their victory party at the warren than evening. Alexandra discloses that she wants Curtis to remain as her second-in-command when she retakes South Wood. Curtis ponders the proposal and asks for a little more time to decide, which Alexandra grants.
Chapter 12 Summary: “An Owl in Irons; Curtis’s Conundrum Part Two”
In South Wood, Owl Rex tells Prue the tale of Alexei, the mechanical boy. When the people discovered what Alexandra had done:
She was sentenced to exile in Wildwood for criminal use of black magic. The prosecution even suggested that she’d been responsible for the death of her husband, Grigor. It was expected that she would not survive her banishment. (189-90)
In the power vacuum that arose after her banishment, Grigor’s nephew, a minor bureaucrat, was raised to power with the support of his cronies. Anyone who disagrees with the current governor is dealt with severely.
The owl cautions, “If it is in their interest, Prue, and you are a problem to them, they will make that problem go away” (191). Prue says she doesn’t know who can help her find her brother. Owl Rex counsels her to visit the Mystics of North Wood. Before he can tell her more, the governor’s secret police, known as SWORD, bursts into the house to arrest the owl for conspiring to overthrow the government. He conceals Prue in a wicker hamper before being led away in chains.
In Wildwood, the coyotes continue their revelry late into the night, becoming drunk on blackberry wine. Curtis slips away to get some fresh air. In the process, he gets lost in the warren tunnel system and stumbles into a chamber with a hole in the roof that allows access to hundreds of crows. In the middle of the room, he finds a makeshift cradle with Mac inside. When he picks up the baby, the crows attack him until Alexandra arrives and intervenes. She explains that the baby is necessary to her plan. In three days, at the autumn equinox, Mac must be sacrificed. She says:
At my incantation, the vines will come forward and consume his flesh and drink his blood. This will confer upon the ivy an inestimable power, the human blood coursing through its stalks, and what’s more it will render the plant in thrall to my command. When we march on South Wood, we need only follow the path of destruction laid in the wake of the ivy (208-9).
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
This set of chapters delves deeper into the themes explored in the previous segment. Both Curtis and Prue receive vital information convincing them that their supposed allies cannot be trusted. We find Curtis elevated to the rank of Alexandra’s second-in-command. He is given a fancy uniform and receives the respect of the coyote officers. Curtis proves himself to be an excellent tactician when he figures out a way to defeat the bandit brigade and earns the admiration of the entire coyote army.
For once in his life, Curtis feels himself accepted and appreciated, but his elation is short-lived. He stumbles across the chamber where Mac is being held and learns that Alexandra plans to kill the baby as a sacrifice. Although Curtis desperately wants to hold onto the admiration and acceptance he’s garnered, the price to retain those rewards is murder.
In Prue’s narrative, the reader quickly realizes that the girl’s South Wood allies cannot be trusted either. The governor has set a guard outside Prue’s room, and she receives a warning message from Owl Rex telling her that she is in danger. When she meets with the owl, she learns the entire backstory of the political machinations going on in South Wood and is warned that her presence may be perceived as a threat to those in power. Owl Rex no sooner finishes his tale than the secret police break into his home to arrest him. Having found no trustworthy allies in South Wood, Prue is forced to flee to North Wood.
In both narratives, we see the bird motif foregrounded. When Curtis discovers Mac’s hiding place, the baby is being tended by hundreds of crows who have obviously become Alexandra’s allies. Prue meets Owl Rex, who warns her not to trust Svik. The owl also hides Prue when the secret police come looking for her.
