Celaena has won the competition and taken her place as the King’s Champion. This means killing people – a lot of people. He gives her a name and she returns with a head in a bag. Nobody knows that the heads do not really belong to the people she was sent to kill.
For the first half of this book I felt that it was moving a little slowly, but in reality it was just setting the stage. Once Choal was kidnapped all the pieces fell together and the second half of the story just flew by.
I was genuinely shocked by Nehemia’s death – she felt like an important character so having her murdered so brutally was unexpected. I was much less surprised by Archer’s plotting and betrayal – that seemed entirely in line with the general character of rich people in Rifthold, even the ones who got that way by renting themselves out.
Speaking of which, I never did get a reasonable explanation as to why Celaena hated Lysandra so much. Initially I thought she scorned her because of her job, but she was fine with Archer, who did the same thing for a living.
I also found it weird that Archer got assassin training when Lysandra didn’t. Maybe it was just convenient for the plot, I don’t know.
Nehemia’s death, while shocking, turns out to be the major plot driver for this book – it breaks up her and Choal, it leads to sworn vengeance against Nehemia’s killer and ultimately to her blood vow over the grave.
The Iron Witch that shows up at the carnival is also a character who raises a lot of questions. She obviously knows as soon as Celaena shows up who she is and that the meeting must end with one of them dead. But she still answers the questions truthfully, and I wonder if that’s something she is bound to do once she is paid in gold. She was also one of the creepiest fantasy monsters I’ve ever seen in print, and I’m sure there will be more books involving her people so maybe I’ll get an answer.
The big reveal about Celaena’s true nature was unexpected – and her true identity even more so. It’s kind of fascinating how many secrets everybody is juggling and keeping from each other. I was really interested in Chaol’s reaction when he figured out who Celaena really is – he came across as horrified that he was sending his King’s biggest potential enemy into a place where she was likely to have allies and become a genuine threat to his power. And that raises a lot of questions about Chaol’s character. Through the first two books he is portrayed as a good person who struggles with the memories of the one time he had to kill somebody. But at the same time his highest value is loyalty to his King, who is an unmitigated monster. How do you reconcile those two things? You can’t be a good person if you support somebody who is evil.
I suspect that’s a conflict that will become more important as the story progresses.