A Reaper at the Gates

Laia wonders how she will steal the ring from Helene. Because of her powers of invisibility, she believes is the Ghost in the prophecy who must get the ring from the Blood Shrike. Laia needs the ring before the Grain Moon, which is six weeks away. Musa informs Laia that Helene is in Antium, but everyone would recognize Laia there. Moreover, if the Nightbringer nearby, she will lose her invisibility, and he will figure out her plans by reading her mind. Musa suggests that someone else make the plan for getting Laia to Helene. This way, the plan is protected from the Nightbringer. Then, Musa tells Laia they are going to see the Marinn king.

At the palace, a captain refers to Laia as “daughter of Mirra and Jahan of Serra” (258) and calls Musa Nikla’s prince consort. Laia is shocked by the revelation. She sees King Irmand and Nikla in the throne room without ghuls around them. King Irmand welcomes Musa and Laia, agreeing to listen to them since the king and Mirra were friends. Laia tells King Irmand about the Scholars’ suffering, the Empire’s cruelty, Kauf prison, and the Nightbringer. Lastly, she asks the king to help the Scholars. However, ghuls come to Nikla while Laia was speaking.

Nikla is skeptical, but Musa proposes that Darin teach Mariner swordsmiths how to make Serric steel. The king refuses. If the Mariners prepare for war, the Martials will attack. When Laia tries to argue, the King banishes her and Darin from Adisa.

Marcus informs Helene that Keris has escaped from prison, and Helene predicts that she will attack the city within two weeks. She sends for Dex and begins planning their counterattack. Meanwhile, Helene worries that Marcus will try to misuse her newfound healing abilities.

Helene, remembering Keris’s tattoo, asks Harper to investigate tattooist deaths in Delphinium. While updating Helene on the northern garrison, Corporal Favrus acts suspiciously, and Helene asks her captain Alistair to follow him. Later, while Helene reviews Corporal Favrus’s files, Silvio informs her that Marcus is acting agitated in Livia’s room.

Marcus has broken Livia’s arm and asks Helene to heal her. Helene complies but is wary of the darkness within him. She lies and tells him she cannot heal herself. Marcus begs her to heal him as he is tormented by his twin brother Zak’s ghost. Helene tries but cannot. The Nightbringer appears and intervenes, telling Marcus that he must ignore Zak to make him disappear. Helene questions the Nightbringer’s motives, but he swears he is being truthful.

The Martial army is nearing the Tribes’ camp, and Elias decides to stay and fight. He asks Afya for her poisoned darts but refuses to tell a worried Mamie Rila his plans. Elias severs his connection with Mauth and uses his military training to ambush the Martial army. Though he does not want to kill anyone, he must protect the Tribes. Finding a Martial tent, he sneaks in to kill the enemies.

Harper informs Helene that in the past 20 years, 10 tattooists and 13 Illustrians associated with Keris died, and Scholar rebels were blamed for their deaths. The Illustrians, who all graduated with Keris, died shortly after the tattooists. Helene believes the Illustrians killed Harper’s father, the Plebian centurion Arius, and Keris was avenging his death. By killing Keris’s lover, the Illustrians compromised her power. For three days, Helene and Harper spread rumors about how Keris killed Illustrians over a Plebeian, which angers the Paters.

Dex informs Helene that he killed two assassins Keris sent to kill her, but Keris is still on her way to Antium. Captain Alister, who is waiting to report on Corporal Favrus, is suddenly bitten by a deadly karka snake. He tries to speak but dies. Helene looks through Alister’s report and notices that Corporal Favrus lied about Karkaun activity. She orders Harper to decode a message among the papers.

Dex is dispatched to scout the Karkauns in the North and gauge their plans to attack Delphinium. By nightfall, Helene learns the Karkauns have abandoned their camps and are gathering elsewhere.

Outside the palace, Captain Eleiba expresses King Irmand’s gratitude to Laia for her warning. King Irmand accepts Laia’s offer to aid the Scholar refugees, providing weapons to both Scholars and Mariners. Captain Eleiba gives Laia a ring securing Mariner help. Musa reveals that he and Nikla eloped 10 years ago, but grew apart once Nikla became crown princess.

Back at the forge, Darin insists on accompanying Laia, but she tells him to stay and make weapons. They argue, and Laia blames Darin for Nan and Pop’s deaths. Musa, walking Laia to her horse, advises her to apologize, but Nikla and her guards ambush them at the gate. Darin helps Musa fight them off so Laia can flee.

On the fourth morning of her journey, Laia receives a scroll reading “safe,” indicating that Darin, Musa, and the others are safe. Eleiba’s ring secures aid from everyone she meets. As she nears the Waiting Place, she is excited about seeing Elias, but when she calls for him, he doesn’t answer. Compelled to walk inside, Laia finds herself at the jinn grove, with jinn calling her closer.

After killing the soldiers in the tent, Elias moves on to the drum tower and kills the guards there. Repressing his conscience, he focuses on saving the Tribes. At the tower, he makes the head drummer send out a message for the attacking legions to change course and head toward the garrison. Guilt and relief war inside him as he kills the messenger.

Back at the Waiting Place, Elias reconnects with Mauth and communes with the ghosts. He feels a change in the forest and realizes someone is at the jinn grove.

Helene learns that Corporal Favrus was poisoned and that the warlock and general Grimarr is leading 50,000 Karkauns to attack Antium. Harper failed to decode the message but saw Keris’s signature fade in the disappearing ink. Helene goes to inform Marcus of the attack and convince him to get Livia to safety.

In the war room, the Paters wonder why Marcus was not prepared for the attack and find his explanation of corrupted reports unconvincing. The next day, they ready the legions and reserves to fight. On Marcus’s orders, Helene accompanies Livia to his parents’ home in Silas and plans to return once Livia is safe. They have arranged for an imposter to return from Silas as Livia the following day so no one questions her absence.

In the forest, the jinn taunt Laia as she searches for Elias. She falls asleep and wakes to the Nightbringer, who forces her to view her mother’s memories. Laia sees her mother, Mirra, her father, Jahan, her sister, Lis, Darin, and Nan. The last memory shows her mother after she was captured by Keris. Lis and Jahan can be heard screaming as Keris tortures them to get information on the Scholars Resistance. The torture lasts for days, until Lis has trauma and Jahan is unconscious. In the cell, Mirra holds Lis and sings her a song about stars. Laia realizes she’s been hearing this song in her visions. Mirra kills Lis and Jahan, ending their torture. Keris admits she would have let Lis live, but Mirra replies that it wouldn’t have been a life. The last images show Keris shoving coals into Mirra’s mouth and cutting her face with a knife.

Laia realizes Mirra is the person Keris enslaved, Cook, and the Nightbringer confirms it.

Elias finds Laia catatonic in the grove, and the jinn show him her mother’s past. Elias refuses to leave Laia though Mauth warns him he must defend the border.

Eventually, Laia wakes up, and Elias windwalks her outside the Waiting Place. Meanwhile, the ghosts are weakening the border. Laia and Elias talk about their futures. Elias confirms he was in Laia’s dream. Laia asks what he said to her months ago before leaving for Kauf, but before he can answer, Mauth pulls him back, warning him it’s already too late. The ghosts have broken the borders, entering the world of the living.

Marcus forces Helene to accompany him to the Augurs’ cave, where Artan, an Augur, speaks privately with Marcus. Their leader, Cain, cannot read Helene’s mind asks if Meherya—the Nightbringer—taught her how to hide her thoughts. He explains that Meherya is the Nightbringer’s “name, his history, his birthright, his curse” (322). Everyone’s name holds the key to their identity.

As Cain inquires about Livia’s safety, Marcus arrives with a prophesy that Helene must defend Antium.

In the city, everyone works to strengthen Antium’s walls, and Helene and Marcus try to boost the people’s morale. In the throne room, they find Keris with Livia beside her.

Laia meets Musa’s contact at an inn in the Northwest. To Laia’s surprise, she discovers Cook is Musa’s contact. The Nightbringer deliberately showed her the truth to complicate Laia’s Seeing Laia’s reaction, Cook understands Laia must know the truth. Cook deflects Laia’s demands to know what happened, telling her that they must beat the Karkauns to the city.

Helene lieutenants report that Keris saved Livia during and Karkaun attack. Helene knows Keris and the Karkauns are working together and that Keris has an ulterior motive. Helene orders them to triple Livia’s protection.

After much difficulty, Helene finds a midwife to aid in Livia’s childbirth. Dex reports Keris’s increased Plebeian support: Their plan to tarnish Keris’s reputation failed.

The midwife tells Helene that Livia and the baby are safe and instructs her to feed Livia goldrose petals in milk and wildwood tea for better milk production. After the midwife leaves, Livia tells Helene to kill the midwife. Goldrose petals in milk induce contractions, which would kill her and the baby. Helene tells Dex to kill the midwife and promises to protect Livia.

In the evening, discord breaks out among the generals in the war room. They are displeased by Helene’s plan of sending a small legionnaire of troops to ambush the Karkaun army. Once Marcus silences them, Helene notes that Keris is planning something.

That night, Harper briefs Helene on the army’s preparedness and insists on accompanying her for protection. Helene is confused about why the Illustrians forgave Keris so quickly and tells Harper to make evacuations plans in case something goes wrong.

The next morning, Helene and her soldiers move to Umbral Pass, where the enemies have gathered. Though the Martials were successful against the Karkauns the previous night, now they struggle, as the Karkauns attack with bows and arrows from higher ground. Amid the attack, A drum message reveals Helene’s remaining forces were ambushed. Suddenly, Karkauns surround Helene’s group, and they retreat to the ravine. Concerned about Harper and her unexpressed romantic feelings for him, she orders her men into the boats.

Harper, Dex, and Helene’s cousin Baristus, fight the remaining enemies, and Baristus sacrifices himself to help Helene get to Antium. On the way, Helene heals a wounded Harper. In a vision, she sees him freeing Laia and discovers he has feelings for her. Once awake, Harper reveals that Grimarr’s forces are twice as strong as they thought; he has 100,000 men, not 50,000 as reported.

Laia wrestles with conflicting feelings as she catches Cook up on events. Cook flinches whenever Laia tries to get close, compelling Laia to keep her distance.

One day, Laia calls Cook “Mirra of Serra” (347), but Cook replies Mirra of Serra died back in prison. Cook tried to kill Keris, but Keris broke Cook’s arm and almost whipped Izzi, another enslaved person, to death. The second time, Keris blinded Izzi in one eye. Knowing Izzi would be tortured further, Cook ceased her attempts. Because of her failure, Cook deems herself unworthy to ask about Darin, Nan, and Pop or to receive Laia’s love.

Chaos surrounds Antium as Illustrians flee the city. To enter the city, Laia turns invisible while Cook disguises herself a laundress for the Karkauns. They barely make it through the Karkaun soldiers when Cook notices Laia flickering. Knowing the Nightbringer is close, they hurry toward the mountains.

Cook explains the Karkauns are avenging themselves on the Empire for neglecting them to the point of famine. This sparks Laia’s memory of a prophecy about a forgotten people. In a mountain cave, Cook tells Laia to become visible. Realizing Laia is scared of the accompanying visions, Cook offers to hold Laia’s hand.

Reaching the abandoned Mariner embassy, Laia and Cook find themselves alone.

Elias rebuilds the border wall as ghosts surge toward a Martial village. When it is fully repaired, he races after them. With Mauth’s magic, Elias can see what the ghosts need and starts passing them onto the afterlife. Once all the spirits are gone, he notices the destruction they caused. Mauth’s magic numbs his feelings, and he calmly moves onto the next village.

Days pass, and Elias helps more ghosts cross over. He struggles to become one with Mauth, but one night during a storm, the magic creates a shelter for him. For the first time, he wonders how Mauth feels about the Nightbringer and acknowledges the jinn were wronged. The next morning, he senses something different.

His magic directs him northward to Antium, where he senses many ghosts trapped in battle.