The Black Witch by Laurie Forest (Summary)

Note:

Hi everyone! So this month in preparation for the release of The Demon Tide, the long awaited new book in the Black Witch series, I’m re-reading the three previous Black Witch books. I’m going to be posting my summaries here, just in case anyone else wants to check them out if they don’t have time to re-read the series before The Demon Tide.

I’ve already reviewed this book, if you’re looking for a spoiler-free review you can check it out here (it was one of the first ones I ever did): https://sarahs-shelf.com/2017/08/07/the-black-witch-by-laurie-forest/

Otherwise, do not read on, dear friend, unless you have read the book, and as it is my favorite high fantasy YA series of ALL TIME, I recommend reading it. Please don’t spoil yourself. Just click away unless you’ve read the book already. I’m begging you.

Thanks bye!

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Key Characters:

Elloren Gardner – Seventeen years old, middle child in the Gardner family. Raised by her uncle with her two brothers out in Halfix (remote Gardneria). Wants to be an apothecary, enjoys making and playing violins. Has a connection to wood, able to see the origin tree to any piece of wood she touches.

Rafe Gardner – Eldest of the Gardner siblings, enrolled in the university. Protective elder brother, master hunter and tracker. No magical abilities.

Trystan Gardner – Sixteen years old, youngest Gardner sibling. Level five mage (the most powerful), studying at the university as an apprentice to the weapons guild.

Vyvian Damon – Member of the Mage Council, very involved in politics and obsessed with carrying on the legacy of her mother, the Black Witch. Aunt to Trystan, Elloren, and Rafe.

Fallon Bane – The most powerful young female mage in Gardneria, a level five. Desperately wishes to be wand-fasted to Lukas Grey. Cruel and power-hungry.

Lukas Grey – Powerful level five mage, a rising star in the military. Charms Elloren upon their first meeting and is interested in fasting with her.

Marcus Vogel – Gardnerian priest and member of the mage council. Hoping to be elected the next High Mage. Gives Elloren the creeps.

Aislinn Greer – Quiet, sweet Gardnerian girl Elloren’s age, loves romantic poetry and quickly becomes Elloren’s friend.

Sage Gaffney – Gardnerian girl a few years older than Elloren, lives on the estate next door. Runs away from school with a boy she isn’t wand-fasted to, gives birth to an Icaral child. Her and her child are wanted by the mage council.

Yvan Guriel – Keltic student at the university. Works in the kitchens with Elloren, seems to hate her on sight.

Tierney Calix – Water Fae girl glamored as a Gardenerian. Fellow apothecary student with Elloren.

Wynter Eirllyn – Icaral Elf, Elloren’s roommate. A soft-spoken, timid girl, she is a wonderful artist and the first Icaral to make Elloren think that perhaps her religion has gotten it all wrong. She’s also an empath, which means she can sense people’s emotions through touch.

Ariel Haven – Icaral Gardenerian, Elloren’s other roommate. Spent most of her life locked away due to being an Icaral, is somewhat unhinged and instant enemies with Elloren. But they eventually come to an understanding and Elloren learns that Ariel is connected with winged creatures and can speak with them mind to mind.

Diana and Jarod Ulrich – Twin siblings of the Lupine race – can turn into wolves and live in the forest with their pack. Currently students at the university per their father’s wishes for the Lupines to be more diplomatically integrated with the other races.

Andras Volya – Son of Professor Volya. The professor was part of an Amazkaran tribe, but she refused to abandon her child like she was supposed to when he was born male, so they’ve been banished from Amaz lands, but they both still wear the runes. Andras is incredibly skilled with horses and the Amaz fighting style.

Cael Eirllyn – Wynter’s brother, Alfsigr Elf. Elite archer.

Rhys Thorim – Cael Eirllyn’s second in arms, loyal to Cael and Wynter. Alfsigr Elf, elite archer.

Bleddyn – Urisk kitchen worker, works with Elloren in the university kitchens. Starts with a strong dislike for her and all Gardnerians, and along with Iris they bully Elloren.

Iris Morgaine – Kelt girl who works in the kitchens at the university with Elloren. Actually a glamoured Fae. Romantically interested in Yvan and hates Elloren with a passion, no matter what she does.

Lucretia Quillen – Gardnerian Vice Chancellor at the university, one of the resistance leaders along with Jules Kristian and Fernyllia.

Jules Kristian – Keltic history professor at the university. One of the resistance leaders along with Lucretia Quillen and Fernyllia.

Fernyllia – Urisk kitchen mistress at the university. Grandmother to Fern. One of the leaders of the Resistance along with Lucretia Quillen and Jules Kristian.

Olilly – Young Urisk girl, works in the staff at the university. Kind and gentle, she often tends to young Fern, Fernyllia’s granddaughter.

Kam Vin – Commander of the western Vu Trin sorceresses. Firm and resolute, gives Elloren her wand to wand test with when she first arrives at University. A good person who believes the Gardnerians go too far, even as she tries to remain politically neutral (on the surface).

Ni Vin – Sister to Kam Vin, a Vu Trin sorceress herself. She was disfigured by a fire caused by Carnissa Gardner during the first Realm War, and it has left her burn-scarred on one half of her body. Beloved of Valasca.

Marina – Selkie that is originally held captive by the University groundskeeper. Elloren and Yvan free her, and she teaches herself to speak the Common Tongue and is the first of her kind to be able to communicate with the land-dwellers. Convinces the Amaz to help her free the rest of her people from the Gardnerians. Lived for months in the North Tower with Elloren, Diana, Wynter, and Ariel.

Naga – Formerly a Gardnerian military dragon, Yvan, Elloren and the gang were able to free her before the Gardnerians broke her. Ariel and Andras keep her hidden in a cave while they nurse her back to health. Friend to Yvan and wants to help take the Gardnerians down.

Summary:

Part 1:

• Prologue is a very young Elloren being wand-tested in the forest. She is so powerful she sets fire to the trees and the forest burns. Elloren is too young to remember and is told it was only a nightmare when she dreams of it. She is told by her uncle Edwin that she has no power.
• When she is seventeen, Elloren’s beautiful, powerful, and intimidating Aunt Vyvian arrives to try and insist that Elloren be wand-fasted immediately. The practice of wandfasting binds a male and female Gardnerian together for life in a sealed betrothal. This is often done to children when they’re very young (particularly in the more conservative sects) as a way of enforcing purity and controlling Gardnerian youth. Uncle Edwin insists that Elloren will go to university first and then have a choice in who she will be fasted to. Vyvian does not wish for this, but as Gardneria is a male-dominated society and Edwin is the eldest male of the family, he has the final word.
• Elloren is to travel to the university in Verpacia with her brothers and study to be an apothecary, which is what she’s always wanted. Her uncle makes her promise not to let Vyvian convince her to fast to anyone before she’s gotten her education. She promises, particularly since she’d like to have some say in who she gets fasted to.
• The next morning she wakes up early to a mysterious white bird at her window. She follows it out into the fields to find her old neighbor, Sage Gaffney, waiting for her. Sage has been missing and has her child with her, a child she admits to having with a man she is not fasted to. Sage gives Elloren a white wand, for protection, and says it’s the White Wand of legend. Elloren doesn’t really believe it but promises she’ll keep the wand safe and hidden. Sage flees before Elloren can try to help her.
• Elloren travels with her aunt to Valgard, the capital of Gardneria, where her aunt buys her fancy clothes and introduces her to some of her peers, including Fallon Bane, who is the most powerful young female mage. Fallon Bane is also a racist bitch who is jealous of Elloren because she is the spitting image of her grandmother, the famously powerful Black Witch.
• Aunt Vyvian hosts a party, and there Elloren meets Lukas Grey, the fine young gentleman that Vyvian wants Elloren to fast with. Lukas whisks her away and gives Elloren her first kiss, which she enjoys. 
• Vyvian tries to arrange an immediate fasting to Lukas Grey, but Elloren stands her ground and says she’ll obey her uncle’s wishes and wants to get to know Lukas better first, which makes Vyvian angry.
• Outside of church, Elloren once again follows the white birds, Watchers, and is ambushed by a few escaped Icarals, who attempt to kill her because they think she’s the next Black Witch. Lukas saves her life, but Elloren is traumatized. 
• Elloren and Lukas travel together to the university in Verpacia.

Part 2:

• Elloren arrives at school in Verpacia and is immediately apprehended by the guard, consisting of Gardnerians, Elfhollen, and Vu Trin sorceresses. She’s wand tested in front of everyone, and though she feels a power rise in her, nothing comes out the end of the wand they give her, and they all reluctantly admit that she’s not the next Black Witch and dub her as officially a Level 1 mage, the lowest level, no magic at all.
• Elloren is given her class and living assignments, along with her labor assignment which she needs to pay for school. She goes immediately to the kitchens for her labor assignment, where she meets the staff that consists of Urisks and Kelts, including Yvan, who somehow already seems to hate her despite the fact that they’ve never met.
• Iris and Bleddyn, two of the female kitchen workers, shove her in the mud and slap her around, sparking immediate animosity between Elloren and the rest, particularly when nobody else in the kitchen believes her. 
• She trudges miserably to her lodgings, where she finds that her roommates consist of two Icarals, the monsters from her nightmares. One of them chases her into the closet and keeps her trapped there all night. In the morning Elloren goes to the lodging mistress, who tells her that her aunt had her placed there, and there she will stay until she agrees to fast immediately to Lukas Grey. Elloren holds her ground.
• Elloren goes to Lukas and tells him of her experience, and he is surprised she won’t agree to fast to him under these circumstances. But he goes to the kitchen and threatens and intimidates the workers who picked on Elloren, which makes her feel guilty because he is crueler than she expected or wished.
• Elloren learns that her roommates are a Gardenerian Icaral named Ariel and an Elf Icaral named Wynter. She is assured that they are harmless and have the same standing as a student that she does. This infuriates her, but she refuses to break.
• She goes to her classes, a few of which she shares with Fallon, who continues to bully her in ways that nobody can do anything about. She enjoys her Gardnerian history class with the priest professor. In Apothecary studies, she is partnered with Tierney Calix, who is the “ugliest” Gardenerian Elloren has ever seen. But she is talented and hates Fallon as much as Elloren does, so they form an uneasy alliance.
• Lukas and Elloren grow closer together. One night they sneak into the music room and perform together, after which they begin to kiss. Lukas is drawn in by the power of their magic lines, and pushes her a bit too far too fast, and Elloren decides after that she wants no more to do with him.
• Elloren exists uneasily with her roommates. Ariel has a chicken that knocks over a prized portrait of her parents, ruining it. In retaliation, Elloren puts the chicken outside for it to wander away. Ariel, in retribution, destroys the quilt her mother made for her, the last thing Elloren has of her parents. This being the last straw, she breaks her own word and goes to Lukas, asking him to help her get Ariel kicked out of school.
• Lukas finds Ariel’s chicken and tortures and kills it, handing it on their bedroom door. This completely breaks Ariel and she attacks Elloren, kicking and punching, exactly as Elloren had planned. But she never wanted Lukas to do something so horrible, and she realizes that she’s made a grave mistake. So she tracks down Lukas and lays into him for it, which he seems surprised about, he just thought he was doing her a favor.
• A crowd amasses and asks Elloren who attacked her, and in that moment is the first spark of redemption in her prissy, sheltered, irritating persona: she says she tripped, and doesn’t tell anyone that it was Ariel. After being treated by the medic, she steals a chicken from the barnyard and brings it back for Ariel, which seems to bring Ariel back from the edge, and earns her Wynter’s respect.
• After this, there is an uneasy understanding between Elloren and her roommates.
• Tierney and Elloren become slow friends, each realizing the other has a sort of strange, non-wand magic; Tierney with water and Elloren with wood. Since this is an indication of Fae blood and means they may not be “purely” Gardnerian, they are quiet about it.
• Elloren goes with Tierney back to her room that she shares with Diana Ulrich, the Lupine, as well as Fallon Bane. Elloren ends up accidentally breaking, and then stealing, a small portrait of Lukas that’s there. Hiding from Fallon, Elloren witnesses as Fallon attempts to cut Diana’s beautiful hair while she sleeps, but Diana gets the better of her and breaks her wand.
• After this, Diana and Elloren form a sort of strange half-friendship, as she shares a class with Diana and her twin, Jarod. 
• Diana and Elloren’s brother Rafe start to become close, and Elloren worries they will become involved, which is NOT allowed in either of their cultures.
• On the other hand, Jarod and Aislinn find that they share a love of books and poetry, and develop a mutual crush, which will go even worse for Aislinn that in would for Rafe, because Aislinn comes from the Gardnerian ultra-conservative and has long been fasted to a man she does not love.
• Elloren finds out that her brother Trystan is gay, which is also forbidden in Gardnerian society, and makes him swear not to tell anyone.
• Elloren begins to realize that just about everything that she thought she knew about her family and her people might be completely skewed, if not flat out wrong. This is brought into direct relief when Yvan comments that her fine silk clothing is made by Urisk slave children in the Fae Isles. She cannot believe it’s true, but something about it bothers her.
• Elloren goes to her history teacher, the priest mage, and asks him about it. He parrots things that she’s heard all her life, that Gardnerians gave the Urisks a better life than they had before, and that they appreciate the hard work that the Gardenerians have them do. Though that’s nothing new, somehow it seems wrong to her.
• Elloren goes to the only other history professor that isn’t a Gardnerian, Professor Kristian, who is a Kelt. She asks him the same question about her clothing that she asked the priest mage, and his answer matches Yvan’s: that while it isn’t technically out-and-out slavery, the Urisk’s “wages” are not enough to mean anything, and the Urisk are not allowed to leave their work posts without specific papers, which are almost impossible to get. This sickens Elloren, so she throws her old clothes in her trunk and wears her simple homespun garb from then on, earning her harsh judgment from the other Gardnerians, but new looks of respect from Yvan and others who know where her old clothes came from.
• Professor Kristian gives Elloren the “real” history of the Western Realm, which includes how Gardnerians are not in fact “the first children” that their holy book claims, but the result of the Dryad Fae and Kelts from hundreds of years ago. She also finds that though it is true that Gardnerians have long been oppressed by other races in the realm, it has also gone both ways in that her longtime great grandfather led an army that killed thousands of Kelts and took their land, and her grandmother, the great Black Witch, lead the Gardnerian army that killed and oppressed thousands of Kelts, Urisk, and Fae. Kristian gives Elloren additional history books from multiple perspectives and tells her to learn what she can and make up her own mind.
• Returning to the kitchen to grab the books she’d forgotten, Elloren stumbles upon Damion Bane, Fallon’s horrid older brother, tormenting Olilly, an Urisk girl who is on the staff. Damion thinks that Olilly stole Fallon’s portrait of Lukas, and despite the immense power inequality, Elloren is about to take a cast iron pan to Damion when Yvan arrives, moving crazy fast and with incredible strength, and disarms Damion, freeing Olilly. 
• Elloren confesses to stealing the portrait after breaking it, making sure Damion will stay away from Olilly, even though she’s damning herself to retribution from Fallon.
• Elloren goes home and realizes that just about everything she’s ever known has been wrong, that she comes from a people that oppress not only other “impure” races, but their own women as well. Gardnerian men can get away with just about anything. Elloren decides from then on that she’s going to make up her own mind about the way of things and starts reading Kristian’s books.

Part 3:

• Elloren realizes she can no longer afford to ignore the politics of her people, so she starts meeting Tierney in the archives to read the Mage Council rulings each week. She truly starts to understand what the growing group of “radicals” supports, such as killing all Selkies and iron-testing Gardnerians to root out anyone with Fae blood.
• Fallon gets her hands on Elloren’s beloved violin that she hid in her brother’s room and splits it clean in half, as revenge for what she did to Lukas’s portrait.
• Jarod and Aislinn grow closer, and Randall, Aislinn’s future fastmate, Randall Grayson, comes to visit. He already acts as though he owns her, and Aislinn has told Elloren that she essentially thinks that she’s not attracted to any man and she’ll just have to suffer through her “womanly duties” when she’s fasted. Jarod overhears Randall and Aislinn talking and is upset that Gardnerians “mate” with those that they share no attraction or love for.
• Jarod, Aislinn, Elloren, and Wynter go to an Elfin art exhibit, where they see all of the beautiful, sort of “living” art that Alfsigr Elves are able to make. They ask Wynter to show them her art, which is stored in a crumbling barn next door because it is made “impure” by her being an Icaral. But she has fantastic statues and tapestries, and the group decides to take most of it back to the north tower and decorate their home with it. Elloren sees that Jarod and Aislinn are truly starting to fall for each other, though they deny it.
• Aislinn’s two sisters and their children come to visit. Her sisters are different, but friendly, and clearly considered to be “virtuous Gardnerian women”. They’ve brought traditional “Icaral wing” cookies, which you are supposed to snap in half before eating to symbolize destroying Icarals, which makes Elloren realize that even the smallest Gardnerian traditions are rooted in hatred.
• Professor Hawkkyn, the Snake Elf, recognizes that Elloren is working to change her perspective and is not the traditional Gardnerian. He gives her some tricks to block Fallon’s ice magic.
• Aislinn comes to visit, and confesses that she and Jarod were kissing and that she actually liked it. She’s upset because how can she ever be with Randall now that she knows what it’s like with Jarod, and her family will disown her if she tries to make a match with Jarod instead. Jarod comes to the door and Aislinn hides, and Jarod admits that he loves Aislinn and wants to mate with her, but his family would disown him unless she agreed to become Lupine. So they’re stuck in this miserable situation.
• Diana moves into the north tower with Elloren, Ariel, and Wynter because she says if she stays living with Fallon Bane, Diana will hurt her.
• Her crush on Yvan only growing, Elloren follows him when he goes into the woods one day. They hike so far that they make it across the University boundaries and to the outskirts of a Gardnerian military base. Yvan shows Elloren an unbroken dragon that the Gardnerians have caged up, and Yvan expresses his desire to save her, despite the bars being made of Elfin steel, which is supposedly impossible to break by any means.
• On their way back, Elloren sees the Watchers and follows them to find the university groundskeeper, a Gardnerian, abusing and chaining up the very same Selkie Elloren saw in Valguard all those months ago. On essentially a whim, Elloren and Yvan free the Selkie and flee with her back to the north tower.
• The girls of the North Tower (excepting for Ariel) immediately take to the Selkie and agree to hide her there. The Selkie is obviously awash in fear, and she doesn’t speak the common tongue so they can’t communicate with her. Diana feels particularly enraged when they help the Selkie to the bath and see that she is covered head to foot in bruises and whip wounds. Diana declares she’s off to kill the groundskeeper, and Elloren tries and fails to explain that this is a bad idea for so many reasons. It isn’t until Rafe arrives and is able to talk Diana down (barely), that she agrees not to do anything rash.
• Diana comes back after her temper has faded and Elloren overhears Diana and Rafe confess their love for each other before kissing, and Elloren is once again awash in sadness and fear for her brother and her friend, both in love with Lupines, which the Gardnerians will never accept.
• Elloren has to go and find Andras Volya, because he saw her and Yvan smuggling the Selkie into the north tower. His mother, Professor Volya, overhears them talking and they both swear to secrecy in regards to the Selkie. Elloren learns a little bit about Amaz culture and their creation story, which explains why they hate men as a rule and will not allow any man to be part of their culture.
• Elloren confronts Diana about her and Rafe, and they talk about Rafe becoming Lupine in order to be Diana’s mate. Elloren feels as though she will be all alone at some point, and she and Diana bond, with Diana saying that even if Elloren does not become Lupine, she will be part of Diana’s family, and that she should come and stay with them this summer.
• Ni Vin, sister to Vu Trin commander Kam Vin, comes to search the north tower for the Selkie. Though Ni sees the Selkie, she clearly agrees with what Elloren and her friends are doing, because she claims to not have seen the Selkie and goes on her way.
• The allies to the Selkie, named by the group Marina, meet together in the North Tower. These allies include: Elloren, Diana, Wynter, Ariel (on a technicality), Jarod, Aislinn, Cael (Wynter’s brother), Rhys (Cael’s second), Andras Volya, Yvan, Rafe, and Trystan. It is a beautifully diverse group of people who can, if nothing else, agree on one thing: that the way that Marina was treated was cruel and wrong, and she should be protected at all cost until they can find her skin and help her return to the sea.
• Elloren and the group decide that they should camouflage as much as possible, so she starts dressing in her Gardnerian silks again, though they disgust her, and ties a white Vogel support armband on herself to blend in with the other Gardnerians. Lukas sends Elloren a brand new violin, a Maelorian, the most beautiful and expensive kind, as recompense for Fallon destroying hers on his behalf.
• The high mage, Aldus Worthin, who was due to retire in the spring, dies suddenly, and the council elects Marcus Vogel immediately to their highest seat of Gardnerian power. This is the worst fear of everyone besides Gardnerians, because all of the terribly vicious laws will be able to be passed by Vogel, and this affects everyone in the western realm, especially Gardneria and Verpacia, which has a Gardnerian majority on its ruling council.
• Professor Hawkynn, the Snake Elf professor, is no longer heading his class, seemingly having fled at the news of Vogel’s appointment. All of the non-Gardnerians take it really hard, because it’s the beginning of what will likely be another brutal war, and Gardneria has the strongest, most lethal military in the western realm. Rafe and Trystan receive notice of an impending military draft. Rafe runs off to find Diana, refusing to entertain the idea of joining the military that will wage war against the Lupines. Trystan is more afraid of the required wandfasting, because it will inevitably lead to him being revealed as gay.
• Notice has come for the Icarus as well. After the end of the year, all Icarals will be required to return to their country of origin, and will no longer be allowed at the university. That will mean Ariel will be sent back to Gardneria, to the sanatorium to be imprisoned simply for being born an Icaral. And Wynter will be forced back to Alfsigr lands, where they will possibly decide to execute her for her mere existence. Elloren and Aislinn come up with the idea that some of their most persecuted friends might be able to flee east, if they were on the back of a rescued military dragon.
• Elloren takes Yvan aside and tells him she wants to help him free his dragon. They argue, and Elloren finds out that her grandmother was responsible for the death of Yvan’s father (a prominent Resistance leader), and Elloren tells him that the Kelts killed her parents in the last war. They find out that their lives have been surprisingly similar.
• Elloren gathers the allies and they plan how to free the dragon. Elloren finally tells her brothers and Yvan about the white wand that Sage gave her, and that if Trystan uses it, along with the right spell, they might have enough magic to break the cage, especially if Aislinn can get her hands on the military spellbook from her father’s study.
• The Elfin steel proves impossible to shatter, bend, or melt, despite the allies’ efforts. Trystan resolves to keep experimenting.
• A group of the allies go to check in on the dragon, bringing the Icarals with this time, since Ariel and Wynter will be able to communicate with her mind-to-mind since they are winged kindred. Ariel breaks down at the sight of the dragon, beaten bloody and broken in body, if not mind. Wynter is able to communicate that the dragon’s name is Naga, and she finds out a secret about Yvan, what he is…but will not communicate it to the group. Elloren is determined to figure out what Yvan actually is, because he is clearly not just a simple, magic-less Kelt.
• Elloren is talking with Fern, the Urisk child who is sometimes found in the kitchen. Fern falls from a tree and her leg breaks, the bone poking through the skin. Yvan arrives on the scene, and is able to heal her leg pretty much completely, in front of Elloren’s eyes, in a way that can only be magic. Elloren demands to know what that was, but Yvan just leaves.
• Elloren and Aislinn do research and Elloren resolves that Yvan must be at least part Lasair fire fae. Diana and Elloren have a bit of a tiff, mostly because Elloren is hurt because it doesn’t seem like Diana’s family will take her in over the summer after all.
• Tierney finally admits to Elloren that she is a full Asrai water fae, both her and her younger brother were glammoured by her birth family and given to her Gardnerian parents to raise, with her birth parents never being seen again. Elloren goes to Professor Kristian again, asking what happened to the Fae, and he gives her a forbidden text that details the torture and genocide of the Fae on the Pyrran Islands after the Realm War. This sickens Elloren, clearly, that her people had done this thing less than a full generation ago, and it hardens her resolve to help the Fae and Marina escape before the Gardnerians hunt them down.
• Trystan figures out how to break the dragon’s cage, the metal can be shattered if it is frozen to the point of brittleness first. The allies make their plan to free Naga.
• Fallon Bane approaches Elloren outside of the tower, and Fallon admits she’s been watching Elloren and is convinced she’s getting up to some shit in the tower and resolves to go and find out what it is. Elloren is desperate to stop her, but suddenly a contingent of assassins come out of the trees and put a knife in Fallon’s side. Both Fallon and her guard are able to fight the assassins off, but Fallon almost dies in the attempt. Elloren finds out that these are Ishkart mercenaries, from the East, sent to kill the next Black Witch in an attempt to stop the Gardnerian’s rush to power. Fallon is rushed back to Gardneria under armed guard, and Vogel locks down the borders and starts implementing iron testing at the border crossing, making the need for escape dire for some of Elloren’s friends. They’ve got to free Naga.
• A group of the allies go to the military base when it’s relatively empty and Trystan attempts to freeze the bars. It doesn’t work until Elloren puts a hand on Trystan’s shoulder when he’s working the wand, and all of the sudden the magic is so powerful that all the cages for every dragon at the base shatters. That’s hundreds of broken dragons, unable to do or think anything besides following commands from their mage master, heading toward them.
• Naga is free, she’s hurt so badly Diana and Jarod have to carry her off, but the rest of them are stuck fighting off the broken military dragons. Elloren is wounded in her leg, badly, and Yvan is able to heal it a little bit, but there is one more dragon coming at them, and as Trystan aims a crater spell at it, Elloren touches him again to amplify it, and not only does it blow the dragon to bits, the whole military base is essentially destroyed. Tierney is with them, and is able to send a snowstorm to cover their tracks.
• Away from the scene, Yvan heals Elloren more fully as Ariel begins to tend to Naga. Elloren finds out that all Gardnerian military dragons were once wyvern shifters, meaning that they had a human form as well.
• They all head back except for Ariel, who stays with Naga. Elloren confronts Yvan once again, demanding to know what he actually is, wanting him to admit he’s Fae. He doesn’t, and they almost kiss, but Yvan instead just leaves her and goes home.
• The wanted posters appear for those who stole the dragon and destroyed the base. Elloren finds out Lukas is coming back, he sends her a beautiful necklace and still intends on taking her to the Yule dance that’s coming up.
• Yvan had told Elloren that she should take Tierney to Professor Kristian, as he might be able to help Tierney and her family escape before they’re found out. Elloren takes Tierney to Kristian, where they are joined by Vice Chancellor Quillen, a Gardnerian. The two of them tell Elloren and Tierney that they smuggled out hundreds of Fae during the Realm War, and they seem to know that Elloren and her allies are the ones responsible for the destruction at the military base. They welcome her to the Resistance.

End of Book 1