DISCLAIMER: this is not a book I read for school, but one I read for fun.
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Books you might also like: Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard
Characters:
Princess Theodosia Eirene Houzzara/ Lady Thora – Astrean Princess turned Kalovaxian captive
Lady Crescentia – Thora’s best friend; the Theyn’s daughter
Prinz Søren – son of the Kaiser
Blaise – Thora’s childhood best friend
Kaiser Corbinian- Kalovaxian ruler; conqueror
Ampelio – last leader of the Astrean resistance; last Guardian loyal to Astrea; Thora’s father
Prologue
The story starts out with a scene from the past. We see a young Thora – then Theodosia – clutching onto the hands of her mother who has a blade held at her throat, reading to kill her. Before her mom dies from a slit throat, she is able to say her last words. “You know who you are. You are our people’s last hope, Theodosia.” Her mother was the last one to call her that as the Kaiser changed it to Thora.
Chapter 1 – THORA
The story cuts to Crescentia, Thora’s best friend, calling out for her in the palace hallway. Cress is exactly what you would expect anyone in her position to be: pretty, sympathetic, bubbly, privileged, unaware of her privilege, slightly brainwashed. All of her maids are Astreans who Thora refuses to look at because only bad things will happen from that. She’ll either be overwhelmed with the emptiness she sees in their eyes or be accused of plotting treason.
Cress’s hair is studded with dozens of Spiritgems that Thora is also not allowed to look at. Spiritgems held the power of Astrean gods and could only be wielded by a chosen few – Guardians. Spiritgems used to be sacred, a practiced Guardian could use a Water Gem could make an illusion so strong they could make a new face entirely, but under the Kalovaxians, they are good for nothing but giving your skin a hydrated look. Beauty Gems are what they call them now while tens of thousands of Astrean slaves were sent to mine the caves where the Spiritgems reside.
Despite all of this, Thora latches onto Cress because she is the only good thing Thora has in her life now. So she indulges Cress in court gossip about Lady Dagmær who was wearing a sheer dress and Cress speculates that she wore it in order to entice the old and crusty Duke Clarence although she doesn’t know why. Thora reveals vaguely that it might have to do with the fact that Lady Dagmær’s father died – implying that she is enticing him for the money and connections Duke Clarence has. When Cress talks about Thora always having the best gossip, she plays it off by saying that it is because she listens. She doesn’t reveal that the real reason why she listens it to find news of Astrean resistance.
When she was first captured by the Kaiser, she would publicly whip her in front of all the captured rebels before he killed them. He used her as a symbol. Whether it was Astrean pirates sinking a Kalovaxian ship, a slave revolt, whispers of rebellion, she always got blamed for it and publicly whipped. She is scared of no one like she is the Kaiser. So, when Cress calls out “your Highness” Thora immediately tenses until she is certain that it wasn’t the Kaiser that was behind her, but Prinz Søren. She doesn’t get much relief, since Søren is not a spitting image of the Kaiser, but also a trained warrior. Besides, the reason why he came towards them was because the Kaiser had summoned her presence which only meant that she was being delivered punishment for whatever form of Astrean rebellion happened.
Chapter 2 – TRAITOR
When Prinz Søren led her to the throne room, she was met with the Kaiser, a room full of nobles, a man held by guards, and Ion. Ion was a an Astrean Guardian who plead for his life after the siege and is now a healer for the Kaiser and his family as well as a spy. The Kaiser usually whips her in a more public setting, but Ion’s presence implies that a whipping is not out of the question. (3)
The man in chains looks at Thora and at first she doesn’t recognize him, when suddenly the memories come back to her. The man who was the closest friend to her mother, the one who would always play with her when she was younger. The last Guardian, the face of the resistance. The one man that was the cause of so many of her whippings yet gave her so much hope. Ampelio. Her father. (6)
When she interrogates Ampelio, he refuses to give her anything concrete and prefers to speak in riddles. After a while, the Kaiser orders his guard to kill Ampelio by chopping his head off and in a panic, Thora pleads his life to the Kaiser. She gives him some false information in hopes that it will spare Ampelio’s life. She feels relief when the Kaiser orders one of the guards holding Ampelio to gather some men and search the place she had told them, but it is short lived when she finds out that she is now the one to execute Ampelio. She had tried to help Ampelio, but all she did was doom them both. (4)
To the surprise of everyone, Prinz Søren speaks up in protest of this, but it quickly shut down by his father when he is referred to as weak. Being called weak is the highest insult to a Kalovaxian. Ampelio pleads with Thora to take his life because he knows that if she doesn’t, the Kaiser will just take both of their lives and it’s not her time as she has to live and fight for her people. The only solace that she has is that she will make it quick as any of the other guards would draw it out. With one slice of the blade, Ampelio is dead. She had just killed her father. (6)
The blood stained her dress and she feels empty inside. Kaiser Corbinian orders his guards to hand Ampelio’s body out in the square and that anyone who tries to move him with find the same fate. The Kaiser informs her that their will be a banquet held in celebration of Ampelio’s death, with her as the guest of honor. (3)
Chapter 3 – THEODOSIA
When she makes it down to the corridor, walking to her chambers, she is stopped by Prinz Søren. It is clear that he is trying to comfort her, but not only has he clearly never done so before, but Thora is just not up for it right now. She starts to feel sick as he misguidedly congratulates her on the “clean death” and she throws up all over him. Horrified she runs away while he stands there, too stunned to move. (4)
When she makes it to her room, she can’t even scream as she knows that she has eyes watching her. She always has eyes watching her. Doesn’t where she is or what she is doing. The Kaiser had called them her Shadows and she had grown to refer to them as such too, She wonders for a moment about which one of them will tell the Kaiser that she had threw up on Prinz Søren before deciding that he was the most likely to tell the Kaiser. (4)
Her maid, Hoa, comes in to check up on her wounds. Hoa is not Astrean and Thora is not really sure which territory she comes from because since her mouth is shown shut, Hoa is not able to tell her. After checking that the welts on her back are healing as they should, Hoa gives her a towel to wash off the all the makeup that she had on her face earlier. Bit by bit, she starts revealing the features that she gained from her parents. The freckles that she gained from her mother, the deep-set, dark hazel eyes with heavy lashes that she had gained from Ampelio… all things that the Kalovaxian beauty standards demand that she hide. (5)
As she looks at herself in her vanity mirror, she thinks about her parents. She thinks about her mother’s dying words about how she is Astrea’s last hope and how Ampelio told her that she had to fight for her people. She had thought that killing Ampelio would smother all the hope that she had for a better life, for her people. But his death gave her something to fight for. She could not let either of her parents’ deaths be in vain. She could no longer play the Kaiser’s game, be his docile little puppet. “Theodosia Eirene Houzzara.” She was her people’s last hope. (8)
Chapter 4 – CROWN
The dress that Hoa brings her is a vermillion color in an Astrean style. The dress exposes her shoulder and back that reveals all the welts the Kaiser has left on her back over the years. In the recent years, the chiton-like Astrean style has come into fashion among the younger courtiers as opposed to the restrictive Kalovaxian style. Hoa tops off the look with a crown made out of ash. When she was younger, she felt ashamed of the welts on her back and the crown. The Kaiser used her welts to gloat over the hold that he had over the Astreans. Every form of rebellion squashed and represented through her scars. But, every single scar is an act of rebellion. It represents that the Astreans aren’t as beat down as the Kaiser likes to think of them as. Her mother had worn a crown of black gold while her crown was made of ashes, her mother was the fire queen while she is a princess of nothing. (9)
But as she walks into the banquet and sees all the eyes on her, she keeps her head held high as she refuses to cower against the weight of all those stares. On the contrary, she meets their eyes. The only gaze that she avoids is the Prinz’s as she is afraid to face him after she threw up on him earlier. When she meets Cress, she immediately puts her arm around Thora’s shoulders. Everybody watches, remembering what happened the first Thora was made to wear the crown. 7 year old Cress had smeared the ash that had fallen around her cheeks into thick lines and had said “Now you’re truly ready for battle.” The little act of defiance had gotten Thora whipped ten times. Now they both choose to ignore that it even exists. (8)
Thora is disheartened to see that the Theyn is no where in sight and resigns herself to that loss as she and Cress make their way through the banquet. Before she can get to far, the Kaiser calls her over saying that since she is the guest of honor, her seat is right next to Prinz Søren’s at the royal table. When she sits down a slave boy is placing fillets of fish onto her plate. When he first bumps her shoulder she thinks nothing of it, even as he places more fish than she can eat on her plate. The last time she looked a slave in the eye near the Kaiser, they were executed right in front of her. When he bumps her again, she can’t help but look up at him since the Kaiser is thankfully in deep conversation with a lord from a foreign land. She freezes at the familiar face. (7)
So many memories begin to flood back to her. She remembers learning how to write with him, she remembers loosing races to him, him patching her back up after she had fallen. The salve boy starting right back at her is her childhood best friend. Blaise. She accidentally says his name out loud and garners the attention of Prinz Søren. She makes an excuse about having said “please“. She stares back at Blaise for a little while longer before she deems it to be too risky to keep looking. (7)
Prinz Søren and Thora have a conversation about what happened between them earlier. Thora apologizes for having thrown up on him while Prinz Søren apologizes for making it seem like he was proud of killing those Astreans when he was ten. He shows how affected he is by that when he names off the nine Astreans’ names. “Uri, Gavriel, Kyri, Nik, Marios, Dominic, Hathos, Silas, and Vaso.” He even remembers the one that the his father had killed, “Ilias.” Thora sees a side of Prinz Søren in that moment that she has never seen in any Kalovaxian before, not even Cress. A certain vulnerability. (7)
After their talk, Prinz Søren surprises her again by asking her to call her “Søren” instead of “Your Higness“. This shocks Thora because she has never called him by his name before, even when gossiping with Cress, they always called him “the Prinz“. In exchange, she tells him that he can call her “Thora“. (3)
Suddenly, a slave girl drops a platter of fish that garner the attention of everyone in the banquet hall. In the commotion, Blaise whispers “Midnight tonight. Kitchen cellar.” When the girl is dragged away by the guards she manages to make eye contact with Thora. The smile on the girl’s face, lets Thora know that she didn’t have an accident. All of this was a planned diversion so Blaise could pass on the message. The girl would be whipped at best and killed at worst. Thora had no clue how she was going to get past her Shadows in order to meet Blaise, but she had to find a way. She was not going to let another one of her subject’s sacrifices go in vain. (8)
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