Chain of Gold

In the present day of 1903, Lucie’s 17-year-old older brother, James, and his friends patrol the London streets for demons. James is a Shadowhunter, a warrior of angelic descent with special powers and the ability to wield weapons made of adamas, an indestructible metal. Shadowhunters, also known as Nephilim, live in the Shadow World, the unseen realm in which supernatural creatures—such as Downworlders—dwell. Nephilim keep this world hidden and peaceful and also protect humanity from demons, which are evil, destructive beings that can travel across dimensions. It’s been over a year since London has seen a demon, but this night, James’s group of Shadowhunters unexpectedly encounters a vicious Deumas demon in an alley off Fleet Street. James feels the demon give him a look of recognition. As James readies to throw his knife at the demon, he is inadvertently pulled into an alternate hellish world for a moment. As James returns to the real world, the Deumas lunges at him but is killed by his friends Thomas and Christopher Lightwood, and Matthew Fairchild. Thomas and Christopher are cousins. Matthew is James’s parabatai, or “blood brother,” his warrior partner (only some Shadowhunters have parabatai, to whom they are bound for life).

The friends wonder about the demon’s sudden appearance, since “demonic activity” has dwindled in London in the past few years. James, whose special gift is shapeshifting, is tired from being pulled into the hellish world. He often gets pulled into alternate dimensions because his mother is a warlock: the child of a demon and a human. Shadowhunters like James can enchant themselves to be unseen by regular humans (called “mundanes”) but can be seen by Downworlders like warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and the faerie people (or the “fey”). After the demon attack, James and his friends gather at the Devil Tavern, in which they have rented rooms. The Devil’s staff have nicknamed James’s gang the Merry Thieves, after Robin Hood and his band of brothers.

James’s friends advise him to tell his Uncle Jem (James Carstairs) about his fall—the transient, involuntary departure to the demonic dimension. James has been working on controlling the falls with Jem, who is a Silent Brother (a Shadowhunter who has taken monk-like vows to be a healer and philosopher) and James’s father’s parabatai. Meanwhile, Thomas informs the group that Grace Blackthorn, the daughter of his aunt Tatiana, is to move to London soon. The news deeply affects James; unknown to all the others but Matthew, James has been deeply in love with Grace since the two were children; he met Grace on a visit to Idris. Herondale Manor—James’ family home—adjoins Blackthorn Manor. James is tormented that Grace, whom he is sworn to marry, has not told him of her plans to come to London.

The chapter now shifts to the perspective of Cordelia Carstairs (not to be confused with the Cordelia Carstairs of the first Shadowhunters series), who is arriving in London. Cordelia has lived an unusual life for a Shadowhunter, her family moving around the world frequently because of her father’s illness. Though she is great friends with Lucie Herondale, her would-be parabatai, Cordelia doesn’t know many other Londoners. As the carriage with her mother, Sona, and her older brother, the sardonic Alastair, pulls into the city, Cordelia spots James and Lucie standing next to their mother, Tessa Herondale, the famous Shadowhunter. Cordelia feels a rush of emotion at the sight of James, with whom she is in love. As the two families greet each other, James and Alistair’s mutual dislike is evident. Lucie, James, and Cordelia go for a walk in Kensington Gardens, where James and Lucie tell Cordelia about a ball being held for her debut the next night at the Institute, the headquarters of the Shadowhunters in London. However, instead of being excited, Cordelia is anxious at the prospect. She tells Lucie that her beloved father, Elias Carstairs, is being investigated by the Clave—the ruling council of the Shadowhunters—for an attack he led on a group of demons in Idris with the help of two vampires. The expedition went badly and almost sparked a war between Shadowhunters and vampires. Cordelia hopes to make friends at the ball to marshal a defense for her father. Lucie also shares with Cordelia the rumor that James is in love with someone out of London, raising Cordelia’s hopes.

Jumping back in the past, this chapter is a brief glimpse into James’s first meeting with Grace Blackthorn in 1899:

James had always wondered why the Herondales never socialized with Tatiana, their next-door neighbor. His mother, Tessa, explained that Tatiana mistrusted them. However, the actual story (which forms a prominent plot in The Infernal Devices series) was that Tatiana’s father, Benedict Lightwood, dabbled in dark magic, eventually turning into a demon himself and eating Tatiana’s husband, Rupert Blackthorn. Benedict was then killed by Gabriel, his own son and Tatiana’s brother. After the Clave seized the Lightwoods’ properties briefly for investigation, Tatiana began to hate her brothers Gabriel and Gideon, and the other prominent Shadowhunter families. Her hatred deepened after her young son, Jesse, died.

One night in 1899, when Will and Tessa were distracted, Tatiana summoned James to clear the briars around her manor gate. As James reluctantly worked over the tough vines, a small girl, who was Grace, helped him with a pair of briar-cutters. James promised to visit the lonely child again the next night.

At the ball, James coaxes a hiding Matthew to join him in the ballroom, where the girls far outnumber the boys. Meanwhile, Cordelia’s mother, Sona, helps her get ready, emphasizing that the Carstairs must make a good impression. Dressed in a pinkish-gray dress, Cordelia feels stifled by the punishing beauty standards of her day and misses her father. However, she also understands her mother’s anxiety since, as a woman of Iranian descent, Sona herself struggles to fit into mainstream London society. In the ballroom, Tessa introduces the Carstairs to different families. Cordelia finds it difficult to relate to the girls she meets and is discomfited by snatches of gossip about her father, but she is overjoyed to see the handsome James. James invites Cordelia—a childhood friend whom he fondly calls “Daisy”—for a waltz. The two flirt lightly, much to Cordelia’s delight. However, James stops short at the sight of Tatiana, dressed in all black, and the beautiful, golden-haired Grace. He wordlessly turns away from Cordelia and joins Grace, leaving Cordelia embarrassed. Matthew swiftly comes to her rescue, joining her on the dance floor. Cordelia hopes to make friends with Matthew, since his mother, Charlotte Fairchild, is the Consul, the highest appointed official of the Clave; Charlotte may help Elias Carstairs get justice. Matthew invites Cordelia to a picnic with his friends and other Shadowhunter youths the next day.

In the ballroom, Lucie is surprised to see the boy who rescued her in Brocelind Forest. He is standing next to Tatiana Blackthorn, but while people greet Tatiana and Grace, they seem to be looking through the boy. He looks equally surprised when he finds Lucie looking at him, and he beckons her out of the ballroom into the games room. He reveals to Lucie that he is the ghost of Jesse Blackthorn, Tatiana’s dead son, but Lucie sees him because she may have a special gift. Jesse tells Lucie his mother and sister see him and know he’s accompanied them to the ball. Warning Lucie that death is all around them, Jesse vanishes.

In the ballroom, all eyes are on James and Grace, dancing together. Grace tells James that she knows he wrote to her over the summer, but the letter was confiscated by Tatiana. She longs to be around James, since she feels their bond may weaken with distance. James invites her to the picnic at Regent Park the next day. Tatiana summons Grace, and the couple parts. James is annoyed to see Charles Fairchild, Matthew’s pompous older brother, talking to Grace. As he turns to Grace, he falls into the underworld, the real world around him turning to shadows. This time, he feels as if he is falling into the dirt, the root of a tree pulling him down. James recovers in a moment.

Just then, Barbara Lightwood, Thomas’s older sister and the daughter of Gideon Lightwood, collapses while dancing. Barbara’s older cousin Anna Lightwood and Cordelia cut open Barbara’s corset so she can breathe better. Everyone assumes Barbara fainted due to a combination of hunger and exhaustion. As the Herondales praise Cordelia for thinking on her feet and helping Barbara, Sona tells Will and Tessa Cordelia “has a tendency to throw herself into every situation headlong” (88). The ball breaks up when the Shadowhunters learn there has been a demon attack on mundanes, which is a very unusual event.

Later that night, James ponders the night’s events. He wonders if there is a connection between his fall into the underworld, Barbara’s collapse, and the attacks on the mundanes. He recalls communicating with Uncle Jem about his falls; a Silent Brother, Jem practices voluntary blindness and muteness and communicates telepathically. During this communication, Jem told James he needed to control the falls since there was a danger he could one day remain forever trapped in the underworld.

James recalls the period after he was thrown out of Shadowhunter Academy, blamed unfairly for a prank gone horribly wrong:

Sent to Cirenworth Hall (the Carstairs family mansion) for a break, James contracted scalding fever, an illness peculiar to Shadowhunters. Lucie, accompanying James on the trip, was sent away to quarantine. Having had scalding fever as a child, Cordelia was immune and spent time with James. She often read James works of Persian literature to soothe him, including the famous love story of Layla and Majnun. Once, when James was shivering with cold, Cordelia got into bed with him to warm him. It was then she witnessed James briefly falling into the shadow world. Though James and Cordelia formed a unique bond during James’s stay at Cirenworth, the two rarely talked about it once James recovered.

The narrative jumps back to the “present.” Unlike the formal ball, the young people’s picnic at Regent Park is more relaxed. Cordelia hopes to make new friends, drawing people with her sumptuous picnic basket. She and free-spirited Anna Lightwood hit it off, with Anna inviting Cordelia to tea at her flat. As James and Lucie join Cordelia, Cordelia takes James aside to tell him off for leaving her alone on the dance floor the previous night. James apologizes and confesses he was distracted by Grace, whom he has loved for a long time. Inwardly heartbroken, Cordelia accepts his apology and urges him to join Grace, who has just arrived at the picnic with Matthew and Charles. James and Grace withdraw from the crowd. Grace asks him to kiss her; however, the kiss leaves James feeling nauseated and breathless. They are interrupted by a loud scream from the direction of the lake. James rushes towards the sounds of shouting.

Cordelia returns to her picnic blanket by the lake and discusses Grace Blackthorn with Lucie and Matthew. They muse over the state of Chiswick Manor, the Lightwood London home given to Tatiana. Tatiana let it fall into disrepair after Jesse’s death since she has no live biological offspring to leave it to; Grace is adopted. The conversation reminds Lucie of her meeting with Jesse the night before and his comment about death surrounding them. Just then, she realizes the lake’s surface seems to be darkening. Sensing a demon’s appearance, Lucie whispers to Cordelia to reach out for her legendary sword, Cortana. By the time Cordelia unsheathes Cortana, the demon has risen out of the lake and attacked Piers Wentworth, a young Shadowhunter. Cordelia runs towards Piers, but by the time she reaches him, the demon disappears, leaving Piers badly injured. The picnic breaks up. Reviving Piers is proving difficult, since healing runes cannot treat demon venom (runes are magic marks that Shadowhunters apply to objects or even their own bodies).

When James reaches the group, Barbara Lightwood asks him if he sensed something before the attack, since he “can see things other people can’t” (123). To James’s shock, Barbara reveals that she, too, was pulled into the demon realm on the night of the ball, where she glimpsed him. More demons appear on the edge of Regent Park, an unexpected occurrence, as demons usually cannot tolerate broad daylight. The Shadowhunters launch into battle with the creatures, invoking angelic names to activate their seraph blades. Cordelia wields Cortana, fighting off as many demons as she can. James kills a demon who has seized Barbara’s leg. Despite the Shadowhunters’ fierce resistance, Barbara and Ariadne Bridgestock, the daughter of Inquisitor Bridgestock (an Inquisitor is analogous to a modern-day prosecuting attorney) are also badly injured. The demons vanish, leaving behind a trail of terror.