Throne of Glass

At the Yulemas ceremony, children dressed as gods bring gifts to members of the congregation; whoever receives a gift is said to be blessed by that particular god for the coming year. The child dressed as Farnor, God of War, gives a miniature sword to Duke Perrington. A girl dressed as Deanna, Goddess of the Hunt and Maidens, gives Celaena a golden arrow. Celaena tries to pass the gift to Chaol, but he insists that she keep it. Celaena notices that he looks at her differently. 

Philippa dresses Celaena extravagantly for the masquerade, and Celaena feels “like a princess” in her crystal-embellished gown and mask with pearls woven through her hair (284). Philippa then helps Celaena pretend that she is late to meet Dorian at the ball to bypass Celaena’s guards. 

Dorian is astonished to see Celaena enter the ball: She is “something out of a dream […] in which he was not a spoiled young prince, but a king” (288). Chaol whisks Celaena away from the entrance while everyone is staring at her. Dorian decides he’d better stay out of their conversation, which is sure to be unpleasant.

Chaol scolds Celaena for disobeying his order to stay away from the ball but agrees to let her stay if she behaves. Celaena picks a good vantage point to keep an eye on the entire room. After an uneventful hour, Celaena is ashamed to have ever suspected Nehemia, and worries that Chaol will be harsh on the guards she tricked. Nehemia says a terse hello, and Celaena is still unconvinced of Nehemia’s guilt or innocence.

Celaena asks Chaol to dance, but he refuses on the grounds that Perrington might see them. Chaol isn’t dancing with anyone else, excusing himself as not an eligible bachelor, but Captain of the Guard. Admiring Chaol’s “strength, honor, and loyalty,” Celaena tells Chaol that he is “better than everyone in here” (293). Dorian asks Celaena to dance. Chaol objects, but Dorian insists, and whirls Celaena away while Chaol stalks off to find a drink. 

Dorian is completely entranced by Celaena as they dance the night away. Chaol worries that while Dorian is in love with her, Celaena’s feelings for Dorian are not as strong. Kaltain, furious, watches Dorian dance with “Lady Lillian.” She rebuffs Perrington’s advances and feels a headache coming on.

At three o’ clock, Celaena decides it is safe to leave the ball. She slips away while Dorian gets a drink, only to find Dorian already waiting at her rooms when she arrives. Dorian kisses Celaena passionately. Celaena finally breaks the kiss and says goodnight, but then heads to her balcony, elated by the kiss and the night in general. Chaol, standing below Celaena’s balcony, watches Celaena sway in the moonlight and knows that she is thinking of Dorian, not him. 

The next morning, Dorian visits Celaena and things are awkward but sweet between them after the kiss. Dorian is shocked and saddened by Celaena’s whipping scars, revealed by the low back of her nightgown.

Kaltain walks through the palace greenhouse with Perrington. Her head throbs as Perrington’s black ring pulses on his finger. Perrington tells Kaltain that “Lady Lillian” is really Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan’s Assassin, and that he and Kaltain must protect Dorian from her. Perrington suggests that when the competitors toast at the final duel, Kaltain poison Celaena’s wine to incapacitate her during the fight—a plan the King supports. Kaltain is reluctant to kill Celaena, but agrees, still hoping to win Dorian for herself.

Celaena is up late studying Wyrdmarks. The Wyrdmarks at the murder scenes summon a creature called the ridderak, which grants its summoner the strength of victims of human sacrifice. Celaena deduces that the murderer is using Wyrdmarks to open Wyrdgates and summon the ridderak to dispatch the competitors. Nehemia could be capable of the murders if they somehow facilitated open rebellion against the King, but Celaena can’t draw a clear connection from the rebellion to the competition. As every murder has taken place “within two days of a Test” (310), there is likely to be a murder that night. Celaena heads into the secret passageway to investigate.

At the three arches, Celaena takes the right-most portal that led to Elena’s tomb and notices new footprints in the tunnel. At the bottom of a staircase, Celaena finds Cain chanting in a guttural language before a room of darkness.

Cain has been sacrificing the other competitors to the ridderak in order to steal their strength. The ridderak appears. It’s a horrible fanged humanoid creature with backward-bending knees and hairless grey skin. Although Celaena was not the intended sacrifice that night, Cain tells her “this opportunity is too good to waste” (313). Cain shoves Celaena into the room with the ridderak and runs away. Celaena remembers Elena’s message and realizes that the tomb is down the right passageway. Dodging the ridderak’s attack, she runs for the tomb. There, she recovers Damaris, Gavin’s legendary sword, and uses it to slay the ridderak, though it bites her hand in the fight. Celaena retreats to her bedroom, bleeding heavily. Waiting in Celaena’s room is Nehemia, who covers Celaena’s arms in Wyrdmarks, bathes Celaena’s wounds, and chants over her. Celaena passes out.

Hours later, Celaena comes to and finds her ridderak wound completely healed. Celaena tells Nehemia who she really is and about the competition to be King’s Champion. Nehemia is appalled that Celaena would consider working for the King of Adarlan, but Celaena insists that her only other choice was to die in Endovier, and that she hates the idea of being the King’s personal assassin, as he is “the man who destroyed everything I loved” (320). As a symbol of their renewed friendship, Nehemia gives Celaena the Eyllwe name Elentiya, meaning “Spirit That Could Not Be Broken” and draws an invisible mark on Celaena’s forehead (321).

The next morning, Chaol notices that Celaena seems quiet, but Celaena doesn’t tell him about Cain or ridderak. Celaena fears that Chaol will find out about her secret escape route, and she convinces herself that there is no danger now that the ridderak is dead—she assumes that this creature was the evil Elena told her to destroy. Chaol warns Celaena to be smart about her budding relationship with Dorian, for both of their sakes. They banter playfully after training, but run into the King of Adarlan, who has returned to Rifthold at last.