58 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah J. MaasThrone of Glass
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
After two weeks, the group arrives in Rifthold. As Celaena sees Rifthold’s glass castle, she recalls seeing it for the first time as a child. She still finds it to be “tasteless, a waste of resources and talent” (34). Chaol notices Celaena’s apprehension as they approach Rifthold: She still doesn’t know who betrayed her, leading to her arrest and sentencing to Endovier. Celaena tells Chaol about the abuses she suffered at Endovier, but he doesn’t respond. That night, Celaena has a nightmare about the mass graves at Endovier, and resolves to win the competition and her freedom, wanting to “never again have anything to do with the rise and fall of kingdoms” (37).
As Dorian watches Celaena staring at the glass castle, he struggles to reconcile her beauty with her reputation as a deadly and dangerous assassin.
Chapter 7 Summary
As Dorian’s entourage parades through Rifthold, Celaena notes the disparity between the luxurious storefronts and the wretchedness of the enslaved prisoners of war who work at the docks. Celaena hates the implication that she is part of the royal family’s inner circle and longs to tell the crowds how she “freed almost two hundred slaves from the Pirate Lord” several years before (41). Celaena’s quarters are in the older part of the castle, which to Celaena’s relief is made of stone and not glass.
Celaena’s chamber is heavily guarded. She cases the room, noting that she could use billiard cues from her gaming room as weapons. Philippa Spindlehead, Celaena’s lady-in-waiting, explains that only she and the guards know Celaena’s assassin identity—most assume Celaena is simply “another lady-friend of the prince” (46), referring to Dorian’s reputation as a ladies’ man.
Dorian meets with the King. He resembles his father much less than his younger brother Hollin, a violent and spoiled child who is away at boarding school. The King is displeased with Dorian’s choice of Champion, as Dorian expected. The King warns Dorian not to trust Celaena. Perrington’s Champion, Cain, will be a fierce competitor, but Dorian insists Celaena will win the tournament. The King scolds Dorian for his romantic affairs and cautions him against developing feelings for Celaena. When Dorian replies petulantly, the King strikes Dorian across the face, demanding total obedience. Dorian storms out.
Chapter 8 Summary
Celaena convinces Chaol to give her a tour of Rifthold, secretly researching possible escape routes. In a garden, she sees a clock tower featuring many gargoyles tolls ominously. Celaena notices that one of the gargoyles points to a mark carved into the courtyard tiles—later revealed to be a Wyrdmark, a kind of rune—and feels the gargoyle watching her as they walk away.
The doors to the castle’s library are carved with four-legged dragons, unlike the royal seal, which features a wyvern, a bipedal dragon with wings. Enchanted by the thought of shelves full of books, Celaena wonders how much of the Great Library in Terrasen the King of Adarlan destroyed a decade ago. Celaena is not allowed to borrow the library books—they are the property of the King. Celaena writes a playful letter to Dorian asking for permission to read the books. Dorian sends Celaena a stack of books with a note inviting her to borrow as many as she likes. He hopes that they will discuss their reading together.
The next morning, Celaena overhears the Lady Kaltain Rompier talking to her ladies-in-waiting. Kaltain complains that Duke Perrington is courting her, preventing Kaltain from developing a relationship with Dorian. When Kaltain wonders who the mysterious “harlot” (60) who arrived in Rifthold with the prince could be, Celaena pushes a plant from her balcony to crash near Kaltain below.
Chapter 9 Summary
When Celaena admires herself in the mirror, Philippa suggests that Celaena could “ensnare some lord into marriage” easily if she weren’t an assassin (62). Celaena expresses her frustration that the court assumes her to be Dorian’s lover, but Philippa assures her that the rumor is better than having Celaena’s true identity revealed. Chaol hurries Celaena out of her rooms to an audience with the King. This meeting will mark to official beginning of the competition. Celaena regrets wearing such a lavish dress. She is visibly nervous about seeing the King for the first time since the trial that sent her to Endovier, but Chaol reassures her. Before they enter the throne room, Chaol compliments Celaena, saying, “You look rather pretty today” (65).
Chapter 10 Summary
Celaena and Chaol join Dorian, the other noblemen, and their respective Champions. Celaena sizes up her competitors, noting that they’d “been picked for muscles, not brains” (68). The King explains the rules of the tournament, which are secret from the rest of the court: The 23 competitors will train and be tested once a week for 13 weeks. Some competitors are expected to die, and any of them may be eliminated at any time for any reason. After Yulemas—Adarlan’s primary winter holiday—the four remaining competitors will duel for the title of Champion. The King plans to be away from Rifthold until the final duel. Dorian interrupts to announce his departure, purposefully annoying his father. Once Chaol and Celaena catch up, Dorian teases them, to Celaena’s amusement.
Celaena’s cover story is the alias Lillian Gordaina, a jewel thief and the daughter of a wealthy merchant from Bellhaven who met Dorian while attempting to rob him. They discuss Perrington’s champion Cain: Celaena is confident she can outpace him, and Dorian laughs that Cain “won’t expect to be trounced by a beautiful lady” (72). Lady Kaltain arrives, her jealousy over “Lillian’s” supposed friendship with the prince barely concealed. After Dorian and Kaltain depart separately, Chaol notes that Perrington’s seeming interest in Kaltain stems from her father’s wealth. Celaena mocks insipid women like Kaltain; she and Chaol banter before Celaena returns to her chambers.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
In Rifthold, the novel introduces the primary setting of the story, which establishes the King’s true nature. Although the King is away from Rifthold for the majority of the novel, Maas uses his presence in these chapters to establish a mood of danger and suspicion at Rifthold. The glass castle of Rifthold embodies the man’s arrogance and brutality: Only someone sure of his safety would build with such fragile material. The ominous clock tower, meanwhile, points to the King’s destruction of magical knowledge, characterizing him as purely evil—an alignment confirmed by the comparison of the King’s terrifying wyvern sigil, which alludes to the King’s conquest of Erilea, with the four-legged dragons on the library doors, which position books and knowledge as the forces of good. When she encounters him in the throne room, Celaena is overwhelmed by her hatred for the man who “destroyed cultures, destroyed invaluable knowledge, destroyed so much of what had once been bright and good” (69). Finally, the King’s cruelty is apparent in his violent confrontation with Dorian, beating his son for a perceived minor slight.
In these chapters, the novel develops its two male protagonists. Dorian has yet to directly challenge the King, instead indulging in low-stakes undermining of his father’s authority. Dorian’s petulance is immature, but his sense of his father’s wickedness shows his potential for growth. Meanwhile, Celaena challenges Chaol’s rigid moral sensibilities, comparing politicians to assassins: “Despite your visions of a perfect world under an empire, your rulers and politicians are quick to destroy each other. So are assassins, I suppose” (35). Chaol will eventually agree with this parallel, seeing that the law he upholds as the Captain of the Guard stems from an immoral king.
Celaena continues to deny her destiny even as she recognizes the true extent of the King’s violence. Outside of Rifthold, Celaena declares to “never again have anything to do with the rise and fall of kingdoms” (37), yet her first thought upon entering Rifthold is how she might help the enslaved laborers at the dock. Celaena’s contradictory personality gives her character depth: Maas allows her heroine to behave admirably—pursuing knowledge, showing kindness to Philippa—and unpleasantly—dropping the plant on Kaltain, snapping at Chaol. Newly sprung from Endovier, Celaena as still far from becoming a benevolent leader.
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By Sarah J. Maas
