Cally wakes up to find Elena’s ghost in her room.  She does, at least, try and pull a makeshift knife on her before realizing she’s a ghost, so I guess we can mark this down as a ‘competent’ day for Cally instead of a ‘teenager’ day.

Elena is there to say that she has to win the competition, to which Cally says “yeah, duh, was already doing that, kthxbai.”  Elena offers another bit of advice.

“Look to your right. You’ll find the answers there.”

Celaena looked to her right, but all she saw was the tapestry that concealed the tomb.

So, all the answers are in the tomb?  Or perhaps there’s hidden meaning in the tapestry?  We still don’t know what it shows besides Elena.

Oh, well, guess we’re not going to wonder on that right now, time to skip to the next day. There’s yet another stupid test.

It had been over two weeks since Samhuinn, and while she’d passed yet another Test

While technically three weeks is ‘over’ two weeks, that’s still a slip that should have been caught in the editing.

another Champion had been found dead just two days ago.

…the one we were looking at last chapter, or are we talking about a seventh guy?  This is really sloppy.

Back to the current test.  They have to identify poisons hidden in various drinks and arrange them from most to least deadly, then drink the one they thought was ‘least’ deadly.  Cally identifies five of the seven, but gets stumped on the last two with the time limit running out.  She looks over and notices Pelor (Mr “I do poisons”) considering the same two mystery glasses, then she notices he’s on her right and so she figures that Elena was telling her to copy him.  GEE, THANKS GHOST LADY.  IT’S NOT LIKE SHE COULDN’T HAVE FIGURED THAT OUT ON HER OWN.  In fact, Cally did look over and notice Pelor’s answer (and, presumably, that she could cheat off that) before she remembered Elena’s comment.  All Elena did was take the element of risk and suspense out of things.  What little we had to begin with.

I really, really, really hate Elena right now.  Not because she’s a bad character, since she’s not any kind of character, but simply because she’s so entirely pointless.  The only thing that damn ghost has added to the story is plot holes, because everything she’s told Cally is either something Cally was already doing or something Cally would have done anyway.

Time runs out and all the Champions have to drink their ‘least deadly’ choices.  Only Cally and Pelor have labeled plain old wine as least deadly, so everyone else gets sick.

And, yes, Elena was looking out for her—but that didn’t change anything.

Even the book itself is quick to point out how useless Elena is.

Even if Elena had told her how to win the Test.

Elena didn’t tell you that; you had already figured out you should copy Pelor and all Elena did was make you more sure of your choice.  Which is really cheap, since Ms World’s Best Assassin should be adept at copying people and knowing who to copy and such.  Imitation from social cues is how you sneak into places.

Later, Cally and Nemmy go for a walk.  We’re told that they’ve been exchanging language lessons, but they’ve forgone that for this evening.  Nemmy wants to know what’s bothering Cally, and her concern is really touching to Cally since she hasn’t had a friend in ages.

Uh, slave mines?  Other prisoners treating your wounds and caring for you?  That one lady who got raped to death for daring to help you out?  What, they’re not a fucking princess so you’re not going to get choked up over that?  Fuck you, Cally.

They move on to talk of some play that’s going on, and Nemmy wants Cally to join her and be all friendly and stuff, but of course Cally can’t.  Although I don’t see why not.  Apparently she’s allowed to wander around the halls at her pleasure, so what would stop her from wandering into a play? 

While I might have been a little distant with Georgina at first, I realized that it might be in Eyllwe’s best interest if I make more of an effort. So, I’ve been speaking with her for some weeks now, hoping to make her aware of how we might improve our relations.

I’m sorry, I’m still busy scratching my head and wondering why you weren’t operating from this assumption to start with. 

Much like Cally’s investigative skills, no amount of backpedaling will help here because it will only serve to remind me that they should have been doing these things and asking these questions from the start.

They end up walking to the kennels.

“Are we allowed to be here?”

Nehemia straightened. “I am Princess of Eyllwe,” she said. “I can go wherever I please.”

You’re a guest in the home of a hostile monarch who has soldiers in your country.  No, you do not have full run of the entire damn place, you entitled brat.

There, they run across Dorian who is sitting with a litter of mutt puppies.  They’ve been mentioned before; his favorite dog whelped them and he’s sad they didn’t turn out to be purebred.  One of the pups is off in a corner and ‘disdainful’ and won’t come near anyone else.  Considering it’s still young enough to need nursing, I find that highly suspect.  Dorian says it’ll have to be put down, to which Cally throws a hissy fit.

I’m on Dorian’s side.  These are all working dogs, and it’s not like they can release the dog to go feral, because then it’ll be a feral dog.  Those are dangerous.  Keeping it around when it won’t do anything means wasting food, and if it is antisocial then there’s the risk of it attacking someone.  The only option is to have someone kind enough take it in, but that would require someone with the space and resources to keep a non-working, unsocial animal.  Those people are in short supply in a palace, aka a bunch of people shoved into not enough space.  (Official definition, really. /sarcasm)

“If its spirit is strange,” Nehemia offered, “it would be a burden.”

“A burden to whom?”

TO THE PERSON WHO HAS TO FEED AND CARE FOR IT, DUH.

But Cally throws such a fit that Dorian promises to find someone to burden it with.

Look, I’m not advocating for animal cruelty.  Today, in modern times, of course you don’t put dogs down just because they’re not as sweet as you want.  But that’s today, in modern times.  We are, right now, as rich and lazy as we’ve ever been in history.  We have time, space, and resources like we’ve never had before.  We have the luxury of leisure and hobbies.  Giving food to an animal that does nothing but be an animal is something we can afford to do because we are fucking rich on a global and historical scale.  We should share that wealth with the helpless creatures that are in our care; it’s the right thing to do.

And while it wouldn’t break a palace in the past to keep one useless dog, it would be burdensome to do that as a policy. 

But don’t bother this book with practicalities.  It would rather spend page time on Cally going gooey over Dorian’s promise.

As Cally and Nemmy leave, Nemmy does everything but start singing “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

After they part ways, Cally walks back to her room while thinking about running away again.  She comes across Cain quite suddenly, and he’s acting quite strangely.  He’s clutching at his throat and acting like he’s choking, then he runs away.  Cally notices he’s got a weird black ring, and that he keeps getting bigger and bigger.

She sent messages to Nox and Pelor, not explaining why, but just telling them to stay in their chambers that night and not open the door for anyone.

Wow.  Stellar work, there.  Don’t tell Chaol or anything, no.  Hell, don’t even tell your own readers what you think. 

She knows that something weird and possibly magical is going on, she knows that there’s a ‘great evil’ in the palace, and now she knows that Cain is highly suspicious and going through something probably magical.  And yet we don’t know if she realizes all of this or if she’s following her usual practice of ‘ignore the clues and hold out for something that explains stuff outright and in detail.’

Drinking Game Count:  Epithets – 13, Bragging – 1, Exclamation Marks – 3

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