The maelstrom inside the Portal was almost a relief. Clary went last through the shining doorway, after the other four had stepped through, and she let the cold darkness take her like water pulling her down and under, stealing the breath from her lungs, making her forget everything but the clamor and the falling.

…that…sounds very unpleasant.  If that was a “relief,” what was it a relief from?  I mean, just before this we had the whole bantering argument about who should go, but that doesn’t seem bad enough to call this a “relief.”

They land in the Fairy Court and wander around for a bit, until they orient themselves and locate the Big Main Something Room.

Glamour runes

God, can you just give up and admit that you’re casting spells?  I don’t think you’re even trying anymore.

We get an exacting description of every single white thing in the Big White Room, and then move on to the Queen talking to one of her underlings, who is…apparently some sort of death diety?

“The Wild Hunt comes when the ravens of the battlefield scream for blood: We gather our riders from among the dying.

“As you know, Bob…”

But, anyway, this guy Gwyn says they weren’t at the Citadel battle because they don’t like to reap the souls of dead special people.

The Queen says she’s going to give Mark (kid captured way back in the prologue) to the While Hunt whatevers and then casually mentions Jonathan as an ally.  And despite pretty much spelling it out for us, the narration takes some time to spell it out even more, just in case someone missed all the “subtle hints.”

Apparently the queen wants these Wild Hunt folks to come to the next battle and do something unspecific to the bodies afterwards, but Meliorn comes in to interrupt that conversation.  Meliorn noticed Clary and her bunch, so they all jump out of hiding and start flinging around accusations, mostly at Meliorn, asking how he can be on the council and swear fealty he clearly didn’t mean when fairies can’t lie.

Meliorn is only half fairy, so, interesting news.

“If you touch the Queen of the Seelie Court, the Fair Folk will be ranged against you for all time.”

As opposed to how fucking friendly you are right now?

Alec strode forward, already notching another arrow to his bow.

Is that really a good idea when he’s only like two feet in front of you?

Oh.  And then Alec murders him in cold blood.  Um…this is an interesting turn of events.

The queen screams at this and fairies start running for the Big White Room, but they don’t get there fast enough to beat Clary putting some blocking spell on the door.  She doesn’t lock the other doorway, the one Meliorn came from, because his shoes are covered in pitch so she thinks the path to Edom is that way.

They demand the Queen’s help getting the hostages back, but she says she can’t because they aren’t in her realm so she has no control over them.  So they demand passage Edom instead, or else Alec will shoot her, so she goes along with that.  She seems entirely too pleased about this turn of events, although it is a demon realm, maybe she just thinks they’ll be attacked and killed there.

“I really, really hate to say this,” Simon said […] “but that kind of seemed too easy.”

“That wasn’t easy,” Clary whispered back.

Uh….you showed up and shot someone and said “gimme” and she did.  What was hard?  Well, the shooting part may have been, but it was straightforward at least.