We open the chapter to find out that Shan and Quen have both given fake excuses to leave court, when in fact they’re out to kidnap Sandry.  Shan so he can marry her, and Quen so that he can help Shan into the disgrace he so clearly seeks.  After all, with Shan married and out of the way, Quen would become favorite again.

And then we spend several pages with Shan and Quen talking about his plan, so as to be sure that it’s no surprise at all to the reader when it actually comes to pass.  Um…yay?  It’s not like we’re even learning anything else in the process.  Shan loses his charming veneer, speaks his misogyny more boldly, but…that just serves to make him more two-dimensional, and also this is attitudes we could have guessed well enough from the last scene he was in.  Weird. 

Back in Dancrun, Tris is pushing the limits of her healing trying to walk around, because she’s stubborn like that.  I’m not sure why she thinks walking before she’s ready will make her able to ride sooner, instead of making her recovery take longer.  While scolding her for that, Ealaga says that Ishabal and Berenene have gone to a hunting lodge by the boarder “for relaxation,” which they both know is a bald-faced lie.

If there’s one thing rulers hate, it’s disrespect.  That and the possibility that people might think they’re weak if it looks like someone has defied their will.

You know, for all I like the politics-based conflict in this book, it gives the impression that it doesn’t really understand how feudal systems work.

See, the only reason any king, queen, empress, emperor, duke, etc is in charge is because people let them.  Granted, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but basically the system only works because everyone agrees to let it work.  A king is no more than someone saying “I’m in charge” and everyone else saying “yeah, that works for me.”  After all, they’re not inherently better or deserving of the position, so if someone comes by and manages to usurp the throne, the heavens and earth aren’t going to collide in revolt or anything. 

Which means that of course a ruler hates disrespect.  It’s not a matter of being just so arrogant and entitled.  (Well, that might be part of it, but still.)  Disrespect means someone isn’t acknowledging your authority, and when enough people stop saying “yeah, that works for me” that’s when you get civil war.  You have to punish people who stop respecting the position because being lax in that regard is inviting more people to think that you can be overthrown.  Respect for authority is actually very important to keeping order and peace, it’s not just a matter of an adult-flavored hissy fit.

Well, it’s important if you want to keep a feudal system, at least.  If you don’t, then bring on the political cartoons.  Vive la révolution!

Back to the story.  Tris informs the reader that most borders have magical walls for protection, but they’re not up all the time because that would take too much magic.  I think a bigger concern would be the fact that country borders change from generation to generation, especially for countries that are always at work like Namorn is.  Tris assumes that Ishabal and Berenene are going to raise the border magic to keep the others from leaving, but they’re too far apart for her to warn her siblings of that.

So she decides to pack up and ride out to them, even though she can barely walk.

Well, at least she means to only get close enough to talk to them, not actually catch up to them.  Ambros comes while she’s getting ready and decides he’s going with her, because frankly, she does need help.

Back with Sandry’s group, everyone’s irritated because the road is crowded thanks to an annual horse faire.  They can’t stay at their planned inn, because it’s full up, but the innkeeper directs them to another inn that’s off the main highway and should be less crowded.  Zhegorz keeps shouting about all the things he sees – silks, brocades, swords – but because that could mean anything in this crowd, people keep ignoring him.

Which would be really good except for one thing: we already saw Shan and Quen planning this!  We know he paid the innkeeper to suggest that other inn, we know he’s got his people there to set the trap, we already know!  Having Zhegorz try and drum up some tension does nothing here since there’s nothing to be confused about!

Although, it does mean we get to feel as frustrated as Zhegorz clearly is when people keep refusing to listen to him.  On the other hand, I think we would have gotten the message clear enough still without that other scene.  Zhegorz isn’t exactly subtle.  As evidenced by the kids explaining away his every concern, there are explanations, but this is a book.  We know we wouldn’t be wasting page time on this if he wasn’t right.

Later that night, everyone turns in to be early, but Briar can’t sleep despite being extremely tired.  Turns out everyone’s tired from a sleep spell, and since that was one thing Briar encountered during his war, that just makes him antsy-pantsy and have a flashback instead of putting him all the way to sleep like it’s supposed to.  Which, frankly, is such an awesome way to get around that sort of spell.  I love the way it shows the variety and nuances in how magic can affect a person, it lets Briar get around the effects without being completely exempt and special, and it shows him still carrying the effects of his trauma with him.  Plus, it’s a great bit of “every plan is perfect until you add humans into the mix.”  A lot of people tend to forget when making plans that you really can’t prepare for everything, and the most random things will change everything.  Human beings are immensely variable.

The only problem with this scene is that it didn’t happen in Battle Magic.  *fumes*

Anyway, Briar wakes up and goes to find Sandry’s been kidnapped, and her bed has a mega-sleep-spell on it, to keep her out longer than the general spell that was put on the rest of the household.  He wakes up Daja with magic, and they go off to look for Sandry, but they run into Quen instead.  He keeps them paralyzed in the kitchen in a spell of his own design, then sticks around to brag about it because he’s got nothing better to do. Can’t leave and keep up the spell, after all, but that’s okay because his only job was to keep anyone from going after Sandry.

Since they can’t move to talk, Briar and Daja re-open their telepathy, which is I think the first time in this book that doing that made sense to me.  It’s finally a situation that justifies an on-off switch like that.  Working together, they manage to break Quen’s spells using magic mumbo jumbo that only makes sense if you’ve read the book.  Just…it works.  😛  Then they put Quen in a trap of his own and cut off his connection to all the other spells he’s got active, including the sleep spell on Sandry.

We switch over to her as she wakes up, and she plays asleep long enough to make sure she’s got full control of herself before she gets righteously pissed off.  Since she was supposed to be knocked out, the guards didn’t take much care, and she starts magicking their clothes before they know it.  It’s handy to have magic with a material that everyone keeps all over themselves. 😛 By the time she’s done with them, all their clothes have come undone and then been remade into cocoons, keeping everyone tied up tight, and Sandry just rides away after yelling at Shan once more.

A few days later, we switch to Berenene, who has just gotten report of all that.  She’s upset because it’s going to look really, really bad.

“I’m sure the Yanjingyi emperor will see it just that way!” retorted Berenene.  “No, Isha, I cannot afford even the appearance of weakness.

Which…yeah, she is the leader of a country at war, surrounded by people who would love to take power from her, even people in her own country, which is large and divisive to begin with.  That’s a valid point.  She can’t look like a bunch of kids thumbed their nose at her, or else it could mean inviting attacks from other sources.  Now, she’s pretty awesome, so she’ll probably manage it anyway, but “managing” at that level means at least a few peons are going to deal with pain and suffering along the way.

I can’t really say I blame Sandry for anything she’s done, because she’s young and human and hurt, and of course she’s going to be focused on just getting out of there and not on doing it quietly and trying to save face.  But…this does kind of put a dent in everyone’s claims of “oh, she’s so good at politics, she’ll do great if Duke Verdis makes her his heir.”  Granted, she’s got time to mature and learn, I just kind of wish the book would point this out instead of continually acting as if Berenene is overreacting.

Anyway, Isha thinks they should try and give the empress some plausible deniability and says she should go try and stop the kids on her own, just in case this all fails.

Several days later, they finally reach the border, and they know perfectly well that Isha is there to stop him.  Not only do they have Zhegorz saying so (now that they listen to him) but common sense as well.  Sandry decides to send everyone else ahead, since only the three kids will be stopped and she doesn’t want Gudruny and her kids caught in anything bad that might happen.  Then they head out for the big final showdown.

The big final showdown…um, doesn’t work so well for our purposes.  I mean, it’s a great bit of writing, because Tamora Peirce does descriptions of magical workings really well, but in summary…then smashed the wall.  Basically.  It’s only impressive in the details and the writing, because the overall conclusion is that they smashed the wall.

When they’re done smashing it, Isha is spent and weak, but they tell her that Tris is only a day behind them and she’d better not try anything.  In fact, even though Tris doesn’t want revenge, they threaten Isha.

No sense letting her – letting nay of them – relax, he told the girls firmly.  We don’t want them forgetting this day anytime soon.

So…when you use power and threats to ensure compliance, it’s just, and when Berenene does it, you pitch a fit?

They meet up with Tris on the other side of the border and stay a few days at an inn to recover.  At this point, everyone needles Sandry a bit more for leaving her people behind, because it’s time to wrap up this little subplot at last.

Sandry finally gives in, and before they leave the inn, she calls in an advocate/lawyer and transfers all of her inheritance to Ambros, making him the sole liege lord of all her Namorn holdings, which means he can finally do all the things that he wasn’t able to as a steward.

Now, I actually really like this solution.  It wraps everything up nicely and humbles Sandry a little bit and shows off some good sense.  But.  The build-up to it was so bungled.  Everyone has been pushing her toward this action the entire book, but they did it without every suggesting it.  No one ever talked about it.  Until this moment, readers weren’t even aware that this sort of thing was possible.  Which makes it feel like the cast was in on the book’s ending this whole time and just left us out of the loop.  It all makes sense in retrospect, but at the time, it made everyone else look like assholes.  If there had been any note of confusion or frustration earlier, any options offered, any sort of “man, this sucks, are you sure we can’t figure something out?” basically anything other than them needling Sandry without offering a solution, this would have been fine.

Instead, the author wrote the book with this ending in mind and forgot that the readers didn’t have the same notion.

But I am happy Sandry gave all her stuff to Ambros.  He’s a nice guy. He says his first act with all this newfound power will be to see about getting that forced marriage tradition outlawed.

Later, they all meet in a…magically-created mental illusion of their old house?  I don’t know.  Something magic.  Briar says he made this place when he was captured by the emperor during the war and needed to not go crazy.  (Also never happened in Battle Magic.  This book is a tease!)  They all confess what they were hiding at the start of the book and have a nice little “yay us” moment to end on.  Yay, family!