Mare goes back to her room, still all a twitter that the king gave a rousing speech right after the attacks instead of…cowering. Really, everything about this bit of drama makes Mare look especially silly and short-sighted. Maybe if she’d witnessed some extreme contingency plan put in place or some people plotting to kill all Reds, this would make sense, but…a speech? What did you expect?

She’s worried about Kilorn, so she goes to see Julian, figuring he’s a smart guy and he’ll know what to do.

“Or is this about the four terrorists currently locked in the cells of this structure?” Julian presses on, measuring my response. “Excuse me, I mean three. Ptolemus Samos certainly lives up to his reputation.”

“They’re not terrorists,” I reply calmly, trying to keep myself in check.

“Shall I show you the definition of terrorism, Mare?” His tone stings. “Their cause might be just, but their methods …

While technically Julian is correct about definitions and such, CONTEXT STILL FUCKING MATTERS. Blowing up the oppressive caste because they keep murdering your kids but literally will not pay attention to anything other than bombs? Vastly different situation from what most lay people think of as terrorism. And arguing about literal definitions when the word has this much baggage attached to it is just a derailing tactic that would rather focus on semantics than on actual usage.

Also I fucking hate that ellipsis. It’s another tactic, a way for books to kind of vaguely hint at things they don’t want to out-and-out say. “Hm, if I actually follow through with this thought, it kind of sounds like I’m saying the oppressed people should just lay down and accept fate. But I know that’s a bad thing to say. Instead of actually examining this line, I’m just going to stop before the bad parts and let it hang there.”

It’s a sly trick to both avoid conclusions and yet at the same time lead the reader into making said conclusion for you.

Mare begs him to use his mind control powers to let the prisoners escape. When he balks, she says that she’s one of them and she’ll be found out when they’re interrogated. That makes Julian go on a soliloquy about how his sister was murdered even though it was called a suicide and he figures this is as good a time as any to start fighting back over that.

Um, no, the first time she asked you would be a good time for that. Now that she’s made it personal, it’s pretty clear that you don’t care about the plight of the Reds or the rebellion or revenge, you’re just doing it so Mare can keep being all un-dead-ed.

They work out a plan, and the first part of that plan is convincing Lucas to escort her to the kitchen when she claims she just wants to go get some dinner.

I glance at the cameras in the hall, making them die off. Here we go.

Girl, if you don’t stop blinking the cameras off every time you feel like it, people are going to figure this out. There’s only so many people in the palace who can magic those things into ‘off,’ and you’re already under suspicion to start with.

Why do they not seem to understand that conveniently broken cameras are suspicious and not a get-out-of-surveillance-free card?

They run into Julian, and we get to see how his powers work. Apparently the eye contact thing is just to establish control, because after he orders Lucas to take them to the prisoners, Lucas remains in a trance the rest of the way and even follows subsequent orders. Also Julian can order people to forget stuff? That’s pretty powerful. Or convenient, take your pick.

At each turn I wait for the feel of electric eyes, shutting off everything in our path. Julian does the same to the guards, forcing them not to remember us as we pass. Together, we make an unbeatable team

Together you make a fucking black hole. The whole place is on alert, and once people escape they will be even more focused on this area, so the big glaring nothingness that will show up right here is actually a neon arrow pointing to your own involvement.

They reach the prisoners and the guards demand to know their business. Mare tries to pull a haughty “I’m a princess how dare you question me” thing, but thankfully the guards are too smart to be cowed by that. Although I am wondering how Mare thought that would work. Earlier in the book she chafes at being “trapped” here in the palace and it would make sense that the guards are supposed to keep her from doing anything like escape, but then also she thinks she can throw her weight around like a real royal? Her position in this society is really confusing.

Mare convinces them to let her have some private time, hinting it’s for questioning and pain causing purposes, so the guards leave. I don’t know why Julian didn’t just order them to forget anything they see, since they can now confirm Mare’s involvement. I mean, it’s still pretty obvious from the magic-using, but if you’re going to go through the effort of concealing your trip down here, why stop once you arrive?

Before letting them out, Mare asks about the bomb, and all the rebels point out that it would have been very stupid of them to do that so obviously they didn’t do it.

Mind-controlled Lucas opens the cell, and then they call down the other guards one at a time so Julian can erase memories and put them to sleep. But the final two guards get suspicious of this whole “one of you at a time come down here” thing and both come down together. At least we finally learn that Julian cannot mind-control two people at once and that’s why they didn’t put everyone under to start with.

There’s a brief fight, and Mare shocks the other two into unconsciousness but also gets shot in the process. Luckily one of the guards was a healer and Julian can mind control her into healing Mare. I can’t tell if that’s more or less convenient than having her not get injured in the first place.

She stares at the fallen Sentinels, jaw agape. “Are they dead?” she asks, whispering like a frightened child. Julian looks up from Pig-Eyes, finished singing to him. “Hardly. This lot will be awake in a few hours

Um, Mare shocked them into unconsciousness. I really hope Julian is saying he’s mind-controlling them to stay asleep longer, because otherwise they’re in some serious medical danger. In fact, they might be anyway, I’m not really sure what’s involved in being shocked until you pass out. Although, much like with head bashing, it still involves doing damage to the body. We’re not really designed to pass out if we’re hale.

I’m guessing the author is basing this power off stun guns, or more accurately, Hollywood stun guns. In reality, stun guns do not make someone pass out. The electrical current will “scramble” their thoughts and make them disoriented, as well as causing their muscles to seize uncontrollably. This immobilizes them until they can be subdued in a more lasting manner, such as with handcuffs or other restraints. Most of the time this effect fades soon after the shock is over, and the victim returns to normal, albeit with sore muscles, pain, exhaustion, and possibly trouble thinking for a while.

Mind you this is with a precisely controlled device that only delivers short bursts. Now, Mare says that she’s controlling her electricity carefully when she shocks these guards, but how does she know how much a body can handle? She hasn’t been practicing on bodies, she’s been practicing on stone bookcases that inexplicably explode on contact. And since she’s made these people pass out, they’ve probably got a lot more damage than your average stun gun. Other fun side effects of electrocution include: severe muscle damage and tearing, BURNT ORGANS, internal burn damage in general, brain damage. Also remember that the diaphragm and heart are muscles, too. Electricity causes muscles to seize. You really don’t want those two muscles to seize up, because then you die.

Electricity! Not something you want to play around with.

Well, they get the escaped prisoners the rest of the way through the palace on send them on into the night. Before they go, Walsh says she hopes Mare becomes queen…I guess because she’d be a good figurehead? Literally every conversation about her usefulness to the cause has been PR-based. “Hey, look, a Red with powers, we’re upsetting the known order of things!” So I’m not sure why having her be queen would be worth anything except more pointing and symbolism. She certainly hasn’t shown any propensity for leadership. And why do they want a queen at all? The monarchy system has done nothing but crush them, so is Walsh hoping that the system stays in place, and something happens to Cal so Mare and Maven are rulers? Because if the system gets upended, then either there’s no monarchy or they get to start the monarchy over, in which case there’s no reason to follow preexisting line of succession.

And then there’s some mild shippy stuff with Kilorn and Mare, and then everyone runs away. Good riddance.