The Lies of Locke Lamora

A young Jean is working hard at his training with Don Maranzalla. The Don shows him a variety of weapons and asks Jean to try them out. After going through a few, the Don hands Jean a pair of weighted hatchets. Jean immediately takes to them.

Jean is waiting in the river channel underneath the Echo Hole and, after overhearing some of the fight, sees the casket fall. Bug, who was hiding in the main room, jumps down after the casket. Jean instructs Bug to start attacking the top of the casket. However, before they’re able to let Locke free, a swarm of salt devils, a type of enormous venomous spider, rushes toward them. Salt devils aren’t aggressive, and they believe the swarm may be the work of the Bondsmage.

Jean uses his weighted hatchets, that he calls the Wicked Sisters, to kill the salt devils. He and Bug break open the casket and remove Locke. He’s in bad shape, but he’s still alive. Jean rows them back through the canals to the Temple of Perelandro. When they enter, Locke notices that the illumination of the temple walls is too dim. They immediately discover that the kitchen has been completely trashed—as has the rest of their home. Calo and Galdo’s bodies lie beside the Masque Box. Jean, Bug, and Locke are horrified and grief-stricken.

Near the bodies, there is a severed human hand with Jean’s name stitched into it. One of the Gray King’s men appears at the end of the entrance hall with a crossbow pointed at Bug. Locke tries to bribe him, to no avail. Bug tries to defeat him with an Orphan’s Twist, or a small packet of spices, but the man shoots him in the neck. Locke stuns the man and runs to Bug. Locke says that it’s all his fault, and that his pride led to this disaster. Bug says that it’s justified because he’s a Gentleman Bastard, not just an apprentice. Locke agrees, sobbing, and Bug dies.

Locke holds him, grieving, until he hears Jean in the next room. Jean was paralyzed by the Bondsmage’s magic, run through the severed hand. Locke tells Jean to get all the lamp oil they have, and he drags the three bodies into the kitchen. Locke promises them a death-offering “that will make the gods themselves take notice. [...] This I swear to Chains, who kept us safe. I beg your forgiveness that I failed to do the same” (474). Jean returns with the lamp oil. Locke tells the Gray King’s man that he’ll kill the Gray King, the Bondsmage, and everyone who works for him. Locke and Jean set the temple on fire, with the Gray King and the three bodies in it. They escape through the temple door.

In a Camorri fable about two friends, one was a handball player, and the other was a referee. The referee judged a handball game in his friend was played. The friend scored a goal, but the ball was on the goal line, not over it. The referee determined that it was not a legitimate goal and a riot broke out. The two friends didn’t speak again for over 30 years. The referee left Camorr, and when he came back, he ran into his old friend. His friend stabbed him in the stomach and threw him into the sea, proclaiming, “Not across the line, my ass” (481). To people outside of Camorr, this proves that Camorri are crazy. To Camorri, it’s a reminder not to put off revenge, and to have a long memory.

Locke and Jean steal a boat and set off down a canal. Locke blames himself for what happened, and Jean asks him to snap out of it; Locke needs to be the Thorn of Camorr for them to take the Gray King down. Locke starts to think about where The Gray King and the rest of his men might be. He realizes that they might be after Capa Barsavi, who’s probably throwing a revel to celebrate murdering the Gray King.

Locke is right about the revel. The Floating Grave is open to all, and Locke sneaks in with the remnants of his disguise. Barsavi invites the Berangias Sisters to throw a teeth show inside an artificial pool in the Floating Grave. The sisters prepare to fight, and a shark appears. They declare that they are dedicating the upcoming death to Capa Barsavi. “Well does he deserve it,” says one of the sisters (491). Everyone expects this to mean the shark’s death, but when the shark leaps out of the pool, it attacks Capa Barsavi.

Chaos ensues; the Berangias Sisters kill Barsavi’s sons, and the shark tears off Barsavi’s limbs. The Gray King steps forward, and Locke realizes that he looks almost exactly like the Sisters; they must be siblings. The Gray King declares that Barsavi’s reign as Capa is over, and that he’ll be the new Capa. He asks the crowd to call him Capa Raza and to swear their allegiance to him. Many gangs in the crowd do, and Locke realizes that Capa Raza has been killing off gang leaders while making deals with their subordinates. Locke leaves the Floating Grave, swearing revenge. He wanders to find Jean, but he is so weak that he falls and passes out.

Meanwhile, an enormous ship named the Satisfaction arrives in Camorr’s Old Harbor. It’s a plague ship, and the watchmen on duty don’t allow it to dock; it instead remains floating in the old harbor.

A young Jean travels to Revelation House, a temple to Aza Guilla, the goddess of death, to become an initiate. Revelation House is carved from an enormous cliff that overlooks the Iron Sea, and initiates and priests risk death every time they travel from room to room. Jean arrives and says that his name is Tavrin Callas. Jean dons the uniform of the order, wearing robes and the silver mask of Aza Guilla: “For initiates, it bore a crude resemblance to a human face [...] for initiates, it was a slightly ovoid hemisphere of fine silver mesh” (512). As a part of his training, Jean is poisoned and begins to accidentally reveal parts of his identity. The priests mistake this for a revelation from the goddess and invite him to advance in the order. Jean makes his escape that night, leaving a letter that says Tavrin Callas has decided to seek communion with the goddess by jumping off the cliff.

Jean returns to the Bastards and Calo asks Jean if he thinks the priests may have been right about him being meant to serve Aza Guilla. Jean pulls out his training hatchet and says he might very well be, though in a different way.