The Stolen Heir

The guards gag and bind Wren, leaving Oak free as they escort the pair to Lady Nore’s throne room. Sitting beside Lady Nore is the troll king, Hurclaw, who has allied with her to break the curse of The Stone Forest. Lady Nore asks Oak about Mellith’s heart, and he shocks Wren by stating he has “brought Mellith’s heart” (291); this statement should be impossible since “[he] cannot lie any more than the rest of [the fae]” (291). They plan to meet Tiernan on the edge of Lady Nore’s lands tomorrow night, to exchange Madoc for the reliquary (with the decoy deer heart).

Lady Nore removes Wren’s gag, but before she can speak, her mother forces a petal into her mouth, which urges Wren to speak, to renounce her control. Wren bites down on the petal and refuses to speak. Lady Nore attempts to bribe her to renounce control by offering a human glamour. Wren briefly entertains the idea, but ultimately spits at Lady Nore. In anger, Lady Nore cuts out her tongue and orders her to be escorted to the dungeon.

Wren is shocked to discover Hyacinthe is the guard escorting her to the dungeon. He places her in a cell beside Madoc and whispers that he’ll help her escape. She passes out, and when she comes to, she eavesdrops on a conversation between Oak and Madoc. Madoc asks Oak how Wren will react to his deception and urges him to kill Wren before she does. Oak refuses, and when the conversation ebbs, Wren makes a show of waking up. She wonders what Oak lied about.

Madoc claims that if it weren’t for Hurclaw’s presence, he could have recruited the falcon-soldiers and taken over the Ice Needle Citadel. He jokes that Wren must want the Citadel for herself, but she does not. Madoc addresses her passivity and tells her to “[stop] waiting” and “[sink] those pretty teeth into something” (306). She finds a key in her soup bowl, left by Hyacinthe, and once Oak and Madoc fall asleep, she unlocks her cell and sneaks to the throne room. Wren finds a piece of Mab’s bone on the floor and places it in her mouth, hoping its power of creation will regrow her tongue. Her chest “split, like a fissure opening in a glacier. The herd knot of [her] magic […] splits completely apart” (310), and she passes out. She wakes in the throne room, with her tongue intact. Remembering Madoc’s advice, Wren decides to stay and fight. She allows herself to be recaptured by Lady Nore’s guards.

Wren is brought to Lady Nore’s room where she finally commands her mother to do her bidding. She orders Lady Nore to instruct the guards to retrieve Oak. She and Oak—as well as Lady Nore, Hurclaw, Bogdana, Madoc, and several guards—leave to meet with Tiernan. On the way, Oak says he owes Wren an explanation, but only after things are settled. She urges him to tell her now, but he refuses.

The group waits for Tiernan to arrive. When a soldier returns with the reliquary (with the decoy deer heart), Lady Nore skirts around the bounds of Wren’s earlier command and makes a passive-aggressive statement implying Wren’s control over her. Hurclaw orders his soldiers to attack Wren and her allies while he seeks the reliquary. Upon opening it, he’s hit with a poison mechanism.

The two sides battle and Lady Nore insists that despite Oak’s scheme, he did bring Mellith’s heart. Wren suddenly recalls memories of another life when Bogdana was her mother. She realizes Bogdana placed Mellith’s heart in her chest when she created her, and Oak has known since their visit to the Thistlewitch. She uses Mellith’s magic to dismantle Lady Nore’s creatures. Bogdana confesses she was cursed with the inability to harm Mab’s line, and “only Mellith could end [her] curse, but [she] could not give her new life without being asked to do so” (329). Wren wishes Lady Nore dead, and she is unmade in an instant. She frees Bogdana and feeds Hurclaw an antidote for his poisoning before breaking his curse. Enraged at Oak’s betrayal, she orders him on his knees. Oak does so, thinking this is another game with low stakes. Wren allows Tiernan and Madoc to leave, but commands Oak to stay. She places the golden bridle on him; fearful, he urges his companions to leave, because “[he] told Wren [he] wouldn’t leave without her” (332). She allows Hyacinthe to leave with Tiernan and Madoc, but he chooses to stay with her.

On the way back to the Ice Needle Citadel, Bogdana advises Wren about next steps, but she refuses to take her advice. She breaks the curse of the remaining falcon-soldiers, who swear fealty to her in gratitude and fear. She visits the prison where Oak stays. He begs Wren to speak with him, but she is fearful of “[being] under his spell again” (335). She flees, leaving him screaming her name.