Red Queen

Mare feels betrayed by the sight of Cal, who now looks “every inch a future king, Silver to the bone.” As Mare seethes, the king calls for Queenstrial to begin. A man named Lord Provos uses his telky powers to move the entire structure of the Spiral Garden until the center is a deep cylinder open to the sky, all the lords elevated high above it to look down upon whatever sinister spectacle is to take place below. A shield of electricity forms between the onlookers and the arena below.

Mare wonders what could possibly appear below that would require such a shield. A tiny girl runs out, stares at Cal, and then knocks the head off a statue with one slap. House Rhambos, her family, shouts, “Strongarm,” and the girl whirls around, wreaking destruction in the arena. Mare thinks, “So this is a pageant.”

As Mare watches Silver noble after Silver noble—a greeny who grows plants instantly, a nymph who shoots water, an oblivion who explodes everything she touches, and more—showcase their talents with the hope of winning the prince’s hand, Mare realizes that the Silvers have been doing this for hundreds of years. They are stronger than she ever feared.

Finally, a noble girl named Evangeline, of House Samos, enters the arena. She appears to be a favorite to win even though she does not look very impressive. Mare realizes that she is witnessing “A hierarchy within the hierarchy,” and that the Queenstrial is meant to show the Silver subjects their place: the king can handpick anyone he wants to win the tournament.

As Evangeline demonstrates her power as a magnetron who can control metal, she brings metal pipes up through the floor of the arena and then makes the entire box tip toward the center. Plates and glasses fall over the rail onto the lightning shield. Suddenly, something crashes into Mare and sends her, too, over the rail. She is sure she is about to be killed upon contact with the shield, but she only sees sparks. She feels them too, but they do not feel bad. Even as Mare’s clothes burn away, the shield seems unable to harm her. It begins to splinter and give off black smoke. Finally, she falls through.

Evangeline, scared, sends “a flurry of metal shards” toward Mare. Without knowing what she is doing, Mare shoots back lightning and makes the shards fall to the ground. Everyone, including Evangeline and Cal, stares at Mare, agape.

The king yells for the sentinels to seize Mare. Her years of experience as a thief tell her that now is the time to run. She finds an antechamber into the palace hall, but there are cameras all over the walls that thwart her slipping away into a hiding place. She keeps running from the sentinels. As she stares out a window of diamondglass at the inaccessible forest beyond, she feels a blast of heat from behind. “Strong arms” capture her. She tries to use her newfound powers to shock her captor, but nothing happens. Flames and smoke press in on her. Just before she passes out, she hears Cal’s voice say, “I’m sorry.”