Divine Rivals

On the train to the front, Iris meets another war correspondent for the Inkridden Tribune: Thea Attwood, or Attie. Attie reveals that she became a war correspondent to prove an old professor wrong; the man claimed that she would never be published because she “lacked originality and conviction” (117). She now pays for his Inkridden Tribune subscription so that he will receive the articles she plans to write from the war front.

Iris and Attie arrive in Avalon Bluff late at night. The town is eerily silent, and during their walk, they see no evidence of the local residents. They locate the bed-and-breakfast that Helena Hammond instructed them to find, where they meet the kind owner, Marisol Torres. Marisol prepares hot cocoa and dinner for both girls and reveals that the war rages only 80 kilometers away. At night, the town experiences attacks from Dacre’s hounds, and during the day, his eithrals attack the area.

Marisol also instructs them on the three types of sirens. A continuous siren at night means that residents have just three minutes to hide all signs of life from Dacre’s incoming hounds. A continuous siren during the day means they have two minutes to prepare for his flying eithrals, which will drop bombs on any areas showing signs of movement. An intermittent siren at any point means that residents must evacuate immediately, for it indicates that the front lines are retreating and the war is drawing closer. With the threat of sirens hanging over them, the girls choose their rooms and settle in for the night.

When Iris can’t sleep, she tests her theory that the Alouette typewriter connects her to the mystery correspondent. Her theory is proven right when her letter disappears and his response appears minutes later. Iris tells him of becoming a war correspondent, and he promises to locate the second half of the Dacre and Enva myth for her.

Iris and Attie visit the local infirmary. While Attie busies herself with gathering facts and stories from wounded soldiers, Iris plays a card game with a female soldier named Prairie, who is about her age. Although Prairie does not speak to reporters, she asks Iris to write a letter to her sister. After transcribing Prairie’s letter, Iris spends the rest of her visit writing letters for other soldiers in the infirmary. Iris wonders why Forest never wrote to her despite his promise, and she begins to worry that he might be dead. Iris sends out a letter describing Forest and asking about his whereabouts and status.

Later, Iris types out the handwritten letters from the infirmary and sends them to her mystery correspondent, asking him to mail them to the included addresses. He has found the latter half of the Dacre and Enva myth, which tells of how the goddess used her music to lull Dacre’s court to sleep several times. This ruse gave her the time she needed to memorize the layout of his realm below. The knowledge also gave her Skyward family the advantage in a battle against the Underlings. As a result of his defeat, Dacre took his rage out on the mortals, and Enva returned to the realm below to lull him into a century-long sleep as retribution. The myth makes Iris wonder if Enva had ever been buried and asleep at all, or if she’d only lulled the four remaining gods to sleep and has since roamed the world in secret.

In their further correspondence, Roman reveals that his typewriter also has a silver plaque proclaiming it to be the second Alouette and confirming Iris’s theory about her connection to the mystery correspondent. Iris begins telling him the history of the Alouettes, but suddenly, the sirens sound, indicating the approach of Dacre’s hounds. Iris, Attie, and Marisol spend the night bunking in Marisol’s bedroom with a flashlight and a gun as the hounds stalk the streets outside their windows.

Roman worries over Iris’s abrupt goodbye, sensing that something terrible has happened. His nan guesses that he has been using her typewriter to correspond with Iris, the granddaughter of her old friend Daisy Winnow. She encourages him to make his own choices separate from his father’s plans for him, and urges him to chase Iris if he wishes to. When he returns to his room, he is relieved to find a response from Iris reassuring him that she’s safe.

Iris, Attie, and Marisol tend to the garden at the bed-and-breakfast the following day. Marisol looks after the garden while her wife, Keegan, is away fighting in the war for Enva. Later that night, Iris writes to her mystery correspondent, asking if he’d ever like to meet her. Roman replies with an affirmative, coaxing a smile from her. Iris also receives a letter from an army official that indicates Forest’s last whereabouts and advises her to inquire with the commanding officer of the E Brigade in Halethorpe.

Iris asks for her mystery correspondent’s name, and instead of revealing his identity, Roman instead gives her his middle name, Carver. He relates Iris’s name to the verb iris, which means “to make iridescent” (159). Iris writes a letter to the commanding officer of the E Brigade, inquiring about Forest.

Roman is unable to focus at work. He worries over Iris’s potential reaction once she discovers his true identity, but he also recognizes that such a truth must be revealed in person. One day, his father visits him at work to inform him of an arranged lunch with Elinor. Roman suffers through an uncomfortable interaction with Elinor, who leaves the meal early. On his return to the Gazette, he notices a crowd hovering around the Inkridden Tribune, where the front-page headline is an article that Iris has written about the war. He is proud of her; inspired by her brave words, he decides that he is “ready to write his own story” (170).

A truck arrives in Avalon Bluff, transporting several wounded soldiers to the infirmary. The carnage makes Iris nauseous, and she witnesses several deaths while she, Attie, and Marisol help doctors with the influx of patients. The captain in attendance offers to take a war correspondent to the front for a week. After flipping a coin, Attie goes with the captain. Iris writes to Carver after the chaos at the infirmary and admits that she doubts her own bravery and strength. She is afraid that she will not be able to adequately describe the reality of the war in her writing, but Roman assures her that the opposite is true.

Attie returns from the war front, and she and Iris have a heart-to-heart talk. Iris reveals the secret of her magical typewriter and talks about Carver, for whom she is beginning to have romantic feelings. In turn, Attie reveals her history of playing the violin. She relates that when all the stringed instruments were confiscated following Enva’s use of a harp to call soldiers to war, her father hid Attie’s violin in the wall. She continued to play in secret, all the while becoming angry at Enva for stealing “so many of [their] people, compelling them to fight in a war hundreds of kilometers away” (176) and for stealing Attie’s dreams of someday playing in the symphony. She admits to becoming a war correspondent to learn the truth about the war and now understands that Enva was right to call for help, because without the soldiers from Oath, Dacre would have already won. Attie believes that more people need to join the war to defeat Dacre, but in order for that to happen, people must first learn the truth. The only way to spread the truth is for her and Iris to write about it. Meanwhile, Carver writes to Iris, informing her that he will not be able to respond to her letters for an unforeseen amount of time.

While Marisol helps in the infirmary kitchen, Iris and Attie plant the seeds in her garden. As they’re working, the eithral siren sounds. The girls rush inside, but Iris catches sight of a person moving in the distance. Iris retrieves Attie’s binoculars and is shocked to discover that the person is Roman Kitt. Worried that his continued movement will draw the eithrals to drop a bomb on Avalon Bluff, she sprints across the field and tackles him to the ground, instructing him not to move as the eithrals pass overhead.

After the danger passes, Roman divulges that he quit the Gazette to become a war correspondent for the Inkridden Tribune. He also broke off his engagement to Elinor. Iris escorts Roman to Marisol’s and introduces him to Attie, whom he already knows by name. He produces a copy of the Inkridden Tribune, on which Attie’s article on the front lines is the headline. Roman gifts Iris a different edition, on which her article about the war graces the front page. He tells her of the impact that her article had, not only on Zeb at the Gazette but also on the citizens of Oath. Roman then meets Marisol, who settles him into the room next to Iris’s.

Roman is late for breakfast the following morning after going on a long-distance run. Later that evening, he knocks on Iris’s door as she drafts a letter to Carver. Roman invites her to run with him in the morning. Once he departs, she trashes the half-written letter to Carver, deciding to wait until he reaches out before writing him again. Iris meets Roman for a run the next morning.

Carver eventually writes Iris and tells her about a dream that he had of her. Iris answers, sharing the news that her old work rival has arrived at the war front to cause trouble. Later, as Attie and Iris water the garden, Roman finishes his letter to Iris and finally reveals that he is Carver. He delivers the letter just as the captain comes to Marisol’s bed-and-breakfast to take Iris to the front lines. Roman insists on accompanying them, despite the fact that the truck only has one empty seat. Iris has no time to read the letter from Carver that she finds on her floor, so she slips it into her bag to read later. Roman worries about the letter’s confession and does not want Iris to read it while she is at the front.