Fireborne

Lee, Cor, and Crissa rush to the armory to suit up for battle. They plan to protect the city, but in the event Julia’s squad has already attacked, they prepare for extraction. When Annie and Duck arrive, despite Annie and Lee being equal in power, Lee gives her the order to defend rather than go on the offensive. He does so to spare her the repeated trauma of witnessing the destruction of dragonfire but to their peers and to Annie, it is received as a Firstrider giving his Alternus orders. Many riders, including Power, are offended at the slight on Annie’s behalf. Annie begrudgingly accepts the order regardless.

Sitting back with Power while her peers attack forces Annie to remember Power’s earlier comment—that serfs are most comfortable serving. She vows to be “done thinking from [her] knees. It’s time to think from [her] feet” (222), and accepts Power’s offer to train separately from Lee. Meanwhile, Lee and his squad find Starved Rock island on fire and the area abandoned by enemy dragons; there are seven casualties. A survivor has a message from Julia Stormscourge for the Firstrider and the First Protector: “Consider this a taste. This was the work of three sparked dragons, but soon there will be more. We will continue until Callipolis is ours again, and the next time, we won’t be so merciful. You have until Palace Day to change your minds” (227).

In a flashback, Lee and Annie become the only children from their orphanage who score high enough on the metals test to be invited to the Choosing Ceremony. They walk through a den of dragons and though Annie is terrified, an amber Aurelian chooses her. Lee is disappointed that he is not chosen by a Stormscourge like his biological family was known for. Instead, a white Aurelian chooses him.

Annie begins training with Power. Though she doubts her ability to become Firstrider, he’s surprisingly motivating. He admires her courage in learning to ride dragons despite the fact that she watched her family get murdered by dragonfire when she was six. Power teaches Annie how to spill over—share emotions with her dragon, Aela. Lee trains with Cor and Crissa for the Firstrider Tournament in 10 days. They inform Lee that Annie is learning spillovers, but he refuses to learn it as well because he prefers to stay in control. As the days pass, Lee and Crissa privately meet for romantic trysts after their training sessions. One day, Annie discovers them embracing in an alcove and her devastated reaction reveals she cares more for Lee than even she realized.

In poetry class, Professor Tyndale reveals that the Censorship Committee has banned The Aurelian Cycle poetry tome. Before, it was banned for only lower-class metals, but now it’s being purged entirely because authorities have decided it promotes values that contradict national interests. After class, Tyndale pulls Lee aside. Power becomes suspicious and forces Annie to go back for his backpack so she may eavesdrop on their conversation. Tyndale urges Lee to reconsider his decision not to join Julia and the Triarch and insists he will be killing his own family if he does not join them. When Tyndale expresses looking forward to receiving Lee’s next letter, Lee claims he has nothing more to say to them. He runs into Annie out in the hallway, who has only heard the last portion of the conversation. She wonders if Lee’s been corresponding with Pythians. Annie determines that Tyndale is compromised, and Lee might be as well. She travels to the Inner Palace and files a single report.

Annie receives a letter from the Ministry of Propaganda the morning of the Firstrider Tournament, which she refuses to open. During their epic battle, Annie lands two penalty shots on Lee, but before she can land a third, Pallor spills over and sparks. He breathes dragonfire directly at Annie and Aela, dousing them both. Lee risks dismounting Pallor in midair to save an unconscious Annie from Aela’s back as her own dragon convulses and sparks. Lee mounts Aela and opens the coolant valves on Annie’s protective suit. When they land in the arena, Lee is forced to approach the Palace Box and accept his title as Firstrider while Annie is tended to.

Annie wakes to Lee at her bedside. Lee offers her the letter from the Ministry that she had not opened before the Firstrider Tournament. Inside is a note from Miranda encouraging Annie to show everyone what she’s made of. Annie congratulates Lee on becoming Firstrider and claims to be honored to serve him as Alternus. She also reveals that she has reported Tyndale for consorting with the Pythians, which garners Lee’s appreciation.

A few days before Palace Day, Annie is discharged from the infirmary. Lee is promoted to fleet commander, and she is promoted to Aurelian squadron leader in his place. During a class with Atreus, he admits that he was not personally wronged by Arcturus Aurelian but rather helped in many ways. However, Atreus realized that “what he did for [Atreus] personally was not enough to undo the wrongs he committed as a ruler” (287). Thus, Atreus chose to rebel and tells his pupils that as Guardians they, too, will have the burden of deciding between two evils at certain points in their careers.

Annie attends a parade planning meeting with Miranda Hane, General Holmes, Lee, Cor, and Power to discuss national security measures during the parade. After the meeting, Annie becomes courageous enough to face the truth of what happened to the Drakarch of the Far Highlands and his family. She studies a picture of Lee—Leo—and his family and reads, in detail, about what happened to his family. When she joins her peers to parade along Triumphal Way through the city, she is “sickened by the festivity around [her]” (295). She no longer considers the rebellion supporters who “understand justice only as revenge” as her people and wonders if this is how the former dragonlords thought of them (286). In the night after the parade, Annie finds Lee and reveals there’s been an attack over the Medean under the cover of the previous day’s fog, and they’ve been summoned to the Inner Palace.

The Pythians have struck the Callipolan trade fleet. With most of the year’s textile exports lost, the Minister of Agriculture fears widespread famine is in Callipolis’s near future. Atreus orders the military to begin collectivizing resources immediately. Lee and Annie are shocked by the return to traditional dragonlord methods—where the collection of resources by citizens is enforced by dragonfire. Annie offers to go on the first collections instead of Lee.