Elantris 62: Sarene, Hrathen, Raoden and Dilaf

Sarene has a chat with Hrathen, wondering at his change of heart but not learning much. Then Fjon, the priest Hrathen expelled when he arrived in Arelon, turns up out of nowhere and sticks a sword in Hrathen. Turns out he ended up being trained as an assassin. So that's the end of Hrathen. Then Dilaf turns up.

Meanwhile back in Arelon Raoden finishes healing people and then decides he has to teleport to Teod to rescue Sarene. At least he's surprised she got there so fast, I was beginning to think it was only me. Anyway it's really dangerous to teleport without typing in the correct distance, and this is where Adien finally comes in handy: he know exactly how many steps it is! Also since becoming an Elantrian he has regained is full mental faculties.

Raoden turns up just in the nick of time to save Sarene but he only slows Dilaf down. He can't teleport them home because the magic is weak this far from home. Dilaf has hundreds of monks attack them. Just in the nick of time Galladon turns up with hundreds of Elantrians. The Elantrians win but Dilaf escapes to attack Sarene's father. Raoden pursues and fights Dilaf but is injured. Just in the nick of time Sarene turns up to help but she gets injured, too. Just in the nick of time Hrathen, who is apparently not dead and has a bionic arm, turns up and snaps Dilaf's neck with his bionic arm before dropping dead for real this time.

Just in the nick of time Galladon shows up and heals Raoden and Sarene. They live happily ever after.

Elantris 61: Hrathen, Raoden, Lukel, Sarene, Galladon and Dilaf

Dilaf is about to stick his dagger into Sarene's neck, but Hrathen has finally had enough. He's realised he's a baddie, and doesn't want to continue. So he punches Dilaf in the face and fights off another ninja monk and grabs Sarene and runs off. It turns out the superhuman ninja monks are not as formindable when they don't have the element of surprise and you do, and when you know what you are dealing with and its weak spots, and when you are wearing armour that looks like ceremonial armour but is in fact real armour.

Hrathen and Sarene make their escape.

Meanwhile Lukas and family are watching as the Fjordells set fire to the Elantrians and Raoden is climbing back out of the lake, becuase luckilky it doesn't dissolve you unless you want to be dissolved, and Raoden has changed his mind. He goes running off down the hill and Galladon and Karata follow. They realise Raoden must be doing something important so they fight off some guards who would otherwise have stopped him. Karata gets her head chopped off and Galladon gets a sword stuck in him.

Just in the nick of time Raoden draws the right Aon in the right place and reboots the Elantrian Magic Machine, complete with a cinematic light show. Hurray! The Elantrians now turn into proper Elantrians and instantly heal. It's probably too late for poor Karata, though. Raoden goes into the city and tells the Fjordells to leave within the hour.

None of this is going to help Sarene much, because she is in another city still on the run. And Dilaf is in pursuit.

Elantris 60: Galladon, Lukel, Hrathen and Raoden

It turns out Galladon and Karata are nearby lurking in the shadows and they have been watching in horror. But all they can do is carry Raoden to the lake. There's no hope from anyone else in Elantris, either, because Galladon has seen that everyone there is already Hoed.

Meanwhile Kiin and his family are being marched off to Elantris with all the other nobles to be burned.

To be honest, this was always going to happen. Arelon had a warlike neighbour invading every nearby country and didn't even bother to maintain a decent military to defend itself. This is why pacifism doesn't work: sometimes the war comes to you. They had an effective defense in the form of Elantrian technology, but when that stopped working they didn't replace it with anything.

Aiden is counting the steps to Elantris. This has to be significant. I thought it was significant when we first found out that Kiin had an autistic son: he's either going to turn out to have some superpower or else some great insight that will kickstart the magic.

Sarene, Hrathen, Dilaf and some of the superhuman monks teleport to Teoras. Where did that ability come from? It's pretty expensive because, like all good dark magic, it requires a human sacrifice, but still, you'd think someone would have mentioned it. Or be more surprised if it had been kept a secret. Maybe I wasn't paying attention.

Dilaf is doing that other bad guy thing of smugly assuming he has already won; that Arelon and Elantris have already been defeated. But he's not in Arelon any more so anything could be happening there and probably is.

Galladon tries to give up hope but can't. He's carrying Raoden to the pool. He's just watched all his friends get hacked to pieces. Even I'm stuggling to figure out what hope there might be, though.

Aiden continues to mumble numbers, Sanderson tells us yet again. HINT HINT WINK WINK. Most of the super monks have teleported away so it's mostly just regular soldiers guarding the prisoners. Dilaf really is doing dumb bad guy stuff. Lukel is planning to start fihgting back and Shuden is there too but it's going to take more than two guys.

-----

Dilaf has a heart to heart with Hrathen. It turns out that his girlfriend was the legendary woman whose healing was botched once. That's why he has such a chip on his shoulder about Elantris. Dilaf is 70 years old but looks 20. Hrathen was confused earlier about why he seemed so wily for one so young. Probably we could have figured out he was a super monk back then.

Galladon and Karata reach the lake. They are going to wait a minute then kill Raoden and themselves in the lake. Something needs to happen soon to stop them.

Lukel watches as soldiers make a pile of Elantrian bodies. It turns out Aiden is an Elantrian and Kiin and family have been keeping this a secret for years. A soldier wounds him and Aiden goes and joins the pile of Elantrians. That would seem to rule out Aiden somehow saving everyone. Unless he can do some Elantrian magic at the last minute.

Hrathen and Dilaf realise they were at the monastery together, and Dilaf was in charge even back then. Hrathen left after Dilaf used a human sacrifice to teleport himself the distance of a short walk. Will Hrathen stand up to Dilaf now? Will it do any good? Wryn's ships have arrived and the Teo ships are all docked so Dilaf thinks he has won again.

Raoden, who has been dreaming, has a vision of his namesake Aon and realises it is the same shape as Elantris and the four surounding cities. He has a Eureka moment but we will have to wait and see what it is.

Lukel watches soldiers pour oil over the Hoed Elantrians.

Dilaf and Hrathen go to see Eventeo with Sarene. Dilaf decides to kill her in front of her father.

Raoden knows the answer. But we don't! And now it is too late because Raoden is in the pool! Argh! Can he do something in the last few seconds before he disappears?

Elantris 59: Raoden, Sarene and Hrathen

Raoden finds himself slung over the back of a horse and taken off to Kiin's house to lure Sarene out. He's not in a good way. He's been hit on the head and he's in a lot of pain and is dizzy. Which means he's going to be in a lot of pain and dizzy forever, magical miracle rescue notwithstanding.

Sarene is determined not to put her family at risk to save Raoden, but thinks the least she can do is go to the roof to see him and say goodbye. Unfortunately Dilaf and his ninjas overcome Kiin's moat and they scale the walls and snatch Sarene and family right off the roof.

Dilaf phones up Sarene's dad and tells him he's holding his daughter hostage. Dilaf tells him he's about to pay him a visit by private jet (or some other fast travel system, presumably, because I don't see how else he can get to Teoras in one hour. Nobody seems surprised by this but perhaps they are distracted by the ultimatum: surrender or the girl gets it. Dilaf then does the typical bad guy thing and explains the whole plan: kill the royal family and sink the ships, then use Teod as a demonstration of power.

Dilaf sticks his sword into Raoden's belly and Raoden is now Hoed. Turns out this isn't quite as bad as it might have been, since he does at least lose conciousness.

Dilaf orders his men to take all the people to Elantris and burn everytone.

It's not looking good, is it? Galladon or someone had better have someting up their sleeve.

Elantris 58: Raoden, Sarene and Hrathen

Raoden is back in Roial's house. Shouldn't he be at the palace now? Anyway, he wakes to the sound of fighting in the city, and what's worse, Dilaf in his house with a bunch of demon soldiers. It looks like these are superhuman ninja priests with armoured bare chests. They fight off Raoden's guards without getting scratched and capture Raoden.

-----

Sarene is out arranging deliveries of weapons to Elantris because they're concerned about upcoming unrest due to Raoden becoming king. Little does she know she's about to be attacked by marauding superhuman ninja monks. The demons are running around slaughtering everyone in sight. The see Sarene. Her coachman is killed. She makes a run for Kiin's house but is caught.

Luckily, it turns out that Kiin is more of a total badass than his friendly merchant-chef persona lets on. Kiin the axe wielding hero actually manages to kill one of the monsters, though it takes a lot of effort. They escape to his house where all their friends are hiding (including Shuden and the previously missing Torena) and collapse the bridge. We finally learn why Sarene's dad doesn't like his brother: it turns out Eventeo stole the throne from his older brother while Kiin was off partying. So Kiin became the pirate Dreok Crushedthroat and learnt very useful fighting skills in the process.

Presumably Sarene is about to start worrying about Raoden but the viewpoint changes to Hrathen, who is learning all about Dilaf. It turns out Hrathen also went to the Dakhor monastery where monks are given potions to transform their bodies and give them superhuman abilities (dark magic I expect rather pre-dates Shu-Dereth, as that book Sarene found would no doubt explain), but Hrathen dropped out.

Dilaf did not drop out. He became a super-human ninja monk and has been hiding out in Arelon for decades preparing for the invasion. He also outranks Hrathen because he is a gradget, in charge of the Dakhor monastery. This rather explains his previous insolence. Hrathen's only purpose was to serve as a distraction. The real aim is to kill everyone in Arelon and wipe out the Elantrians forever.

Uh-oh.

The only hope now is for someone in Elantris to switch the magic back up to full power and use it to fight back. Who can do it? No-one in Elantris is as good at Aon magic as Raoden (although he sent Galladon back to teach people about AonDor and we don't know what has been happening there lately; hopefully someone there turns out to be a natural magician once given the opportunity). Raoden is captured. Can he use his magic to escape?

Elantris 57: Hrathen

We see the coronation scene from Hrathen's point of view. Hrathen is at first miffed that Sarene has managed to get people to accept some impostor. Then he is miffed that the people accept the Elantrian Raoden. Hrathen figures out that Raoden has been in Elantris all along.

Hrathen once again questions his own strategy. He's so full of doubt, this guy! It's a wonder he achieved anything.

He follows Dilaf into the city and finds out that Wryns army of ninja priests is already here. The invasion is starting early, presumably triggered by Telrii's insolence at asking to be a gyorn.

Elantris 54: Hrathen

Here we go. Hrathen doesn't believe Raoden has returned and assumes it's a rumour spread by Sarene. He goes to see Telrii but he turns out to be busy being overthrown. Eondel and his soldiers are fighting the city guards. Eondel chops off Telrii's head and collapses himself. The bloody change in power is under way.

I expect the change in power is done and dusted, or will be soon. Now Raoden and Sarene can take the throne and live happily ever after. And restore Elantris to its former glory. And fight off Fjorden hordes. But probably not in that order.

Elantris 51: Hrathen

Hrathen wanders the market and spots an arteth going into a tent. He follows, annoyed that arteths are wandering the market when they are supposed to be praying. It turns out to be Dilaf, who is very disrespectful. I say again: what is the point of a strict hierarchical structure if you can't just have your underlings' heads chopped off if they so much as look at you funny? Dilaf is claiming some sort of victory and Hrathen is left wondering what it is.

Oh, we also learn that Wryn is not going to make Telrii a gyorn (because he's a foreigner). So that means he either converts (and the whole country converts with him) or else Wryn will attack with ninja priests. Or possibly Telrii will be overthrown by Sarene and Raoden just in time for them to be attacked by Wryn. We'd better hope the Elantrian magic is back up to full strength by then.

Elantris 48: Hrathen

Hrathen is annoyed that he is not being shown enough courtesy by the king he helped crown. But no big deal, he's going to pay the king more Fjorden money and eventually render him powerless. Except Telrii doesn't want money. He wants to be a gyorn just like Hrathen, and he's written to the supreme ruler of the universe Wryn to demand that it be so.

Hrathen thinks that this is a bit preposterous and presumably assumes that Wryn will just send armies to kill everyone who doesn't convert. That all of his efforts to take Araluen peacefully have been in vain. I suspect Wryn will play along for a while longer, though.

Hrathen is dazed. Probably he should have seen it coming; Telrii is supposedly not all that smart. I guess he's the Donald Trump of kings: not caring about convention and doing what he wants, which is both vulgar and surprising.

Elantris 45: Hrathen

Hrathen is wandering the Elantris walls again. He finds the hole but decides not to report it. The Elantrians aren't too much of a worry to him.

Now Telrii is king, his plan is to continue to ply him with money to get him increasingly indebted to Fjorden, thus undermining his power. Sounds plausible, since Telrii is greedy and easily manipulated.

We find out that Hrathen is worried about Sarene and wants her to live. That's a turn up for the books. I was assuming he thought throwing her in Elantris would get rid of her. Why does he want her alive? Her father phones him up and somewhat answers that question. Seems like he is going to pretend to have Jaddeth save her in return for her father, the king of Teod, converting to Shu-Dereth.

So he's going to claim credit for that. Interesting.

Elantris 42: Hrathen

Hrathen is feeling smug. Dilaf is under control. Telrii will be king within the week. He's got 6 weeks before the deadline to take the country without force. I'm willing to bet he's wrong on all counts and things are soon going to start going very wrong for him.

Elantris 39: Hrathen

The shortest chapter ever mainly confirms that Sarene was poisoned.

Elantris 36: Hrathen

Hrathen nearly dies of thirst but then the poison wears off. Miraculously he is rescued from Elantris by one of the few remaining guards (the rest being off with Telrii). The people are pretty impressed. Dilaf is pretty impressed (but not impressed enough). Even Hrathen is pretty impressed that the plan worked, and is putting it down to the work of his god, Jaddeth.

In Hrathen's absence, Dilaf had been trying to get into his secret box containing his seon and the poison. The seon says no-one had successfully opened the box, though.

The next day Hrathen hires an assassin, giving him the last of the poison. What will he ask the assassin to do? Poison Dilaf?

Elantris 33: Hrathen

On the night of the lunar eclipse Hrathen stops praying and meditating and eats his food. He somehow needs to avoid being seen to be dependent on food before he gets better and miraculously emerges from Elantris.

Elantris 30: Hrathen

Hrathen appears to have been taken by the Shaod, but it's probably just that poison he drank. He stays by the gates and prays to his god, Jaddeth. Perhaps the idea is that the poison will wear off and people will see that Jaddeth has performed a miracle.

Elantris 27: Hrathen

Hrathen mopes about a lot because all his plans are failing and he is losing his religion. Then his delivery of poison turns up. He was going to give the poison to Dilaf but drinks it himself. Presumably it is not fatal. There is a lot of talk about the poison having very specific effects. My guess is it makes you look like an Elantrian.

Elantris 24: Hrathen

Telrii is not pleased about Sarene making the Elantrians look harmless. Hrathen convinces him not to worry because she has countered the wrong scheme and the king losing all his money will be enough. He appears not to know that she is working on solving that problem, too.

Hrathen figures out that Dilaf is a lot more old, clever and devious than he had thought. He is also having a religous crisis.

Elantris 21: Hrathen

Hrathen continues to be useless. He tries to offer the position of head arteth to someone who just refuses. What's the point of a tyrannical hierarchy if people can refuse things? He tries to send Dilaf away on a mission where he will be less annoying, but Dilaf threatens to take half of Hrathen's supporters with him, since it turns out they're Dilaf's supporters, not Hrathen's. There are some fundamentally flawed limitations to this tyrannical hierarchy, it would seem.

Hrathen gives some money to a suspicious looking beggar, possibly to sow seeds of support. He goes to the walls of Elantris, where Omin, the leader of the rival religion, points out that Hrathen appears to be losing his faith.

Elantris 18: Hrathen

Hrathen interrogates an Elantrian and still doesn't manage to figure out that he's hungry because he doesn't have access to any food. How hard is this leap of logic? The Shaod affects appetite by affecting the metabolism? Really?

Dilaf then manages to screw up by nearly burning the Elantrian alive in front of the congregation. Hrathen is pissed off but Dilaf gives him a load of backchat and storms off in a huff. Hrathen really is taking far too much shit from this guy. What's the point of a rigid hierarchical chain of command if you can't get your subordinates to do as they're told without question?

Hrathen preaches about how the other religion shows the Elantrian devils too much mercy. Throwing them in a prison city with no food is supposed to be merciful?

Hrathen phones up his drug dealer for a fix but there's a two week lead time. That's gotta hurt.

Elantris 15: Hrathen

Telrii is getting cold feet and meets up with Hrathen during his nightly stroll on top of the walls of Elantris. He's worried about how Duladel fell, with all the nobility being killed. Hrathen says there won't be a revolution, instead Fjorden can send in enough military might to just take over (and, presumably, spare friendly nobles). To support this he points out how weak Araluen's military is (I think we've all figured that out by now) and mentions that Fjorden has the armies of various conquered countries at its disposal.

What Hrathen doesn't tell Telrii is that they also have a secret order of combat monks and assassin monks being trained in the Dakhor Monastery.

There's also more talk of the news the king received tonight, whatever that is. Also Hrathen agrees to fund Telrii to pay his soldiers more, so that the city guard will hear about it and will be more likely to defect.

Hrathen hears the gates close: that'll be Raoden and friends coming back from their trip to the palace. He arranges to borrow an Elantrian for study.