Morning Star

Months later, Darrow is trapped in a dark space, too small for him to move. He feels that this continual isolation is the worst possible fate. Without any form of human connection, he has no reason to live. Darrow has also lost faith in the Red religion.

Darrow knows that he was meant to be sent to Octavia au Lune, the Sovereign of the Society, the harsh government, to be dissected. Somehow, the Jackal persuaded her to let him keep Darrow. If Darrow says, “I am broken” (7), the Jackal promises that he can have his freedom, but it would come at the cost of his family, whom the Jackal claims to have kidnapped. Darrow chooses instead to die by suicide by slamming his head against the cell wall. Before he can do this, the top of the cell opens.

Darrow realizes that his prison was in fact a table on which the Jackal has been hosting guests. Surrounding him are the Jackal, Darrow’s old friend Cassius au Bellona, his old school rival Antonia au Julii, the Sovereign’s chief bodyguard Aja au Grimmus, and several Boneriders—the Jackal’s elite soldiers. The Jackal’s time with Darrow (revealed to have been three months of torture and nine months of isolation), is now up, and Darrow is to be taken to the Sovereign for dissection.

Cassius is disgusted by the Jackal’s treatment of Darrow, and he covers Darrow’s naked body with a cloak. The other Golds ridicule this display of honor toward Darrow, especially the Jackal, who thinks that he has inflicted a just punishment to degrade a Red who presumed to be better than Gold. Darrow is thankful for Cassius’s kindness initially, but upon realizing that he is going to be taken to be dissected, he thinks to himself that this honor is just a way to sanitize his participation in a brutal regime.

As the Golds continue to converse over Darrow, Aja brings up the Sovereign’s unease at the Jackal’s brutal suppression of Red rebellions. The Jackal has been ordering the mass slaughter of miners who voice complaints and covering this up through his control of the media. While doing this, he is spreading stories of Red terrorism to unite the colors against them. The Jackal argues that the Sovereign should consider his proposals to define other colors as members of different species.

Darrow is then taken away by Grays (the soldier caste). As they are preparing Darrow for transport, two legionnaires kill the others present. Holiday and Trigg ti Nakamura, siblings and Sons of Ares (a resistance group) operatives, tell Darrow that they are there to rescue him. Trigg gives Darrow his old Razor which now has images of those whom Darrow loves carved into the blade, a rebuke of the Gold tradition of celebrating their violent deeds. Darrow is hesitant about the siblings until Holiday calls Darrow’s old friend Sevro au Barca, who has taken up his Father’s mantle as Ares. Darrow is overjoyed to hear from his friend, who tells him that Darrow’s family is safe. The Jackal was lying when he claimed to have kidnapped them. While Darrow feels heartened, he is still too weak to move until Holiday injects him with a drug they call Snakebite, which stimulates his adrenaline.

The siblings escort Darrow out, keeping up the ruse that he is a prisoner and covering his head in a hood to hide his identity. As they enter an elevator, they come across Vixus, a Bonerider whom Darrow knew from the Institute, the school of war tactics where Darrow trained after transforming into a Gold. Vixus, not realizing that it is Darrow under the hood, begins to talk with the Nakamuras. When he mentions that Victra au Julii, one of Darrow’s closest friends, is alive and being kept nearby, Darrow reveals himself. He and the Nakamuras force Vixus to take them into Victra’s cell.

They find Victra paralyzed from the waist down because her sister shot her in the spine. They have to sedate Victra and carry her out before they can move on. Darrow then kills Vixus. After he does, the alarm goes off.

As the team tries to escape, they enter an elevator which is then redirected toward a level where a team of the Jackal’s soldiers will be waiting. Holiday and Trigg decide to move to “Plan C” and call an unknown person, telling them to prepare for secondary extraction.

When the elevator opens, Holiday employs an electromagnetic device, disabling the futuristic weapons and armor of the security team. Using simple, gunpowder weapons, Trigg and Holiday kill the squad and move on.

The rescue team then makes it outside of the base and across a bridge over a gorge. Trigg plants mines on the bridge while Darrow and Holiday await extraction. While this is happening, Darrow notices that a defensive shield has come across the sky, making an aerial rescue impossible.

Soldiers, now armed with weapons that work despite the electromagnetic device, begin firing at Darrow’s team. Trigg is pinned down in a gun duel on the bridge and both siblings take injuries. Aja then appears and attacks, killing Trigg. Darrow wants to fight Aja but is stopped by Holiday.

Cassius then arrives on the scene. Aja warns him that Darrow might try and jump into the gorge, killing himself to avoid dissection. Cassius verbally orders him not to, but with his eyes he urges Darrow to jump, hoping to spare him the torture. Darrow urges them to “listen to the bloodydamn wind” (48), as the sound of a clawDrill (used to excavate resources on Mars) becomes clearer. Darrow jumps off the ledge, bringing Holiday and Victra with him.

As they fall, a clawDrill emerges from the ground far below, and Sons of Ares soldiers fly out of the tunnel the drill has carved. Sevro and Ragnar Volarus, the Obsidian warrior whom Gold people previously enslaved before Darrow recruited him to the rebellion, appear and save Darrow, Holiday, and Victra. They dive back into the tunnel, pursued by Society soldiers, and reach a ship underground where Darrow passes out.

Darrow slowly wakes up from unconsciousness and sees his Uncle Narol, now a Sons of Ares soldier, and his Mother Deanna. Darrow learns that it has been two days since he escaped and he has been taken to Tinos, the city of Ares.

Dancer, Darrow’s old mentor, arrives. He tells Darrow that Harmony, once a Son of Ares, betrayed him to the Jackal as she felt that Darrow had sold out the rebellion. Darrow is also told that the Jackal pretended to execute Darrow many months ago. It was only Sevro who still believed that he was alive.

Dancer wants to give Darrow an update immediately on all that has happened since he was captured, but Darrow insists that he is given a night with his family. He is taken to a room where he sees his siblings and their children. Later that night, Darrow, his brother Kieran, and Narol talk about the rebellion. Darrow is told that Sevro does not appear to have an overarching plan, which is why they needed Darrow back. Darrow lies and reassures them that he has a plan.

The next morning, Sevro and Ragnar find Darrow. Darrow notices that Sevro’s eyes are red instead of gold, and Sevro says that he had Darrow’s original red eyes implanted in his head.

Rangar and Sevro then take Darrow away from his family toward a hangar bay where Darrow sees several of the Howlers, a misfit group of Golds. They have joined the Rising (the uprising against the Society led by the Sons of Ares) despite being Golds themselves. Darrow thanks them for this, to which Pebble, a Howler, tells him that they are family.

Beyond the hangar, Darrow sees Tinos. It is an underground city, hidden from Society records and filled with refugees. Conditions in the city are worsening as supplies decrease. It is Ragnar who is keeping order, and he has become exceptionally popular, earning the moniker “[t]he Shield of Tinos” (71). Sevro then tells Darrow that Cassius killed Fitchner au Barca, Sevro’s father and the original Ares.

Dancer debriefs Darrow, now in the command room of Tinos. He tells Darrow that since his capture, Virginia au Augustus (Mustang), a Gold whom Darius met at the Institute, has joined forces with the Telemanus and Arcos families to fight the Jackal. Because a member of the Raa family was killed during the Jackal’s purge of Darrow’s allies, the Rim Golds (those who live on the planets and moons past Mars in the Solar system) have also revolted. However, Roque au Fabii, Darrow’s old friend and betrayer, has responded to these threats effectively. Using the Sword Armada, one of the main Society fleets, he has routed Mustang and the Rim Golds and is currently besieging moons in the Rim.

The Sons’ rebellion is also going poorly. Non-Sons-affiliated rebellions have broken out on Mars including one led by Harmony, an ex-member of the Sons of Ares. These generally just massacre civilians before being destroyed by Society soldiers. Society propaganda is effectively framing it as a war of terror against order. When Darrow asks how open war broke out, he is told that after the Jackal faked Darrow’s execution, Sevro released the video of Darrow’s carving (the procedure which turned him into a Gold). All people now know that it was a Red who conquered Mars and tricked the Golds.

After Darrow learns what Sevro had done, he storms out of the room. Shortly after this, Darrow sits looking out at Tinos where people have put slingBlades (weapons which have become political symbols) out to celebrate his return. He is worried that they expect too much from him.

Ragnar then finds Darrow to comfort him, something he can do more effectively than Sevro now that Sevro is suffering from the weight of responsibility. Darrow confines in Ragnar that he feels separated from Eo, his late wife, and does not think that he can be what the rebellion needs him to be. Ragnar decides to take him to a hospital in Tinos. Once there, Darrow sees many wounded Sons of Ares, with whom he strikes up jokes. From the connections he forms, he feels his purpose again and the need for him to be the Reaper to save these people. He returns to the command room, reinvigorated. He asks three things from the people there: for an emissary to be sent to Mustang, for Mickey the Carver (who transformed Darrow into a Gold) to be brought to Tinos so that he can carve Darrow into fighting shape, and for Victra to be freed.

Darrow finds Victra alone in her room. Despite her paralysis, she has been cuffed to the bed. The pair begin talking as Darrow tries to explain his past to Victra, but she says that she needs no explanation. Victra accepts the rights of Reds to rebel because Golds have oppressed them. When Darrow expresses surprise at her lack of reaction to him lying to her for the entire time they knew each other, Victra claims that she is not an emotional person.

Victra asks Darrow why he never told her the truth though he told Mustang. When Darrow does not give an answer, she guesses that it is because he thinks that she is wicked, despite his claims otherwise. Darrow apologizes for not trusting her enough and then says that he wants her to join the Sons. Darrow unlocks her restraints and tells her that Mickey will give her back the use of her legs. He tells her that he believes that she can change and that if she joins them, Darrow will be as loyal to her as she was to him. She shakes his hand, and he welcomes her to the Sons of Ares.