Ruin and Rising

The next day, the group climbs up the cliff to the top of a waterfall they’d seen from the valley below. Once there, they find nothing. One of the Grisha angrily demands of Mal where the firebird is. Mal wearily tells her that they need to keep going, but Alina senses that her companions are frustrated by their futile search.

The group goes off to make camp while Alina stands at the edge of the cliff. Suddenly, she sees a huge bird with wings of fire swoop above her and then try to hunt her. She realizes that a pile of bones at the bottom of the cliff are the remains of the firebird’s prey. The bird starts to attack her, and Alina slips off the cliff just as Mal catches her in time. When he touches her wrist, the two feel a connection and increase in Alina’s power, similar to a feeling they had when Mal touched Alina’s wrist in the previous book. Mal hoists Alina back onto the cliff, and they realize simultaneously that Mal is the third amplifier, not the firebird. The bird leaves them alone when it realizes that they’re not hunting it, and Alina and Mal tell the others about their discovery. Alina realizes that Mal is the son of Baghra’s sister, who wasn’t magical after all—but Mal can affect and intensify Alina’s power. Upon reflection, she realizes that her power and all the other amplifiers connect to Mal in some way. Alina is troubled because she has had to kill the other two amplifiers (the stag in the first book and the sea whip in the second) to harness their power. Mal is willing to sacrifice himself to secure Alina’s victory.

The group sets off on their return journey. Mal believes he is destined to die soon, so he lets Alina kiss him, and the two give in to their feelings for each other. They reunite with the rest of their companions. The others tell Alina that the Darkling has attacked both West Ravka, although the casualties were low because Nikolai’s warning allowed the residents time to evacuate away from the Fold, and Keramzin, where Alina and Mal grew up in an orphanage and where she had set up a new Grisha training school.

Alina races to an empty room and connects to the Darkling, enraged at what he has done. He shows her the blackened remains of the orphanage and the bodies of the adults there. He tells her that the children at the school are safe for now and that he will hold them hostage when he crosses the Fold again in five days. If Alina and Mal will give themselves up to him, he will release the children. Devastated and unable to see a way to save Mal, Alina despairs of finding a way out of their predicament. Genya, however, tells her that David has an idea.

The group discusses David’s idea—to have Alina bend light around her soldiers and herself the way that she bent light around the airship to conceal it from passersby. The light bending makes the object invisible. The group agrees that they’ll try this plan, and if it doesn’t work Alina agrees to kill Mal to use his bones as the third amplifier. They travel to the rendezvous point with the Apparat and are disappointed to find that only 12 soldiers have come. However, they prepare as best they can for their fight with the Darkling in a few days.