The Assassin's Blade

Arobynn sends Celaena more apology gifts, which she revels in, though she does not forgive him. She goes to a number of beauty appointments to fix her hair, eyebrows, and nails and notices a number of Melisanders in the streets. After her appointments, she tells Arobynn she will take the contract on Doneval. The next day, she and Arobynn attend a fitting for a new suit made by a man from Melisande, a country known for their tinkerers. It’s thick to prevent injury and contains a number of hidden knives and daggers that release using spring-like mechanisms. Arobynn gives it to Celaena as a gift and is having one made for himself and Sam, too. Celaena gives the inventor her square of spidersilk from the vendor in Xandria, asking him to put it in one of the suits, directly over the heart. She sees Sam on her way out, and he chides her for taking Arobynn’s gifts and forgiving him. Celaena says she does not forgive Arobynn, but Sam still is angry at her for entertaining Arobynn’s apologies. He tells her that he told Arobynn the price for his forgiveness was that Arobynn never harms Celaena again. Celaena feels nauseous that she’s letting Arobynn shower her with gifts when all Sam asked for was her safety. When she gets back to the Keep, Arobynn tells her that Doneval will be at the theater that night. She, Arobynn, Sam, and Lysandra attend the theater show together, Celaena seething with jealousy at Lysandra’s presence. 

At the theater, Arobynn points out Doneval and Leighfer in their box together and describes the various businesspeople with them. In Arobynn’s private box, Celaena can see over the whole theater. Right before the curtain rises, Celaena tells Sam that he looks handsome. As the lights go out and the curtain lifts, Sam brushes her shoulder and tells her that she looks beautiful. The music of the show transfixes Celaena. The dancing is good, but the music is transcendent and brings her to tears. Lysandra makes fun of her for crying, and Sam tells her to shut up.

When they get home, Arobynn has a party for Lysandra, her madam, and some others, but Celaena goes to play the piano to recreate the music from the show. Sam walks in and asks why she isn’t scouting Doneval, and she tells him that some things are more important to her than killing. He confesses that Arobynn beat him badly too, but his true punishment was having to watch Arobynn hurt Celaena. She asks why, and Sam tells her she should know after Skull’s Bay. She questions him about his relationship with Lysandra then tries to aggravate Sam by implying something happened between her and Ilias in the Red Desert. Sam is hurt, and Celaena regrets it. They then admit that they missed each other, and Sam agrees to help Celaena with Doneval.

Sam and Celaena scout out Doneval’s house, looking for the private study where Doneval will likely hold his meeting. They find that one of his guards has a weakness for alcohol. While scouting, both admit that nothing happened with either Ilias or Lysandra. They walk through the streets as the Harvest Moon festivals begin. At home, Celaena takes a bath and finds some sheet music and a note from Sam, realizing it is the sheet music for the music from the theater, which touches her.

She gets ready for Doneval’s Harvest Moon party, which she attends with Arobynn and Sam. At the party, Celaena is stunned by the extravagance. Arobynn introduces Celaena and Sam to Leighfer as his niece and his ward. Celaena and Sam note where Doneval is sitting with a number of courtesans. Celaena tells Sam not to follow her and goes toward him.

Celaena introduces herself to Doneval as Dianna Brackyn, the niece of the fake merchant Eryk Brackyn. She flirts with Doneval, asking him if she can come see him on the day he’s supposed to meet his contact. Doneval tells her that he has dinner plans, giving away his meeting time. Before returning to Sam, she falsely offers to have her carriage pick him up before going to the theater after dinner. She tells Sam she knows the time Doneval is meeting with his accomplice. 

Celaena dances with the crowd of young people, who remain at the party late into the night. She dances with a young man who comes in with a group of noblemen. Sam intervenes and stops her from dancing with the young man, claiming the man targeted her because she’s intoxicated. She pushes Sam away and stays at the party, dancing until she becomes tired and returns to her personal apartment to watch the city awaken.

Celaena spars with her instructor at the Keep, watching Sam train shirtless and feeling the desire course through her again. Sam asks if they’re breaking into Doneval’s house tonight, and Celaena says yes. Sam says he’s on guard duty for Lysandra’s Bidding ceremony, so Celaena says she’ll break into Doneval’s alone. Lysandra and her madam Clarisse arrive, and Lysandra flirts with Sam, much to Celaena’s chagrin. Lysandra asks Sam to join them for tea, and Celaena tells him to go, despite Sam trying to go to lunch with her. She sends a verbal barb at Lysandra and leaves. Celaena breaks into Doneval’s house, seeking the study, before she is attacked.

Celaena returns the attack, using the techniques she learned from the Mute Master to defend herself. Three more attackers appear and manage to knock Celaena out. When she wakes up, she’s tied up in the sewer beneath Doneval’s house. The head guard taunts her, asking her why she was trying to break into the private study. Celaena refuses to give up the information, and Doneval’s guards leave her in the sewer as the water rushes in. She struggles against the ropes but manages to use one of the daggers hidden in the sleeve of her suit to cut the ropes and free herself. She’s locked in the sewer, however, and cannot open the gate. She struggles to find a sewer grate to the street above, gagging at the stench of the sewer water. She locates one and climbs the ladder but cannot push the grate cover off. She screams for help as the water rises, and Sam finds her, having returned from Lysandra’s party. Sam tries to move the grate cover but also can’t. As the water rises to Celaena’s neck, she asks Sam to take her body back to Terrasen, and the water covers her head.

Celaena wakes to someone pounding on her chest, and the sewer water floods out of her. Sam is above her, looking relieved. She vomits the sewer water out several times, then returns to the Keep and takes several hot baths before bathing her body in liquor to disinfect the germs from the sewer. She also forces herself to eat and then makes herself vomit again to clear out any remaining liquid in her stomach. After her fourth bath, Sam comes to her room. She thanks him for saving her life, then tells him the story of her time in the Red Desert and the complexity of her friendship with Ansel. They hold hands briefly and then discuss the mission, and Celaena says she’ll kill the main guard who restrained her, too.

The next day, after two more baths, Celaena goes to Arobynn’s office and gives him the gold the Mute Master gave her to pay off her debt. She tells Arobynn she wants to keep working with him even when her debt is paid, and Arobynn agrees, even offering help for her Doneval mission. She and Sam go to scout out a way into Doneval’s house, deciding to wait in the sewer for the servants to empty the trash and then sneak into the cellar behind them. Sam will detonate explosives in the cellar as a distraction while Celaena kills Doneval and his associate. Sam asks Celaena how it feels to be free, and she remarks that her feelings about it are complex. He tells her that he plans to leave for Eyllwe at the end of the month. Celaena tells him not to go, even begs him to stay, but Sam says he has to leave. When she asks why, he says if he stays, he’ll kill Arobynn for what he did to Celaena. Every day she was gone, he thought about killing him. Celaena asks why, and he confesses that he loves her and has been in love with her for years, which Arobynn knows and is why he beat Celaena in front of Sam. He wants to leave because he knows Celaena will never choose him over Arobynn. Celaena says she does choose him and kisses him.

Sam and Celaena make out passionately in the sewer before returning to the Keep and going to Celaena’s room to eat dinner and talk. Celaena grapples with the weight of Sam’s feelings, with the fact that he’s loved her for years, and she didn’t have feelings for him until Skull’s Bay. She hopes he won’t get hurt in the Doneval mission, vowing retribution on any who harm him.

The next day, Celaena and Sam lurk in the sewer, waiting for the servants to empty the trash. When a servant comes down, Celaena follows her into the cellar, sneaking behind her in the darkness in her black suit. She moves silently through the house, picking the lock and entering Doneval’s study. She looks through the study, finding the documents Leighfer requested beneath one of the floorboards. The documents contain not only the names of those opposed to enslavement, but also the locations for planned safe houses and escape routes for enslaved persons seeking freedom. She then hears voices outside.

Celaena hides in the shadows while Doneval tries to chat with his associate, who clearly just wants to get the exchange over with. Doneval looks under the floorboard for the documents and sees them gone. Sam detonates an explosion in the sewer, which distracts the men long enough for Celaena to murder Doneval, but his associate escapes before the guard who tied her up enters the room. Celaena stabs him, and as he dies, he tells her that Doneval loved his country, and she doesn’t know anything. Celaena pursues the associate out onto the street, but he burns some of the documents and dies by ingesting poison before she can question him. She takes the rest of the documents and wonders why he was willing to die for the documents. She finds Sam, who was shot in the heart but the spidersilk patch saved his life, as Celaena asked the inventor to put it in Sam’s suit, not hers. He does not know that Celaena had it put in his suit. They kiss.

Celaena goes to Arobynn’s office the next morning, having slipped the documents that did not burn beneath his door. He tells her that she left chaos in her wake and Leighfer won’t pay her, as she did not get an identifiable body for Doneval in the fire, nor did she secure all the documents. He then reveals that Doneval was actually the one opposing enslavement, and Leighfer wanted him killed so she could create an enslavement trade agreement with the King of Adarlan; Arobynn lied to Celaena. Celaena is angered but keeps her cool long enough to tell Arobynn that she sold the Asterion mare, Kasida to Leighfer, and the money is on the way to Arobynn’s vault to pay for Sam’s debt and set him free. Arobynn thanks her, as he spent the money Celaena used to pay for her freedom to win Lysandra’s Bidding and take her virginity. Celaena is upset that the money she used to win her freedom was used for that, so she leaves and tells Arobynn not to come after her, or she’ll kill him. When she leaves, she sees Lysandra in the hall, who brags about her record Bidding price, taunting Celaena. Celaena throws a dagger near her head and leaves. 

She goes to her new apartment, sending servants to retrieve all her belongings before sitting on the roof. Sam joins her and thanks her for freeing him, as he also took his things and brought them to the apartment so they can move in together. They kiss as they watch the sunset.