49 pages • 1 hour read
Holly Black, Cassandra ClareThe Iron Trial
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Call is shocked awake by a loud and shrill alarm. Tamara and Aaron arrive in his room; they point out that a uniform has arrived on his bed. He changes, bringing his knife in his boot. He forgets his armband; Aaron brings it for him.
Call is disgusted by the array of lichen and mushrooms for breakfast but is pleasantly surprised by the taste. He looks at the other Iron Year students, who sit in groups depending on their Masters. Call is with Aaron and Tamara. Jasper, Celia, Gwenda, and Nigel are with Master Milagros, and Drew, Rafe, and Laurel are with Master Lemuel.
Call learns that Aaron has no family and that a girl told him about the Magisterium when she saw him playing with dust motes.
Master Rufus stresses to Call, Tamara, and Aaron that they will be a team for their time at the Magisterium. They leave the Refectory for their first lesson.
Chapter 7 Summary
Master Rufus takes Call, Tamara, and Aaron in a boat on the underground river, magically instructing the water to move the boat. Both Aaron and Master Rufus attempt to help Call leave the boat, but he refuses both of their help.
Master Rufus lectures the three students on magical principles, such as the nature of the elements: “Fire wants to burn, water wants to flow, air wants to rise, earth wants to bind, chaos wants to devour” (135).
Master Rufus takes the aspirants to a stretch of beach. Master Rufus tells them to sort the sand into piles of light and dark. They painstakingly separate the grains, lifting them with their minds. At one stage, Call gets angry, causing the piles to explode and become mixed up again. Tamara is furious, and even Aaron seems annoyed. All the other students seem to be doing interesting lessons, while Tamara, Aaron, and Call continue to painstakingly sort sand for days.
Call implores Tamara and Aaron to think of a different strategy for sorting the sand. Tamara suggests that they can control the sand by opening up to the element by eating a piece of the sand. This strategy is risky: Mages have accidentally been permanently drawn into elements. The three aspirants try anyway, and Call can move larger amounts of sand, feeling focused and at one with the sand. Suddenly, Master Rufus arrives, seeming angry. He tells Call to come with him. In his office, Master Rufus tells Call that he will tell him why he was chosen for the Magisterium.
Chapter 8 Summary
Master Rufus explains to Call that he chose him because Call is very powerful and angry. He explains that he made a mistake with a previous student and that training Call is a kind of penance, which offends Call. Master Rufus explains that if Call fails the year, his magic will be bound, meaning he would be unable to access his powers. If Call passes his Iron Year, he can keep his magic for the rest of his life. Master Rufus sends Call back to the sand room, directing him to sort the sand as instructed.
Tamara and Aaron don’t say much to Call; Call assumes that they are mad at him, and he angrily resolves to be better than them. They painstakingly continue to sort the sand. Call finds a method of moving more than one at a time. Finally, they finish, and then Master Rufus tells them that the next day, they will sort it into five gradations of color. Tamara, Aaron, and Call continue to hear about the other great and exciting things that the other Iron Year students are doing. They feel bored and envious.
One night, Call goes with some other students to the Gallery, a massive recreation space. An older student is playing a movie by moving light particles, and there are delicious soft drinks, a lake to swim in, and toadstools to sit on. Call bats around a ball of cold fire with Kai and Gwenda.
On their way back to their dormitories, the Iron Year students see older students on stretchers, badly burned and maimed. Call is shocked.
Chapter 9 Summary
Call, Aaron, and Tamara continue sorting sand. At a meal, Jasper says snidely that it’s Call’s fault that Aaron and Tamara are being held back sorting sand because Call did so badly in the trial. Even though they’re not talking to Call, Aaron and Tamara rush to Call’s defense. Aaron tells him that it’s about more than points earned, and Tamara tells him that it’s not Call’s fault they’re sorting sand. Unexpectedly, Tamara tips her pudding onto Jasper’s head.
Back in their dormitories, Tamara explains that she has been feeling guilty for recommending that they eat sand since it was dangerous. Call reassures her that he pushed her to think of something. Aaron and Tamara tell Call that they thought that he wasn’t talking to them because he was mad; Call thought that they were mad at him. They become friends again, talking through the night. Tamara tells them about her sister, Raven, who was sucked into an element and ceased to exist.
Chapter 10 Summary
Aaron, Tamara, and Call continue to sort sand. Master Rufus comes in with a gramophone one day, playing loud and distracting music as they sort. Next, Master Rufus starts throwing gummy worms at them as they sort. They continue, and with practice, their concentration remains sharp despite the distractions.
The Iron Year students take their first test as a group; everyone waits nervously to learn what it will be. They gather in a cavern and learn that they will be dispersing elementals, elements that have coalesced into a form.
The wyverns, spike-tailed and claw-taloned dragon-like beings that can make students float in smoke plumes, stalk toward the students. Jasper rushes at them; one of the wyverns contains him in a foggy bubble of smoke and strikes him aside. Jasper floats to the ceiling as Aaron is whacked with a wyvern’s tail; Master Rufus catches him in an ice formation, which he sends from his hand.
Call uses magic to pin a wyvern under stalactites, and Tamara goes to stab it with Semiramis; it disappears into smoke. Call, Tamara, and Aaron are celebrated for winning the first test.
Call receives a box from his father containing clothes, a book, an alarm clock, and a loving but brief note, which Call finds impersonal.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
These chapters illustrate the impact of Fate and Destiny by introducing the mysteries surrounding Aaron’s and Call’s identities. Kind and gentle Aaron is established as a mysterious character. He tells Call the story of learning about the Magisterium’s existence in a manner that feels “too-casual” and full of omissions, leading Call to “wonder if maybe there was more to it” (128). Aaron’s lack of family further contributes to his mysterious identity. Call’s destiny and true identity are also established as a mystery, even to himself. Call reminds Master Rufus of a past student whom Rufus “made a mistake with”—a mistake that “had grave consequences” (159). Rufus sees that the combination of Call’s power and his anger makes him dangerous. Furthermore, Rufus’s comment connects Call with powerful mages of the past who were corrupted by immense power. Even Call’s father seems distant in his letter, signing off “as though Call [is] someone he barely [knows]” (208). Alastair’s manner implies that by attending the Magisterium, Call has started down a path of becoming someone unrecognizable. The mystery of Sarah’s violent message is referred to as well.
As Call finds a sense of belonging at the Magisterium, the novel deepens its exploration of Friendship and Belonging. The disability that led to Call’s exclusion in the non-magical world forces him to access his latent magical powers at the Magisterium, demonstrated when he successfully pins the wyverns using magic. He reflects, “I just stood there until I remembered to run—except then, I remembered that I can’t run” (205). He uses magic to pin the creature with stalactites, showing ingenuity, quick thinking, and his control of magic. At the Magisterium, Call’s weakness becomes a strength as he finally finds success and camaraderie with his peers.
Call’s growing connection with Tamara and Aaron further illustrates the theme of friendship and belonging. Initially, Call’s hyper-independence, a defense mechanism driven by his feeling of being different and excluded, is evident in his angry reflection about Tamara and Aaron: “I’m going to be better than you both and then, when I’ve impressed you and you really want me to be your friend, I’m going to turn around and tell you how much I don’t need you or the Magisterium” (162). This defensive reflection also highlights Call’s relative immaturity at this point; later, he comes to realize that friendship is a strength, rather than a sign of weakness. An important turning point takes place when Tamara and Aaron come to Call’s defense at the Refectory. Call’s independence is increasingly characterized as a mask for his loneliness: “In his whole twelve years, Call couldn’t remember anyone but his dad ever defending him. Not when people kicked his weak leg out from under him during soccer, or laughed at him for being benched during gym class or picked last for every team” (181). However, Call thinks of Tamara pouring her pudding onto Jasper’s head and Aaron sticking up for Master Rufus’s selection of him and feels “a little warm glow inside” (181). Call’s growing connection to Tamara and Aaron after the pudding incident is characterized in their shared smiles: “[S]ometimes now, [Call, Tamara, and Aaron] all looked at one another and smiled the secret smiles of actual friendship” (187).
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