Ruthless Vows

Dacre inquires about Roman’s old wounds and his dreams on their way eastward the following day. Roman claims not to remember rather than tell Dacre of the mysterious Iris Winnow. Dacre tells Roman about the gods and their ability to acquire each other’s power. Eventually, they arrive in the abandoned town of Merrow, where Dacre’s forces are attacked by a lone sniper who is then taken hostage. Dacre shows Roman the mechanics of the portals to the under realm and reveals that only five silver keys that he has entrusted to his closest confidants can open the hidden doors between it and the human world.

Iris is sitting at her typewriter, compiling a letter to Roman, when she feels the earth rumble and click beneath her.

Dacre instructs Roman to write a missive to a captain named Hoffman informing him of a march for Hawk Shire planned in six days’ time. Roman is also instructed to write a letter to his father requesting alternative shipment methods for the tear gas he’s supplying Dacre with, as the railroad has become unreliable. While he’s writing, Roman notices a letter from “Elizabeth” pass under the parlor’s wardrobe door. A man named Captain Landis interrupts Dacre and Roman’s session to speak to Dacre about an issue with Dacre’s monstrous hounds, pulling Dacre from the room before he notices the letter. In privacy, Roman reads Iris’s letter and responds, warning her to be more careful in the future. When Iris claims to be heading westward, Roman worries that she’ll be heading straight into Dacre’s forces.

In Bitteryne with their her host, Lonnie Fielding, Iris prepares an article for Helena and the Inkridden Tribune telling a myth about Dacre and Enva’s doomed love story—“how he used his hounds and his eithrals [monstrous winged creatures] to terrify mortals above until Enva had agreed to live below with him” and how “Enva sang him to weep, then laugh, then sleep” (120). After sending the article off with Tobias, Iris feels another rumble in the earth. When she asks Lonnie and Attie, they admit to feeling the same thing. Though Lonnie believes it’s nothing to worry about, Iris thinks about the myths about the under realm being filled with winding tunnels.

Iris sends a coded test message to Roman, testing out the E and R strike bars. When Roman replies that it is safe to speak, Iris asks about the rumbles beneath her feet. Roman promises to find an answer for her within a day. The following day, Iris does not receive word from Roman, and Attie becomes increasingly anxious when Tobias does not return from his post running as expected.

Iris wakes to what she believes is a clap of thunder, but it is not storming in Bitteryne. When she and Attie inspect the house, they discover that Tobias has finally arrived with two letters—one of which is from Forest, who has recently gotten a job at a car mechanic’s shop. Tobias offered Forest tickets to his next race, which Forest hopes to take Iris to when the war is over.

While alone, Roman studies Dacre’s war table—in particular, a map of Cambria with the tunnels of the under realm illuminated. Dacre discovers Roman doing so and reveals that his realm has fallen into disarray while he slept and that his people are now working to repair the tunnels so that they may travel the under realm more efficiently. Dacre also reveals that one of his trusted advisors, Val, has been delivering Roman’s articles to the Oath Gazette by such passages. Roman internally notes that Val must have one of the five keys to Dacre’s doorways.

Roman writes to “Elizabeth,” warning her of Dacre’s impending attack on Hawk Shire. He also discloses that the rumbles beneath the earth are Dacre’s forces clearing the rubble from his tunnels. Roman begs her to hastily retreat from Hawk Shire if she is nearby. Rather than burn the letter as Roman instructs, Iris shares the letter with Attie and Tobias. Marisol’s wife, Keegan, is stationed in Hawk Shire, and they plan to warn her of the impending attack.

Dacre brings Roman to an under city called Lorindella, where Lieutenant Shane provides Roman with a pack and informs him that he’ll be marching with Shane’s platoon. Shane reveals that he’s also from Oath, which is why Dacre entrusted him with supervising Roman. After a day of marching, the soldiers settle in for the night, and Roman dreams of Iris Winnow. In the dream, he and Iris sit on a park bench, eating sandwiches and discussing Iris’s brother, who is missing in action. Another dreamscape depicts Roman sitting at a typewriter in his bedroom at home, sharing the story about Del’s drowning and slipping the letter beneath his wardrobe door. Rapidly, his dreams cycle through reading Iris’s letters, witnessing her leave the Gazette, and following her to the war front as a war correspondent. His dreams are interrupted when Dacre wakes him; his forces are readying to take Hawk Shire.

When Iris, Attie, and Tobias arrive at Hawk Shire, Iris is permitted an audience with Keegan, who has recently been promoted from captain to brigadier. Iris shares Roman’s letter with Keegan, who immediately starts making preparations. While she does so, she offers Iris, Attie, and Tobias meals and rooms to rest for the night.

In the night, Iris dreams of the distant sound of a violin. She follows the music and runs into her mother, who encourages Iris to listen to the notes. The dream is interrupted when Iris wakes to steady rumbling outside—the sound of Keegan’s forces evacuating. Keegan informs Iris, Attie, and Tobias that these are the last of Enva’s forces and that they will be evacuating to Oath, where they will make their final stand against Dacre. Rather than evacuate ahead of the rest, Iris, Attie, and Tobias offer to stay and load the wounded into lorries before taking a shortcut by roadster to meet up with Keegan’s brigade in River Down.

After helping the last of the wounded, Iris, Attie, and Tobias leave Hawk Shire in his roadster, but they get a flat tire not far from the town. Iris offers to run back to Hawk Shire for a tire iron. She agrees to signal trouble by blowing out the flame of her lantern from an upper window of a house that Attie will monitor with her binoculars.

Once in Hawk Shire, Iris only finds a wrench before she begins hearing noises beneath her feet. A door from an adjacent house opens, beckoning her, and she decides to trust it. She crosses the threshold and heads upstairs for a vantage point that will allow Attie and Tobias to see her with their binoculars. As agreed upon, when Iris begins to hear Dacre’s forces enter the house from magic doorways, she blows the lantern out.

Shane’s platoon reaches ground level and enters the realm above through a doorway that opens into a house parlor. Shane instructs Roman to check the upstairs for inhabitants to take captive. Meanwhile, Iris hides in the wardrobe as she hears someone climb the stairs. The soldier enters the bedroom and stops in front of the wardrobe. When the door opens, Iris and Roman come face-to-face.

Rather than turn her in, Roman helps Iris escape through an upstairs window. Before she leaves, Roman asks Iris why she is so familiar to him. She reveals that she’s his wife and gifts him her wedding ring.

Iris flees Hawk Shire, pursued by soldiers and gunfire. When she reaches Hawthorne Road, where Tobias was parked, she finds the vehicle gone. At the last moment, the roadster emerges from the tall grass beside the road, and Iris hops in before Tobias speeds off. Tobias and Attie reveal that Tobias found a tire iron in the trunk shortly after Iris left and were able to fix the tire. After a while on the road, Tobias catches a flash in the rearview mirror. Further inspection reveals that Dacre’s hounds are in pursuit of the roadster. Tobias’s talented driving maneuvers manage to wound and then outrun the hounds until they tire and give up the chase.

Since Roman faced Iris earlier in the evening, all his memories have returned. When pain begins in his right leg and a heaviness develops in his lungs, Roman realizes that old wounds are returning along with his memories. Dacre is unhappy that Enva’s scouts have gotten away and wounded his hounds in the process. Dacre suspects that someone in his confidence has betrayed him, allowing the residents of Hawk Shire to evacuate before Dacre’s forces arrived.