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 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Call can’t sleep. He dresses and decides to sneak into Master Rufus’s office, hoping to contact his father using a magical device he saw on Rufus’s desk. He walks to the river and gets into one of the boats. He can’t work out how to use the water to direct the boat as Master Rufus does, but fortunately, the current is flowing the way he needs it to.
Master Rufus’s office door is open. Call goes to the ornament, which looks like a mini tornado in a glass orb; he pictures his dad clearly and speaks his name. Alastair appears within the orb as if on a video call; he is shocked to see Call. They speak briefly, and Alastair implores him to not be tempted by the wonders of the Magisterium. He warns Call that Call doesn’t understand who he is. Call is distracted by the strange sputtering sounds of a caged lizard on Master Rufus’s desk; this affects his concentration on his father in the orb, and Alastair vanishes.
The lizard asks to be let out of its cage; Call angrily tells it that he’s not going to let it out.
Call sees a letter on Master Rufus’s desk from his father. He opens the letter, which tells Rufus to bind Call’s magic.
Chapter 12 Summary
Call looks at the object enclosed in the letter: It is a Magisterium wristband studded with many stones. He wonders whether it was his father’s. Determined that Master Rufus should not receive this message, Call takes the letter and the wristband. The lizard threatens to tell Master Rufus that Call has stolen from him unless Call lets him out. Call realizes that the lizard is a fire elemental: the element of fire formed into an animal. He takes the lizard, whom he calls Warren, in its cage. Warren agrees to help Call reach his room if Call agrees to let him out once they get there.
They pass a room where the Masters are talking. Call pauses to listen. They worriedly discuss the movements of the Enemy, who they think directed a group of elementals to attack the older students whom Call saw burned and injured the previous week. The Masters hope that there is a Makar among the ranks of the new Iron Year students. Warren directs Call down passageways. They reach the library. Call watches Jasper try to summon magic to his hand. Jasper hears something, and Call reveals himself. Jasper angrily tells Call that he took his spot in Master Rufus’s group, and Call tells him that he didn’t want it. Jasper explains that his family lost everything in the Second War; he feels immense pressure to restore their wealth and reputation.
Warren directs Call back to his room, and Call releases him from the cage, as promised. Warren curls up on the stone roof of Call’s room.
Chapter 13 Summary
Master Milagros tells Master Rufus over breakfast that she doesn’t have his lizard; overhearing their conversation, Call is relieved that suspicion isn’t falling on him. Classes become more interesting as Call, Aaron, and Tamara learn how to move water, kindle fires, and levitate.
Master Lemuel snaps at Call and Drew during a lecture, threateningly telling Drew that Masters used to beat their students. Drew is unable to put out a fire with magic, causing Master Lemuel to mock him more.
Fall comes. The students sometimes leave the caves to work on earth magic, such as causing saplings to grow.
Master Rufus gives Call, Aaron, and Tamara an assignment to find a pool deep in the cave called the Butterfly Pool and bring back water from it. He gives them a map but warns them to mark their way by lighting crystals.
Call, Aaron, and Tamara finally reach the pool and make a piece of water levitate, which they will bring back to Master Rufus. Suddenly, the map Master Rufus gave them bursts into flames. They realize that they only lit two crystals to mark their way. They bicker and then admit that they are all at fault for not being more careful about lighting a path back. Worried about getting lost, they wander through the tunnels, discussing what they miss from home.
Chapter 14 Summary
Call, Aaron, and Tamara come across a cavernous room, which Tamara recognizes as the Hall of Graduates. In the middle is a statue of Verity Torres, the last Makar. Labeled handprints of graduates cover the walls. Call finds his father’s handprint and then his mother’s: Sarah Novak.
Suddenly, Warren appears. They offer him the contents of their pockets to help them find their way back; he agrees, saying that his Master will be pleased. Call is confused by this comment, but Warren takes off ahead of them.
They reach a room, and a terrifying fire elemental with a body of rock and the face of a man appears out of a bubbling pool of lava, addressing them with a mysterious prophecy: “One of you will fail. One of you will die. And one of you is already dead” (274). Master Rufus suddenly arrives and banishes the elemental, which he explains is a Devoured and used to be a Master who was devoured by the element of fire.
At dinner, Call, Aaron, and Tamara tell some of the other Iron Year students about the prophecy. Drew dismisses it but then privately tells Call that it was a bad idea to share the details of the Devoured’s prophecy. Drew asks Call who Call is and is shocked when Call, confused, doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. Drew runs from Call, looking distressed.
Chapter 15 Summary
A group of Masters come to Call, Aaron, and Tamara’s dormitory during the night, asking whether they know anything about Drew’s location or plans; Drew is missing.
The entire school goes into the woods outside the Magisterium looking for Drew. On their way there, Tamara sees the wristband that Call’s father sent Master Rufus, which Call has taken to carrying around. She looks at the stones that encrust the wristband and concludes that whoever the wristband belonged to never graduated.
The Iron Year students are put under the care of Alex, an older student of Master Rufus’s. They walk through the dark woods, looking for Drew. Something snake-like passes above them.
Alex runs toward something, and Call, ignoring the instruction they received to stay put, runs too. He hears a small voice begging for help and realizes that it’s Drew, who has hurt his foot. Call uses magic to try to heal Drew’s broken ankle, which helps reduce the pain. Drew explains that he ran away because Master Lemuel is cruel to him, taunting him and denying him food and sleep to pressure him into working harder. Alex finds them and picks up Drew, starting back toward the Magisterium.
Suddenly, there is noise all around them. Drew fearfully says that the Chaos-ridden have arrived.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
In these chapters, the mystery surrounding Aaron’s character continues to grow, which contrasts with his kind and easy-going manner. In particular, his hyper-neatness distinguishes him from the other students. Call observes that his and Tamara’s possessions cover their shared living space: “He’d left his notebook on the counter, his bag tossed haphazardly on the couch, one of his socks on the floor […] Tamara had scattered even more—books from home, hair ties, dangly earrings, pens with feathered ends, and bangle bracelets” (211). Call and Tamara’s strewn possessions normalize these characters as stereotypical 12-year-olds who have made themselves at home in the space. On the other hand, Aaron leaves nothing in the space: “[O]f Aaron, there was nothing. What little stuff he had was in his room, which he kept super clean, the bed made as tightly as if this were a military school” (211). Aaron’s distinctive neatness marks him as different, alluding to his status as the next Makar, which will be revealed in the coming chapters.
Narrative tension continues to build in this section, particularly following the conversation Call overhears among the Masters. Master Milagros says, “Everything would be different if we had a Makar on our side” (231). Of the Iron Year students, Master Milagros wonders, “Is it possible that our Makar could be among them?” (231). This question builds suspense and intrigue, implying that one of the characters might have unusual and extreme powers. Tension grows through the sinister Devoured’s confusing predictions and Drew’s subsequent flight from the Magisterium. This tension culminates in Aaron’s summoning of immense power to banish the Chaos-ridden wolves in the subsequent chapters, revealing him as a Makar.
The continued mystery over Call’s identity also increases the tension and underscores the novel’s thematic exploration of Fate and Destiny. Call’s father tells him, “Call, you must listen to me. You don’t know what you are” (220). This enigmatic comment suggests that Call plays a role in the fate of the magical world and wields some unknown power. Drew, too, seems to understand something about Call that Call does not; like Alastair, Drew knows Call’s true identity as the reincarnated spirit of Constantine Madden and is shocked to learn that Call doesn’t know who he truly is: “Drew searched Call’s face, his own expression turning from confusion, to concern, to dawning horror. ‘You don’t know’ he said finally. ‘How can you not know?’” (278-79).
The Magisterium continues to be characterized as both wondrous and dangerous in these chapters; through this characterization, it continues to operate as a symbol of the magical world in a broader sense and alludes to both The Danger and Power of Magic and Friendship and Belonging. The sensory wonder of the Butterfly Room is conveyed through its incredible appearance and smell:
From a gap high in one wall, a torrent of water poured out, splashing down into a huge pool that glowed blue, as if lit from the inside. The walls were feathery with bright green lichen, and the contrast of the green and the blue made Call feel as if he were standing inside a huge marble. The air was redolent with the odor of some unfamiliar and tantalizing spice (257).
Later, though, the children are confronted with the terrifying Devoured, a “huge being” that rises out of boiling lava and spouts terrifying facts, such as that one of the children is already dead. Like the magical world, the twisting passages of the Magisterium contain both wonder and beauty, as well as danger and terror. The Magisterium also continues to provide Call with a sense of belonging. He is emotionally moved by the imprint of his mother’s hand in the Hall of Graduates: “Call crouched down and rested his hand inside the place his mother’s had been. Her hands were shaped like his” (265). His action illustrates the sense of connection he feels to his mother, even though he doesn’t remember her, because of their shared identity as Magisterium students.
Furthermore, magic continues to allow Call to break from the confines of his disability, which led to his exclusion and bullying in the non-magical world. This is illustrated in his elation when he manages to levitate, leading him to imagine flying: “Dreams of the day that he could fly through the halls of the Magisterium far faster than he could ever have run exploded through his head” (245). He imagines a time when he can travel unencumbered and enjoys some pain-free moments, something he never gets to experience while standing or walking: “For those moments that he’d hung in the air, his leg hadn’t hurt, not even a little” (245). Magic continues to allow Call freedom from the physical limitations imposed by his disability.
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