A.K.A. ‘The Necklace of the Gods’
Having revealed her true self as a
female Dragoneye to a female energy dragon, Eona discovers from the red folio that
her ancestor Kinra was also a Dragoneye. Meanwhile, Sethon, who’s claimed the
throne when his brother died, is looking for Kygo who has the Imperial Pearl
stitched in his throat: without the Imperial Pearl, Sethon cannot be the
rightful Emperor.
*****SPOILERS*****
So much is expected from Eona’s
power and basic efficiency despite having no training. This lack of instruction
is why Lady Delia is decoding the women’s script in Kinra’s red folio (she
guided Eona through court life in the first book and she is a two-spirit, being
of female gender and male biosex).
Eona spends
a lot of time wondering whether she should use her power to help Prince Kygo
reclaim his throne from his uncle Sethon. Kygo wants her too so she as his
loyal subject and romantic partner wants to yet using her powers for war is strictly
prohibited by the Covenant of Service to which she feels bound. This conflict
to both her commitments was played really well throughout this novel.
At the
start, Ryko is seriously wounded so Delia begs Eona to heal him. Eona wonders
who is she to play with life and death like a god, yet at the end of the last
book she healed Rat Dragoneye Ido. Why heal the cause of all the issues yet not
a friend? Why only worry about acting as a god for a friend? This was a very
peculiar reaction from Eona that didn’t fit in her character.
According to
Delia, Eona betrayed Ryko’s trust. I don’t see how. Sure, Eona lied about being
a moonshadow, but this was only to stay alive. Literally it was life-or-death
to prevent others discovering she was female. Ryko had been Eona’s friend and I
know not being told the truth by a friend is painful, but pure survival seems
like a forgivable reason to me. But then Eona says Delia is right! Bizarre. Eona’s
being female had nothing to do with Ryko’s injuries: they would have tried to
stop Sethon taking the throne even if Eona had been male so Ryko would have
been injured anyway.
At one
point, they are travelling and Eona is dressed in mourning robes whilst Ryko
(Delia’s moonshdow guard) is hidden in the carriage. They stop at an inn and
Eona discovers Sethon’s soldiers could look in the carriage. To prevent this
she makes a scene, thus saving Ryko. This made her companions angry because
they told her to stay in her room and called her selfish for doing what she
wanted. This was frustrating to read because she saved them all from execution
and they recognised this! In this distraction, some soldiers treated Eona as if
she is a whore but lieutenant Haddo
tells them, “Look with your eyes, not your prick,” in reference to Eona’s
mourning robes. That line made me chuckle.
After going back to the palace to
get Ido in order for Eona to receive some training, she and Vida dress as
peonies (concubines) whilst Ryko and Delia dress as guards.
Sethon
notices the bruising on Eona’s face and asks who said that one must crush a
flower for its true perfume. One of Sethon’s retainers replies a poet and
Sethon replies by saying people had to follow the truth of poets. This is
somewhat ironic considering that Sethon was always described as warlike
compared to his poetic brother (the dead Emperor) and his nephew (Prince Kygo).
If Sethon wants to follow the truth of the poets then he should maybe follow
the truth of Kygo, i.e. that Kygo is the rightful Emperor.
Vida
dislikes Eona because Vida’s fiancé died due to Eona’ healing of Ryko (using
dragon energy to heal someone without training meant Eona lacked control of
excess energy). Yet when Delia punches a eunuch out cold, Eona and Vida bond.
The nastiness in their relationship evaporates and they proceed to work
effectively together.
Once Ido is
free, he constantly tells Eona he knew she wants her dragon power. On page 245,
Eona says Ido is correct and that wanting power was ‘like a constant ache
within’ her spirit. Oh, really? Then why are we only hearing about for the
first time over halfway into the story? There had literally been nothing to
suggest Eona desperately wanted the power beforehand which is especially bad
considering that this series is written in first-person.
Eona
pinpoints terrible winds were to hit them in five days times. Even though Ido
had been training her, he hadn’t trained Eona for this; when Eona asks how she
could know this, Ido says this is what Dragoneyes do. For me, this just feels
like lazy writing. Sufficient information has not been provided. If the process
cut from the story then Eona’s precise sensing should have been cut from the
story altogether.
The theme of control (and basic
enslavement) is prominent in this book. Royal blood can enslave Dragoneyes and
their power if used on the black portfolio. After healing Ryko, Eona realised
she could move him to her will and against his own, causing him pain in the
process.
Ryko hates
this and is understandably quite bitter with Eona, unrelenting with his
dislike. For a while he even dislikes Delia for her part in encouraging Eona to
do this (though their love fixes this chasm). This is why Eona refused to heal
Kygo. Disliking Ido and having healed him, Eona bends him to her will but this
also compels Ryko, fuelling his hatred towards Eona. Ryko hated Ido even more,
telling Eona to control the Rat Dragoneye, making Ido suffer even though Ryko
would suffer, too. Ryko equals severe bitterness, basically.
Neither Eona
nor Ido want to be enslaved by royal blood but Kygo wants to do this. Everyone would
feel safer if Ido was under enslavement and it would prevent any Dragoneye in
the future doing harm to the country (because everything is Ido’s fault).
Naturally Eona doesn’t want her free will to be taken away because: she didn’t
heal Kygo so she couldn’t control him and Eona wants the same from him; control
would make their relationship bitter and she doesn’t want to lose love; and she
knows how much pain Ryko goes through when he’s being controlled.
One has to
wonder: if Eona did heal Kygo (and thus had control over him) and then Kygo
used his royal blood to enslave dragon power, whose will would prevail? Eona’s
because hers happened first or Kygo’s because Eona’s control-after-healing is
from dragon power which Kygo had full control over?
Near the
end, Eona finally gives Kygo the black folio so that Kygo can use his imperial
blood to control Dragoneye power. Eona claims that this is her giving Kygo her
trust. This was satisfying: whilst I’m against the female being made
subservient to the male, trust was a continuing issue for both Eona and Kygo
during their relationship. Eona’s offer was a sweet solution.
The party went to the Eastern
Islands in the hope of rallying support against Sethon (who conquered the
islands and made their inhabitants suffer). Eona thinks the trip will help her connect
with her dragon (who is guardian over the eastern compass point). Delia is
excited to go home and greet her father.
On the way,
Eona meets her own mother which proves to be an awkward affair (as is to be
expected after their years of separation). Her mother tells Eona of Kinra’s
riddle, sent down to her descendants about the parentage of her daughter: she
had two fathers but one bloodline, so ‘two into one is doubled’. With
revelations from the red folio, Eona knows the two fathers to be Emperor Dao
and Rat Dragoneye Somo. Eona gets excited: if she was Dao’s descendent, her
imperial blood would allow her to marry Kygo. (The book says ‘royal blood’ but
royalty refers to the families of kings/queens, not of emperors.) Then the
answer to the riddle was: ‘The one she loved’. Eona knew Kinra loved Somo,
meaning Eona couldn’t marry Kygo. (Kinra faked a relationship with Dao in order
to get near the Imperial Pearl.)
Eona
demonstrates her powers to the islanders by healing Chart, a disfigured
individual that resided in Hueris Brannon’s home (he was one in the household
that liked Eona). When Chart was healed, Eona realised that he was Brannon’s
son. After making Chart a free man by releasing him from servitude in the first
book, Eona considered this another gift. But then Ryko told Chart about the
compulsions and Chart became upset because he’s no longer free.
There were
other reasons why Eona’s ‘gift’ to Chart didn’t go down well. He complains that
Eona used him as an example to the islanders, making him a freak to Eona when she’d
never treated him as a freak before. He then says Eona didn’t look at him until
later. All reasonable responses yet Eona got unreasonably defensive. She says
that she can use her powers as she sees fit and unapologetically. Rita (Chart’s
mother and Eona’s bodyslave whilst at the imperial court) slams this by saying
Ido would have said the same thing.
The mythos and the lore of the
energy dragons is explored in detail during this book. This was exciting. In
the first book, it was presumed that people had struck a bargain with the energy
dragons in order for them to share power. Also in the first book, Ido seeks to
create the String of Pearls to gain supreme power, for which he needed the
black portfolio.
At
one point, Eona flees within her energy dragon and finds Kinra is present. She reveals
that there was no such bargain. Instead, the first Dragoneyes stole the Egg of
Renewal (the Imperial Pearl sewed into Kygo’s throat) and held it hostage as
ransom for the dragons’ power. Kinra may have betrayed Emperor Dao but she was
trying to help the energy dragons.
Eona
also finds out that only the Mirror Dragoneye (i.e. her) can direct the String
of Pearls. So she gives the Imperial Pearl/Egg of Renewal to the dragons. All twelve
lay their pearls in an interconnected circle. This allows the Hua (essential
qi/energy) of the dragons to be released from the black folio, allowing them to
die and their replacement to hatch from their pearls. (Hence why the Imperial
Pearl is also an egg.)
Lord
Ido tried to absorb the energy that the black folio released, determined to
gain supreme power and thus become a god, but this kills him. This felt like
justice. Such a long way coming!
Whilst the ideas were fun, clever and
interesting, the novel felt more like info dumps wrapped in poor narrative rather
than a smartly constructed story. I looked forward so much to receive the
sequel to ‘Eon: Rise of the Dragoneye’ but I found ‘Eona: the Last Dragoneye’
largely dissatisfying.
Reviews: The
Dragoneyes (Alison Goodman)
Eon: Rise
of the Dragoneye
