62 pages • 2 hours read
Robin HobbA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, rape, physical abuse, animal death, mental illness, suicidal ideation, and substance use.
The narrator tells of Chade’s dealings with a Forged girl named Netta, who was 14 years old. Chade took care of her and provided her with all her needs and supplies for her hobbies, but Netta was careless, making her chambers a mess without any sense of her own survival. She only spoke angrily or if she wanted something and could not remember what had been done to her. Chade’s treatments all failed. He only learned that she was violent and had no sense of time or meaning. He eventually poisoned her and sent her body back to her family for burial.
Fitz is fully exiled from the stables, and Cob cares for Sooty, furthering his intense loneliness. He spends his summer in abject, lonely misery, while the kingdom suffers from raids and more Forging, and the soldiers and taxes grow in number.