House of Flame and Shadow
by Sarah J. Maas
Contents
Chapter Twenty-Three
Overview
Lidia launches a desperate rescue setup by freeing the Sprite Queen Irithys and stripping away Irithys’s control tattoo, using Hilde’s bargain and a gunpoint threat to force compliance. Once Irithys is restored, Irithys burns Hilde to ash and agrees to burn Lidia as part of a staged “escape” that will enable a larger diversion meant to save Hunt and the other prisoners.
In Prythian, Bryce wakes after the collapse with Silene’s light bound to her own, then discovers a hidden lower chamber containing a quartz sarcophagus with a preserved dark-haired woman. The find reframes Silene’s warning as literal, suggesting a powerful evil has been sealed beneath the Prison all along.
Summary
Lidia, fearing the dungeon prisoners are near breaking after Ruhn loses a hand, gambles on a fast plan and trusts that Declan Emmet has temporarily redirected the palace cameras. She ignores the Mistress of the Mystics’ order to wait and instead approaches Irithys, the Sprite Queen trapped in a crystal ball, asking for help to free Hunt Athalar and two companions. Lidia invokes Lehabah’s sacrifice and the lost royal sprite bloodline to appeal to Irithys’s honor, then dissolves the crystal to release the queen.
Lidia summons Hilde and offers her freedom in exchange for one favor. When Hilde arrives, Lidia demands she remove the control tattoo from Irithys’s neck. Hilde hesitates and threatens to report Lidia to Rigelus, but Lidia unlocks Hilde’s gorsian shackles and then stops Hilde’s attempted outburst by pressing a gun to Hilde’s head, swearing on Luna’s golden bow that she will not kill her if she complies.
Hilde chants and the ink melts off Irithys, who flares into blinding white fire as her power returns. Lidia lowers the gun and tells Hilde she is free, but Irithys immediately incinerates Hilde into ash. With Hilde gone, Lidia orders Irithys to burn her—painfully but not fatally—so Lidia can claim Irithys overpowered them and escaped.
Lidia quickly briefs Irithys on a larger diversion: how to follow the path of disabled cameras to exit the palace, where to hide, and when and where to strike. Lidia emphasizes that the deception must look real, even if it hurts, and Irithys agrees, noting Lidia now has no other choice. Lidia offers her arm, asking Irithys to make the burns convincing.
Elsewhere, Bryce regains her footing amid dust and debris after the floor collapses, hearing that Nesta and Azriel are alive behind her. Bryce feels Silene’s power now fused to her own rather than a temporary charge, recognizing it as sister-light to her inherited Theia line. In the newly revealed chamber below, Bryce finds a clear-quartz sarcophagus holding a preserved dark-haired woman and realizes Silene’s warning may be literal: an “evil beneath” has been sleeping directly under them.
Who Appears
- LidiaOrchestrates a covert plan, frees Irithys, coerces Hilde, and stages burns to fake an escape diversion.
- IrithysSprite Queen freed from captivity; regains full power, kills Hilde, and agrees to execute Lidia’s diversion plan.
- HildeImprisoned hag; removes Irithys’s control tattoo under threat, then is incinerated by Irithys.
- Bryce QuinlanAwakens after the fall, feels Silene’s light fused to hers, and discovers a sarcophagus below the Prison.
- Nesta ArcheronFalls with Bryce into the hidden chamber; heard alive in the debris.
- AzrielFalls with Bryce into the hidden chamber; heard alive in the debris.
- Hunt AthalarImprisoned angel whose rescue motivates Lidia’s alliance with Irithys.
- Declan EmmetLidia’s ally who is expected to redirect palace cameras to cover her actions.