“I fulfilled the destiny of my stars; I get to choose what I do now, and I choose to destroy you.”
Hello again, dragon lovers, to the third and final day of our book club read-along of The Nightsilver Promise by Annaliese Avery, featured in the November 2021 OwlCrate Jr box, Dragons!
This is a SPOILER discussion of Chapters 26 - 36 of The Nightsilver Promise. Discussion questions are listed below and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate Jr box per post!
*Make sure to get your comments in by end of the day on Monday, January 24, 2022 to be eligible to win!*
Thanks so much to Cheryl from And Other Tales for her fantastic and extensive write-ups for this book club. Take it away, Cheryl!
The story concludes . . .
Chapter 26: The Dragonian Wing
Unfortunately, the museum is locked, but the giant racket Corbett and Dax make pounding on the front doors soon brings the attention of the night guard. He takes pity on them and lets them inside to speak with Doctor Langley. They walk through the museum marveling at the perfectly preserved remains of the last Great Dragons, both enormous and small. They meet with Doctor Langley who, once the security guard leaves, takes the group to his office.
Meanwhile, having used the tracking device to locate the escape pod, Roach and the four Dragon Walkers are hot on the group’s trail, thanks to the use of Roach’s tracking cogroaches.
Chapter 27: OORT
Turns out Doc Langley knew both of Paisley’s parents — he and her dad were part of a secret organization known as the Order of Right Turning (OORT) and later, Paisley’s mother joined as well. The order seeks the truth of what happened to the Great Dragons.
They believe the dragons entered into the Veil, not as spirits, but as flesh and bone . . . which pretty much goes against everything that has ever been taught in Alberion. And not only can Violetta’s machine bend the Celestial Mechanisms, it can also open the Veil.
Chapter 28: Sleeping Dragon
Dax shows Doc Langley the Dragon Egg he took from the Vault and Doc informs them this is actually the unfired egg of a Great Dragon! Upon closer inspection, Corbett sees that there are gears and cogs within the Nightsilver metal coating protecting the egg. When Paisley accidentally reaches for the egg, with her mother’s pocket watch in her hand, the close contact of these two objects sets the gears and cogs moving. The group discovers that it isn’t just Nightsilver that makes up their mother’s watch, but that it is actually powered by a much greater power source . . . the Heart Stone!
But realizing they possess the Heart Stone isn’t entirely good news, now knowing that the Dark Dragon will open the Veil and pull the comet (which the Dark Dragon believes is a Great Dragon) toward Earth. If they can’t hand over the Heart Stone, how will they save their mother?
Chapter 29: Battle and Betrayal
Roach and the Night Walkers descend upon the group and a great battle ensues. Odelia versus some Night Walkers, Paisley versus two more, with Doc Langley and Dax running through hidden corridors trying to escape.
Paisley is greatly injured in her fight with the two Night Walkers as one slices her back with talon-sharp Dragon claws. In the end, Dax and Doc are taken by Roach and Lorena.
Paisley runs outside and flags down a nearby car . . . the driver of which is surprisingly her Uncle Hector! But Uncle Hector’s sudden appearance isn’t a coincidence. He is in league with the Dark Dragon, and he is the one that betrayed their mother, and worse, he killed their father! Fueled by her hurt and anger, Paisley launches herself at Hector and punches him the face, but she soon passes out from the pain of her injuries.
Chapter 30: Greenwich Below
Paisley awakens in a museum-like room with a great Orrery suspended from the ceiling and realizes that this is the old Greenwich Observatory. Finding the two doors in the room locked, she scrabbles up the rough brick wall (not easy to do with the injury on her back!) to the higher windows above and smashes her way out. She sees light coming from the open dome of the observatory across the way and knows that is where Dax has been taken.
As she is carefully creeping along the tiny edge between the windows, the Dragon Walker she fought earlier comes back and starts throwing rocks at Paisley to get her to fall. Luckily Odelia (with Corbett riding on her back) swoops in just in time to catch her and knock out the Dragon Walker! Phew!
Chapter 31: A Meeting of Hearts
Inside the Observatory, the Dark Dragon, Roach, Lorena, and the other allied Night Walkers are holding Doc Langley, Dax, and Violetta hostage . . . and she isn’t being too nice about it. Violetta agrees to alter the direction of the comet towards Earth in order to save her children.
Now in possession of the Heart Stone, the Dark Dragon orders Lorena to breathe fire upon it to extract the stone from the Nightsilver protection. When Lorena does so, the Dark Dragon unites the Soul Fire stone with the Heart Stone . . . two parts down, two to go.
As Roach watches on, he starts to doubt his allegiance.
Chapter 32: The Parting of Paisley
Having silently observed from the shadows, Paisley, Corbett, and Odelia attack just as Dax runs at the Dark Dragon and Paisley knocks her hard over the head with a telescope. While it is enough to draw blood, it isn’t enough to subdue her and the Dark Dragon retaliates by pulling out a Nightsilver blade from her coat and stabs Paisley in the heart!
Chapter 33: The Night Between Worlds
Paisley finds herself in a place of total darkness — a place between her world and the Veil. A small soft glow appears in the distance, while a stronger light appears behind her from the world she just left. From the soft, peaceful glow steps her father and after a tearful greeting and hug, he tells her she must return, that it isn’t her time to die. Using some light from the Veil, he heals the wound in her chest and tells her to follow her heart, even when it is at odds with her stars.
Paisley hears Dax shouting her name and turns back toward the light of her world.
Chapter 34: The Second Stars of Paisley Fitzwilliam
Paisley returns to her body and is aware of all things happening around her at once — including thought — though her eyes remain closed. Dax and her mother are overcome with grief, the Dark Dragon is pulling Violetta back to the machine by her hair, Odelia has been subdued by the Night Walkers, Corbett has been badly beaten . . . everything is in chaos. Through her sixth sense, Paisley sees a plan Corbett is hatching to set the coordinates of the machine based on the comet’s position yesterday, thus the comet will appear to come quite close to Earth without actually hitting it. With a nod of approval from Violetta, he sets the coordinates.
Meanwhile, Paisley fully comes into her body, grabs one of Odelia’s discarded swords and rises . . .
Chapter 35: The Invention of Night
Boy, do things go down in this chapter!
With Odelia’s curved sword, Paisley attacks the Dark Dragon, stunning everyone in the room as she has come back to life! The Dark Dragon and Paisley square off again as small rips appear in time and space — sections of the Veil that absorb anything and everything it touches. Pinning the Dark Dragon against the machine, Paisley forces the Dark Dragon’s arm into the void, slicing it off completely! Yikes!
As more and more rifts of the Veil appear, one moves along the machine, absorbing parts along with it and sending large pieces of broken machine to fall, pinning both Corbett and Violetta.
As the machine continues to break apart from the strain of the rifts, the Krigare arrive, intent on stealing back the Soul Fire stone and begin attacking. They aren’t all bad and one Krigare fighter, Hal, helps the group unpin Corbett and Violetta. But while Corbett isn’t harmed, Violetta has sustained terrible injury and dies. Before she dies, she give Dax the combined Heart Stone/Soul Fire and tells her children to stay together and to never stop running.
As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the Krigare kidnap Dax as he is now in possession of the Soul Fire stone they seek, and mounting their dragons, retreat through a hole in the observatory roof. Paisley watches helplessly as her brother flies away with the Krigare.
The remaining Night Walkers retreat with the Dark Dragon to heal her and make their plans of revenge.
Chapter 36: The Turning Begins
Paisley says a sad goodbye to her mother before one of the dark rifts takes her body to the Veil. Then Corbett, Odelia, Paisley and Hal — the Krigare fighter who Odelia subdued before he could escape — vow to get Dax back, planning on using Hal as leverage.
Our story ends with Dax, riding away on the back of a Dragon, with the fraction of the dragon heart beating in his pocket . . . (I smell a sequel!)
Discussion Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the ending? Will you be picking up the sequel?
- Where do you think Roach is? Do you think he will decide to switch sides?
- I’ll admit I did have my suspicions about Uncle Hector, but what about you? Did you see that betrayal coming or did you have someone else pegged as the betrayer?
- Any thoughts on where the story will go from here? Paisley and Dax have both expressed a wish to be a Krigare. Do you think they’ll get their wish?
Thank you all so much for participating in this book club read-along! Stay tuned for the next book club for our December 2021 book, Escape from Atlantis!
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