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Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, sexual violence, emotional abuse, animal cruelty and death, and death.
Auren watches from her cage in the atrium of Highbell Castle as six of the king’s “saddles”—women who are enslaved and sexually exploited—attempt to entertain and satisfy King Midas, ruler of the Sixth Kingdom of Orea. Auren, who is a saddle herself, wonders whether the gods enjoy watching these proceedings through the enormous glass-dome ceiling, through which she can occasionally see the stars beyond the thick clouds and ice that usually obscure her view.
Though Auren is the king’s favorite saddle, she is often left to simply watch his sexual exploits rather than participating. Now, she sits comfortably in her gold cage, dressed in gold silk and lounging on a gold cushion as she watches the scene with simmering jealousy. Everything in the castle is made of gold, from the floors and clothing to the knights’ armor and a lifeless pet bird. Midas enjoys flaunting his magical power to turn anything he wishes into gold.
Suddenly, Midas becomes bored and sends the saddles back to the harem wing of the castle. When he approaches Auren’s cage, she tries to entice him to have sex with her, jealous of the attention that he has given the others. He stares at her, proud that he has marked her as his possession. Auren is the only living person whom he has graced with his gold touch, turning every part of her into living gold. She is his “gilded pet” (11), and although she knows that she lives in a cage, she feels safe and protected.
Chapter 2 Summary
Auren preens under Midas’s attention, but when she presses him to spend more time with her, he angrily reminds her that he saved her from the squalor of the streets and should not complain. Then, he orders her back to her chambers, telling her to rest because he wants her to join him for breakfast with his ally, King Fulke of Fifth Kingdom, in the morning.
Auren dreads spending time in Fulke’s presence but dutifully returns to her room. Her cage is a series of large circular enclosures connected by barred passages that give her access to entire sections of the castle, including the atrium, the drawing room, the library, and the dining room, in addition to her personal chambers. She walks through the passages, pausing to greet the lifeless gold bird, which she has named Coin. The gold-touched bird was once alive, but it eventually solidified and died, and its fate makes her wonder if the same thing will eventually happen to her. If it does, she wonders if her mind will still be conscious beneath the unmoving gold.
She recalls being five years old when bandits raided her village, killing the adults and enslaving the children. She remembers staring at the stars in the sky and crying, begging for the goddesses to come down and save them all, but the stars remained silent, and no one came.
Chapter 3 Summary
Auren wakes in the morning and greets her usual guard, Digby, a stoic older man who has guarded her for years. Digby tells her that the king has requested her presence, and she moves to dress, reflecting on the ribbons along her back. She possesses “two dozen long golden ribbons that sprout out on both sides of [her] spine” (29). Most believe that these ribbons are decorative additions to her clothing, but only Midas knows that they are actually a part of her, having sprouted from her back just before he rescued her and bestowed his gold touch upon her. Though all the royal families and an occasional commoner have magical talents, she believes that she is the only person with such ribbons.
Now dressed, she walks to the dining room, where Midas and Fulke sit at a table. Two of Midas’s saddles, Rissa and Polly, sit on Fulke’s lap, feeding him while he gropes them. The two saddles glare at Auren briefly before ignoring her. The other saddles hate Auren because they believe her to be competition for the king’s favor. She wishes that she could befriend them, but Midas keeps her isolated.
Fulke boldly offers to pay handsomely for a single night of intimacy with Auren. Auren knows that Midas is possessive and has cut off the fingers of other men who suggested such a thing, but to Auren’s shock, Midas now considers Fulke’s offer.
Chapter 4 Summary
After a pause, Midas offers Fulke a deal: He will allow Fulke one night with Auren if Fulke mobilizes his army to join Midas’s forces on the borders of Fourth Kingdom. Fulke scoffs, insisting that even Auren is not worth risking his entire army. The covenant between the seven Orean kingdoms forbids them to attack each other, and the other kingdoms are terrified of Fourth Kingdom, which is ruled by the infamously brutal King Ravinger, whose magical power of inducing decomposition has earned him the nickname “King Rot.”
Midas assures Fulke that they can easily accuse Fourth Kingdom of attacking them first. He adds that “a night with [his] famed favored, one who has never been touched by anyone other than [himself]” (42-43), is more than a fair trade for the use of Fulke’s army. Auren calls out, begging Midas not to give her to Fulke, but he ignores her and continues to bargain. Fulke agrees to Midas’s terms.
Auren recalls that Midas saved her when she was 15 and he was not yet king. She now calls his given name, Tyndall, and everyone in the room freezes in horror. Midas admonishes her to remember her place and declares that he will give her to whomever he chooses.
Chapter 5 Summary
For six days, Midas, Fulke, and various advisors work together in the royal library as Fulke’s army moves to join Midas’s. The two kings strategize their attack and make plans for dividing the conquered Fourth Kingdom between them. Fulke is concerned about King Ravinger, who uses his magical power to make bodies fester and decompose. However, Midas is confident of their victory and dismisses Fulke’s concerns.
During the day, Midas orders Auren to entertain them from her cage in the library. Other saddles join them, and as Rissa is ordered to dance, Auren watches her with concern. Rissa looks exhausted, although she is a professional and hides her fatigue well. Auren tries to talk to her, offering to help distract the others so that Rissa can rest, but the woman merely sneers at her. Impulsively, Auren reaches for a book through the bars of her cage and throws it at Rissa, hoping to hit her hard enough that the men will have no choice but to let her rest. However, Auren underestimates the weight of the book and accidentally breaks Rissa’s nose.
Midas accuses Auren of lashing out in jealousy. Then, Fulke approaches Auren’s cage, declaring that victory is imminent and that he will claim his night to have sex with Auren tomorrow night. Before Auren can respond, Queen Malina, Midas’s wife, enters the library.
Chapter 6 Summary
The king and queen have no love for each other. Midas resents Malina for failing to give him an heir, and she resents him because the rule of Sixth Kingdom should have gone to her. Hers was the ruling family, but Orean law requires that all rulers must possess a magical power. When she was born without magic, she was required to either marry a husband with magic or step aside entirely. Her father arranged her marriage with Midas, a man with no royal lineage, because of Midas’s gold touch. Midas and Malina have been married for 10 years and interact as little as possible.
Now, Malina asks to speak with Midas, and they leave the room together. While everyone is distracted, Auren leaves as well and walks to the atrium. As she sits half-hidden behind gold-touched plants, Midas and Malina walk in.
Chapter 7 Summary
Auren did not intend to eavesdrop but is afraid to say anything, so she stays hidden and listens as Malina confronts Midas about his attack against Fourth Kingdom. Malina declares that Sixth Kingdom is still hers and says that Midas should have consulted her about his plans. Midas taunts Malina for being the first in her family to inherit no power and reminds her that the kingdom was in debt until he rescued her family. He will therefore do whatever he wants. Midas orders her to leave.
As Malina retreats and Midas heads back to the library, Auren realizes that she could be in trouble. If she is not in the library, Midas will assume that she has returned to her bedroom and send for her, and if he does not find her there, he may realize that she overheard his private conversation in the atrium. Panicked, she rushes to her room, and someone reaches through the bars and attacks her from behind.
Suddenly, Malina approaches. She could see Auren eavesdropping in the atrium, and she now states that Auren was a useless orphan who has become a useless trophy. She laughs at Auren for believing that Midas loves her, and she threatens to cut off Auren’s ears if she is caught spying again.
Chapter 8 Summary
Auren wakes with dread the next morning. She sees a new dress hanging from the bars of her cage. The fabric is thin and translucent, sporting a low neckline and high slits in the skirt. She understands that Midas expects her to dress for Fulke’s pleasure. As she sits brooding, Midas arrives. When he acknowledges her anger and apologizes, she says nothing, telling herself that he is still the man she loves: the vigilante with no crown or title and the man who rescued her, became her friend, and placed her on a pedestal. He gently asks her to “behave” (88), to wear the gown that he gave her, and to do as she is told.
After he leaves, Auren throws a glass lantern and smashes it. Digby rushes in at the sound but does not comment. When she tries to clean the broken glass, he tells her to leave it and gives her a new lantern. She realizes then that Digby cares about her, even if he never speaks of it. He leaves, and she sits alone in the room, wondering what would happen if she refused to “behave.”
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
From the very first lines, the author quickly establishes the dark, brutal tone of the novel and its explicitly inflammatory content as the world of Orea is revealed to be one in which the freedom of women is blatantly disregarded. To this end, The Psychological Impact of Captivity is immediately conveyed by Auren’s blithely submissive attitude toward her enslaver, and her first-person, present-tense narration creates a sense of tension and immediacy even as her perceptions of events prove to be hopelessly skewed by her own indoctrination and subservient role. By labeling Auren and her fellow captives as “saddles,” the author emphasizes the dehumanizing elements of the protagonist’s situation, as Auren is not seen as a person—only as a thing to be “ridden” and otherwise exploited for pleasure. As Midas proceeds to treat his “saddles” like mindless toys, he also displays his calculated emotional abuse by controlling Auren with a mix of tenderness and threats: an approach that clashes sharply with Auren’s uncritical adoration and loyalty. This stark juxtaposition illustrates Auren’s indoctrination to the years of captivity and abuse that she has endured at the king’s hands.
The author’s world building also highlights the plot’s explicit connection to the Greek myth of King Midas, and even seemingly inconsequential details are designed to reinforce this link. For example, the very name of the protagonist reinforces this pattern, for although the name “Auren” might be derived from the Greek word aura, meaning “wind,” “air,” or “breeze,” it more closely resembles the Latin word aurum, which means “gold.” As Kennedy explains in her author’s note, she has chosen to approach the original myth not from the perspective of Midas but from the perspective of a woman who suffers the consequences of Midas’s vaunted golden touch. However, unlike Midas’s daughter in the myth, who is frozen solid when Midas accidentally touches her, Auren has magically survived Midas’s intentional transformation of her body into gold. With this unique retelling of the myth, Kennedy firmly places Midas in the role of the primary antagonist, and his fellow kings soon prove themselves to be just as misogynistic and abusive.
Within these early chapters, Kennedy depicts both Midas and Fulke as powerful and greedy men who display The Damaging Effects of Patriarchy, as the two rulers are obsessed with owning, controlling, and sexually exploiting women. They frequently utilize sexual acts as a form of violence and are solely focused on accumulating wealth, considering their so-called “saddles” to be a form of wealth rather than people in their own right. Ironically, although Auren views Fulke as the quintessential symbol of debauchery and villainy, she mistakenly believes Midas to be a good man, and her skewed perspective once again illustrates the psychological impact of captivity. The narrative therefore makes it clear that Auren is an unreliable narrator at best, particularly where her understanding of Midas is concerned.
In addition to introducing these critical social issues, the early chapters also convey important world-building details and plot conflicts. As Auren’s narration slowly reveals the rudiments of Orean society and the continent’s six kingdoms, the novel also establishes the idea that magic, which is rare, is inextricably tied to social status and is largely contained within the nobility. The narrative also suggests that each king of the six remaining kingdoms possesses a different magical ability, although Auren only explicitly discusses three: Midas’s gold touch, Fulke’s ability to duplicate objects, and King Ravinger’s rumored ability to make things rot. Though the characters discuss Ravinger and the rumors of his evil, he does not directly appear in the novel. Instead, the constant references to him in dialogue clearly foreshadow his eventual arrival in future installments of the series. In the meantime, the initial tension and conflict of the novel arise from Midas’s misogynistic offer to grant Fulke a night of sexual intimacy with Auren in exchange for his military support in an attack on Fourth Kingdom. While Auren yet remains shackled to her misperceptions of Midas, this deal severely damages her faith and trust in him, foreshadowing her inevitable struggle to redefine her loyalties and claim her freedom and agency.
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