thesequelguide

The Wicked King

This recap is intended as a memory refresher for readers who have already read the book and want a quick reminder before continuing the series. It is not a substitute for the original work. All characters, settings, and storylines belong to their respective authors and publishers. If you have not read the book, I strongly recommend experiencing the original story first. No summary can replicate the depth, suspense, and enjoyment of reading the book itself.

‘The Cruel Prince’ Overview

At the end of The Cruel Prince, Cardan is the high king of Elfhame, against his wishes because Jude tricked him. He is also caught under an oath that he took previously to prove his loyalty where he promised to follow every command made by Jude for 1 year and 1 day exactly. Jude is Cardan’s sentinel at this point.

Jude has not spoken to Taryn or Locke since she found out they were getting married and viewed it as betrayal from her twin.

Balekin, Cardan’s only alive sibling who had betrayed the High king and his entire family at the coronation in the previous book has been sent to the Tower of Forgetting which is like prison for the Faye. Jude technically went against Madoc by making Cardan King and overall ruined his plan of making Oak the King and ruling through him since Oak is extremely young to actually rule. She did all this right under Madoc’s nose without him realising it until the final scene.

What Happen in the Book (10 Minutes)

Locke is now appointed as the Master of Revels which means he is responsible for planning out the events of Faerie. His first job is to plan an event to impress Grimsan, a special smith known to be a legend, he was the one who created the blood crown and buy his loyalty to Cardan.

At the party Locke wanted to play Queen of Mirth with Jude. It is a game of humiliation where the Faye choose a mortal girl and make her dance with a crown on her head while everyone is making a joke out of her. When Jude is shoved to the dance floor she requests to dance with the king, i.e. Cardan, because once a mortal girl is on the dance floor she cannot stop dancing on her volition, but only when the Faye tell her to. Cardan agrees which is very unexpected since he has no reason to play a game with the purpose of being humiliated.

Games like these keep reminding Jude that no matter what position she holds in the Court, she will never be viewed as more than a weak being who is always lower than the Faye. That is why no one can anticipate the control she has. Jude finds this the safest way to execute her original plan that included making Oak the High King once he grows up.

To ensure Oak’s safety, he is living with Vivi in the mortal world but will be returning to Faerie Land for Taryn and Locke’s wedding. Taryn takes the initiative to personally invite Jude to her wedding. Jude accepts the invitation and her and Taryn start talking again.

But hearing that Oak will be back in the Faerie Land cautions her because she thinks the Undersea will attack him. She thinks this because she found out that Balekin has joined hands with Orlagh, the Queen of the Undersea who wants to break the peace treaty between the land and sea because she is not happy with Cardan being in power and they may start war.

Jude also found out from Nicasia, Orlagh’s daughter that Orlagh wants to re-negotiate the terms of the treaty in such a way that it is more favorable for the Sea and if Cardan refuses, Orlagh will drown the land.

Orlagh has also sent a message for Cardan that asks him to marry Nicasia and if he refuses, the crown will not be with him. After this Cardan sets up a council meeting with members of the Court and they conclude that Oak might be in danger when he comes for Locke’s wedding because Orlagh will only want 2 of the greenbriar blood to be alive, i.e. Cardan and Balekin. This is why Taryn’s wedding becomes extremely important to protect Oak.

So Jude has tried to trick the Sea by giving them false information about Oak’s arrival and roundabouts during the wedding through Lady Asha, Cardan’s mother who she found in the Tower of Forgetting with Balekin.

Sometime into the wedding though the Ghost approaches Jude to tell her the attack as been made but later Jude realises the Ghost has betrayed her by capturing and taking her to the Undersea. The Sea attacked at the wedding but not by taking Oak or Cardan instead by taking Balekin from the Tower of Forgetting.

When Jude is in the Sea, Orlagh tries to glamour her to know the plan against the Sea but the geece by Dain still protect her. So Jude can conveniently lie and no one suspects her. She also finds out, Orlagh is planning to steal Oak, let him grow up in the sea then marry him to Nicasia and make them have Greenbriar babies so he can wear the blood crown and rule Elfhame while still being loyal to Orlagh. OR Nicasia can ask Grimsan to make another crown for Elfhame since Grimsan did not take an oath to Cardan. The only problem is that Grimsan can only start working on the crown once Cardan is dead so Balekin commands Jude to kill Cardan when they think she is enchanted and under the glamour.

Cardan allows Orlagh to attack the Court of Termites to get Jude back from the UnderSea. He also sent an order to Lord Roiben not to retaliate against the Sea which has made them furious because they swore themselves to Cardan only to get betrayed like this. So the representative comes to Jude and expresses the dissatisfaction. Jude had taken a favor from them in the previous book to get Cardan on the throne and now they know what they expect Jude to do for them because she still owes them. They want Jude to kill Prince Balekin. Jude agrees but she knows she cannot do that because Balekin is now the Ambassador of the Sea and if she does so she is officially starting war with the Sea.

Jude enters the palace during the masquerade ball with poison given to her by Balekin to kill Cardan however at the ball Balekin poisons Cardan but tries to frame Jude with the poison he gave her initially. Jude refuses this allegation shocking Balekin who though she was glamoured all along.

When Cardan is poisoned, the only way to left to save him is to get the antidote from Balekin. So Jude goes to Balekin and makes him a deal. The deal is that she will have the poison and then one dose of the antidote to see if Balekin is telling the truth about the antidote. If the antidote works then she will take the second dose for Cardan. Balekin agrees to give the second dose on the condition that he gets the blood crown. Then Jude takes in the poison but when Balekin gives her the antidote she spits it out in the container she has. Then it is revealed that Jude had changed the poison for water. So now she does not need to give the crown to Balekin because she never took the second dose of the antidote. This makes Balekin furious and he challenges Jude for a duel.

Jude rushes to check on Cardan after he took the antidote. On visiting Cardan, Jude finds out that Taryn spoke to Cardan, pretending to be Jude and asked him to free Madoc of the oath of loyalty he took to Cardan because Madoc as the war General needs to take half of the army and get out of here. Cardan agrees immediately only realise that it was Taryn sent by Madoc.

Madoc is clearly always wanted to have the power to rule and is determined to get Cardan off the throne even now.

Cardan talks to Jude and tells her the only reason this has happened is because Cardan has been trying to prove to Jude that she has no reason to keep him in this oath, he trusts her either way and they are together in this. That is why, without asking any questions he agreed to free Madoc. So Cardan suggests that Jude free Cardan of his oath and in turn get married to Cardan and become the high Queen of Elfhame. Jude thinks the tenure of the oath Cardan took previously will come to an end in sometime but this way, a long-term beneficial equation can be formed between them so she agrees and becomes the High Queen.

The next day Cardan finds out that Jude killed Balekin and is upset about that and when Queen Orlagh demands Jude from Cardan for killing the Ambassador of the Sea, Cardan refuses. To show her power Orlagh controls the water and in retaliation Cardan controls the land for there is land below the Sea. Orlagh realises that she is not stronger than Cardan like she thought, so they mutually decide to return to their peace treaty.

However, Cardan says that since he is High King, he needs to be fair and exiles Jude to the mortal world, and if she breaks the exile her life will be forfeited. She yells that she is the high Queen but no one believes her.

Characters and Their Relationships (2 Minutes)

Jude

Jude has a hunger for power because of the way she was treated all her life, as a weaker being. Throughout the book she has multiple freak outs about losing the control she has over Cardan and how she can revive it. She is also very strategic and does not gloat about the power she has to anyone, infact thinks it is safest if no one knows about it at all.

Cardan

Cardan and Jude obviously share a connection and share a soft corner for each other. There is a sense of liking and that is why he even asks to marry her, even if it was solely for survival purposes. Cardan throughout the book despite not sharing any deep bonds with Balekin was against his murder and that is another reason why he is upset with Jude in the end.

Since Cardan is the High King he also has a special physical connection with his people and the land. like if he is drunk the people feel tipsy without knowing why and this tells us just how important and impactful the high king is. He however was not able to control the power he had because he didnt look at himself as the king but as someone who followed Jude’s orders. Right after Jude freed him from his oath, he felt confident enough to take charge.

Madoc

Madoc has always treated Jude as his own child and never really looked at her as his equal, even after she made Cardan the king right under Madoc’s nose and ruined his plan in the previous book. It is only after he finds out about the oath that he starts looking at her as an enemy. Madoc wanted to rule Faerie back in the first book and now too.

Taryn and Locke

Taryn and Jude were showed as complete opposites in the previous book but here we can see that they are not so different. When Taryn goes to Cardan pretending to be Jude because Madoc asked her to do so. She clearly looks for some validation and has now betrayed Jude not once but twice.

She has gotten married to Locke. Locke is the kind of person who would totally try to mess up other peoples’ lives and create absolute chaos. The night before his wedding for the celebration of his bachelor party he along with his friends, disguised, went to attack Jude. He also wanted Jude to play Queen of Mirth. So him and Jude dont share a good relationship. However, Jude has done nothing to provoke him.

Vivi and Heather

Vivi brings Heather to Faerie Land for Taryn’s wedding but does not warn her beforehand for what she is going to be seeing when she goes there. She just mentions that they are going to Taryn’s wedding. Even when they are there Vivi does not give her full attention and being a mortal she gets glamoured and goes through hell there while Vivi is not even trying to protect her. Jude sees all this and relates to Heather so she consoles her. Vivi’s plan to help Heather is to make her forget about all of this but Jude thinks of this as very inconsiderate. This tells us that no matter what Vivi does, she will never understand what it is like to be human.

Lady Asha

Lady Asha is Cardan’s mother, she and Cardan by the looks of it dont share a good relationship. First of all, having the King’s mother in the Tower of Forgetting means something messed up happened. She is also desperate to get out of prison but does not want Cardan to know that Jude has let her out and does not want to come face to face with Cardan. She always ignored Cardan but loved the attention and status he got because of him.

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