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Gild
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Chapter 33-PoemChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 33 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, rape, physical abuse, animal death, and death.
The fae commander is called Rip because of his “predisposition to literally rip soldiers’ heads from their bodies” (315). Though Auren cannot see his face beneath the helmet, she has heard that he has either horns or scars in addition to the sharp spikes on his arms and back. She is afraid to find out which rumor is true.
Fane welcomes Commander Rip nervously, and when Rip asks why Fane is so far north this time of year, Fane says that he got a tip about a caravan that he could not pass up. Rip says that he caught and killed every messenger hawk that Fane sent about an imminent auction of royal saddles. Rip intends to buy every saddle from Fane and will not take no for an answer. Fane tries to argue, but he relents when faced with Rip’s vague threats. The two leave to discuss details and a suitable price.
Chapter 34 Summary
The pirates have dinner with Rip and his soldiers. The captured saddles serve the food and keep the men entertained, but when Fane orders Auren to stay out of sight, she realizes that he does not want Rip to see her. The messages about an auction had only mentioned the royal saddles, not Auren, whom Fane plans to keep for himself.
As Auren helps the cook, Polly comes in and out, fetching more ale, and she softly asks if Auren can use her ribbons to help them escape. Auren explains that the captain tied her ribbons in knots and that she is still trying to untangle them. Bitterly, Auren wishes that Midas would appear to save her. She pictures him swooping in to rescue all the saddles, just like the time he saved her from raiders as a child. However, she realizes that no one is going to save her now.
Chapter 35 Summary
After dinner, Auren watches from the deck as Fane and Rip have a heated discussion. They finally reach an agreement, and Rip’s men return with a large chest of gold in payment. Fane orders his men to put the chest in his personal quarters for safety. Rip explains that the price is for every saddle, including the king’s favored. Furious, Fane demands to know how Rip knew about Auren. Rip ominously says that he had his own tip about who was in the caravan. Fane briefly resists but soon gives in to Rip’s threats and demands.
Fane orders Quarter to escort Rip and the other soldiers as they inspect the rest of the purchase, which includes the horses and other supplies from the captured caravan. He orders them to return for the saddles when everything else is complete. Then, while Quarter distracts Rip, Fane grabs Auren and Rissa, saying that he intends to enjoy them both before Rip takes them away. Auren freezes with terror, and even the professionally calm Rissa looks troubled.
Chapter 36 Summary
In Fane’s quarters, Auren inspects her surroundings and notes the bed set in a dark corner, a desk beneath a large window overlooking the snow, and the large chest of gold from Rip. Rissa and Auren watch with trepidation as Fane removes his hat and coat and drapes them over the desk. Rissa softly reminds Auren to perform in order to survive. Auren watches as Rissa shifts her demeanor, becoming flirtatious and alluring as she tries to put Fane at ease. He orders her to undress and lie on the bed, and he then grips her hair and roughly shoves her down.
Rissa tries to feign enjoyment as she does with Midas, but Fane becomes rougher and more violent, ordering her to be silent. Both Rissa and Auren realize then that Fane takes pleasure in domination and violence and has no wish for them to even pretend to enjoy his actions. Fane assaults Rissa with violent intent, becoming more forceful whenever she makes a noise. Auren watches in horror as tears stream down Rissa’s face.
Unable to stand the sight of this violence, Auren shouts at Fane to stop hurting Rissa. He hits Auren, slamming her to the floor, and then orders her to watch and turns back to Rissa. Anger floods Auren, and she rushes forward, grabbing at his neck. She feels her skin tingle, and gold spreads along Fane’s neck, rippling out to engulf his body. After a moment, he turns to solid gold.
Chapter 37 Summary
The gold beneath Auren’s hand is cold, and she knows that Fane is dead. As Rissa stares at her in shock, Auren insists that Rissa can never tell anyone what she just did. Rissa recalls the way that Auren has tried to help her several times now and agrees to keep her ability a secret. Now, they must decide what to do with the body because they cannot be found with it.
Together, they untie Auren’s ribbons, and with enormous difficulty, they wrap the gold body and drag it to the desk under the window. Using the desk as a tipping point, they haul the heavy gold over the side and throw it out the window. Then, they throw the chest of gold out the window as well.
Chapter 38 Summary
A pirate knocks on the door, and they freeze. Auren tells Rissa to tie one of her hands to the bed, rough up her dress again, and start crying. Auren lies on the floor by the bed and uses a ribbon to tie her hand to the post as well. A moment later, pirates barge in, including Quarter. Rissa notices too late that they have left Fane’s coat and hat lying on the desk.
Auren and Rissa tell Quarter that Fane had sex with each of them and then tied them up, took the chest of gold, and snuck out. The pirates furiously conclude that Fane has abandoned them and is keeping all the gold for himself. As they untie the women, Quarter realizes that even with the gold gone, they cannot go back on their word to Commander Rip, so the men start dragging the girls out to the rest of the saddles for the trade. On the way, however, Quarter sees the coat and hat and starts having doubts about their story. He demands answers, accusing Auren and Rissa of lying, but they cry and insist that they are telling the truth.
Chapter 39 Summary
Just as Quarter is about to hit Auren, Commander Rip appears and orders him to stop. Quarter tries to explain what has happened, but Rip does not care, stating that he and Fane have made a trade, so the payment is complete and Auren belongs to him now. Quarter considers fighting for a moment but then gives up. Rip leads the girls and the other saddles down the ramp from the ship.
Standing in the snow, Auren turns to watch the three pirate ships leave. Suddenly, she realizes why the pirates were so afraid of Rip. Hundreds and hundreds of Fourth Kingdom soldiers surround the area, and she realizes that they are amassing for war. Though she has escaped Fane’s assault, she is now in the hands of King Ravinger’s army and has no idea what to expect next.
She turns to Rip, who removes his helmet. He has no horns or scars, but there is a row of tiny spikes along each eyebrow, and his eyes are empty and black. As he looks down at Auren with keen interest, she defiantly says, “I know what you are” (379). He glances at her limp ribbons and responds, “Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you” (379).
Chapter 40 Summary
King Midas stands on a balcony in Ranhold Castle of Fifth Kingdom. He has visited every kingdom and has found most of them unappealing. In his opinion, First Kingdom is a jungle filled with “pretentious fools” (381). Second Kingdom is nothing but sand, and although Third Kingdom is mildly interesting with its collection of pleasure islands for royalty, it shares a swampy border with Fourth Kingdom. He has, however, grown fond of Fifth Kingdom, which is snowy like Sixth Kingdom but less frigid.
He has come to Fifth Kingdom under the pretense of helping to stabilize the realm in the aftermath Fulke’s death, but he has no intention of leaving. His advisor, Odo, arrives with a message. Midas reads the message and grows enraged, explaining that the enemy has his prized possession, Auren. Midas will destroy everything to get her back.
Poem Summary: “Golden Gold Vine”
The novel ends with a poem written by Raven Kennedy about a miser who finds a golden vine in the rubble along a road. He digs the vine up and plants it by his door. The vine grows gold buds that he plucks and sells to pay off his debts and buy everything he wants. However, the vine soon wilts, and he panics, pulling out his hair. When he places the hair around the vine, it revives, and he realizes that the price for keeping the vine alive is giving it pieces of himself.
Chapter 33-Poem Analysis
Commander Rip arrives late in the novel as a looming threat, not only to Fane and his men, who fear Rip so much that they feel compelled to bow to his every demand, but also to Auren and the entirety of Sixth Kingdom, as Auren discovers in the final scenes. Fane’s grudging submission to Rip is explained in Chapter 39 when the pirate ships pull away to reveal hundreds and hundreds of Rip’s Fourth Kingdom soldiers. She understands then that Rip’s presence represents not a small incursion into enemy territory but preparations for an all-out war between the Fourth and Sixth Kingdoms. However, Rip does not yet rise to the level of active antagonist in this novel. Instead, his introduction sets the stage for the sequel, Glint, in which he will become the primary antagonist and Auren’s new captor.
Even so, Rip represents the continuing violence of men and Auren’s further captivity. This is symbolically revealed upon his arrival, when he captures and kills every messenger hawk that Fane sent out. Because birds symbolize Auren and her captivity, Kennedy uses this moment to deliver a clear warning of Auren’s fate if she cannot find a way to escape from Rip’s control. Thus, just as with Midas and Fulke, Fane and Rip embody The Damaging Effects of Patriarchy, as they both regard Auren as an object, a gold coin to be passed and traded among men and subjugated to their will.
For the moment, however, Rip is an unknown danger for Auren, who rightly views Fane as the more dangerous and immediate threat. In fact, Rip’s arrival incites Fane’s impotent rage, leading to the novel’s violent climactic scenes, which contain the most graphically brutal depiction of sexual assault in a novel that is already rife with abusive interactions. Significantly, just as Auren avoided Fulke’s assault, she once again avoids being targeted and must instead witness Fane’s violent assault of Rissa. The narrative constantly threatens the protagonist with rape and sexual assault but never actually inflicts these acts upon her. As she continues to escape this fate through luck and circumstance, the threat of sexual violence is made vividly clear when other characters find themselves violated, and this deliberate narrative choice illustrates the dangers of Auren’s world while leaving her relatively unscathed from a purely physical standpoint. However, given that each new antagonist proves more violent than the last, it is clear that her dangers are just beginning.
Surrounded by threats on all sides, Auren finally realizes The Importance of Self-Discovery and Empowerment, exploding with righteous fury and unleashing the true extent of her power to save Rissa from Fane’s vicious attack. This moment stands as a crucial turning point for Auren, who is now determined to fight past her captivity and reclaim her agency and power in defense of others. In this climactic scene, Auren reveals her previously unknown ability to turn people into solid gold, and her ability hints that she holds magical powers of a royal caliber; by extension, her talents and her appearance imply that she is from a fae bloodline. Rip’s comment obliquely confirms this when he retorts that he knows what Auren is, just as she knows that he is fae. Additionally, this climax forges a new connection between Auren and Rissa as the latter agrees to keep the protagonist’s secret and finally understands and appreciates Auren’s desire to help, even at her own peril.
Unfortunately, just as Auren’s previous moments of defiance and empowerment resulted in retaliation, she now suffers a significant setback despite her monumental progress. Having finally escaped Fane’s brutal captivity, she finds herself immediately transferred into the control of Rip, who is foreshadowed to be a formidable enemy in the next installment of the series. By concluding the novel on a cliffhanger, Kennedy deliberately leaves several crucial questions unanswered, declining to clarify Rip’s broader plan for Auren and the other saddles, and she also refrains from explaining the threat of war that looms between the Sixth and Fourth Kingdoms. However, the sudden shift from Auren’s first-person perspective to Midas’s in the final chapter offers a brief glimpse into his thoughts and motivations, confirming his intense greed and hubris, as well as his obsession with owning Auren. When taken together, all of these loose threads set the stage for Glint, the sequel to Gild.
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