Throne of Glass, #4
Queen of Shadows
by Sarah J. Maas
Contents
Chapter 40
Overview
Elide’s dangerous infiltration of Morath’s lower levels reveals the true horror of the breeding program: Yellowlegs witches are being chained and forced to bear Valg-like offspring. The discovery ignites Asterin’s open defiance of Manon, exposing fractures within the Thirteen and forcing Manon to confront the cost of obedience.
Elide also reveals her private faith that Aelin survived, connecting Elide’s endurance to Terrasen’s lost queen and challenging Manon’s belief that survival justifies complicity. The chapter shifts Manon’s arc toward moral crisis while deepening Elide’s role as both witness and catalyst.
Summary
Elide spends two days on kitchen duty so she can learn the laundresses’ routines and gain enough trust to deliver bread. Following Manon’s plan, Elide sprinkles a nonlethal poison on several rolls, including one meant for the laundress whose work station Elide needs. Elide feels guilty, but Elide chooses survival and escape over hesitation.
The next day, many laundresses fall ill, and Elide volunteers to help in the laundry. After working through the day, Elide waits for the bloodied clothes connected to the hidden lower levels. When the clothes finally arrive, Elide washes, dries, presses, and folds them, then asks to return them. The head laundress directs Elide to the subterranean levels and tells Elide to claim she is Misty’s replacement.
Elide descends into the freezing lower halls, where iron doors contain moaning prisoners or victims. At the second door on the left, Elide leaves the laundry, pretends to trip, and uses the delay to see inside when the door opens. A golden-haired, collared, inhuman man smiles at Elide as darkness leaks from him, and Elide sees enough of the chamber beyond to flee in horror.
A Blackbeak sentinel later finds Elide collapsed and brings Elide to Manon. Elide reports that Yellowlegs witches are chained to tables, repeatedly impregnated, and near giving birth again after already delivering monstrous offspring. Elide describes the newborns as black, fanged, demonic creatures with nothing recognizably witch-like in them.
The revelation shatters the calm in Manon’s room. Asterin accuses Manon of allowing an abomination and of giving witches to the enemy, while Manon insists the breeding program is their assigned task. Asterin draws Manon’s blood in fury, and Manon demotes Asterin, threatens punishment at breakfast, and warns that any attempt to free the Yellowlegs witches will lead to execution.
After Sorrel leaves to watch Asterin, Elide bandages Manon’s arm and challenges Manon about whether reclaiming the witches’ homeland is worth such obedience. Elide reveals that her mother died saving Aelin Galathynius and that Elide has survived for years by hoping Aelin escaped and will return. Elide argues that hope can guide survival without excusing every act, prompting Manon to ask whether monsters are born or made; Elide answers that Manon must decide that for herself.
Who Appears
- Elide LochanPoisons laundresses to infiltrate Morath’s lower levels and reports the breeding chamber’s horrors.
- Manon BlackbeakWing Leader confronted by Elide’s discovery and Asterin’s accusation of complicity.
- Asterin BlackbeakManon’s Third openly rebels after learning witches are being used in the breeding program.
- Sorrel BlackbeakManon’s Second tries to restrain Asterin and later follows her to prevent reckless action.
- Golden-haired collared manInhuman figure, likely a Valg prince, who opens the chamber door and terrifies Elide.
- Yellowlegs witchesChained captives forced to repeatedly bear monstrous offspring in Morath’s subterranean chamber.
- Head laundressAssigns Elide to laundry work and gives directions to the subterranean delivery door.
- Aelin GalathyniusAbsent but central to Elide’s hope, loyalty, and confession about Terrasen’s future.