Blood and Ash, #1
From Blood and Ash
by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Contents
Chapter Four
Overview
Poppy and Vikter answer a clandestine white-handkerchief plea, finding Agnes’s husband Marlowe cursed by a Craven bite. Poppy uses her gift to ease Agnes and Marlowe’s pain, reveals herself to him, and grants a merciful bloodstone death.
Before dying, Marlowe reveals Ridley was also bitten, propelling Poppy toward an urgent, potentially catastrophic outbreak among off-duty Huntsmen.
Summary
Poppy and Vikter slip from the Castle to a Lower Ward home marked by a white handkerchief, signaling a family seeking mercy for the cursed. Inside, they meet Agnes, who is overwhelmed with grief over her husband Marlowe’s sudden decline after returning from the Rise.
Feeling Agnes’s crushing anguish, Poppy uses her forbidden gift to ease the woman’s pain. Noting a child’s presence and keeping Agnes occupied, Poppy enters the sickroom alone and confirms Marlowe’s progressing curse: a Craven bite, spreading veins, lengthening canines and nails, and intense suffering.
To grant him dignity, Poppy reveals her face and identity as the Maiden, comforts Marlowe, and offers a swift end. When he consents, she kills him instantly with a bloodstone dagger to the brain stem, sparing him and Agnes a violent transformation and public burning.
With his last clarity, Marlowe warns that Ridley was also bitten and may be at the Huntsmen dorms. Realizing a massacre could erupt within minutes, Poppy masks up, steels herself, and rushes to act, fearing for the city and the people sleeping nearby.
Who Appears
- Poppy (Penellaphe)The Maiden; uses her gift to ease pain, reveals herself, and mercifully kills Marlowe with bloodstone.
- Vikter WardwellPoppy’s guard and mentor; coordinates the clandestine aid and keeps Agnes occupied.
- AgnesGrieving wife who sought help via white handkerchief; comforted by Poppy’s gift.
- MarloweAgnes’s husband and Huntsman; cursed by a Craven bite; requests dignity and is swiftly slain.
- RidleyHuntsman reportedly bitten; possibly at the dorms, posing imminent mass-casualty risk.