Chapter 9: A Dance with the Enemy

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Seventeen-year-old Briony Rosewood stands at the receiving line of the winter solstice state dinner with her brother Rory and father King Jacquel. She dislikes the forced politeness, the itchy Bomardi-style dress her father made her wear, and the parade of guests from Bomard. Sammy Meers jokes about claiming the first dance, and Briony brushes him off. Then Toven Hearst appears. He taunts her about her brother’s school marks, implying he knows she has been doing Rory’s elixirs work.

Later, Toven approaches Briony again, demanding the first dance. He invokes his position as eighth in the line of the Ten—his father Orion holds that place—and threatens to formally ask King Jacquel for courtship if she refuses. Briony accepts rather than cause a scandal. During the waltz, she catches Toven glancing at Larissa Gains and realizes he is using her to make his former lover jealous. Toven also mocks Eversun magic, claiming it is not the superior system the Eversuns believe.

After the dance, Liam Quill (sixth in line) cuts in, followed by Canning Trow, who dances inappropriately close. Briony flees the dance floor and encounters Veronika Mallow, a low-ranked Bomardi woman who criticises the tradition of arranged marriages as collateral and suggests that promises of peace can be broken. Briony dismisses the remark, but three and a half years later, when Bomardi attack the school looking for Eversun captives, she will remember Mallow’s words.

Key Events

Briony greets Bomardi nobles, including the snobbish Larissa Gains and the flirtatious Sammy Meers.
Toven Hearst publicly claims the first dance, exploiting the traditional right of the Ten to cut in.
Briony discovers Toven is using her to provoke Larissa Gains.
Toven and Briony debate the differences between Eversun mind-magic and Bomardi heartspring magic.
Canning Trow dances inappropriately, forcing Briony to retreat.
Veronika Mallow hints that the peace between realms is fragile and that arranged marriages serve as collateral.
Briony later recalls this conversation when the Bomardi attack the school.

Character Development

Briony is still a sheltered princess, frustrated by her role as a political pawn. She holds her ground verbally but submits to Toven’s demand to avoid a worse outcome, showing her pragmatism.
Toven is calculating and manipulative, willing to use Briony as a tool to make Larissa jealous. His comments about magic reveal his resentment toward Eversun superiority.
Veronika Mallow appears as a subtle, ominous figure. Her philosophical critique of peace treaties plants a seed that will later bloom into the betrayal of the school attack.
Sammy and Didion represent the Eversun allies who try to protect Briony but are powerless against the hierarchy of the Ten.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Dance as political theatre: The first dance becomes a battleground for status; Toven uses the tradition of cutting in to assert dominance.
Arranged marriage as collateral: Mallow’s speech frames these unions not as peace offerings but as hostages, undermining the idea of true trust between realms.
Foreshadowing: Mallow’s claim that “promises can be broken” directly prefigures the Bomardi attack that will take place three and a half years later.
Magic systems as cultural analog: The Eversun method (drawing from the mind) versus the Bomardi method (using familiars or draining heartsprings) mirrors a broader conflict over which society is more “evolved.”

Why This Chapter Matters

This flashback chapter establishes the root of the Eversun–Bomardi conflict as it personally affects Briony. It shows Toven’s early antagonism and his willingness to use her for his own ends. More importantly, it introduces Veronika Mallow, who is later revealed as the architect of the attack on the school. The chapter also clarifies the rules of the Ten, the dance courtesies, and the social pressure Briony faces—all of which will shape her decisions in the present-day timeline.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Briony agree to dance the first dance with Toven, even though she clearly does not want to?
Briony accepts because Toven threatens to put in a formal request for courtship with her father. A public dance is less damaging than a formal declaration, and Briony hopes to avoid a permanent entanglement.
What does Briony realise about Toven’s true motive during their waltz?
She notices that Toven keeps glancing at Larissa Gains, who is watching from the edge of the floor. Briony understands that Toven is using her to make Larissa jealous, not because he actually wants to court Briony.
How does Veronika Mallow’s conversation foreshadow later events in the story?
Mallow states that peace treaties and arranged marriages are only promises, and that promises can be broken. Three and a half years later, the Bomardi attack the school, abducting Eversun students—exactly the kind of broken promise Mallow described.