Sagas & Sass began covering The Gilded Wolves trilogy by Roshani Chokshi in May 2022; this is our summary of book 3 – The Bronzed Beasts – as it was written to introduce Episode 48 (covering parts 1-2 of The Bronzed Beasts) and Episode 49 (covering parts 3-6 of The Bronzed Beasts).
AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD!
NOTE: When trying to decide how to refer to the crew/gang in this series, we settled on “the Cookies”, not just for Zofia’s affinity for literal cookies but because Laila used them to bring the group together.
The end of The Silvered Serpents left our Cookies in a pretty dark place, with the loss of Delphine, Zofia worried about her sister, Enrique sans one ear, Severin now under Ruslan’s control, and Laila having destroyed his mnemo bug that would tell her where they could next meet. Clearly this crew really just can’t catch a break, and we’d say we’re reserving judgment on why but let’s be real, a lot of this is more Severin’s fault than anything else. Plus, we were left wondering where they all actually would – or could! – go next!
But before we can dive back into the present, The Bronzed Beasts introduces a new prologue character! We actually get to learn a bit more about Severin’s hashtag-Real-Mom, Kahina (as opposed to Delphine hashtag-you’re-not-my-real-mom).
Kahina clearly loved Severin, though she wasn’t really allowed to spend much time with him because apparently his hashtag-Real-Dad was kind of a huge jerk…AND she was super important of her own accord because, as we now know, she was descended from the Lost Muses and therefore she – and anyone of her bloodline – can play the Divine Lyre, a dangerous instrument that seems far more likely to wreak havoc than to do any good. (No matter what Severin with his god complex thinks)
The knowledge of how dangerous the Lyre truly is drove Kahina to beg Delphine for help in watching over Severin, though Kahina is never truly able to give him the advice she herself once received – that being, “In your hands lie the gates of godhood…let none pass.”
Unfortunately for Kahina – and all of us – it seems like Severin is still reaaaallll set on this idea of becoming some sort of god, even as he deals with Ruslan testing his loyalty and thinks about how he can get away from his captor. Meanwhile, back in the Sleeping Palace, Laila is both shocked and happy when Enrique and Zofia wake up. Hypnos also rejoins them, and while the mnemo bug is of course still destroyed and Hypnos only has bits and pieces of the info they need, they at least figure out their next step – the Cookies are off to Venice!
Once there, though, it’s not all gondolas and romance…Well okay, it’s kinda MOSTLY gondolas and romance, but things like visiting a cemetery so they can find the key to Delphine’s safe house and Laila having strange bouts of what seems to be near-complete sensory loss get in the way juuuust a bit. Eventually they are ensconced in their new abode, where, without Severin to guide them, Hypnos, Laila, and Zofia begin turning to Enrique for knowledge and even leadership…
Oh, and speaking of Severin, he’s still off trying to figure out how to get Eva on his side and escape from Ruslan’s clutches while also seeming to finally kind of realize (ya know, when his friends don’t show up at the appointed meeting place) how big of a jerk he is.
But enough about him, because the far more interesting Cookies have figured out where they need to go next, only it involves…well, not a heist, per se, but them being able to trick their way into a VEP (Very Exclusive Party) one that is hosted by an Italian Order of Babel House, House Janus, and which even Hypnos has never been invited to! ::GASP::
Thankfully the safe house actually holds the clue they need to figure out where to go to get said invitation…and as it turns out, Severin ends up in the same place at the same time and reunites with Laila ::SIGH:: He apparently has a plan, which he passes on to Enrique the next day via a message in an apple…a message that is actually meant for Zofia, because it involves, um, blowing up Ruslan’s gondola.
While Zofia is able to work with Enrique and Hypnos to plant the explosive and this does lead to a very sweet first kiss between her and Enrique, in the process she loses the letter from her sister that she had yet to read, which kinda puts a damper on things.
As for Severin, in a somewhat surprising twist he actually succeeds in smuggling the lyre out of Ruslan’s lair before he heads off to House Janus’s party. Once there, it’s like one windfall after another! Severin finds the rest of the Cookies almost immediately, and they have a pretty darn easy time of it figuring out how to find the mind-Forged map to Poveglia, the place where Severin can supposedly SAFELY play that damn Lyre.
Sure, there’s a weird battle with a glass dragon that guards House Janus’s important mind-Forged maps, but they escape mostly without a scratch and then it’s off to meet Eva, who it seems is in fact on their side now, as she is about to help them, um, blow Ruslan’s gondola up.
Yes, with Ruslan in it. Eep.
However, in case you haven’t noticed (how could you not, though? We sure have)…it’s about time for something to go awry. And in this case, that thing is Zofia’s explosive being somewhat stronger than expected, leading to Severin taking a very serious – in fact, a seemingly deadly – wound from a piece of shrapnel.
Thankfully, part 3 kicks off with the immediate reveal that Severin is in fact alive. (Or…considering how we feel about Severin…maybe it’s NOT ‘thankfully’? Heh.) He is, at least, in full “beg for forgiveness” mode, though Enrique is kinda in full drama mode (for good reason) and refusing to just bow to Severin’s whims, or to his apologies.
So first things first, they have to finish “reading” that mind-Forged map that they acquired, which will lead them to Poveglia – which, by the way, is a former leper colony that no sane person actually wants to visit. It takes some work, but they find the statue of the siren that will allow them to enter the next step of their journey…which involves falling into an entirely new place with a lake that is kind of literally full of sirens that end up almost luring Zofia and Severin into their depths.
Why just Zofia and Severin? Well, Hypnos is covering his ears, Enrique has one missing ear muffled by bandages and another filled with beeswax, and Laila is immune, probably because she is Forged. Anyway, there are these amplifiers, and Hypnos uses one and starts singing and kinda wins the day…except Zofia is so enraptured with a siren who appears to be her sister that she comes dangerously close to being dragged into the lake.
But then, Enrique to the rescue! He swoops in to bring Zofia back to reality (ooops there goes gravity) and they finally make it across the bridge to the next challenge: figuring out how to get through a solid wall.
And hey, here’s HYPNOS WITH THE WIN, ***AGAIN***! Because it turns out “wind” is the answer, and Hypnos – who is super extra in all of the best ways – brought a fan! So they fan their way through this wall, and everything seems copacetic…until Laila realizes that the box they carried the map in is FORGED, and shit starts exploding, and JFC FFS RUSLAN SHOWS UP!
Because apparently a simple explosion can’t kill this asshole, and not only does he show up, but he has a bunch of VERY OBVIOUSLY UNDEAD Fallen House Members with him. Oh and by the way the name of the Fallen House is House Attis, but don’t worry, that literally never comes into play after Ruslan mentions it ::insert obvious eyeroll:: (GIVE US THE LAILA CUT aka Laila’s real name instead of that of the Fallen House)
So Ruslan is totally focused on getting Severin to the place where he can play the Lyre, but as it turns out, the temple is working against them the entire time. Enrique is barely able to convince Ruslan that they can’t even begin advancing until high noon, but then when they do, they just climb…and climb…and climb…up the ziggurat, without seeming to actually gain much (if any) ground.
Eventually Ruslan insists on taking things into his own hands, slicing Severin’s hand in an attempt to simply use his blood to play the Lyre, but NOT SURPRISINGLY this just makes things WORSE. Because the temple understands that it’s not the right person trying to use the Lyre, and the giant statues guarding the ziggurat start smashing things…even as Zofia’s Tezcat-sensing necklace lights up, proving there is another door that will (hopefully) lead them to the right place.
But as much as things fell into place for our Cookies in the first half of this book, now is when they truly fall apart. While Ruslan is destroyed by his own actions, the giant statues are making it impossible for Severin and the others to reach the Tezcat, resulting in Severin having to actually use the divine Lyre…which of course is Laila’s undoing.
And here we come to a sort of interlude, in which Severin meets Laila as a bride and she tells him that she, as someone who is both Forged and human, has to stay and guard the temple. She says “I will oversee its power as it removes Forging from our world. In return…I will heal. I will live…As long as I live, so will you. I will always be with you.”
Sadly, the Laila we know in this particular time does in fact die. But as Severin was experiencing his moment(s) in “heaven” with her, the other Cookies are also seeing amazing things.
Enrique “imagined long, slender fingers made of music dragging up his rib cage, strumming his bones as if they were the strings of a lute, as if it could turn him into a note that was part of the song that moved the universe.”
Hypnos hears a song that tells him “he was good enough as he was, that his soul held a symphony of its own.”
Zofia doesn’t recall what she glimpsed on the other side, but remembers a feeling of extraordinary calm.
Meanwhile, in the Real World, the little boy Severin gave apples to earlier in the novel sees Forged things collapsing, and because of this, is able to feed his little brother without worrying about getting caught by the polizia (cough cough ACAB). A Forged artifact being auctioned in New York bursts apart, to the chagrin of those attempting to sell and purchase it. And in the Philippines, a young girl hoping that she will be allowed to partake in higher education experiences a sound ripping through her home and takes it as a sign that she will get her wish.
In the days after their experience in the Temple, Enrique and Zofia tentatively step into something like a relationship, while Hypnos lurks on the edges in a very telling way and Severin actually remains present, rather than distancing himself as he did after Tristan’s passing. He also opens his hotel, L’Eden, to families. He claims that it’s for monetary reasons, but it’s clear there is something else going on…though whatever his reasoning really is, what seems most important at the time is that the arrival of some very curious children leads to Enrique understanding something that both of his loves (those being Zofia and Hypnos, OF COURSE) knew all along…that he should be a teacher.
Oh, and as it turns out? Zofia’s sister Hela is totally fine! She eloped with the doctor Severin sent to care for her, and they’re coming to visit soon!
As if that’s not sweet enough…the former “Seven Sins Garden” has been transformed into a rehabilitation menagerie for birds, and now Severin has a formerly abused peacock named Argos following him around like a dog (seriously he does not deserve Argos but this whole thing is so cute) while he is also preparing the hotel as a home for the children he is adopting – Luca and Filippo, the brothers from Venice who he once fed apples to.
Time passes – a LOT of time, in fact. Severin raises his adopted sons, and never grows old. But does that even compare to the fact that Zofia, Enrique, and Hypnos DO IN FACT BECOME A THROUPLE/HINGE RELATIONSHIP AND LIVE HAPPILY FUCKING EVER AFTER HOLY SHIT OMG WE! ARE! HERE! FOR! IT!
But when we say a LOT of time passes, we mean it. Severin sees his adopted sons grow up, marry, and have children. His friends pass away and his entire world changes, and yet he never ages. Until the year 1990 rolls around – 100 years after the events in the temple – and one day he walks back into his hotel (which is entirely changed from what he created more than a century ago) and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
And he KNOWS.
Before he even catches a hint of the scent of rose water and sugar, he KNOWS.
And he opens the door to his apartments and hears the words he has been waiting for: “Hello, Majnun.”
::I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING::
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Quotes we loved:
“I feel I am getting ill…I am craving boredom, as if it is the rarest vintage of wine in all the land…Such depravity.”
“In the past week, she had seen riches that rivaled kingdoms and witnessed the kind of intoxicating power that could unravel the world with a song…but nothing compared to the luxury and allure of being able to waste a whole day and think nothing of it. If she could fill a box with impossible treasures, that was what Laila would hide away: luscious, sun-ripened days and cold, star-strewn nights to waste in the company of loved ones.”
~ Enrique practices to audition to be the hero in a school play, only to be told by the nun running the auditions that he didn’t want to be the hero, it was too much work and too many lines, the front of the stage was a place of terror and he didn’t belong there…and he is cast as a tree.~
“…further attempts ended the same way. Enrique entered writing contests, only to find that his opinions had not found an audience. He would try out for debate contests, and if they didn’t dismiss his ideas outright, they would take one look at his face, the Spanish features blending with his Visayan heritage, and in the end, all the responses were the same:
You don’t belong.”
“Enrique didn’t want a forced love. He wanted love like a light, a presence that drove out the shadows and recast the world into somethin warm. A secret part of him had always suspected that he would not find such love with the dazzling patriarch, and maybe that was what hurt him most in the end. Not the loss of love, but the lack of surprise.”
“I know my actions in Lake Baikal looked unimaginably cruel – “
“Actually, they didn’t…I wish I could say I was surprised, and yet, I wasn’t. You had already changed so much. Everything…every person…was disposable to you…All this time, you thought you could get away with devastation so long as it justifies some irrational calculus in your head. And now you apologize for being ‘unimaginably cruel’?” Laila laughed. “What you did was so in line with who you are that when I became conscious, I wanted nothing to do with you. I smashed that Mnemo butterfly because I knew there was nothing you could show me that I wanted to see. Nothing you could leave me that I wanted to chase.”“Territory unknown. Laila smiled. She liked that idea. That in the vast places where the world became unfamiliar, there might be something as beautiful and remarkable as dragons lying in wait.”
“When I go to sleep, I dream of someone who knows which side of the bed I favor, who sits across from me in happy silence, who argues over which dishes belong in which cabinets,” said Laila quietly. “Someone whose love feels like home…not some insurmountable quest ripped from a myth. Someone whose love is safe.”
“Do you know what makes a star appear bright? The darkness around them…Growth and remorse are rather like stars: the surrounding dark makes them vivid enough to notice.”
“A name is dangerous. It can pin something into place, tie it to a country, a religion. Perhaps the temple remained anonymous so that no one could be blamed for even knowing of a place where the lyre could be played and the Babel fragments could be linked together.”
“I believe we are meant for more wonderful things, yes? …We are meant to live as best as we can with what we have been given. Time is the common denominator for us all, and it is not infinite.”
“He saw all the people he had been. The boy who loved to sing, forced to keep his mouth shut. The boy who yearned for song and was surrounded by a thousand different kinds of silence – the silence of his mother’s race, the silence of his own desires, the silence of the luxuriously appointed rooms he haunted like a ghost. All his life, Hypnos had felt like a wandering set of notes, desperate to be set into music, and he had found it in the friends who had become family. Even with them, he felt nervous, as if they might throw him out of their music at any moment…but this grand song assured him otherwise. The song told him he was enough as he was, that his soul held a symphony of its own, for that was how he had been made.”
“I don’t want to simply try to change the world on my own by forcing my ideas on people…I’d much rather encourage them to think differently. I think that’s where lasting change will come from.”
“In the past, Severin had stolen out of the hubris that he could take from the Order of Babel. Now, he was humbled by the thought of shepherding history into different homes. History might be shaped by the tongues of conquerors, but it was not a fixed shape or story, and with every object they repatriated, it was like adding or recasting a sentence in a book whose pages were as wide and infinite as a horizon.”
