Sagas & Sass began covering the Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown in September 2022; this is our summary of Lysander’s chapters in book 4 – Iron Gold – as it was written to introduce Sagas & Sass episodes 63D, 64A, and 65A.
AHOY! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lysander’s tale in Iron Gold begins with a dream that turns into a nightmare, and when he wakes he is thinking of the parents he lost when he was very young…but his thoughts are soon interrupted with the arrival of his current sorta-parental, sorta-filial figure…and you guys, it’s none other than CASSIUS!
Because oh yeah, remember how Cassius took Lysander with him when he left Luna at the end of Morning Star? Turns out that they’ve been together ever since, traveling around the galaxy on a beat-up but much-beloved ship called the Archimedes (a.k.a. the Archi), along with a somewhat cantankerous Blue named Pytha.
Currently they’re on the trail of a hauler that sent out a distress signal, and while it could be a pirate ship, they decide to check it out and make sure that there isn’t anyone on board who’s actually in danger.
Unfortunately for them, it turns out that both are kind of true – the hauler isn’t technically a pirate ship, but it WAS attacked by Ascomanni, who are essentially Obsidian pirates of the worst sort and have murdered much of the ship’s crew and captured and tortured the rest.
Cassius and Lysander free the first group of crew members that they find and are told that there is a Gold on board – a Gold who paid them to take her to an asteroid on the edge of Rim territory, which is why their ship is all the way out in the Belt in the first place.
Just then Pytha hails them, because there are three more ships approaching and they, ummm, kinda need to skedaddle. Cassius prepares to lead the remaining crew members to an evacuation point, but Lysander insists on splitting off to find the Gold…which he does, imprisoned in a room with the rest of the ship’s crew. He cuts down the metal net that she’s hanging in and gives her some stims, but before he can move to help the others she attacks him, steals his razor, and runs off!
This means that he now has no way to cut the imprisoned lowColors free of their own nets, and on top of that Cassius is on the com telling Lysander that he needs to leave, like, five minutes ago. And then Lysander hears some of the Obsidians approaching, so he finally runs away, hating himself for making a choice that ended up preventing him from saving the rest of the people in the room. And like, rightfully so, my dude! (Big ugh.)
Pytha guides Lysander through the hauler, and along the way he runs into the Gold he was trying to rescue – and who has apparently made it her mission to take down every Obsidian that she can, presumably as revenge for her own capture and torture, because clearly THAT’S what’s important right now!
So Lysander gets his razor back and IS able to save the girl, but just barely – oh, and while they are able to get on the Archi and fly away, the other Obsidian ships are in hot pursuit. Soon enough their engines are hit, and it seems they’re not actually going to escape after all…but just before she passes out, the girl tells Lysander that they’ll find help at the asteroid she was trying to reach!
Now okay, teeeeechnically they COULD go to the Rim, but no ship has crossed into Rim space in ten years – not to mention the fact that Cassius and Lysander being who they are, they’re some of the LAST people who should be paying the Rim a visit in the first place. Plus, hey, the asteroid is closer, so Lysander admits that the girl told him they’d find help there.
Since they don’t have much of a choice, it’s off to the asteroid they go, barely outracing the Ascomanni on their tail…only before they actually reach their destination, they’re caught in a warship’s tow beam…a warship that clearly hails from the Rim.
With no time to lose, Cassius has Lysander hold him down while he uses a special – and incredibly painful – mask to basically graft a new face over his own. And even though they surrender to the commandos who storm their ship, they get the crap beat out of them before being dragged before an older Gold woman for questioning…questioning that is interrupted when they find the Gold girl in the Archi’s medbay.
Also, it sounds as if a Storm Knight has also arrived – but not any Storm Knight Lysander or Cassius know, because the one they did know was killed a long time ago. Oh, and THIS Storm Knight is apparently the brother of the girl they saved…and when he arrives, Lysander is taken aback by his “raw, true, and uncalculating force.” (Lol Lysander, go on with your man crush)
His name is Diomedes, and the girl is Seraphina – and these names Lysander does know, because they aren’t from just any Rim family – they’re from House Raa – children of the Rim’s Sovereign Romulus au Raa! And if Cassius and Lysander had any hope left for, well, anything…welp, it’s gone now.
After a month-long journey (during which they’ve been subjected to water deprivation torture, and ummm would have faced worse were it not for Diomedes’s intervention and protection) Lysander and Cassius arrive on Io. Granted, toward the end there Lysander threw a wrench into that protection when he DARED speak to Diomedes about Seraphina, asking why she was in the Gulf, reminding him that they saved her, and actually daring to tell him that the honorable thing would be to let them live…
…all of which earned Lysander a lesson, featuring him being dropped out of the belly of the ship to be subjected to the EXTREMELY harsh elements of Io. Thankfully (we guess?) Diomedes pulled Lysander back inside just as he reached the point where he could no longer hold his breath against the poison air, Lysander apologized, Diomedes said he is forgiven, and that’s…that, apparently.
When they finally land somewhere and disembark, Lysander is surprised to realize that they were not brought to the seat of House Raa but rather to a remote installation, where they are deposited in front of the one-eyed one-armed flyin’ purple people eat – ok ok ok terrible joke. They’re actually deposited in front of Romulus himself, though to be fair he IS in fact one-eyed and one-armed.
Aaaanyway, Romulus is pretty darn angry with his daughter for breaking the peace they’ve preserved for a decade, but she tells him that she did it in search of the truth about what happened to their docks! Seraphina claims that she wants justice, but Romulus accuses her of really wanting war. While she should be sentenced to death as a traitor, he instead plans on leaving her locked up in this outpost…a plan that is immediately foiled by the arrival of his wife – and Seraphina’s mother – Dido.
As it turns out, Dido is the one who sent Seraphina into the Gulf in the first place, and now she’s here to arrest her own husband, while elsewhere on Io men loyal to the Rim – okay, let’s be real, men loyal to her – seize control of, well, ALL THE THINGS.
Diomedes tries to fight, but Romulus calls him off and allows himself to be taken prisoner. Soon after, Seraphina is brought back to speak her piece, and she tells her mother that she did in fact find what they were looking for…oh, and that Castor and Regulus – aka Cassius and Lysander – saved her.
So they are now Dido’s guests, and when they arrive at Sungrave – the greatest city of Io – they note the many trade and war vessels flowing in and out of the city’s docks and wonder how they were built…and worry over this proof that the Rim has obviously not been sleeping these past ten years.
At first Lysander and Cassius are spoiled with baths and massages and proffered Pinks and even an invite to a big family dinner…but before said dinner, Seraphina pays Lysander a visit in his chambers. She’s clearly trying to feel him out about some things, and even warns him to give her mother what she wants, leading Lysander to the conclusion that they’re not so much guests, but rather prey.
Still, dinner seems to be going well, even though Lysander recognizes that the Raa grandmother, Gaia, is tooootally pretending to be senile – oh, and despite the fact that one of the cousins, Bellerophon, is totally negging on Cassius. Not to mention that things get increasingly uncomfortable as Dido’s line of questioning gets ever more poke-y, eventually leading to her calling for dessert – only SURPRISE! It’s not actually dessert that the servants bring in – it’s Cassius and Lysander’s safe!
Because oh yeah, remember when Seraphina stole Lysander’s razor? She hid the datacube that supposedly contains the truth about what happened to their docks during the Battle of Illium inside it, and then Lysander locked it up in the safe, and now Dido is insisting that they open it. Of course Cassius tries to bargain, saying that if they are allowed to leave Io, once they are some distance away he will call back and reveal the code needed to open it.
Not that anyone believes him, and so Dido plays her next card – she knows that there is a Bellona razor in the safe, and so she names him Cassius au Bellona, calling in a Violet to use a “gruesli” on him (a gruesli being a creature that eats masks and therefore destroys his disguise).
Once revealed, Cassius continues to refuse to open the safe, and so Dido reminds everyone of the family they lost in the Triumph, lists Cassius as one of the people they have a bloodfeud with because of it, and calls for a resolution to this feud, asking Diomedes to do the honors.
But Diomedes refuses on grounds that Cassius and Lysander are now their guests…not that this deters his mother, who has plenty of other family members to call upon. Not surprisingly, it’s Bellerophon who steps forward to challenge Cassius to single combat in their Bleeding Place, a challenge that Cassius accepts with a brilliant smile…
Now that Cassius’s identity has been revealed and he is about to duel Bellerephon (who we’ve now dubbed BelerePHONE, deal with it), it seems he’s also prepared himself to meet his death head-on. Lysander, on the other hand, doesn’t agree with aaaany of this – he’d prefer to give the Raas what they want, though whether it’s because of his lil’ crush on Seraphina (bleh) or his desire for revenge against the “wolves” who run the Republic (::eyeroll::)…well, who knows.
Either way, Cassius is VERY insistent that Lysander not open the safe for Dido…oh, and that he should let Cassius die. Which pretty much seems like it’s gonna happen, as Bellerephone is in top form and Cassius is, well, NOT. So it’s very much SURPRISE SURPRISE when Cassius cuts Bellerephone down!
That should be the end (because uhhh that’s how bloodfeuds are supposed to work), but remember how Dido has a whole buncha family members? Turns out she’s totally willing to sacrifice as many of them as she needs to kill Cassius. Or to get him or Lysander to give in about the safe. Ya know, whichever comes first.
To be fair, Lysander keeps his seat through quite a few bouts, but in the end Dido orders Seraphina to the killing floor. Cassius is already practically dead on his feet, and Lysander knows this will be his end – an end that Cassius still obviously wants, by the way.
However, it’s not an end that Lysander is willing to let him have. That’s right, folks – Lysander jumps down onto the killing floor himself, and he doesn’t just offer to open the safe – he totally reveals who he actually is!
This kid is really, err. Something.
Obviously there’s a whole lot of WHAT THE WHAAAAT going on with the Moonies who thought they were just watching the Raa Revenge Plot get wrapped up, so Diomedes spirits Lysander away, depositing him back in his room. Some time later, Aurae (the Pink who we’d earlier learned Diomedes has a super obvious thing for) shows up to inform Lysander that Cassius is, in fact, dead.
So ya know, good job Lysander, you played all your cards and the man who raised you for a decade is still gone. Also, RIP Cassius…we might not have liked you before, but we WILL actually miss the man you’d become 
*
Lysander eventually falls asleep, but not for long, because he wakes to a presence in his room. It’s a Brown servant, come to fetch him to meet with “a friend”…only it’s not Seraphina as Lysander assumes – it’s Grandma Gaia!
Oh, and she’s absolutely not senile at all, of course. She has Pytha with her, which yay! Pytha’s alive and okay! Oh, and Gaia fetched Lysander and brought Pytha around for him because she totes wants Lysander’s help in flipping Dido’s coup on its warmongering head. Her daughter Vela is waiting out in the desert for Romulus to be freed from the Dust Cells, at which point Vela and her loyal legions will assault Sungrave and capture Dido.
Sounds like a pretty solid plan, right? And how great will it be for Lysander to free Romulus, which he totally agrees to do?
Well, it WOULD have been a pretty solid plan, and that WOULD have been great, but instead Lysander fights off Gaia’s Obsidian guard and surrenders himself to Dido because he wants to bring! Back! Order! And! Justice!
Seriously, SIGH.
Now, Dido DOES claim that Romulus’s trial is going to be a sham anyway, because she’s not actually going to accuse him of treason. Unfortunately, if the Red Rising Saga has taught us anything, it’s that the best-laid plans almost always go awry.
The trial begins with Dido playing the contents of the holocube that Seraphina brought back – a recording made from an Obsidian’s point of view that very clearly shows Darrow and Victra ordering the destruction of the Ganymede docks. But Dido merely says more investigation was warranted, and only asks for the charge of gross negligence.
It seems as if the trial is going to pan out just like Dido wanted – uuuuntil the Whites go over her head and bring the treason charge anyway! And Romulus being Romulus, oooof course he admits that he did in fact know that Darrow destroyed the docks. Granted, he only found out fairly recently, but he DID conspire to keep it a secret, which means he is sentenced to death.
And what a death it is – naked and exposed to Io’s extremely extreme elements, he has to walk 80 steps to the Dragon Tomb, resting place of the founder of House Raa. Only four people have ever made it all the way to the Tomb, and sadly, Romulus doesn’t end up being the fifth.
(Though he did at least get to say the sweetest goodbye to his wife, a goodbye that shows why people told tales of the love between Romulus and Dido…)
In the end, somehow – despite hearing pleas from both Cassius and Romulus about how this war shouldn’t happen – Lysander has decided that it’s time for him to protect and shepherd the lowColors who he believes the Republic has failed, and offers to help Dido secure the Core alliances she needs to unite Gold and take down the Reaper.
….Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool!
*Spoiler-y side note: None of us actually believed Cassius really and truly died off page.
