Welcome back to the third day of our book club readalong for OwlCrate's August book, The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 8-10 of The Drowned Woods, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box! Don't forget, you can also post about the readalong on Instagram with the hashtag #OCTheDrownedWoods for another chance to win!
The story continues...
Chapter 8:
Everyone gets acquainted and Renfrew reveals the plan: To get to the well they are to enter the sea caves at low tide, which is behind a locked gate. Renfrew has a contact who possesses a key to said gate, and Mer and Fane will retrieve it. Emrick is the living foremost scholar on magical traps. Gryf, the final member of their party, has his own instructions yet to be revealed. Fane is there because in the caves is Ysgithyrwyn, or the White Tusk, the chief of all boars, and it’s going to be Fane’s job to kill it.
Chapter 9:
Once as a child Mer stole Renfrew’s keys and descended down into the dungeons, a place she was forbidden to enter. There she witnessed the prince kill one of his spies who didn’t do as he was instructed. It was after this event that she realized Renfrew had let her steal the keys.
The collecting of the keys did not go as planned. The person who ran the shop locked them in from the outside and ran away, leaving them to flee as well. They find a passageway through the sewers. Fane tells Mer about the extent of his magic - how he can’t risk accidentally waking it up and killing someone without his choice. In exchange, Mer tells him about how the prince made her find all the wells on the war front, under the guise of needing them for the soldiers, when instead he proceeded to poison every single one of them, killing many innocent people.
When conversation comes back around to how they will get through the locked gate, Mer reveals she knows the heir to the thief guild, and that said heir is both her ex lover and owes her a favour. And she happens to be in prison.
The girl was taken to a house on the cliff’s edge, hands bound in irons. There she was presented to the leaders of the Thief Guild. The girl tries to make her escape but is cornered by the daughter of one of the leaders, who tells the guards chasing her that the girl is now part of her crew.
Chapter 10:
Ifanna is imprisoned for accidentally kidnapping a drunk nobleman. To her surprise, the serving girl that brings her her dinner is in fact Mer, who has come with a cup of poison to break her out. Drink the poison, appear as if a corpse, and get carried out. Mer tells her that she didn’t come back for her after Ifanna betrayed her, but Mer and her crew is in need of a thief, and Ifanna is the best. Ifanna drinks the poison.
Questions:
- Why do you think Ifanna betrayed Mer? What do you think she got out of it?
- What do you think Gryph's currently secret task is?
- Do you think that Fane's powers will work on the boar?
- Recommend another book that features folklore or mythology!
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