Get Nerdy With Me No. 4
My BIG prediction for Bree in Oathbound.
Will Bree fly in Oathbound?
There is powerful foreshadowing in Legendborn and Bloodmarked that suggests Bree will fly in Oathbound. Bree’s identity is intertwined with dragon imagery:
As the scion of Arthur Pendragon, Bree’s sigil is a dragon rampant.
In Bloodmarked, she has a vision of becoming a dragon (that comes true).1
In Bloodmarked. she flies in dragon form while trapped in Arthur’s dream of Camelot.2
Dragons are powerful fliers, and everything Tracy Deonn has laid out with dragons so far feels like a huge hint at Bree’s future abilities.
Will Erebus will teach her?
Erebus (aka the Shadow King) is Bree’s new teacher. Since he has wings, and Bree can forge wings, I’m just putting two and two together. I think he’ll teach her flight in Oathbound.
Like a cycle, Bree is drawn to be airborne.
Look how Books 1+2 begin and end in the air. The pattern is incredible.
I think the airborne cycles Tracy Deonn creates below will repeat in Book 3, but the cycles will shift with Erebus’s teachings. Bree will learn to fly—no more jumping—under his tutelage.
When Legendborn begins, Bree thinks about jumping at the quarry party. Sel watchers her. When Legendborn ends, Bree is in the air at the quarry, finally jumping and soaring. Sel is with her.
When Bloodmarked begins, Bree thinks about jumping out of the window to leave the Legendborn Lodge to go train. Sel doesn’t want her to. When Bloodmarked ends, Bree is in the air leaving the Legendborn to go with Erebus. Sel wouldn’t want her to do this, but is unable to stop her.
Compare the Final Sentences of Legendborn and Bloodmarked.
I love how the imagery of leaving echoes at the end of each book, so deliberately and poetically. Tracy Deonn is SO METICULOUS with her details.
This last sentence of Legendborn:
“And then I'm in the air, leaving the earth and trees far behind me.”
The last sentence of Bloodmarked:
“The last thing I see before I disappear with Erebus is Nicks's hand, reaching out, and closing around smoke and empty air.”
Thanks for reading the fourth installment of my series Get Nerdy With Me where every day until Oathbound hits the shelves on March 4 I’m deep diving a topic from Legendborn and Bloodmarked here on Substack.
Bloodmarked, Chapter 13, Page 140
"Do you fear your own greatness? Your own bri? Summon me, Briana, and I will show you what it means to be the Pendragon..."
An image flashes in my mind. Iridescent scales. Smoke curled around a snout. Fangs as long as my own body. Heat and brimstone, then gone. A creation of his or my own mind, I don't know.
"I will leave because you wish me to, but I am only here because you sought me out. By your blood, on your heart."
Bloodmarked, Chapter 58, Page 533
“The dreamworld, fighting back again.
Lightning strikes at their feet, sending them flying in opposite directions.
Before either of them can lift a blade or raise a hound or use any of their aether against me, I let the chain scythe melt back to flames on either side of me. Then I feed the flames with root, pushing even more fuel toward them, imagining them into the shape I want.
Into the wings I want.
Massive. Claw-tipped. Powerful.
With one mighty flap, I am in the air.
The glittering, red, leatherlike wings spread ten feet wide on either side of my ruby-scaled body. Thunder rumbles, giving me just enough warning to swoop to the side and away from a flash of lightning. I am faster in the air, stronger.
I don't ever want to come down.”