Morning Star

How it opens

Darrow lies curled and shackled in total darkness, a prisoner of the Jackal, so close to madness that he tries to kill himself by beating his head against the stone. Then the ceiling of his cell opens, and he finds that his prison is a hollow stone table where people have eaten inches above him every night. Among the guests are Cassius au Bellona, Aja au Grimmus and Antonia. Cassius covers Darrow with his own cloak, but Aja confirms that she still means to have Darrow dissected. Later, the Jackal shows his guests a Pink girl, Calliope, whose tongue he says he cut out himself, to make his point that fear is the only method against rebels.

Who you meet early

• Darrow O'LykosDarrow, the Red carved to pass as a Gold, is the Jackal's prisoner. By the Jackal's count he spent three months under interrogation and nine months alone in the dark, sealed inside a stone table in Attica.
• Adrius au AugustusAdrius au Augustus, the Jackal, is the ArchGovernor who holds Darrow captive. He offered Darrow a comfortable life if he would say he was broken, with the lives of Darrow's family as the price.
• Cassius au BellonaCassius au Bellona, once Darrow's friend in House Mars, now wears the white and gold of the Morning Knight. He travels with Aja au Grimmus in the Sovereign's service.
• Aja au GrimmusAja au Grimmus, one of the Sovereign's Furies, is the woman who beat Quinn to death on Luna. She plans to take her Thirteenth legion home to Luna, likely by morning.
• CalliopeCalliope is a Pink in the Jackal's household who has no tongue. The Jackal says he cut it out himself after she tried to kill one of his Boneriders.