Ragpicker King by Cassandra Clare

Months after the events of Sword Catcher, the city is still recovering. A massive attack on the royals has left Kel and Conor confused. They still don’t know who attacked them, and haven’t found many leads. Not only is their kingdom on edge, so is another kingdom, specifically Sarthe, as the daughter they sent, Luisa, to marry Conor was killed during the attack, and her life was taken during the attack. On top of that, Conor’s father, King Markus, has gotten much sicker since his right-hand man died, leaving Conor to rule the kingdom in his place. Kel is still working with the Ragpicker King, in hopes that he can find the attackers, but also keep an eye on other things that pertain to the royals.

Lin, also keeping in contact with the Ragpicker King, also has a lot of other duties. Ever since she lied and claimed she was the Goddess Reborn, she now has religious duties along with the healing duties that she doesn’t want to give up. She also still visits Mariam, her dressmaker friend, and heals her every couple of days. Whatever ability Lin has received has helped Mariam immensely, but it is not a solution, as it drains Lin’s powers, and it only lasts a week or so for Mariam. One day, as Lin is visiting her grandfather, a councilor to the king, she finds out that she is expected to take part in a series of trials to test her Goddess Reborn powers.

Conor, despite still being in love with Lin, has decided that he needs allies, which means a new engagement. This time to a princess named Anjelica, who will be traveling to Conor soon. Anjelica was the princess Conor was engaged to a while ago, and he does think she is pretty. Kel, meanwhile, is still hung up on Antonetta. Kel has been thinking a lot about the night of the attack, because as he was dressed as Conor, Antonetta came up to him to try and get her out of her engagement with Artal Germont. Kel has to play dumb for a while until Antonetta finally confides to Kel about her terrible engagement to Artal. But the marriage is to continue, and there is an engagement party for the two. Antonetta hides for most of it, and Lin finds her to help her with her feelings. Kel also finds her, and he finds out that Artal has asked for rights of the first night, meaning that people will be there to watch the two consummate their marriage. Kel is angry about this, and casually mentions to Maren (the Ragpicker King’s poison master) that he wants Artal to die. Maren says that’s good, because he already poisoned his cup. But it was not enough of a dosage, and Artal lives.

Kel, pretending to be Conor, goes to collect the new bride, Anjelica. She gives a little test to Kel, which he fails, and she now realizes it is not Conor she is with. So when they arrive at the palace, Kel takes her to Conor. She says that she recently got out of a relationship with a pirate, Laurent, who won’t leave her alone. She fell for him originally, but then he became excessive and possessive; she is genuinely worried about him finding her. But she also wanted to be upfront about him to Conor before their marriage. They make a mutual pact: Conor can keep having other ladies as long as he is discreet, and she will accept any duties that are needed.

During the engagement party, Conor and Lin dance, until Lin’s father interrupts. But Conor wants her back, so she is summoned to the castle. Conor says he has a new patient for her, and actually orders her to take care of him. Her new patient is the king, who stares off into nothingness and is a shell of himself. Lin inspects him, and decides to do some research. Conor tells her that she can come to him whenever she wants.

Anjelica starts to know both Kel and Conor. One night, she asks to be shown the city, and when Kel takes her, she says she wants to meet the Ragpicker King, so he takes her to one of the meetings, and she is intrigued. She wants to work with him, especially to know whereabouts about her ex-lover, Laurent.

Meanwhile, Lin has figured out that the king was poisoned. That for years, his right-hand man was poisoning him. Lin and Conor work together more and more, trying to find a cure for him. Also during this time, Artal has left, leaving Antonetta behind and not in the engagement. A couple of things are revealed at this time: Artal and the pirate Laurent have worked together, and his possible arrival drives Artal away. It’s also suspected that Antonetta’s mother is the one who planned the attack months ago. Artal, Antonetta’s fiancé, disappears.

Engagement parties for Conor and Anjelica then start to commence. There is a big celebration with the whole city. Lin is there, and when the two take their vows, Conor looks right at Lin. Lin then decides to go visit her patient, the king. He starts to attack her, she blacks out, and when she wakes, Conor is there, and told her she started speaking in a different language. Lin also takes her chance, and kisses Conor, and he kisses her right back.

During the ball to celebrate the next day, Conor wants to slip away. He finds Kel and switches masks with him, and he leaves. He goes to find Lin, and the two kiss, then end up sleeping together. After they finish, they hear a noise, and Conor gets scared. He tells Lin that they need to go, and sneak back into the party. It hits Lin what she did. She may like Conor, but what they just did made her feel used, and unseen by Conor. She runs out of the castle, and goes straight home to deal with her feelings. Meanwhile, Conor goes back to the ball, realizing his mistake. Also during the ball, Kel, masking as Conor, sees Antonetta. He goes to her and they dance. She then tells Kel, thinking he is Conor, that he shouldn’t trust Kel. That he is working with the Ragpicker King, and he shouldn’t be trusted. After that dance, Kel and Anjelica share a dance. Anjelica says that she got word from the Ragpicker King that Laurent just arrived.

Anjelica goes to find Laurent. It’s revealed that even though she told Kel and Conor that she did not love him, she still truly does. But the politics of royals is forcing her to marry Conor. The two try to make a plan so they can be together, and plan to leave in a few days' time.

Aaron, who is in charge of Lin’s trials, decides to follow her one day on her rounds of healing. Throughout the day he observes, and by the end says she is an amazing healer. But he knows that she is lying, and says that if she is caught she will be forced to be exiled forever, and it will hurt her family. He then tries to convince her that if she confesses, she will only be exiled for a short time, and then be allowed to come back.

Back in the castle, Anjelica is mad. She heard that Conor slept with some commoner during their party. She doesn’t know who, nor does Kel (though he has his suspicions). Conor then tries to convince Lin to come visit him. She ignores it, still angry with him. So Conor comes to her. Says he would marry her if he wasn’t a prince, but since he is, he needs to choose his people first, and his people need him to marry Anjelica. He offers Lin money, a home, essentially being his mistress. She declines. She wants to be queen or nothing, she doesn’t wish to hide. As Conor is about to leave, Lin gives him a cure for his father. That night, Lin has a dream that the king is talking to her. Lin decides that she needs to go see him. When she does, he is a bit more awake, but has talons. The king starts to tell Lin a story about phoenixes and being reborn. He is the phoenix, he was allowed to have a child, live his life, but the time would come when he would be taken back and reborn. Conor has a bit of that phoenix power now. This is why the king wanted Kel in Conor’s life, it would protect him even more. He then offers Lin a bit of his power so she can finish her trial. He does this, explaining that Lin will be needed for the future of his people and hers.

Lin goes straight to her trial. Aaron is sad that she showed up and chooses to pretend. Lin then starts to panic, because her test is to heal Mariam, her friend that she has not been able to heal. She looks deep down in her magic, summons it, and magically is able to heal Mariam. Although when she looks at her hands, they are almost transparent, and then they start to glow. Elsabet arrives in her mind, the true heir to the phoenix throne. Lin then passes out.

Kel is in his room, pacing, when he gets a letter. Anjelica is going to leave that night, and he needs to convince her to stay. But she reveals that was the real reason she wanted to go to the Ragpicker King, it was for Laurent to find her, not to keep her away. Kel realizes he can’t convince her to stay, so he lets her go, but as soon as she leaves, Conor and his men arrive. They have convinced Conor that Kel helped Anjelica escape; they frame him for that and much more. They also reveal his secret, that he has been working with the Ragpicker King. Conor is shocked, and Kel tries to tell him it was all done to protect Conor, and that he was planning on telling him. All of Kel’s allies betray him, so Conor can’t protect him. Kel is sent to the prisons.

Lin wakes up in the Black Manor. The Ragpicker King told her that she was exiled. The committee believed that because she passed out, her magic was fake. They were able to save her amulet for Lin, the one that has been helping her with her magic all these weeks.

Meanwhile, Kel wakes up in prison. Conor finally comes to visit him. Kel had a lot of evidence against him, and he is currently being found guilty of treason against the prince. Conor can’t protect him, and he still feels betrayed, and may not ever be able to trust him again.

Lin then gets a visit from her grandfather, who has been relieved of his duties as the king’s councilor, as he was always on the side of Kel, so they were not sure if they could trust him. Lin then decides to go to Conor, to try and convince him to let Kel go. When she gets there, she realizes that she does truly love him, so she tells him that. Says that she would be willing to be his mistress, if it means she gets a little part of him. They kiss, but Conor pushes her away, and says he can’t trust her, as he knows that she is also working with the Ragpicker King. She says yes, but it was never to work against the crown. Conor, upset, orders her to leave, to never come back. She has been released of all of her duties, and he never wants to see her again. She agrees, but says that she needs to tell him one thing, then proceeds to tell him about his father and the phoenix.

In the castle, a servant gets a letter with an odd, old necklace. The letter and gift are addressed to Conor, but she reads the letter. It is from Beck. The message says that before there were Sword Catchers, there were other ways of protection.

When Lin gets back to the Black Manor, Aaron is there, waiting for her. He says he believes that she was the Chosen, and pledges himself to her as a goddess. He will help her through her ordeal, which is next if she wants to be the goddess.

Kel manages to make an escape from the prison. But Conor is there. He grabs Kel by the shirt, slips something over his neck, and pushes him off a cliff into the water. As Kel is swimming to the shore, evading the crocodiles that live there, he realizes the stone on the necklace. Conor just made it look like Kel is dead, but gave him a necklace that would protect him. Kel knows who gave Conor that necklace, Beck. Kel wants to meet Beck face to face. He knows that he has never met the true Beck, always a fake face. But Kel says he wants to meet her. As he enters the room to meet Beck, it’s Antonetta. It took Kel a while to figure out it was Antonetta as Beck, but he feels a bit sad that she never told him, and that she supposedly sold him out to Conor. Antonetta, meanwhile, says she has always known Kel was a Sword Catcher, and always knew when it was him. The two feel equally a bit betrayed, but decide to start anew. They reintroduce themselves, and Kel says they need to work together to fight against those who hurt Conor and who hurt him.

Conor decides to visit his father, who is doing much better, enough that he is sitting on his throne. Conor says that Lin told him everything, and that as father and son, they need to work together to keep their kingdom strong.