A Crystal of Time

A Crystal of Time
Cover art of A Crystal of Time
Attribution information
Author	Soman Chainani
Illustrator	Iacopo Bruno
Cover artist	Iacopo Bruno
Publication information
Publisher	HarperCollins
Release date	March 5, 2019
Page count	640
Chronology
Story arc	The Camelot Years
← Previous	Quests for Glory
Next →	One True King

A Crystal of Time is the newly released 2019 fantasy, fairy tale novel written by Soman Chainani. It is the second book in The Camelot Years trilogy and the the fifth book overall in The School for Good and Evil series. The book picks up right after the events of the fourth book, Quests for Glory. It released on March 5, 2019. A Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition was also released.

Synopsis

A false king has claimed the throne of Camelot, sentenced Tedros to death, and forced Sophie to be his queen. Only Agatha manages to escape.

Now Agatha and the students at the School for Good and Evil must find a way to restore Tedros to his throne and save Camelot . . . before all of their fairy tales come to a lethal end.

Plot

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After Agatha fled Camelot, she took cover in the woods. She's convinced she's running in circles until finally she finds herself in the kingdom of Avalon. She talks to the Lady of the Lake, now a 'shriveled old hag', and asks her to show her what the Snake looked like. The Lady draws Rhian's face, although it is later proven to be his brother (Japeth).

The Coven and the crew minus Agatha, Sophie and Tedros are crammed into a tiny cell along with the Dean of Good. They have been instructed by the Dean to set up an escape plan, including Hester's demon, Anadil's rats, and magic. Using Hester's demon, they bore a hole in the stone wall just big enough to stick a finger through. Using this hole, they use one of Dovey's spells to spy on the stage. They find out the Snake's real name is Japeth, who is Rhian's Eagle and brother. Japeth looks strikingly similar to Rhian, as revealed by a transformation. Sophie is still with Rhian onstage, and it is revealed that Excalibur is stationed against her back, ready to split her open if she does something wrong. One of Japeth's scims becomes a pen 'for the People named Lionsmane, which is gold in colour. Rhian states that Sophie wishes for Tedros (who is being dragged into his own separate dungeon cell) to die, and an execution is planned for a week later.

When the announcement is over, Sophie is dragged to the Map Room by pirates Thiago, Aran, Wesley, and Beeba. As they pass through the castle, she finds that it is being remade with Lion crests. The chefs of the castle are being fired as Sophie and the pirates pass the kitchen. Soon, they reach the Map Room (which has a new scent somehow), and Sophie discovers that Agatha is nearing the edge of the Camelot border. In the corners of the room, five maids clad in white bonnets and dresses hold planning books, each labelled with something different that is necessary for her and Rhian's wedding (Blessing, Procession, Circus of Talents, Feast of Lights, and Wedding). Although Sophie had wished to be married to a storybook prince ever since she was little, she is filled with dread knowing that she's marrying 'a monster'. Wesley tells Sophie that she must work until supper, and wear a prim, ruffled white dress at all times. After he leaves, the door is locked. In a rage, Sophie throws books around and yells at the maids to speak. Japeth enters the room and brings a 'missing' book labelled 'Execution', which has choices of various execution items (axes, chopping blocks, etc). Rhian enters after Sophie begins a heated discussion on the identities of the two brothers, without a shirt. Sophie notices that both brothers are strikingly similar in skin tone, as Rhian's chest is the same color as Japeth's body, proving that his tanned appearance was yet another lie preventing everyone from seeing the similarities between the "Lion" and the Snake. Sophie and Rhian have a heated debate over the truths and lies. Rhian reveals that the silent maids in the room have scims in their ears which prevent them from hearing, except one. This "maid" is revealed to be Guinevere, and she has a scim over her mouth to prevent her from speaking. The climax to this debate is when a scim cuts Sophie's hand, and Rhian uses the blood to magically heal and restore Japeth's scims, making him look completely new again. Sophie is still in shock when the twins leave the room, but has determined to use her smarts to find answers.

Agatha, still on the run, ends up in Gillikin and discovers that the whole kingdom is hunting for her. She eavesdrops on new about Lionsmane and Rhian, the new king of Camelot. She eventually escapes to Sherwood Forest and tries to convince Robin Hood and the Merry Men, along with Maid Marian, to help her defeat Rhian. No one offers, but they do offer her shelter for the night. Agatha finds Tedros' coat that he left behind after Lancelot's death in Quests For Glory, and discovers old letters from King Arthur to Lady Gremlaine that Tedros had taken from Lady Gremlaine's home. As she ponders on these, Maid Marian arrives with a guest: Professor Anemone. She had been Maid Marian's classmate when they were both at the School for Good. Professor Anemone assures Agatha that she is not alone but has a whole school on her side.

Back in the prison, Hester uses her demon to communicate with Tedros in the other cell down the hall. He tells the rest of his friends about the possibility of Rhian and Japeth being his half-brothers, which is what he deduced from his final interactions with Lady Gremlaine. While this conversation is happening, Sophie is eating dinner with Rhian and Japeth. She tries to outsmart them, part of which includes trying to send Guinevere a message about Tedros since she is one of the maids serving dinner. Eventually, the tense situation between Sophie and Rhian ends in a deal. Sophie will write all the tales to be published by Lionsmane in the sky for the whole Woods to see, and in exchange Rhian will release one of the prisoners to be a steward. Sophie chooses Hort.

While at the School for Good and Evil, Agatha meets numerous first year Evers and Nevers and struggles to lead them. Devan and Laralisa, an Ever and Never respectively, show Agatha the conflicting accounts of the Camelot Courier, the official newspaper of Camelot, and the Royal Rot, a tabloid known for spreading outlandish information. Devan and Laralisa show Agatha that the newspapers of other kingdoms are spreading the propaganda of the Rot. One article in the Courier says that Sophie is writing the messages of Lionsmane, and Agatha tries to decipher the current story displayed in the sky and see if it holds a secret message from Sophie. She realizes that the message is CRYSTAL, spelled out using the first letters of each sentence in the message. She determines that the army of first years can help them break her friends out of the Camelot prison by using the crystal ball to find out where they can dig into the dungeons. The teachers tell Agatha that there is no way for her to use the crystal ball, but when Professor Manley shows her how to activate it, it works.

Hort is with Sophie in her quarters and tries to speak to her about an escape plan, and Sophie hushes him and discreetly lets him know that the scim can hear. She tries to burn the white dress Rhian and Japeth gave her, only for Japeth to enter the room and order her to wear the white dress, which has magically been restored. Japeth informs her that the dress was his mothers and that Sophie should not desecrate the dress again. Next, with Hort as a witness, Japeth again slices Sophie's palm and uses her blood to heal himself. Shortly before the Blessing, the first scheduled wedding event, Sophie is summoned to the throne room along with Hort, who has devised a plan to kill Rhian. The goal is discreetly placing two large hazelnuts covered with honey in his tea, hopefully choking Rhian to death. In the throne room, the Mistral sisters show Rhian the RSVPs to his and Sophie's wedding. The only decline is from the Sherriff of Nottingham who states that Camelot is now an enemy of Nottingham until Dot is freed from the dungeons. After the Mistral sisters leave, Hort and Sophie get Rhian to choke on the nuts, but as the guards run to save Rhian, Sophie helps him to cough them out. Hort plants a seed, whispering loudly that William and Bogden predicted the attempt on the king's life. In response, Rhian orders William and Bogden to be released from the dungeons to ride with them to the Blessing.

In the carriage on the way to the church, Rhian asks William and Bogden numerous questions which they try to answer with the help of their Tarot cards. Rhian gets fed up with them and decides that after the Blessing, both of them will be thrown back into the dungeons, along with Hort. The three boys will be locked in the carriage during the Blessing. When the carriage reaches the crowds waiting for the Blessing to start, Sophie snatches a copy of The Tale of Sophie & Agatha through the carriage window. This version of the tale is "As Told by Lionsmane", and has broad details of Rhian and Japeth's upbringing. In the tale, they are brought up in Foxwood and learn of Agatha and Sophie's tale. The story portrays Agatha as a villain who betrayed Sophie. Eventually, the Mistral sisters come and tell Rhian that he is the real heir to Arthur and is destined to be the One True King, with Sophie as his queen. The story continues on with a twisted version of Rhian as the Lion saving kingdoms from the snake, while Tedros and Agatha dissolve into jealousy. Eventually, the story ends, establishing that Rhian's goal is to kill Agatha and Tedros, marry Sophie, and become the One True King.

Just before Sophie enters the church with Rhian, everyone outside witnesses the current Lionsmane message in the sky turn into a bold, one word message: LIES. This is a sign that Agatha has received Sophie's hidden message. It soon disappears, and Sophie and Rhian enter the church to intermingle with various royalty from around the Woods. In the church, the choir director asks Sophie if she would join them in singing a hymn of praise to the Lion. The choir director reveals herself to Sophie, showing herself to be Valentina, a first year Never. She realizes that all the choir members are first years from school, meaning that Agatha's plan is in motion. Valentina takes Sophie to a different room where Sophie informs the first years of her situation and they inform her of the plan. During the chorus of the hymn the "choir" sings, the first years deploy multiple dung bombs in the church, immediately causing chaos. Soon, Camelot's alarm bells sound, signifying that the dungeons have been breached. Stymphs arrive and whisk the students and some of the prisoners to safety. Hort makes a valiant last effort to rescue Sophie, but just as she reaches for his hand she sees a crystal ball message from Agatha, saying that she couldn't free all the prisoners and that there are some left. Sophie refuses Hort's hand in hopes that she can help free the last seven prisoners.

The remaining seven prisoners are Tedros, Professor Dovey, Nicola, William and Bogden, and Valentina and Aja, two first year Nevers who didn't make it back on stymphs. Since the dungeons caved in during the rescue, they are being imprisoned in King's cove, the room with a pool that is the entrance to the dungeons. One of Anadil's rats arrives, with a lock of Merlin's hair tucked in a scrap of fabric from his cape. Professor Dovey analyzes the lock of hair and notices that it is white at one end but a robust brown at the other. This leads her to deduce that Merlin is being kept in the Caves of Contempo, where time runs backwards. She is unable to tell Tedros this before all seven of the prisoners are dragged away by pirates with sacks over their heads. Tedros splutters, asking why all of them are being taken, only for Japeth to respond and say that plans have changed. Not only are they all being executed, but the execution has been moved earlier than what was originally scheduled.

Agatha is back at school with the rescued prisoners, teachers, and first year students just as Rhian and Japeth's men break through the protective shield Professor Manley set around the school's borders. The 4th year students and teachers take groups of first years in different routes to leave the School for Good and find a safe place to hide. Agatha and Dot's group are on one of the glass breezeways connecting the tower when they notice that Kei is the lieutenant leading the invasion. Agatha notices that the invaders have a fairy godfather with them. He also has a crystal ball, and uses it to find Agatha in the breezeway. The pirates and other enemies shoot arrows at Agatha's group, but thankfully the castle's magic defenses deflect the arrows, killing the fairy godfather and smashing the crystal ball in the process. Kei manages to shoot an arrow at the breezeway and shatters it, causing everyone to have to leap for safety. Thankfully, Castor scoops up Agatha and Dot in his mouth before they fall. With Kei chasing them, Castor is bounds away and eventually whisks the girls to safety by jumping through the water portal in Merlin's Menagerie to access halfway bridge. Castor takes them through the School for Evil and leaps across a catwalk over the moat into the safety of the School Master's tower, where all the rest of the students and teachers are hiding. Since Agatha is the queen of Camelot, everyone decides to follow her lead, and after discussion with the teachers Agatha decides that the safest thing to do is to wait. However, Agatha changes her mind after seeing a new message from Lionsmane appear in the sky. [tbc]

Chapter list

Chapters

1. Agatha The Lady and the Snake
2. The Coven Lionsmane
3. Sophie Bonds of Blood
4. Agatha New Alliances
5. Tedros Sophie's Choice
6. Sophie The Dinner Game
7. Agatha Agatha's Army
8. Hort Someday My Weasel will Come
9. Sophie Empress Under the Boot
10. Sophie Blessing in Disguise
11. Agatha Friendship Lessons
12. Tedros Lucky Seven
13. Agatha Sometimes the Story Leads You
14. Sophie He Lies, She Lies
15. Agatha One True King
16. Professor Dovey What Makes Your Heart Beat?
17. Agatha The Only Safe Place in the Woods
18. Tedros Ultimate Mission
19. Agatha Into the Crystal World
20. Hort The House at Number 63
21. Agatha Blood Crystal
22. Sophie Script of a Murder
23. Agatha Cat in a Museum
24. Sophie The Garden of Truth and Lies
25. Sophie Rhian and the Real Thing
26. Agatha A Grave Mistake
27. Tedros The Unburied King

Gallery

Images

Trivia

• A Barnes and Noble Exclusive edition was released featuring a pull-out poster with letters to King Rhian for a chance at Lionsmane's stories. One side showed approved letters, the other showed letters "to use as toilet paper in the dungeons".
• There is a Target Exclusive featuring "The Lost Chapter".

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD & EVIL 5 A Crystal of Time Official Book Trailer