Legendary

Legendary is the sequel to the first installment of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval series and was published in 2018. The plot picks up on the morning after the first book, Caraval, ends and follows a different character’s interactions with the fantastical contest of Caraval and its mysterious master, Legend. In Legendary, the protagonist, Tella, must race through a new Caraval game that quickly becomes very real. With her life on the line, she must grapple with the distinction between reality and illusion even as she learns that the forces of Fate greatly influence her life. As an internationally bestselling author, Garber has created a collection of fantasy-themed novels that have been translated into 30 languages. Legendary stands as the second novel in the three-part Caraval series.

This guide refers to the 2018 hardcover edition published by Flatiron Books.

Plot Summary

Seven years before the events of Legendary, Tella sneaks into her mother’s room and plays with a forbidden jewelry box. Inside, she sees a familiar pouch transform into a deck of cards and realizes that the satchel is merely a magical illusion to hide the deck’s appearance. Before her mother finds her, she flips several cards from the deck, including the Prince of Hearts and the Aracle. Her mother takes all the cards except the Aracle and makes Tella swear never to play with a deck like this again.

Now, Tella Dragna wakes up lying in a forest next to Dante, who is supposedly one of Legend’s performers (Legend is a mysterious figure who runs Caraval, a magical performance and festival of illusions in which the audience participates). Tella spent a drunken night with Dante and has now has regrets, so she chooses to sneak away and find her sister, Scarlet. Going to Legend’s townhome, she finds Scarlet Dragna with Julian, Scarlet’s boyfriend. Julian invites the two sisters to accompany Legend’s troupe to Valenda, where another round of Caraval will occur to commemorate an event honoring the monarch, Empress Elantine. In the previous novel, Tella accepted help from a mysterious “friend” and agreed to find out Legend’s true name in payment for his services. Now, Tella convinces Scarlet to attend the new round of Caraval along with her. During the voyage to the capital, Tella visits a fortune-teller named Nigel who gazes into her future and tells her that if she wins Caraval, she will meet Legend and win his name, but it will come with a cost and leave her with regrets. Nigel claims four nights’ worth of Tella’s sleep as the price of his fortune-telling, so Tella falls asleep for the rest of the voyage to pay him with her rest.

When Tella and Scarlet arrive in Valenda, Tella receives a missive from her mysterious “friend.” His note states that he will meet her at Idyllwild Castle at the Fated Ball—the event that opens Caraval—so that she can give him Legend’s true name. As she does not yet know Legend’s true name, she plans to use the meeting to convince the mysterious individual to grant her more time to win Caraval and make good on her promise. She takes a sky carriage, this world’s equivalent of a cable car, to the palace. Also in the car is an arrogant nobleman who dresses like a slob and cares little for his appearance. The two argue and take an immediate dislike to each other, and he threatens to throw her out of the carriage. Tella traverses the palace to the Sapphire Wing, where Legend’s performers (and Scarlet) are staying; however, she is not on the approved list and cannot stay with her sister. Her one-night lover, Dante, arrives and tells the palace staff that Tella is the fiancé of Jacks, who is Empress Elantine’s heir. This lie allows Tella to obtain a room in the fabled Golden Tower. Not long afterward, Jacks himself sends Tella a message and gifts her with a dress, asking her to wear it at the Fated Ball so that he can find her there. Tella overhears the castle’s staff sharing ominous rumors about Jacks.

Tella waits outside the palace for Scarlet, with whom she agreed to travel to the ball, but Scarlet never arrives. Dante appears and explains that Scarlet will not be coming because she is now upset and distracted by other matters. Scarlet has discovered that the person she believed to be her fiancé during the previous Caraval was really one of Legend’s performers in disguise—a man named Armando. Dante hesitantly escorts Tella to the ball; he would prefer that she attend a Fated Ball anywhere but in Empress Elantine’s palace—and Tella stumbles when she realizes that the palace resembles a cage. At the ball, Tella is met by Jacks, Elantine’s heir, whose fiancé she is pretending to be. The conversation reveals that Jacks is her mysterious “friend” who wants the true name of Legend. Jacks is also the freed Fate known as the Prince of Hearts. The two kiss inside the dance floor, which resembles a cage. Jacks uses his power to initiate a deadly process that will gradually stop Tella’s heart, and he also changes the terms of their original agreement. Now, to avoid death, she must deliver Legend—not just his name, but the man himself—to Jacks. Jacks also gives Tella an enchanted card that has entrapped her mother, who is afflicted with the same curse causing her heartbeat to slow. Suddenly, the first Caraval clue drops from the ceiling, and Tella grabs it.

The following day, Tella travels to Minerva’s ModernWears to acquire new outfits for herself at Jacks’s request. There, she finds Dante waiting for her. Because he knows that the heir apparent is the Prince of Hearts, he asks for the truth about her and Jacks and warns her that unlike the last round of Caraval, which consisted of illusions, this round of Caraval is real. Once Dante leaves, Minerva brings costume options for her to choose from for Elantine’s Day Eve, when everyone dresses up as one of the Fates (The Fates are powerful figures that can influence the lives of humans as they please). Tella chooses an unfamiliar costume representing the Lost Heir. She returns to her room, where Scarlet confronts her about the supposed engagement; Tella lies, which hurts Scarlet. Scarlet refuses to participate in Caraval because of the lies and duress that the previous game caused.

As Tella’s heart rate slows due to the curse that Jacks has put upon her, she travels to the Temple District to seek the next clue. She sees many familiar faces—including Julian, who pretends that he does not know her—but Dante guides her to the Church of Legend. She plays the church’s game to find the next Caraval clue. Later, while waiting for a fortune reading, she converses with other players and learns that the game’s purpose revolves around Legend’s ambition to take the Fates’ power for himself. During her fortune reading, Tella draws four cards from a Deck of Destiny: the Prince of Hearts, the Maiden Death, the Shattered Crown, and the Lady Prisoner. The reader, Armando (one of Legend’s performers) foretells loss, heartbreak, and sacrifice in Tella’s future, then opens a secret passage out of the Church of Legend and instructs Tella to walk until she feels compelled to stop. She walks until she hears her sister and Julian talking. Once Julian leaves, Tella enters Scarlet’s room and receives the next Caraval clue. This unique clue directs her to a place called Elantine’s Most Wanted, where she will embark on a separate path from those playing the illusory Caraval.

In the shop, she finds a series of wanted posters. When she examines them, she realizes that a poster depicting a thief called Paradise the Lost closely resembles her mother, who has long been missing and whom she hopes to rescue. To obtain more information about her mother, Paradise, Tella must give up her last memory with her mother, and this memory holds a crucial clue for subverting the Fates. In return for this memory, one of Legend’s performers spins a tale of a well-renowned thief (Paradise) who stole the hearts of many nobles. After stealing a Deck of Destiny, Paradise vanished, never to be seen again. Legend believes that the deck she stole held the trapped Fates and contained unique power. Once Tella retrieves the third clue from the back of her mother’s wanted poster, she seeks out Scarlet to discuss what she has learned. However, Scarlet is not in her room; a servant tells Tella that Scarlet went to Idyllwild Castle. 

When Tella arrives at the castle, three Fates confront her. They fight Tella, trying to convince her to return the missing Deck of Destiny to the Prince of Hearts rather than to Legend. Tella manages to escape, but Dante must rescue her because of her injuries. While she is unconscious, Dante and Julian give her some of their blood to cure the worst of her injuries. (Dante’s blood contains the magic of the Fates.) When Tella wakes again, she is in her room and hears Scarlet and Jacks laughing. Jacks asks Scarlet to leave and retrieve food for Tella; while she is away, he demands information from Tella about her fight and reminds her that if Legend obtains the full power of the Fates, he would be worse than the actual Fates. Once he leaves, Scarlet and Tella confront each other about Jacks; neither sister trusts him, though for different reasons. Although she is not fully cured, Tella dines with Jacks and the empress that night.

Empress Elantine immediately takes a liking to Tella but reveals that she also does not trust Jacks or his intentions toward the throne. The empress reveals that the opal ring of Tella’s mother looks like a key to the vaults contained within the Temple of the Stars. After dinner, Legend’s actors perform a skit depicting how the Fates imprisoned humans in cards. The following day, Tella travels to the Temple of the Stars to discover what her mother hid there. To repay the debt that her mother owes to the temple, Tella must turn herself over to the priests. She refuses to do so, and Dante finds a loophole to get her into the vault. Once in the vault, she finds the Deck of Destiny.

She leaves the vault and comes face to face with Dante, who reveals himself to be Legend. She tells him to run because she has summoned Jacks, but he refuses to do so. Tella willingly sacrifices herself to become a prisoner in the card in order to release her mother from this same prison. Dante refuses to lose Tella, so he breaks the curse on all of the cards, setting the Fates free so that Tella can also be free. He leaves her heartbroken on the temple stairs, although she technically won Caraval. Jacks arrives and carries Tella to her room, and her mother is brought to her. Due to her lingering resentment over Paradise’s disappearance, Scarlet is displeased that their mother has returned, but before the sisters can explore that issue, the empress dies, and Legend reveals himself as the presumed Lost Heir. For Tella’s birthday, he reminds her that he still owes her a prize for winning Caraval and tells her to find him when she is ready to collect it.