The Inadequate Heir summary - Full recap with spoilers, book three

Read a The Inadequate Heir summary with spoilers, book #3 in Danielle L. Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom Series. If you are wondering what happened in The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen, then you are in the right place! Get ready for the next book by reading up on exactly what happened in book three.

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Author
Danielle L. Jensen

Ratings
4.4 stars on Amazon
4.1 stars on Goodreads
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The Twisted Throne Summary | Full recap of Book #5 in The Bridge Kingdom SeriesThe Bridge Kingdom Series
#1 The Bridge Kingdom (synopsis)
#2 The Traitor Queen (synopsis)
#3 The Inadequate Heir (this page)
#4 The Endless War (recap)
#5 The Twisted Throne (recap)
#6 The Tempest Blade (synopsis)

***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

What happened in The Inadequate Heir?

Your The Inadequate Heir summary:

This book occurs near-simultaneously with book #2, The Traitor Queen, but starts a little before

POV chapters alternate between Zarrah, niece of the Queen of Valcotta, and Keris, the son of King Silas Veliant, King of Maridrina. Keris is a book-lover and wants nothing to do with his father.

Keris had many older brothers who were in line for the throne, but they all died in war against Valcotta or were murdered by younger brothers who wanted the throne.

Now Keris is the heir.

His father wants him to be a good heir and take the throne, but Keris refuses and wants to go to Harendell to study books at the university. Keris also hates his father because Silas wants him to make war against Valcotta as all “good Maridrinian” kings do.

Surprisingly, his father sends him with an escort through the Ithicanian Bridge to Harendell’s university.

The soldiers act drunk, but it turns out they are actually an elite force of warriors sent by Silas in an act to take over Ithicana.

Her father received information from Lara about Ithicana’s weaknesses and uses Keris’s force to betray Keris and take over Ithicana.

At this time, Ithicana’s bridge is pretty much controlled by Silas. However, the Ithicanians are still putting up a fight, and Silas wants to know where the population is. (They’re hiding in Eranahl).

Silas sends Keris to the city of Nerastis, which borders both Valcotta and Maridrina. The city is built around a river, with a Valcottan side and a Maridrinian side. Both sides have their own military outposts of war.

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Zarrah feels guilty for following the Empress’s orders and standing by as Maridrina’s ships attack Ithicana, a former ally of Valcotta.

Zarrah is also stationed in Nerastis and is set to be the next heir to the throne of Valcotta as long as she plays by her aunt’s rules.

In Nerastis, Keris frequently drinks and goes to brothels. He refuses to take part in military strategy and lets his younger brother Otis manage the men.

Both Valcottans and Maridrinans conduct raids on civilians. They want the fertile land around Nerastis. The Empress tells Zarrah that she should stop retaliating. This will make Maridrina think that Valcotta isn’t putting up a fight. That way, when Silas makes his final move and destroys Ithicana, he’ll take troops from Nerastis, and Valcotta can take over.

Zarrah doesn’t want Valcottan citizens to suffer in raids and Valcotta to do nothing, so she sneaks onto the Maridrinian side of the river and tries to kill the prince to end the conflict early.

Instead, she ends up meeting Keris, who has snuck out of a brothel in disguise.

Over the course of days, they meet up and sneak through each other’s sides. They are intrigued by each other. Zarrah doesn’t see Keris’s bright blue Veliant eyes, and he only knows she is an officer of the Valcottan army.

They fall in love. Zarrah realizes that the war is hurting her people – the Valcottan civilians. Keris doesn’t care for his people as much, but doesn’t want to be known as a warmonger like his father. Both share ideas of a world where Maridrina and Valcotta do not fight. They only meet late at night by the river.

Eventually, they have sex on the Maridrinian side, and in the morning, Zarrah wakes up and sees Keris’s Veliant eyes and knows he is the prince. A Maridrinian patrol accidentally captures her.

The Maridrinians want to kill her right away, as is the custom for enemy officers, and Keris can’t control them because he refused to lead the military. To spare her, Keris says she is of value to Silas. Keris claims that he will use Zarrah to bargain with the Empress of Valcotta in a trade.

Keris takes her to Vencia, the capital of Maridrina. He tries to engineer a way for her to escape during the carriage ride to Vencia, but a physician who hates Maridrina poisons her. She arrives weakened in the capital.

Silas has captured Aren Kertell, King of Ithicana, and taken him to Vencia. Serin, Silas’s spymaster, tortures Aren to find out how to get into Eranhal and destroy Ithicana’s people for good.

Keris puts Zarrah in the harem with his sisters and aunts. They hate her because she is Valcottan, but they love Keris and will help her if he helps them. They want to know what happened to the harem’s daughters that Silas took away years ago to raise in the Red Desert, and where Lara is now. They only know Silas is hunting her after bringing down the bridge. For reasons the harem and Keris can’t figure out, Aren still loves Lara.

Keris does a lot of talking to other people and manipulation. Meanwhile, Zarrah investigates the harem’s quarters and tries to think of a way to escape.

Keris eventually works out a deal with the harem and with Aren. Aren wants his people to stop killing themselves trying to rescue him. The harem wants to know where Lara is, and Keris believes Aren knows. He convinces them to work together to send a message to the Ithicanians.

Coralyn is the leader of the harem. He convinces her to go shopping. Outside of Silas’ eyes, Coralyn contacts Ithicana. With them, she unexpectedly finds Lara, who wants to rescue Aren. Now that the harem has what they want, they want Silas dead for all of his crimes. Together, they hatch a plan for the Ithicanians to break into the palace and take Zarrah with them. The Ithicanians agree if Zarrah will send food to Eranhal to hold against Silas’ siege of the Bridge.

Coralyn sees Keris is in love with Zarrah, but hates her because she is Valcottan. She tells Zarrah that she must kill Silas when the Ithicanians enter the palace so they can all escape. Zarrah is happy to comply because when Zarrah was a young girl, Silas’s men came over the border and killed her mother. Zarrah was left with her mother’s rotting corpse until her aunt, the Empress, came to save her.

Meanwhile, Coralyn convinces Keris that Lara is a trained assassin and Lara will kill Silas.

Keris sneaks out and uses Zarrah’s harem window to help her know what the plan is. He tells Coralyn one plan, but he has his own plan.

While he is talking to Zarrah, Otis sees Keris at the window and realizes that Keris is in love with Zarrah.

Zarrah, meanwhile, snuck out of the harem quarters and is secretly climbing the tower to murder Silas, but she instead realizes Otis is going to confront Keris, so she abandons her attempt.

Otis climbs the tower leading to Keris and the King’s living quarters and confronts Keris. They have a fight, and Keris accidentally pushes his brother out the window, and he dies.

The harem is angry Zarrah did not murder Silas as planned.

There is a fancy dinner. Keris spread rumors to the Maridrinian civilians that Ithicana’s king is being mistreated by Silas. Silas used the Fifteen-Year Treaty to get Harendellian steel. His people are starving. Before Ithicania fell, Aren sent some food to the innocent Maridrinian civilians. They’re pretty angry that Aren’s being mistreated, so Silas holds a dinner and invites impartial ambassadors to witness that Aren is well, so his people don’t riot.

At the dinner, Lara and her sisters are in disguise. They attack and rescue Aren and Zarrah. Zarrah almost kills Silas, but she realizes that if she does, she will become Maridrina’s biggest target and fuel the Maridrinian/Valcottan war. Keris takes Zarrah and hides her away in his tower. He pretends that Zarrah got away with the girls and Ithicana, but he hides her in his book trunk instead and takes her to Nerastis on his ship.

Zarrah goes back to the Empress and is reinstated. Lara and Aren flee to Pyrinat, the capital of Valcotta. They want an Ithicana/Valcotta alliance. Zarrah does not want the Empress to know she is an ally of Ithicana. The Empress wants Maridrina to tire itself out fighting Ithicana so she can swoop in and destroy Maridrina. She doesn’t care that Ithicana will fall. She’s also mad because Ithicana drove away a Valcottan blockade to promote trade and give food to Maridrina.

The Empress demands Lara die since she is Maridrinian. Aren refuses.

How did The Inadequate Heir end? The Inadequate Heir summary

Zarrah’s aunt tells her that while Silas sails his men away to finally take over Ithicana, Zarrah is to take a ship to Vencia, which will be empty, and sack it.

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Zarrah secretly takes Lara and Aren on her ship. Together, they make a plan for Zarrah to commit treason against the Empress. Zarrah feels guilty she did not help Ithicana the first time. She will take her ships to the Bridge instead and fight Maridrina.

Keris knows the Empress will kill Zarrah if she does this. So he races to Vencia as fast as possible and convinces his father to use the bridge and secretly evacuate the majority of Maridrinian forces to Eranhal. That way, Aren will take all of his soldiers to the bridge, and he won’t realize Maridrina is at Eranhal. Silas will take over the last of Ithicana with no resistance. Zarrah will arrive at the bridge and find no war to fight, so she can’t commit treason.

When Zarrah arrives at an empty Bridge, she tells Keris she hates him and returns to Pyrinat. Aren and Lara go to Eranhal.

Book #2 plays out. A lucky storm destroys Silas’ ships, and Ithicana wins. Silas dies. Keris is king.

Serin, knowing Keris will kill/imprison him, jumps off Keris’ tower. With his death, his spies reveal the secret of Zarrah and Keris’s relationship to the Valcottan public. The Empress of Valcotta hears and sentences Zarrah to Devil’s Island for her treason – loving a Maridrinian.

There you go! That’s a recap of what happened in The Inadequate Heir by Danielle L. Jensen. We hope you enjoyed this The Inadequate Heir summary with spoilers.

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