Telamon recalls that when he first saw Hylas, Issi was bravely lashing out at a group of boys who were pelting her with stones. Hylas threatened to break their legs if they touched his little sister again, and they slunk away once his Death Glare made them realize he's serious.
Spirit and his pod appear to rescue Hylas from a shark by butting it from all sides so vigorously that it flees. While this happens, the Sea glows in phosphorescence. The characters refer to it as "the blue fire", and they believe it's the shadow of the Goddess.
Hylas rides Spirit to show off to Pirra. After she helps him save the dolphin, he teaches her to do it herself.
With cooperation and rapid action, two kids barely on the verge of puberty manage to save a stranded dolphin that's too heavy for them both to lift or pull.
They also manage to build a raft in a few days by using salvaged parts from a shipwreck. When Akastos steals the raft at the end of the book, he admits it was built adequately well and lacked only a mast and a sail.
Though scared after an earthquake traps her underground, Pirra still manages to pull herself together, find her way through the petrified corpses of the Vanished Ones to a rockfall and remove enough rocks to make a pass for herself, with Hylas assisting from the other side. He's impressed she manages to keep her wits.
The final battle has several moments:
Despite being badly outmatched against Kratos who's armed with a sword and the dagger of Koronos, Hylas manages to evade him for a time.
Pirra blowing in the marble triton shell results in an earthquake that frees Spirit's pod from the blocked inlet and causes the sinking of the wreck that leads to Kratos' death.
Hylas traps Kratos' arm under a mast which leads to the warrior drowning in the sinking wreck. Kratos, however, is unafraid to die and first tries to use an Ankle Drag to take Hylas with him, and when that fails, he prays to the Angry Ones and spends his last moments laughing under the belief the boy will be vanquished.
As the Crows try to kill Hylas who's trying to escape by swimming, he's taken to safety by Spirit's pod.
The Burning Shadow
When Koronos and his children debate what to do with Havoc, Hylas saves her life by making up on the spot that they should let the lion cub live and grow stronger as a sign of the House of Koronos growing even stronger than the Lion of Mycenae. Akastos admits afterwards he's impressed that Hylas managed to buy more time for the lion cub whose life the man put on the line.
The heroes' plan to steal the dagger from Kreon's fortress seems to have failed, but when Hylas and Akastos have returned to the smithy, Hylas realizes to his shock that Akastos did steal the dagger from right under the Crows' noses and replaced it with a replica while everyone focused on Havoc. The guards couldn't even find the dagger or the forgery as they searched him!
Eye of the Falcon
Echo distracts Kunisu's guardian bull from going after Pirra and even flies right between its legs.
When Telamon threatens Pirra in her mother's chamber, she tricks him into running straight at a gap in a parapet and fall two storeys down.
With Kunisu being invaded by Telamon, Kreon and twenty Crow warriors, Hylas lays for them traps by using white handprints warning about the plague, pus-eaters and the wildlife that's settled in the House of the Goddess. He manages to scare most of the Crows to flee the apparently cursed place and even get some of them to kill each other.
Echo strikes the silver knife from Pirra's hand before she can sacrifice herself.
The Crocodile Tomb
With Hylas stung by a scorpion, Pirra and Kem seek help from Itineb's village, but the villagers try to fend them off. Acting like the impoverished daughter of the High Priestess she is, Pirra calls Havoc and tells the villagers that the boy with suncolored hair is guarded by the lion, a creature of Sekhmet. Then she calls Echo on her arm and claims she has the falcon of Heru and the mark of the Moon on her face. This convinces the villagers to give Hylas treatment.
Nebetku reveals that the Crows gave Userref a savage beating to make him tell them where he hid the dagger, but he refused to give in even though Telamon gave him only one chance to avoid being denied a place in Egyptian afterlife. He managed to break free with his arms still tied behind his back, run to the jetty, jump into the Nile, and drown with his body intact enough for proper Egyptian burial rites. Telamon even remembers that Userref laughed his defiance in the former's face.
The climax is filled with awesome moments.
Determined to avenge Userref, Pirra asks Nebetku to write a spell that brings ruin to its wearer. When she's the Crows' prisoner, she deceives Alekto to take the spell for herself as an amulet against drowning. Koronos' daughter ends up being mangled by crocodiles, which is the fate she wished Userref would have suffered.
After forcing Hylas to expose himself with the threat of having Pirra killed, Telamon shoots an arrow at him. Userref's wedjat amulet, which Userref's ghost insisted Hylas to keep, prevents the arrow from piercing him.
Before Telamon can shoot another arrow, Echo slashes his forehead, allowing Pirra to escape from Ilarkos' grip and jump into the Nile.
While this happens, Kem manages to finally pass his tribe's Rite of Passage that got him enslaved in the first place: stealing an Egyptian warrior's weapon.
The crocodile was huge, yet Havoc was stronger: a cub no longer, but a full-grown lioness – and finally, she knew it. Still with her jaws clamped on the monster's throat, she reared out of the water, gave one tremendous shake from side to side that snapped its spine, and flung its lifeless body in the mud. Then she swung round to face Hylas and Pirra, her muzzle red with blood and her golden eyes ablaze – and roared her triumph to the sky. A little later, the Hati-aa's men found them, and stood in awe before these two barbarians whom the great gods of Egypt, Heru and Sekhmet, had protected with their sacred creatures: the dark-eyed girl with a falcon on her shoulder, and the boy with hair the colour of the Sun and a huge lioness standing guard at his side.
Warrior Bronze
Spirit makes a brief return since The Outsiders by drawing the Crow sentries' attention to himself before they can find Hylas and Pirra. He later makes one last appearance to help Hylas reconnect with Issi.
Havoc rescues Pirra from a male lion and finally realizes that instead of wanting her gone, Hylas left her to protect Pirra and Echo.
Hekabi casts a spell to place a curse on the three remaining members of the House of Koronos. A flock of starlings appears to darken the Sun and create a breeze to waft the curse-fire's smoke towards the Ancestor Peak.
After spending the whole series as The Ghost, Issi's shown to be crafty and brave like her big brother. She troubles the Crows as the stealthy "shadow thief" who leaves behind small clay frogs, and she assisted in preparing Hekabi's curse by acquiring for the wisewoman one of Telamon's braids, a bloody bandage from Pharax, and a potsherd from one of the vessels Koronos breaks after using them only once.
Koronos gets one when Telamon demands him to hand the dagger over to him. The old man cuts his delusional grandson down to size by giving an uncharacteristic laugh and revealing that he already sent the dagger to Pharax days ago. He then gives Telamon a brief "The Reason You Suck" Speech about trying to hide his insecurities with haughtiness and orders him to join the final battle. If not for the convenient seizure that claims Koronos, Telamon would have exited Lapithos with his tail between his legs.
Koronos: Your father was weak. He tried to keep himself and his son apart from his clan: he had no stomach to rule. You are weak too. Despite your bluster, you are afraid. Now get out of my sight. And try not to disgrace yourself on the battlefield.
While preparing for the final battle, Akastos doesn't judge Hylas for being scared and tells him instead that every man, himself included, feels fear before a battle. While Telamon insists he doesn't feel fear despite the proof to the contrary, Akastos shows true courage by admitting he's afraid.
When Pharax intimidates the rebels by brandishing the dagger of Koronos, Akastos uses a Rousing Speech to spit on the Crows' arrogance and lift up the rebels' morale before starting the battle.
Pharax: The House of Koronos cannot be beaten! The gods Themselves have decreed that the enemy shall be destroyed! Akastos: No man is invincible! No man is invincible! And no man can say for sure what it is that the gods have decreed – not even Pharax over there! Especially not Pharax! For what is he, beneath all that armour? Nothing but the son of the thief who stole Mycenae! [the rebels give a jittery laughter]I am the rightful High Chieftain! I am the Lion of Mycenae! When you fight for me, you fight for your farms and your fishing boats, your vineyards and your villages – you fight for your families and your loved ones! Follow me, I will lead you to victory! Periphas: The Lion of Mycenae has returned! The rebels: The Lion of Mycenae has returned!
Pharax manages to wound Akastos and attempts to finish the fallen man off, but Akastos forces himself to thrust his sword right through his enemy's crotch. He then uses the last of his strength to kill Pharax with a thrown spear.
Realizing how to help Akastos free himself of the Angry Ones, Hylas throws Hekabi's charm away and lets the Angry Ones and the ghost of Akastos' brother feast on Pharax's blood.
Before riding off with Hylas to chase Telamon to the Ancestor Peak, Pirra tells the rebels that Lapithos is on fire and Koronos is dead, allowing Periphas to lead them against the Crows with renewed vigor.
To prevent Telamon from throwing the dagger down the crack of the Ancestor Peak, Hylas, Pirra, Havoc, Echo and Issi confront him for the last time as a thunderstorm rages on and the Angry Ones bear down on them. Realizing that the bronze armaments are attracting electricity, Hylas takes off his breastplate and taunts Telamon to keep him rooted higher on the slope. Issi manages to grab the dagger for a brief moment before Hylas tells her to leave it and get down. As Telamon hoists the dagger over his head and brags that he's the House of Koronos, he's struck by a lightning that kills him and destroys the dagger, thus finally fulfilling the oracle.
