Last Argument of Kings recap

In the final book the survivors return to a Union in crisis, and Bayaz's long design comes to fruition. The old King dies, and Bayaz settles the disputed succession by revealing Jezal dan Luthar to be a royal bastard and having him elected High King - a puppet who soon discovers his crown is powerless and that the magus rules through him. When the Gurkish invade and storm Adua, Bayaz unleashes the ancient power he had chased across two books, breaking the enemy but devastating the city and killing thousands. In the North, Logen and the Dogman's crew help end the war against King Bethod, who is defeated and killed, but Logen's savagery turns his own men against him and he is cast out, his fate left uncertain. Arch Lector Sult is destroyed and the banking house Valint and Balk raises Glokta to Arch Lector in his place, married to Ardee, who carries Jezal's child. Collem West wins in the North and then dies of a wasting illness; Ferro leaves alone, still bent on vengeance. Bayaz stands the true victor, and the world is left much as the powerful always meant it to be.

Previously, in The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged: Bayaz, First of the Magi, gathered an unlikely company - the Northman Logen Ninefingers, the crippled Inquisitor Glokta, the once-vain officer Jezal dan Luthar, and the vengeful escaped slave Ferro Maljinn - and led some of them on a long, brutal journey to the edge of the World in search of the Seed, an ancient weapon meant to turn back the Gurkish Empire and its Prophet, Khalul. The quest failed, the weapon was never recovered, and the true, ruthless nature of the magus grew harder and harder to ignore. In the South, Glokta fought and lost to hold the doomed fortress-city of Dagoska, and came away knowing that a hidden banking house, Valint and Balk, secretly controls the Union and now controls him. In the North, Crown Prince Ladisla's army was annihilated, and Major West, thrown among the Dogman and the last of Logen's old crew, beat the cowardly prince to death after Ladisla assaulted a woman under their protection - a killing he must keep secret. Threetrees was killed and the Dogman took his place. Now, with the Gurkish massing in the South, the war against King Bethod still unfinished in the North, and the old King failing, the scattered survivors return to a Union sliding toward crisis - and Bayaz begins, at last, to move in earnest.

The company is home, and the Union is coming apart at the seams. In the North, Logen rejoins the Dogman and the old crew to carry the war against Bethod at last toward its reckoning, though the murderous Bloody-Nine is never far beneath his skin. In Adua, the old King Guslav is dying and the succession is unresolved, with the great lords - Brock, Isher and others - manoeuvring for the throne through the Open Council. Glokta is set to dangerous work amid the scheming of Arch Lector Sult on one side and the hidden bankers Valint and Balk on the other, each demanding his loyalty and each able to destroy him. Jezal, changed and chastened by his travels and disfigured by them, wants only a quiet life and the woman he loves, Ardee West, and will be allowed neither. Ferro's private hunger for vengeance against the Gurkish draws nearer the open war now gathering in the South. And Bayaz, having failed openly at his quest, begins quietly moving his own pieces into place, steering events toward an end only he can see.

The crises break into the open. The Gurkish launch their invasion, and the war that had loomed for two books arrives in force as their army and fleet close on Adua itself; the Prophet Khalul's uncanny servants, the flesh-eating Eaters, move among them. The question of who will wear the Union's crown becomes a battlefield of its own, and Glokta is thrown into the middle of it, manoeuvring among factions far richer and more dangerous than he, at constant risk of his life, doing the bidding of Sult and the bank by turns. Jezal is drawn back toward the centre of events against his wishes as Bayaz's designs begin to show their shape. In the North, the campaign against Bethod drives toward its bloody climax, with Logen forced again and again to become the Bloody-Nine to survive, and Bethod's uncanny champion, the Feared, waiting for him. Across every front it grows clearer that Bayaz is willing to sacrifice a great deal - and a great many people - to get what he wants.

Everything comes due. Bayaz settles the fight for the throne by revealing Jezal to be a secret royal bastard and engineering his election as High King of the Union; Jezal, crowned and married to the cold Princess Terez of Talins, quickly learns that his power is a fiction and that Bayaz rules through him. When the Gurkish storm Adua, Bayaz finally unleashes the ancient power he had sought all along, and a devastating force tears through the city - destroying the Gurkish assault and their Eaters but levelling whole districts and killing thousands of the people he claims to protect. The invasion is broken; the cost falls on Adua. In the North, the war against Bethod reaches its end: Bethod is defeated and killed and his champion, the Feared, is destroyed, but Logen's reckoning with what he is turns his own men against him, and Black Dow and the others cast out the Bloody-Nine; the book's last image of Logen leaves his fate uncertain. Sult is brought down, and the bank Valint and Balk raises Glokta to Arch Lector in his place - master of the Inquisition and wholly the bank's creature - and marries him to Ardee, who is carrying Jezal's child. Collem West, made Lord Marshal, wins in the North but dies of a wasting sickness. Ferro, denied her revenge, leaves alone to pursue the Gurkish on her own terms. Bayaz stands triumphant, the true victor, having preserved his own power and left the world much as the powerful always intended it.

Last Argument of Kings ends with Bayaz victorious and almost everyone who trusted him used up. He has made Jezal dan Luthar High King by revealing his royal blood, but Jezal, wed to the loveless Princess Terez, finds his crown hollow and himself a figurehead for the magus. The Gurkish invasion has been broken - Bayaz destroyed it by unleashing the ancient power at last - but at the price of much of Adua and countless lives. Arch Lector Sult has fallen, and the banking house Valint and Balk, Bayaz's instrument, has installed Glokta as the new Arch Lector: powerful at last, but wholly owned, and married to Ardee West, who is pregnant with Jezal's child. In the North, King Bethod is defeated and dead, but Logen Ninefingers is betrayed and cast out by his own men, chief among them Black Dow, and his fate is deliberately left unresolved - the Dogman inherits the remnants of the crew. Collem West, having won the northern war and been made Lord Marshal, dies of a wasting sickness. Ferro, refused the vengeance she craves, departs alone to hunt the Gurkish on her own terms. Bayaz leaves Adua with his power intact and his long contest with Khalul unresolved, and the trilogy closes with the Union governed by the men he installed: a figurehead king and an Arch Lector, both answering to him and to the bank.