Siege and Storm

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-19

Chapters 20-22

Chapter 23-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary

In the illustration of St. Ilya, the white stag is dead at his feet, the sea whip is in the waves behind him, and in the distance, near a massive stone arch, flies a firebird. St. Ilya is Ilya Morozova, the discoverer of the amplifiers. Mal is horrified to realize Alina now desires to possess all three amplifiers. She wonders if her greed is the same as the Darkling’s. Still, without the amplifiers, she’s no match for him. Mal agrees to find the firebird, but he worries this will harm their relationship.

Sturmhond’s Fabrikator Grisha shapes the sea whip scales into a fetter around Alina’s wrist. Alina’s powers are now significantly stronger, but she almost gets lost in them until Mal tackles her and brings her back to herself. Alina now feels naked with her other wrist unamplified. Mal is frightened: When using her power, Alina is like a lovely and terrifying stranger. She assures him she loves him and that she can control her powers.

Chapter 7 Summary

Alina learns that the cult of the Sun Saint is growing because the Apparat has been preaching that Alina died and was resurrected.

Alina likes being on the ship and with the crew. However, whenever she tries to learn more about Sturmhond, he deflects her questions by making jokes.

Three weeks later they land in West Ravka, though some of Sturmhond’s men plant misleading clues that they went to Fjerda instead. They board the Hummingbird, a ship of Sturmhond’s invention. Its sails can be converted into wings, and they fly into the night sky. Initially, flying frightens Alina, but Mal makes her uncover her eyes, and she is amazed. Just as they get to the harbor of Os Kervo, Sturmhond swerves straight into the Fold. Alina wonders if he intends to betray them all.

Chapter 8 Summary

Alina immediately throws light over the Fold, but it feels different—like darkness knows her and is calling to her. The volcra advance, hungry. Sturmhond wants to test his new weapons against the volcra, so Alina pulls back her light at his request. As Sturmhond’s team fires, the volcra are massacred. Haunted by their human-like screams, Alina wants to hurry out of the Fold, but Mal can sense more volcra nearby. At the ruins of the Darkling’s skiff, they brutally kill a swarming nest of juvenile volcra. While everyone cheers, Alina can hear the “keening of mothers mourning their young” (132). Suddenly, the Darkling appears seemingly slashing her face with a knife—though this is just a vision. Startled, Alina lets her light go out, and the volcra attack. One of the Squallers has his arm ripped from his body. They make it out of the fold, but the ship is destroyed in a crash landing. Sturmhond admits he made the wrong call going into the Fold.

However, Sturmhond is now wearing a different face—it turns out that his other features were created by a Tailor, a Grisha who can change appearances. Just then, the First Army (the King’s men) arrives, demanding answers, and Sturmhond reveals he is really Nikolai Lantsov, the younger son of the King of Ravka. He dramatically announces that he’s brought the Sun Summoner home as a prize. Alina punches him in the face.

Chapters 6-8 Analysis

Alina’s experience testing out the second amplifier shows the Difficulty of Balancing Power—Alina does not anticipate either its intensity or her sudden greed for more of the same. The novel shows us Alina’s shift to the dark side: Mal notes that when Alina uses the fetter, she becomes a beautiful and terrifying stranger. Similarly, Alina wonders if her hunger for the third amplifier makes her akin to the Darkling—something the world’s external magic confirms when the darkness of the Fold senses her new selfishness, reaching out to Alina as one of its own. Interestingly, this realignment comes with a nuanced understanding of the being that lives inside the Fold. Alina is disturbed by the brutality of killing the volcra that were once human, horrified by their recognizably tormented screams when their young are destroyed.

Significant is the plotline of pilgrims flocking to the idea of the Sun Saint, believing that Alina died and was resurrected to save Ravka at the urging of the Apparat (from the Russian word meaning “instrument”). This elevation of a human being into a religious icon has some historical resonances. One of the more sinister associations of Rasputin, the mystic monk who became a powerful adviser to Tsar Nicholas II, is with the Khlyst sect, which worshipped a series of men who proclaimed themselves to be “new Christs.” Though connections between Rasputin and the Khlysts were never proven, the 19th century was rife with religious sects and cults formed around charismatic figures.

The theme of duplicity is touched on in this section: Sturmhond reveals he is really Prince Nikolai, while Alina doesn’t tell Mal about her vision of the Darkling. Both seek to avoid claiming parts of their identity, struggling with Growing into One’s Roles. Nikolai adds one more role for Alina to play: a prize he has brought to cement his place in his father’s court.