To Kill a Kingdom

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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Chapters 36-39Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 36 Summary

Elian, shocked by Lira’s deception, recalls all of the signs that Lira was a siren the entire time. More than just a siren, she is the Prince’s Bane: the very siren he’s been hunting. Her deception hurts, but he is also angry at himself for believing in her. Before Lira can explain herself, he attacks her with his sword, aiming to kill. He tells her to draw her sword, and they fight, Elian recalling the night he taught her to sword fight on the Saad. After a moment, he knocks her sword away and pins her. Yukiko yells for him to kill her, but he can’t bring himself to do it. Lira elbows him in the chin, knocking him back long enough to recover her sword. They sword fight again, until Lira seemingly gives up. She drops the Crystal and falls to her knees. Elian wants to strike the final blow but can’t. Yukiko scolds Elian for not killing Lira, but Elian dismisses Yukiko and instead sends Lira away without the Crystal of Keto. Lira warns him that the battle isn’t over before she leaves.

Yukiko scolds him again for letting Lira live, accusing him of being in love with her. She mentions their impending marriage, and Elian reveals that he has no intention of marrying her. He tells her that he made a deal with Queen Galina that will give Yukiko the kingdom she wants and will allow him to remain free. Galina, who cannot risk marrying a man, will marry Yukiko, who will rule by her side. Yukiko reluctantly agrees, but only after Elian agrees to kill Lira. He looks at his compass, and it’s implied that the compass doesn’t believe he will kill her.

Chapter 37 Summary

Lira flees the ice palace and runs to the lake surrounding it. She used her seashell necklace to summon her mother, and when she appears, she seems like a stranger to Lira. Having freed the Crystal, Lira will be powerful enough to defeat her mother.

Lira tells the Sea Queen that she gave the Eye of Keto to Elian, and the Sea Queen beats her violently in retaliation. Grabbing Lira in her tentacles, she scolds Lira for becoming “weak” like the humans, and Lira allows the Sea Queen to become distracted with punishing her. However, Lira didn’t expect her mother to call forth an army of sirens, who emerge through black portals in the lake just as Elian and his crew emerge from the ice palace. The sirens, wanting to please their queen, prepare to wage brutal war against the humans.

Chapter 38 Summary

The Sea Queen confronts Elian, threatening him with death in a terrifying yet beautiful tone, her voice itself a siren song. He holds the Crystal in his pocket and can feel its magic humming. The crew spots Lira, captured by the Sea Queen, but they all think she has betrayed them. Soon, sirens begin attacking the humans, and they are engaged in a violent, bloody battle. The crew kills as many sirens as they can, but as they do, more come. Elian gets to the water but is attacked by a merman. Though the creature is relentless, he finally stabs it through the skull, and his knife soaks up its blood. The Sea Queen, angered by his victory, asks if he thinks Lira will cry when she kills him. He tells her to try and find out.

Chapter 39 Summary

Elian prepares to face the Sea Queen, revealing to her that he has the Crystal of Keto, which Lira wasn’t able to take from him. The Sea Queen promises to punish Lira for losing the Crystal but points out that she might not need to, gesturing to Lira who is busy fighting Yukiko. Elian realizes that the Sea Queen doesn’t care whether Lira lives or dies and rushes to save her from Yukiko, who is about to shoot her. Before he can, Khalia tackles Yukiko and prepares to take her heart. Elian raises his sword to kill Khalia, but Lira stands between them to protect her younger cousin. Lira tries to reason with him, but Elian is resolute on killing Khalia, hurt by Lira’s betrayal. He only stops when Lira grabs his hand and tells him that Khalia is her cousin. Elian realizes that Khalia is very young when he gets a better look at her. Elian draws back from Lira and pulls the Crystal from his pocket, still unable to let himself trust her. The Crystal warms in his hand as Lira approaches, and he decides that he can’t hurt her and drops his sword.

The Sea Queen admonishes Lira in Psáriin, but Lira defies her in Midasan. The Sea Queen’s tentacle attacks Lira, but Elian catches her before she hits the ground. Disgusted, the Sea Queen addresses the sirens and humans in Midasan, announcing that she will turn Lira back into a siren and make her kill Elian in her true form. Lira pushes Elian out of the path of the Sea Queen’s magic and is violently turned back into a siren.

Chapters 36-39 Analysis

Elian struggles with internal conflict upon discovering the truth about Lira. He feels betrayed but also finds it difficult to disregard his love for her, even though he believes she is an enemy. When the Sea Queen shows a lack of concern for Lira, Elian realizes that Lira wasn’t exaggerating about how evil the Sea Queen could be. Though he isn’t sure that he should trust her, his heart tells him that he should. His response to Khalia also highlights his growth as a character. Although he does initially plan to kill her, he can’t help but feel compassion for her when he realizes how young she is—something that would likely not have dissuaded him at the beginning of the novel.

Lira at this point has nearly completed her character arc as well, using the best of what she’s learned from the humans in tandem with what she knows from being a siren. She employs methods of deception that she learned from Elian, tricking the Sea Queen into thinking that he was the person who freed the Crystal so that she would have the upper hand over her mother. While she still worries that Elian won’t forgive her deception, her love for him makes her believe that he will. It is a mark of how much Lira has changed that where becoming human once seemed like a horrible curse, her mother now tries to punish her by returning her to her siren form. Likewise, Lira’s use of Midasan in response to her mother’s Psáriin suggests some sense of solidarity with humanity.