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45 pages 1 hour read

Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013

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Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary

After the punch, Mal informs Alina she’s lucky she wasn’t shot. Nikolai leads them away from the outraged First Army and gives them clean clothes. He notes that he is not their enemy: He disguised himself as Sturmhond as protection from being kidnapped and held for ransom. He feels he can do more for Ravka as a privateer than as a younger prince at court, but he worries that neither the king nor Crown Prince Vasily are good leaders.

Nikolai thinks Alina is the key to Ravka’s survival: He can unite the First and Second Armies if Alina, the beloved Sun Saint, becomes his queen. Nikolai insists this would only be a strategic marriage, but when he mentions heirs, Mal moves to hit him. Alina is frustrated that the two men are trying to settle her life as if she’s not there. She turns down Nikolai’s proposal but agrees to accompany him to Os Alta as commander of the Second Army. Nikolai agrees.

Chapter 10 Summary

Before going to Os Alta, the crew makes several trips through the Fold to get supplies. Alina is wary, but her vision of the Darkling does not recur.

On the way to Os Alta, each town they come to, they make sure to arrive at dawn or dusk, so that Alina can show off her sun summoning. They stop at Kribirsk, the sister city of Novokribirsk, which is a ghost of its former self. Seeing makeshift shrines for the dead, Alina feels responsible and wonders if the dead haunt the Darkling the way they haunt her. In another town, Peddler’s Way, the Sun Saint’s bones are being sold as a good luck charm. Alina is torn between whether she is helping feed the people a lie or giving them hope; she hopes that leading the Second Army will allow her to do something useful to help.

Nikolai gives her advice on optics and public perception: She cannot publicly acknowledge her relationship with Mal and should wear a special garment instead of the simple blue kefta common to Summoners. Mal suggests he become the captain of Alina’s personal guard. Alina wonders if he ever grieves the life he could’ve had without her. The pilgrims’ numbers swell each day, and the crowd calls out to her, begging her to bless and heal them. Their expectations terrify her.

Chapter 11 Summary

The crowds become so unwieldy that Alina must always ride in a coach.

As they strategize against the Darkling, Alina explains that creating the nichevo’ya sapped the Darkling’s strength. Alina and Nikolai also discuss the Apparat, who colluded with the Darkling, but then switched sides, and may be angling for more power.

While Nikolai doesn’t renew his proposal, he wants the public to see that he and Alina are together. One evening he unexpectedly kisses her in front of a crowd; the mob cheers, calling her Sun Queen. Alina is upset that Mal saw the kiss and confronts Nikolai about his many personas. He responds sincerely: He must win the favor of the Ravkan people because his parentage is in doubt.

Mal isn’t angry about the kiss, but uncertain of Alina’s feelings. She reassures him. At a count’s mansion, Alina dons her new glittering kefta and gives Mal a gold sunburst to wear over his heart as her guard. They emotionally connect, until Tamar interrupts: Grisha led by the Darkling’s former underling Fedyor are at the gate asking for the Sun Summoner.

Chapter 12 Summary

The Grisha at the gate are fleeing a witch hunt ordered by the king after the incident at the Fold. Fedyor believes many Grisha survivors will seek out Alina, but others will return to the Darkling.

The next morning, the group enters Os Alta with spectacle. Alina and her guards Tamar, Tolya, and Mal ride white horses. The First Army and Nikolai’s brother Prince Vasily greet them, but it is not a warm welcome. Vasily insults Nikolai, who gains the upper hand by remembering a soldier’s name.

At the Grand Palace, the king is frail and weak, and the queen looks aged without Genya to Tailor her appearance. Nikolai reveals to his parents that he is Sturmhond. The king observes that Alina looks too weak to lead an army, but he reluctantly agrees to give her command. The king would rather hang Mal, but he is convinced to dishonorably discharge Mal instead.

Chapters 9-12 Analysis

With the revelation of Nikolai’s true identity, the novel’s romance plot can develop in earnest. Alina is faced with three possibilities for a partner: the loyal, but increasingly politically irrelevant Mal; the pragmatic and ambitious Nikolai; and the intimidating and terrifying Darkling. Typically, in genre fiction, multiple romantic or sexual options represent some inner conflict for the character forced to choose. In this case, the appeal of each man highlights some aspect of Alina’s character. Mal stands for safety and home, as his relationship with Alina predates her accession to her magical powers and offers a place of refuge from public life and a retreat into normality and obscurity. Nikolai is a mirror of Alina’s new hunger for power—he is a talented underdog in the royal family, and an alliance with him would grant Alina a political future and military strength. Choosing Nikolai would mean Alina accepting her position as the Sun Saint, becoming the public face of one of Ravka’s many factions. The final option is one that the novel wants readers to think about even as Alina refuses to acknowledge it. The pull of the darkness in the Fold and the fact that Alina is having visions of the Darkling are hints that their antipathy hides a strong possible connection. In this kind of novel, Alina is highly unlikely to choose the Darkling—there are few hints that this series will feature a redemption plot for this evil character—but the attraction between them represents Alina’s affinity for the magic she is amassing through the amplifiers. The Darkling draws her because she too wants to be an incredibly powerful magician.

Nikolai’s understanding of PR and optics provides a contrast to Alina’s more earnest approach to the world. He sees the bigger picture of his father’s rule—that both the king and the heir Vasily are competent—and understands how to play to public perceptions by trying for a political marriage to Alina. Queen is a role she could play well, especially given her new standing in Ravka as a religious icon. In response, the impulsive and naïve Alina demands control of the Second Army, although she has no experience—an angry move that exposes how little understanding of realpolitik Alina has. Nikolai is particularly good at image making, stressing Alina to avoid public displays of affection for Mal, telling her to wear clothing that marks her as different from other Grisha, kissing her unexpectedly in public to promote the idea that they are together, and calling out a soldier by name to show up his brother.

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