To Kill a Kingdom

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary

Elian wakes up in his room following the siren attack. King Radames is angry that the sea wardens didn’t do more to protect Elian and failed to spot the siren before she attacked. Elian assures his father that the wardens wouldn’t have known what to look for. He vows to make the siren pay for what she’s done and goes to find his crew. Later, Elian gathers his crew on the deck of the Saad and tells them about the Crystal of Keto—specifically, that he plans to find it and use it to kill the Sea Queen. He explains that the mission to find it will be dangerous and gives most of the crew the option to sit this adventure out. However, most of his crew enthusiastically agrees to join him.

Chapter 12 Summary

Elian goes to the Golden Goose to talk to Sakura in private. They share a drink, and Sakura’s lipstick comes off on the glass. With her dark lipstick gone, Elian can see the blue of her lips, confirming what he’d assumed: that she is the missing Princess Yukiko of Págos. She asks him what it is that he wants, and he invites her to come with him to Págos to help him find the Crystal of Keto. She pretends she can’t help him because it’s at the top of Cloud Mountain, but Elian knows that she had to climb Cloud Mountain on her 16th birthday, as is the tradition for Págese royals. Yukiko tells him that the only way to get to the Crystal is to use a special necklace to open a locked room at the mountain’s peak. She knows an easier way up but refuses to help unless he gives her something in exchange. Elian offers to make her his queen, and, in exchange, she gives him a map of the secret route the Págese royals use to climb the mountain.

Chapter 13 Summary

Lira realizes that she made a mistake in her attempt to kill Elian so close to the docks. She waits near his ship and overhears the crew talking about the Crystal of Keto, which she knows as the “Second Eye of Keto.” She decides to follow the ship to Págos because the icy waters would be too cold for Elian to survive, and she could ensure she kills him. However, the Sea Queen has been watching her and lays a line of sea creature carcasses along the ocean floor to leading Lira to her.

The Sea Queen angrily accuses Lira of saving a human and murdering a mermaid on his behalf. Lira explains that she was trying to keep the mermaid from eating his heart because she wanted to take it for herself. The Sea Queen becomes angry that Lira hunted for a prince, completely disobeying her punishment. She takes Lira into her tentacles, squeezing her so tightly that Lira cannot speak, and then throws her to the ground. Deciding that Lira isn’t worthy to be her heir, the Sea Queen uses her magic to turn Lira into a human girl and steal her siren song. The transformation is painful and violent, with Lira’s fin splitting to become legs and her new lungs filling with salt water. The Sea Queen challenges Lira to steal Elian’s heart without her siren song before the solstice.

Chapters 11-13 Analysis

Being attacked by Lira and the mermaid only makes Elian more determined to search for the Crystal of Keto. In order to get what he needs to complete the mission, he is willing to make huge sacrifices. One such sacrifice is his decision to marry Sakura in exchange for information on how to climb the Cloud Mountain and access the Crystal. By marrying Sakura, he is essentially promising to allow her to rule as queen, giving his kingdom over to her.

Lira’s decision to hunt for Elian’s heart against the Sea Queen’s wishes leads to the Sea Queen cursing her to become human. The Sea Queen’s actions illustrate her lack of compassion, even for her own offspring. The sirens follow the Sea Queen because of her ruthlessness, but her distaste for humanity doesn’t come naturally to the sirens: She cultivates it in them using fear, pain, and violence. Her punishments of Lira are more to humiliate and hurt her than to teach her anything valuable. By turning Lira human while she’s still underwater, the Sea Queen knowingly risks Lira’s life.