55 pages • 1 hour read
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Elian goes to The Golden Goose, which is ironically the only place in Midas that isn’t golden. It is a dive bar owned by a mysterious woman known only as “Sakura” who looks to be from Págos, an icy country where people have pale skin and extremely light-colored hair. Sakura is a tough woman who can manage her rough clientele, but she is fond of Elian and allows him to hold secret meetings in the Golden Goose.
Elian and his crew sit at a table, meeting with a strange man who claims to have information about how to hunt down the Princes’ Bane. The man tells them about the Crystal of Keto, which is said to have been crafted by the “original families” and is powerful enough to defeat the Sea Queen. He tells them that the Sea Queen has a stone too, and that both stones were made from the remains of the goddess Keto when the original families killed her. The Sea Queen uses her Crystal to access the power of Keto and rule over the sea. As the man speaks, Elian consults a watch his father gave him that can tell when someone is lying: The watch indicates that the man is telling the truth. Elian asks the man where the Crystal is, and he reveals that it’s at the highest point in the world: atop the Cloud Mountain of Págos.
Lira, upset about her punishment, swims to the edge of the Diávolos sea and lies on the sea floor, allowing a jellyfish to sting her. Two mermaids swim over to her. They are grotesque, covered in scraps of metal and jewelry that they have recovered from human ships. The mermaids suggest that Lira should hunt for a prince against the Sea Queen’s wishes, but not just any prince. They suggest she hunt Prince Elian of Midas, the Golden Prince, because he kills sirens and because his heart is made of gold. The Sea Queen, they suggest, might forgive Lira if she brings her Elian’s heart. Lira believes that they are right and decides that Elian will be her next kill.
Elian combs the books in the royal library for information about the Crystal of Keto but can’t find much. His father finds him studying a book about Págos and warns him against trying to go to the freezing country chasing adventure. The king worries that Elian will try to avenge Cristian, warning him against pursuing fairy tales. After the king leaves, the thought suddenly hits Elian that he has been searching in the wrong places, and he looks for children’s fairy tales instead of history books.
Lira swims to the warm shores of Midas to look for Elian. She sees him standing on the deck of his ship, recognizing him by the insignia on his ring. Lira hears him say that he wants to kill every monster in the ocean and becomes even more determined to kill him. She parts her lips to start her song, but a mermaid swims in front of her, staking claim over Elian. Lira fights the mermaid in the water below the ship, and Elian hears the commotion and recognizes Lira as the Princes’ Bane. Before Lira can react, the mermaid slams the two of them into the side of the ship, which causes Elian to fall overboard. He plunges into the water, and when he tries to swim back to the surface, the mermaid holds him under, hoping to eat his heart and become more human. Wanting Elian for herself, Lira stabs her sharp fingers into the mermaid’s skull until the mermaid releases Elian. Then she pulls the mermaid’s head from her body, dropping it to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
Lira finds Elian on a sandbank and swims to him. She turns him over to see if he’s alive, leaning closer to see if his heart is still beating. She notes that he smells like “the black sweets of the anglers” (59)—licorice. Just as she is about to steal his heart, her fingers digging into his chest, the royal guards run towards them to rescue him. Elian comes to just in time to catch a glimpse of Lira before she dives back into the ocean.
In Chapters 7-10, the plot reaches the inciting incident, or turning point, of the story. When the mermaid foils Lira’s chance to steal Elian’s heart, her actions set the trajectory for the rest of the story. Lira fails to kill Elian just as he’s learning about the Crystal of Keto and has set his sights on recovering it. By killing the mermaid who attacked Elian, Lira also gives the impression that she wanted to save Elian. The initial decision to hunt Elian was already reckless, directly going against the Sea Queen’s orders. By defying the Sea Queen’s punishment, Lira foreshadows her own eventual rebellion against her mother. Saving Elian likewise foreshadows events that take place later in the plot.
Lira’s “rescue” of Elian is one of the closest parallels between To Kill a Kingdom and Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” where the title character saves a prince from drowning when his ship sinks in a storm. Likewise, Lira’s red hair is an obvious nod to the Disney film of the same name. These echoes form part of a broader pattern of ironic, sometimes feminist subversions. Sakura’s name, for example, is the Japanese word for “cherry blossom”—a flower that in Japanese tradition signifies transience and fragility on account of its short lifespan. “Fragility” is not a quality most readers would associate with Sakura the character, who is both ambitious and self-sufficient.
Although Lira continues to act in an overtly bloodthirsty way throughout these chapters, a closer look suggests that she isn’t quite as monstrous as she might seem. Her motivation in hunting Elian is in large part the desire to please a distant and often abusive parent. Though misguided, this is a very human impulse, and it lays the groundwork for Lira’s gradual realization that sirens and humans aren’t so different from one another after all.
Action & Adventure
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Beauty
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BookTok Books
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Community
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Family
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Hate & Anger
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Loyalty & Betrayal
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Mothers
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Mythology
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Order & Chaos
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Pride & Shame
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Revenge
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Romance
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Safety & Danger
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Truth & Lies
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Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
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