Siege and Storm

Leigh Bardugo

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2013

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

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

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary

A week later, they are in the far north. The Darkling is looking for another amplifier to further amplify Alina’s summoning. Mal must track the sea whip, a legendary ice dragon, or the Darkling will torture Alina.

Alina knows the Grisha believes that no one should combine amplifiers. In response, the Darkling brings out a small red book, The Lives of the Saints—the same book the priest known as the Apparat gave Alina at the Little Palace, the Grisha’s headquarters in Ravka’s capital. She has not read it. The Darkling insists Mal is not her equal and accuses her of being afraid of her own power.

Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!

8,800+ In-Depth Study Guides
4,700+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
Downloadable PDFs

A week later, as Mal worries he cannot find the sea whip, the monster breaches the waves.

Chapter 4 Summary

Alina prays the sea whip will win against the men trying to harpoon it, but it’s fatally wounded. As it dies, a heavy mist grows, but the Darkling orders his Squallers (Grisha who can control wind) to clear the sky. Just then, a strange boat with a flag featuring a red dog with the Ravka double eagle below it pulls alongside Sturmhond’s ship. Chaos ensues as its men swarm the Darkling’s ship. Alina and Mal suddenly realize that Sturmhond is on the side of the raiders. Tamar and Tolya find Mal and Alina. When Ivan tries to stop them, the twins, who turn out to also be Heartrenders, kill him.

In the fray, Genya grabs a pistol and points it at Alina. However, Genya shoots the Darkling instead but refuses to go with Alina despite the latter’s pleading. Tolya picks Alina up, and they go over the railing to board the attacking ship. As the Darkling unfurls his power, Sturmhond unlocks Alina’s shackles so she can summon light and use the Cut, a telekinetic bisecting tool, if necessary. They battle and win after Sturmhond orders the risky use of lightning by his Squallers.

Chapter 5 Summary

Mal and Alina are ready to fight Sturmhond, but he instead urges Alina to quickly kill the sea whip, which is in pain. Mal helps Alina drive a harpoon through it. She doesn’t like claiming the amplifier but takes seven of its scales. Sturmhond then tells her he was hunting Alina for a client who outbid her nemesis. Sturmhond is taking Alina and Mal to Os Kervo in West Ravka to see his client. If they don’t like what the client has to say, Sturmhond promises he’ll help them escape.

Sturmhond hands her The Lives of the Saints, taken from the Darkling. It is the actual volume the Apparat gifted her. When Alina insists that the amplifiers can’t be combined, Sturmhond tells her that’s not what The Lives of the Saints says. While the Darkling lives, she never will be free, nor will Ravka, so Alina needs to make powerful friends to fight her powerful enemy.

Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!

8,800+ In-Depth Study Guides
4,700+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
Downloadable PDFs

Later in the evening, Alina and Mal visit Sturmhond again. The men excitedly talk about weaponry and technology, but Alina can’t focus because she’s thinking about the sea whip’s scales. In The Lives of the Saints, on the picture of St. Ilya, she’s discovered the existence of a third amplifier.

Chapters 3-5 Analysis

This section sets up the quest premise of the novel: the retrieval of the amplifiers that will increase Alina’s magical abilities. Finding magical items is a standard trope of many fairy tales, something the novel emphasizes by having three—a number that often occurs in similar stories. While both the Darkling and Alina want to find the amplifiers, only one of them can use the devices. This means the Darkling’s purpose is more complex: He must find the legendary beasts that contain them, and he must also capture Alina to force her to use her powers on his behalf. This imbalance means that the novel must also complicate Alina’s relationship with the amplifiers—something that occurs when she feels sympathy for the sea whip that must be killed to yield its scales.

One of the novel’s overarching themes is Sacrificing Oneself for the Greater Good, which emerges here in a variety of ways. Genya, who realizes she’s been misled by the Darkling’s ambitions, shoots him instead of Alina, at great risk to herself. This sudden decision heightens the suspense, as readers wonder whether Alina’s friend will turn on her for good—and it foreshadows the eventual ways in which Alina herself will need to endure torment for the sake of her loved ones. But although Genya’s selflessness is morally sound, other sacrifices fall into a grayer area. Sturmhond urges Alina to amass as much power as possible to fight against her enemy—a justifiable action that demands the sacrifice of the sea whip, arguably for the greater good, but also at a great cost to the majesty of the world. Most diabolically, the Darkling’s plan to amplify Alina is a photo-negative version of the same kind of sacrifice—an ends-justify-the-means plan to fulfill his version of the greater good.