To Kill a Kingdom

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

The crew of the Saad return to Midas with Elian. The land, buildings, and even the ocean around Midas seem to glitter a golden color. According to rumor, Elian and the rest of the royal family even have golden hearts and golden blood. Each of the royal families of the 100 kingdoms has a legend like this attached to it: a special ability or attribute that sets them apart from other people. Elian’s crew, who know the importance of this legend, keep secret that Elian’s blood is simply red.

Elian meets with his family in the throne room, and his parents give him a bracelet to express happiness that he’s home. King Radames, his father, wants Elian to take his duties to Midas more seriously, as he will be king one day. However, Elian’s little sister Amara wants to become queen more than he wants to become king. The king also admonishes Elian for his desire to roam the seas hunting sirens. The queen tells Elian to get some rest for the ball, which they have planned in his honor for the following day.

Chapter 5 Summary

Lira returns to the Keto Palace in the Diávolos Sea, where she faces her mother, the Sea Queen. Having taken a heart before her birthday, she has broken her mother’s rules. The Sea Queen reminds her that she was only meant to help Khalia hunt for a heart and violently grabs Lira in her tentacles, preparing to punish her for what she’s done. Lira offers to skip hunting on her birthday, but the queen doesn’t agree. She decides to punish Lira for disobeying her and Khalia for letting Lira go through with stealing the prince’s heart. Lira offers to take Khalia’s punishment as well, and the Sea Queen agrees. She demands the heart from Lira and then crushes it, which hurts Lira as the power she received from it is ripped from her. For Khalia’s punishment, the Sea Queen instructs Lira to hunt on her birthday as usual, but to steal the heart of a common sailor. This, she feels, will be an embarrassment to Lira, who has become known as The Princes’ Bane.

Chapter 6 Summary

Prince Elian prepares to go to the ball. Kye and Madrid tease him for actually dressing as a prince instead of in his usual pirate wardrobe. The crew of the Saad will not attend the ball, instead spending the evening at The Golden Goose, a local pub that is known for hosting rough clientele.

Elian attends the ball and makes idle conversation with a dignitary named Nadir Pasha and his wife, Halina. They ask him about rumors that he speaks many languages, insinuating that he might also know Psáriin, the forbidden language of the sea. He remains unoffended but is surprised when the Pashas reveal that sirens have killed Cristian, the prince of Adékaros, along with his mother. Halina suggests that it was the Princes’ Bane who killed them, and Nadir agrees, explaining that the crew saw her hair “as red as hellfire” (36). They note that she’s early by two weeks since she usually hunts in the same month each year. Amara, overhearing the conversation, interrupts and pulls Elian away to dance.

Chapters 4-6 Analysis

Elian and Lira both return home, facing parents who rule the worlds they come from and heightening the contrast between their two lives. Lira’s mother, the Sea Queen, is ruthless and violent even to her own daughter, while Lira struggles with both her resentment towards the queen and her desire to please her. The queen’s punishment for stealing the heart is an attempt to humble Lira and rid her of the compassion she feels for Khalia. The Sea Queen views compassion as weakness, and Lira’s fondness for her cousin is something that the queen wants to break her of. At the same time, The Sea Queen feels threatened by the idea that Lira’s time as queen is fast approaching and her own reign coming to a close; sirens don’t age, but queens only reign until they’ve collected a certain number of hearts. The Sea Queen wants to humble and humiliate Lira, hoping to sow not only self-doubt but doubt amongst the other sirens and mermaids regarding Lira’s ability to lead.

Elian, in contrast, comes home to loving parents who are only concerned for his safety and his future. His desire to sail comes more from a desire to be free from his duty as the next in line for the throne than from a fear of his parents; Elian is highly respected in his homeland, but he feels that he has a more noble cause in his hunt for sirens. Elian’s friendships also contrast with Lira’s relationships in that he has an entire crew of fiercely loyal companions, while Lira only has her younger cousin Khalia. For Lira, making friends is unheard of because sirens do not form close bonds, even amongst family. Fondness, like other emotions that the Sea Queen considers “human,” is seen as a weakness and frowned upon.

Throughout To Kill a Kingdom, Christo draws on several cultural traditions and mythologies in addition to the mermaid lore that forms the novel’s backbone. Elian’s kingdom, Midas, shares its name with a mythical Greek king who wished for the ability to turn anything to gold with a single touch, which proved to be more of a curse than a blessing. “Pasha” was a title used throughout the Ottoman Empire, the “Diávolos Sea” evokes the Italian word for “devil,” the Saad’s name comes from the Arabic for “fortune” or “happiness,” and King “Radames” is perhaps an allusion to the character in Verdi’s Aida—another story of star-crossed lovers.