The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Bardugo, Leigh. The Grisha Trilogy. Siege and Swords. Macmillan, 2015. Kindle.

The novel begins with a prologue that is narrated in the third-person past. Alina and Mal, who had just escaped Ravka and the Darkling, took a ship to Novyi Zem, where they hoped they could be safe. In the first chapter, the narration switches and Alina begins to narrate in the first-person past. Alina grew up with Mal in an orphanage, but they had fallen in love during the last novel. They had both been members of the king’s army, but when they had crossed The Fold, a sea of darkness created by the Black Heretic, Alina had discovered her hidden powers and the whole world realized she was the long-awaited sun-summoner. The Darkling tricked Alina into working with him under the guise that they would destroy The Fold together, but then his mother revealed to Alina that the Darkling was the Black Heretic and he intended to put an amplifier on Alina that would give him the ability to control her powers so that he could extend The Fold and use it as a weapon to rule the world. Alina ran away with Mal and tried to find the mythical Morozova’s stag so she could kill the beast and take the antler as her own amplifier, but she did not want to kill the stag. The Darkling killed it instead and placed the necklace around Alina’s neck, then used her powers to expand The Fold and destroy the city of Novokribirsk. Just before the Darkling could kill Mal, Alina realized the power of the stag was hers since she had spared its life.

She used her powers to escape with Mal and now the couple hoped to start a new life together. However, the Darkling ambushed them and revealed he had the power to summon shadow monsters. He took them captive on his ship and headed north to find the mythical Morozova’s second amplifier, the ice dragon. Right when Mal tracked down the ice dragon, the captain of the whaler, Sturmhond, staged a coup and rescued Alina and Mal.

They fled from the Darkling and Alina put on the scales of the ice dragon as a second amplifier, which no Grisha had ever done before. Alina discovered a picture in the book The Lives of Saints which showed Sankt Ilya painted with a white stag, an ice dragon, and a firebird. She theorized that the firebird would make her a perfect third amplifier and give her the power to fight the Darkling for good. Sturmhond told Alina that someone had paid him to bring her to Ravka, but promised her he would help her flee if she did not like what they had to say.

They approached shore and took a small boat that Nikolai had turned into a plane. They flew through The Fold and Alina had a vision of the Darkling talking to her. She panicked and the plane crashed. The king’s army approached and Sturmhond revealed he was actually Nikolai Lantsov, the second son of the king. He told Alina he wanted to save Ravka with her as his queen. She told him she would help, but not by marrying him, and asked for control of the Grisha army, which the Darkling had previously run. He agreed and they returned to Os Alta where thousands of pilgrims had gathered to see the sun-summoner, Saint Alina, who they believed would save them. The Apparat, who was a religious leader, was said to be amassing a cult of the Sun Saint. Many soldiers had abandoned their stations to join the cult.

Alina took control of the remains of the Grisha army and started making plans for how to fight the Darkling and his shadow monsters. However, the other Grisha were resistant to her command and she was continuing to see visions of the Darkling. Plus, Mal was unhappy about coming back to the palace and about Nikolai’s affection for Alina. Alina went to see the Darkling’s mother, Baghra, to ask if she could help find the firebird, but Baghra refused. Nikolai began building another plane to use in case they needed to escape quickly.

As preparations for battle were being made, Mal invited Alina to a party at a mansion. They went and had fun, but then the Apparat cornered Alina alone and asked her to come with him to join his army. She refused and he disappeared. She returned to the castle where she had another vision of the Darkling and got into a massive fight with Mal. She realized that the firebird might live near her hometown of Dva Stolba. Mal agreed to go search for it.

Before he left, they went to Nikolai’s birthday party. His brother, Vasily, revealed that he had made a deal with the Fjerdans that involved their loyalty in exchange for the reopening of a few logging roads. Nikolai immediately sensed that they had been double-crossed. The warning bells began to ring and the Darkling arrived with his shadow-monsters. Vasily was killed while Nikolai escaped with his parents. Mal and Alina were cornered in the chapel with a few other Grisha.

Alina agreed to join the Darkling in exchange for the lives of her friends, who he promised to let go free. Alina kissed the Darkling and felt their powers merge. She realized that not only did he have access to her powers—she had access to his. She started making shadow monsters until they both nearly died, hoping to kill them both. However, Mal stopped her and they escaped through a tunnel to the underground White Cathedral where the Apparat was hiding. Alina recovered from her injuries, but she could no longer use her powers and her hair had turned white. The Darkling took over the throne and Alina could only hope her powers would return so she could fight him.