67 pages • 2 hours read
Leigh BardugoCrooked Kingdom: A Sequel to Six of Crows
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 3, Chapters 11-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “Brick by Brick”
Chapter 11 Summary: “Inej”
Back at the hideout, Kuwei explains that the semi-mechanical Grisha hunters are called “Kherguud” and were created by Fabrikator Grisha (Grisha who can manipulate composite substances) on parem. In retaliation for the Kherguud’s attacks, the Council of Tides, a mysterious and powerful group of Grisha, beach two Shu warships in Ketterdam’s harbor.
In Six of Crows, Kaz sold his shares in the Crow Club (a gambling house) to his enemy Pekka Rollins. Kaz explains to the other Dregs that he used the money to invest in sugar. With help from a chemical weevil developed by Wylan, he plans to destroy the sugar in Van Eck’s silos. This would make the Dregs’ investments skyrocket in value to about 30 million kruge, the price Van Eck promised to pay them for the Ice Court job. Kaz also reveals that he planted documents in Smeet’s office that will make it look like Van Eck himself destroyed the sugar and tampered with the market to make a profit, both grave criminal offenses. If successful, the Dregs will “take his money, his reputation, and his freedom all in one night” (165). The plan requires Inej to walk a tightrope between 10 silos that are each 20 stories high. However, Inej and Nina refuse to participate unless Kaz agrees to sneak all of the Grisha in Ketterdam, including Kuwei, out of the city on one of Van Eck’s ships. To pull off this new scheme, Kaz and Wylan will have to break into Van Eck’s state-of-the-art safe and steal his seal.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Kaz”
Later that night, Kaz and Inej leave the island and meet with the Dregs’ leader, Per Haskell. Kaz doesn’t share the details of his plans, but he assures Haskell that the scheme will make them rich. Haskell tells Kaz that Pekka Rollins, the head of a rival gang, has a new gambling den near the Dregs’ Crow Club. Kaz has his own reasons to despise Rollins; the Kaelish con man swindled Kaz’s older brother, Jordie, when Kaz was nine. The boys were left destitute and forced to live on the streets, where Jordie died of firepox.
While Inej scouts Van Eck’s mansion, Kaz reminds himself that she plans to leave Ketterdam once they’ve made their fortunes. He tells himself that her absence will allow him to focus on his promise to avenge Jordie by “pulling Pekka Rollins’ life apart piece by piece” (182). Inej reports that Van Eck will host a meeting of the Merchant Council the following night. Back on the island, Inej tells Kaz that Van Eck threatened to shatter her legs and asks if Kaz would still come for her if she couldn’t be the Wraith anymore. No longer able to pretend that he is merely his monstrous criminal alias, Kaz tells Inej that he will always fight for her no matter what.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Nina”
Nina and Matthias disguise themselves as Fjerdan refugees seeking sanctuary at the Ravkan embassy. The neighborhood of Little Ravka makes Nina feel both happy and homesick. Her mood sours when Matthias criticizes the Ravkan practices of keeping human bones as relics and of revering powerful Grisha as Saints. However, Nina reminds herself that she can’t expect Matthias to “accept an entire nation and its culture” all at once because Ravka is still “enemy territory” to him (192-93).
Nina and Matthias enter a tavern that serves as a meetinghouse for Grisha, hoping to spread word of the ship that will carry the Grisha out of Ketterdam that night. Instead they find an ambush. Nina cannot access her usual Heartrender abilities, but she feels “a bracing shock” and uses this new power to send human bones from the relic vendors’ carts hurtling toward her opponents (197). Zoya Nazyalensky, a Ravkan Squaller and one of Nina’s mentors, stops the fight and is amazed to see that her protégé is alive.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Wylan”
Wylan tells Kaz that he needs to leave the city to obtain a rare chemical. In actuality, this is an alibi so he can go to Saint Hilde’s. During the journey, Wylan recalls the events that led him to the Dregs. After Alys conceived a new heir, Van Eck told Wylan that he would send him away to study music for as “long as it takes people to forget [he] had a son” (205). However, the men escorting Wylan out of the city were hired to murder him. Wylan escaped his would-be killers and wandered the city until he reached the Barrel, which seemed “the perfect place to disappear” (211).
Wylan and Jesper reach Saint Hilde’s and find an asylum, not a churchyard. Wylan realizes that his father had his mother declared insane so that he could remarry and have another child after he gave up on Wylan due to his inability to read. Jesper consoles Wylan by telling him that Kaz will soon destroy Van Eck’s life. Resolving to use his share of the spoils to free his mother and “take her somewhere full of bright colors and beautiful sounds” (223), Wylan dashes back toward Ketterdam with Jesper.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Matthias”
Zoya leads Nina and Matthias to a secret room where about 15 Grisha are hiding. Zoya sees Matthias as a threat and wants him restrained. He understands her wariness; after Grisha killed his parents and sister, he joined the drüskelle and became a Grisha “hunter, a killer, and proud to do his job well” (226). Nina defends Matthias, explaining that he rescued her after she wandered away from the rest of the Ravkan army and was captured by the drüskelle. Nina and Matthias tell Zoya and Genya, a Tailor with the power to alter people’s appearances, that the Dregs can take all of the Grisha to Ravka on Van Eck’s ship.
While Zoya and Genya consider this offer, Nina asks Matthias why he hasn’t kissed her. He explains that he wishes to court her properly, but she reminds him that their lawless lives leave no room for propriety, and they share their first kiss. The Grisha accept the Dregs’ offer of help, and Nina and Matthias head to Black Veil Island.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Jesper”
Back at the island hideout, Kaz reveals that he knew Wylan’s mother was alive. He let Wylan discover the truth for himself so that Wylan would “understand what [his] father really is” (249), but Jesper is angry that Kaz manipulated Wylan in that way. Wylan asks Jesper about his plans for the future and whether he truly wants to “keep bouncing from the next score to the next fight to the next near miss” (251). He is disappointed to hear that Jesper is happy with his life as a criminal and leaves to crack his father’s safe with Kaz. Next, Nina and Inej head for Van Eck’s silos.
The others wait in the hideout because it’s too early to escort the Grisha to the docks. Jesper lashes out at Matthias and Kuwei because they both made the world more dangerous for Grisha, the former with his days among the drüskelle and the latter with the creation of jurda parem. Kuwei explains that he and his father wanted to help Grisha hide their powers, not turn them into weapons. Jesper remembers how his mother sacrificed herself by using her Grisha powers to save a poisoned child and how his father urged him to hide his own Grisha abilities after her death. Jesper grew up on a jurda farm, and he suggests that Kuwei try making an antidote to parem from the plant’s stalks. A mob surrounds the hideout and fires a warning shot through the window.
Part 3, Chapters 11-16 Analysis
The characters’ hunger for revenge drives much of the action in Part 3. Van Eck promised the Dregs 30 million kruge for the Ice Court job. If successful, the silo plan would yield roughly the same amount. However, Kaz demands a more thorough vengeance than simply replacing the withheld reward. Van Eck will lose his fortune, his reputation, and his liberty if the Dregs succeed.
Kaz also plots vengeance against Pekka Rollins, his most hated enemy. Rollins does not appear in person in Part 3, but his influence looms large in Kaz’s thoughts. Part 3’s title, “Brick by Brick,” alludes to Kaz’s promise to avenge his brother by destroying Rollins’s life one piece at a time. The title also applies to the Dregs’ plot to dismantle Van Eck’s life. Unfortunately for the Dregs, the title “Brick by Brick” aptly describes the eventual erosion of Kaz’s plans for the silos and Van Eck’s ship. For all his cleverness, the young mastermind underestimates the steps his enemies will take to slake their own thirst for revenge. After Alys’s abduction, the respectable Van Eck deigns to partner with the Barrel boss Rollins. The effects of this alliance of Kaz’s two most formidable foes reverberate through the rest of the novel.
Kaz’s schemes give his crew a chance to make their fortunes and trounce their enemies, but his obsession with revenge places a strain on their freshly reunited found family. In Chapter 11, Inej and Nina join forces and make Kaz agree to smuggle the Grisha refugees out of the city. Despite her feelings for Kaz, Inej sides with Nina because the threat facing Ketterdam’s Grisha resonates with her past as a survivor of human trafficking and because her conscience outweighs her need for revenge. Kaz rejects the idea when Nina suggests it, but he quickly adjusts his plans to account for the refugees after Inej makes her position clear. On a practical level, he must compromise because only Inej can walk the tightrope between the silos. On a deeper level, he accepts Inej’s need to seek redemption by liberating people. Kaz thinks of himself as a monster, but he allows Inej’s moral compass to steer him at times like this. Nevertheless, Kaz’s focus on revenge causes friction among the crew again in Chapter 16, when he reveals that he manipulated Wylan to maximize Wylan’s anger at his father. Earlier in the novel, Jesper desperately sought to regain Kaz’s favor, but he confronts Kaz about hiding the truth about Wylan’s mother. This action reflects Jesper’s growing closeness to Wylan.
Chapter 12 presents Kaz at his most vulnerable in the book thus far. As Dirtyhands, he would “cut his losses and move on” if Van Eck broke Inej’s legs (184), but Kaz is more than his monstrous criminal alias, no matter how hard he tries to act otherwise. Kaz tells Inej that he will always fight by her side “no matter how broken” the two of them are (185). While not quite a declaration of love, Kaz’s promise reassures Inej that he sees her inherent worth and that he can lay aside his armor for her.
Chapter 13 gives Nina and Matthias a taste of their lost homes and demonstrates their commitment to finding a new home in one another. The sight of Nina in her Fjerdan disguise fills Matthias with nostalgia and affection. For Nina, the trip to Little Ravka serves as a bittersweet reminder of home. She shows her loyalty to Matthias by defending him from her mentor, Zoya. Matthias doesn’t blame Zoya for her suspicions because he sees the cycle of hatred between Ravkans and Fjerdans with the clarity of someone working to confront his own prejudices. Nina and Matthias’s first kiss solidifies their choice to become a home for one another even though their countries remain enemies.
In Chapter 14, Jesper accompanies Wylan to visit his mother at Saint Hilde’s. This parallels Chapter 5, in which Wylan went with Jesper to meet Colm. In both cases, the boys help one another through painfully personal situations. The visit to Saint Hilde’s becomes a catalyst for revenge and redemption. Previously, part of Wylan accepted his father’s actions against him as justified—even Van Eck’s attempts to murder him. However, Wylan’s hitherto tepid interest in revenge ignites after he learns about his mother’s confinement. Part 3 shows that Wylan is ready to fight to avenge his loved ones even if he cannot yet fight for himself.
Part 3 yields new insights about jurda parem and other dangers facing Grisha. Kuwei’s explanation about the parem-fabricated Kherguud soldiers in Chapter 11 strengthens the connection between greed and war. The mysterious Council of Tides’ strike against the Shu ships and Zoya’s suspicion of Matthias underline the need for solidarity and wariness among Grisha in a world where they often cannot trust anyone else to help them. Chapter 16 reveals Jesper’s reasons for hiding his Grisha abilities even from his closest friends. Jesper inherited his late mother’s Fabrikator powers and his father’s fear that being a Grisha is a deadly curse. Jesper cannot untangle the shame and fear he feels toward his Grisha identity yet, but he remains committed to protecting his fellow Grisha. Drawing from his memories of his mother, he suggests a possible antidote for parem. Such a cure would make the world far safer for all Grisha. On a more personal level, this scene shows that Jesper needs to face his past to cure his own wounds.
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By Leigh Bardugo
