Daughter of the Pirate King

While the ship is docked, Alosa avoids sleeping, worried that Sheck might assault her while she is unconscious. Meanwhile, the brig is filled with the screams of the two men that Ulgin tortures to death. Eventually, Riden brings two pirates, Azek and Jolek, to relieve Sheck and Ulgin from their duties. He apologizes to Alosa before departing, and his contradictory behavior confuses her further; sometimes he seems to want to help her, but sometimes he hinders her actions entirely.

To meet Riden’s expectations that she must want to escape, Alosa decides to escape and then allow herself to be recaptured, in the hopes that her mock play for freedom will allay his suspicions over her true motives. After picking the lock to her cell and knocking her guards unconscious, Alosa escapes into town with the help of Theris, who distracts the men left above deck. Before orchestrating her recapture, Alosa plans to send a message to her father. Conveniently, a few members of her all-female crew have tracked the progress of the Night Farer and find Alosa in the town. She tasks them with delivering her message—that she is successfully on the Night Farer, that Draxen likely doesn’t know where the map is, and that she’ll bring the Night Farer to the discussed checkpoint soon. Alosa happens across Kearan outside a tavern and hopes that he will capture her, but he is too drunk to function. Unfortunately, Sheck captures her instead and attempts to make sexual advances on her. She quickly thwarts his plans by killing him with Kearan’s sword, and then she discovers Riden standing nearby and realizes that he has witnessed the entire fight.

After a sword fight that Riden wins, shocking Alosa, he escorts her back to the Night Farer, annoyed that she has ruined his only night of shore leave in months. Upon returning Alosa to her cell, Riden tends to the shallow cuts he made across her leg with his sword. Afterward, he combs through her belongings more thoroughly and confiscates all sorts of contraband from the binding of her books, including daggers, poisons, and other weapons.

Enwen and a crew member named Belor come to guard Alosa’s cell when Riden departs. Belor attempts to sell Enwen a leather string with a lie, claiming that “it came from a siren’s wrist” and gives the owner “protection on the sea” (110). Although Alosa warns Enwen that Belor is just conning him out of his gold, Enwen is too superstitious not to purchase it. Alosa picks the lock to her cell once again and knocks them both out, although she feels guilty about harming Enwen, of whom she has become fond.

She heads directly toward the edge of the ship as her next area to search, but Riden immediately spots her; he has been waiting for her next escape attempt. Fortunately, the incident reinforces the impression that Alosa wants to escape, erasing Riden’s suspicions that she wishes to remain aboard for ulterior motives. Now certain that she’ll keep finding ways to escape her cell, Riden decides to find her different accommodations. He picks her up, carries her to his quarters, and drops her on his bed. A scuffle ensues but ends when he drags his lips across her cheek and jawline suggestively. Alosa hates that she enjoys this physical contact, but when he calls her beautiful, her wits return, and she pushes him away. He locks her in his room, which is impeccably clean. Alosa searches his room for the map to no avail; out of frustration, Alosa trashes everything. When Riden returns to find the mess, he’s beyond angry but is satisfied with the knowledge that while he sleeps in the bed, Alosa’s pride will force her to sleep on the floor, which is now a mess due to her tantrum. However, because Riden is a light sleeper, Alosa entertains herself by thumping her boots every few minutes to keep him awake. After he threatens to knock her unconscious if she continues, Alosa switches to humming and then begins to sing. At this point, Riden falls into a deep sleep and does not wake when she slips his key from his pocket, explores the ship, and returns.

Alosa attempts to sleep on the floor, but it soon becomes too cold, so she slips into bed next to Riden. She awakens to find him perched on an elbow, running his fingers through her hair. She quickly rolls out of his reach, and once she is dressed for the day, Riden restrains her wrists in manacles before bringing her to the deck. Draxen greets Alosa coldly and tasks her with helping the men swab the deck. When she refuses, Riden orders her to be hung by her wrists from a rope and hook secured to the ship’s masts.

Alosa makes a spectacle of her punishment by struggling, toppling a man from the mast and causing him to break several bones. After a second escape attempt allows her to dangle from the rigging, she climbs up to the wooden beam at the top and sits on it, still restrained by her wrists. When Draxen gives the order to remove her from the mast, she climbs back down and hangs obediently, determined to endure the pain of her punishment rather than swabbing the deck. Eventually, she can’t hold her body weight up any longer, and her wrists begin bleeding as the manacles dig into her flesh. Enwen admires her strength and feels guilty about the crew’s treatment of a woman. He approaches Alosa and ties the supposed siren’s bracelet to her ankle, invoking the protection of the sea. When Draxen finally cuts her down, Alosa is too weak to catch her fall. Riden carries her to his chambers, where he tends to her wounded wrists. When Riden apologizes for Draxen’s punishment, Alosa becomes angry and calls him a coward for choosing to do nothing despite his desire to put a stop to his brother’s brutality. She also criticizes his inability to act outside of Draxen’s influence, and Riden counters by criticizing her own inability to act independently of her father’s wishes. Alosa pretends to fall asleep in his arms, not wishing to speak with him further.