55 pages • 1 hour read
Daughter of the Pirate King
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes incidents of mild violence and combat, kidnapping and captivity, and attempted sexual assault.
Many years ago, a map detailing the location of the legendary treasure hoard of Isla de Canta was split into three pieces, each of which was entrusted to a separate pirate lord (a Kalligan, an Allemos, and a Serad) and passed down through the generations. Now, Princess Alosa, daughter to the infamous pirate king Byrronic Kalligan, waits with her temporary crew of throwaway thieves and traitors for the crew of the Night Farer to board her ship, the Ava-lee. Though she longs to join the fray and effortlessly cut the enemy down with her impressive swordsmanship, Alosa has a mission from her father—to allow herself to be captured by the Night Farer’s young captain, Draxen Allemos, so that she may steal his third of the legendary treasure map. While her father already has one third of the map and another pirate lord is known to have the second, this mission is necessary to capture the third piece, as Draxen has likely inherited it upon the death of his father, pirate lord Jeskor.
After issuing the order to surrender, Alosa—disguised as a mere cabin boy—gathers with her crew on the top deck to await Draxen, who is joined by his arrogant yet attractive younger brother and first mate, Riden. When Alosa laughs at Draxen’s attempts to intimidate her crew, he retaliates with violence. Alosa knocks his cronies off their feet, but when her hat falls off, her long, red hair is revealed, and she is immediately recognized. When she attempts to negotiate the terms of her surrender, Draxen kills one of her men; Alosa responds by killing one of his until Riden finally puts a stop to their bloodshed. Draxen holds Mandsy—one of the three members of Alosa’s original, all-female crew—at gunpoint, but Alosa shows no fear, and eventually, Draxen agrees to her bizarre terms. In exchange for her willing surrender, she demands that her crew go free and that her wardrobe and personal belongings be transferred to the Night Farer. As preparations are made, Draxen hits Alosa across the face, drawing blood, and forbids her from defying him during her time aboard the Night Farer. Draxen then orders Riden to escort Alosa to the brig for interrogation.
Chapter 2 Summary
Riden drags Alosa belowdecks and confines her in a dirty cell, but she doesn’t miss the opportunity to trip him in retaliation for his rough handling. Her quick-witted responses to Riden cause him to regard her with curiosity and amusement, and he tells her that she has “the face of an angel but the tongue of a snake” (16). As Riden locks Alosa in her cell with her belongings, she plays the part of a harmless yet callous woman, an act that causes the Night Farer crew to underestimate her.
Riden is assigned to interrogate Alosa about her father, and his methods are more charming and flirtatious than physically torturous. Though Alosa is certain that her evasive answers give nothing away, his subsequent report to Draxen shocks her, as Riden gleans a broad array of information from their interactions. When Riden tricks Alosa into revealing that she is hiding something, she lashes out in anger, pulling him against the bars of her cell, and uses the opportunity to switch the key for her cell with a similar key that she keeps on her person. Although Riden gains an accurate sense of Alosa’s personality from their brief conversation, she has also learned quite a bit about him. Most importantly, she now knows that Riden and Draxen are brothers and that Riden cares deeply for the well-being and safety of the crew. Both of these facts are potential weaknesses that she plans to exploit.
Chapter 3 Summary
Throughout the day, Alosa is visited by crew members who are eager to catch a glimpse of the pirate king’s daughter. One of her last visitors, a man calling himself Theris, slyly reveals that he is a spy in her father’s employ. Insulted by this information, Alosa wonders if Theris is tasked with making sure that she acquires the map for her father. After changing into a cleaner, more fashionable outfit and slipping her hidden dagger from the spine of one of her favorite books and into her boot, Alosa uses the stolen key to slip out of her cell at nightfall. She makes her way to Draxen’s quarters, certain that the map will be in his possession. Draxen is a heavy sleeper, which allows Alosa a few hours to search every inch of his chambers, but she finds nothing.
As she heads back to her cell, she makes a slight noise, and Riden, who is a light sleeper, awakens and discovers her in the hallway. He is suspicious when he realizes that she used her freedom to snoop rather than to escape, but he escorts Alosa back to her cell. Shocked when his key does not fit into the lock, he is begrudgingly impressed when he realizes that Alosa has it. When she refuses to return it, he is forced to search her physically; this process unsteadies her, but she still takes the opportunity to distract him and lock him in her cell instead. Alosa then interrogates Riden for a change, and he reveals his belief that Draxen’s violence might one day go too far, causing the crew to mutiny. Riden also reveals that he killed his own father. Satisfied with this new information, Alosa unlocks the cell and returns Riden’s key, allowing him to lock her up once again.
Chapter 4 Summary
Alosa wakes the next morning to find a superstitious crew member named Enwen cutting off a few strands of her red hair for good luck. Enwen and his fellow crewmember, Kearan, have been tasked with guarding her cell from this point forward. When Riden brings Alosa’s breakfast, he dismisses the guards and resumes his interrogation. Alosa agrees to answer his questions only if he allows her weekly baths. Riden asks Alosa about her father’s fierce reputation, including the rumors that he once manipulated and seduced a siren. Alosa denies that rumor but attests to the truth of other rumors that focus on her father’s reputation for ruthlessness. Riden then questions her about her relationship with her father and determines that Byrronic’s love for his daughter is conditional. Alosa defends her father, claiming that he did what he needed to do to make her strong enough to endure the pirate world. Although Riden knows that conditional love is not healthy, he considers Alosa lucky that her father feels some form of love for her. This sentiment alerts Alosa to the fact that Riden’s own father never loved him at all.
Shortly after Riden departs, Draxen visits Alosa’s cell and threatens her with a new interrogator or physical violence if she continues to be uncooperative with Riden. When Riden visits again, he brings water, rags, and soap and gives Alosa 10 minutes of privacy in order to bathe. When her guards return, Kearan warns Enwen against talking to Alosa too much, and Enwen agrees, mentioning Riden’s assertion that “beautiful women have a way of playing tricks on a man’s mind” (53). Alosa is satisfied to learn that Riden finds her beautiful. As a storm brews, Enwen becomes superstitious once again and mentions the dangers of sirens, which guard the Isla de Canta—also known as the Island of Song or the Land of the Singing Women. Though the men aboard the Night Farer become anxious at the prospect of the coming storm, Alosa is content in the knowledge that the sea watches over her and protects her as its own.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Because pirates are typically the subject of middle-grade novels, Levenseller initially struggled to sell the Daughter of the Pirate King duology. However, as a devoted fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and an eager student of the real-life stories of female pirates scattered through pirating history, Levenseller was determined to bring her vision of a strong female pirate protagonist to fruition, and thus, Chapter 1 wastes no time in establishing the character’s feminist leanings. In the opening scenes, for example, Alosa looks to make sure the only girls onboard her ship are unharmed, thinking, “Good. My girls are safe. To hell with the rest of the crew” (4). Levenseller gives her protagonist a strong sense of loyalty to other female pirates, and this tendency becomes increasingly important as the novel explores The Treatment of Women in Male-Dominated Spaces. At the same time, this statement depicts Alosa’s savage ruthlessness, for although she is concerned for the well-being of her female crew members, she is equally able to detach from worrying about the welfare of the remaining crew members, who are only temporary and are not a core part of the Ava-lee. Alosa’s judgment of the crew for their failure to fight against hopeless odds and her later condemnation of Riden’s cowardice also establish the strength of her character and the uncompromising nature of her personality.
Pirate stories often adopt one of two tones: one that portrays the brutal realities of life at sea or one that embraces the unrealistic absurdity of a swashbuckling adventure. The tone of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, for example, creates a deliberate mixture of both, and as a fan of the film series, Levenseller takes a similar stance by juxtaposing the harsh violence and overt misogyny of Draxen, his crew, and the pirate king with the whimsical hilarity of the trickster that Alosa personifies. The pirate princess’s internal contemplations and outward actions are both filtered through her well-developed sense of humor, and this dynamic also carries over into her interactions with her love interest, Riden, lending an endearing element of spice and sass to the narrative.
Within this effective framework, Levenseller is then free to explore the coming-of-age narrative that characterizes Alosa’s schemes and efforts aboard the Night Farer, as the protagonist must rely upon her own wits and initiative to survive far from the support of her crew and her father. Additionally, her early interactions with Riden foreshadow the underlying issues in her own family dynamics, a theme that will form a dominant part of the sequel. Given these influences, Alosa’s personal journey, romantic inclinations, and implicit familial conflicts represent themes that are common to the bildungsroman storyline, and as is often the case with YA fantasy’s female protagonists, Levenseller’s narrative also addresses issues of both internalized and externalized misogyny. For example, Alosa endures the daily misogyny that comes with being a female pirate among men, and her proximity to Riden likewise forces him to face his own misogynistic tendencies, which are a product of his upbringing. When Alosa uses vulgar language and fights just as well as the male pirates around her, Riden initially feels a misplaced sense of pity for her, believing that her father has “[t]rained [her] to become something no woman should ever have to be” (48). Significantly, Alosa is quick to criticize and reject his prejudices about the proper behavior for women, declaring that he speaks in ignorance and that she has full control over her own identity in the world.
The theme of personal identity takes on a new significance as Alosa’s quest to find the map mirrors her inner journey to establish an adult identity independent of her father’s influence, thus bringing the theme of Loyalty as Familial Duty to the fore. The early differences between her father’s values and her own foreshadow the familial conflict to come, but for now, Alosa remains unaware of her father’s nefarious plans to use her siren abilities for his own gain. To foreshadow the future difficulties with Byrronic and enhance readers’ understanding of Alosa’s heritage, Levenseller sprinkles these early chapters with key allusions to the protagonist’s siren half, which Alosa keeps secret from everyone but her father and her own crew. By withholding the full details of Alosa’s powers, however, the author successfully creates an air of mystique around the pirate princess, heightening the tension and suspense of the story. Alosa’s intense fear of discovery implies that her heritage is a significantly dangerous attribute that could destabilize her mission, and Enwen’s fearful descriptions of sirens in Chapter 4 confirm the treacherous nature of such mythical women, implying that at some point, Alosa herself may become a danger to those around her. While the crew of the Night Farer regards the approaching storm with fear and apprehension, Alosa’s sea-born roots become apparent in her lack of concern and her belief that the sea watches over her and protects her. The female personification of the sea itself, as well as the description of wind and waves as “music,” connect the ocean directly with the sirens who inhabit it. Thus, these early chapters serve to establish that in addition to being quite a capable pirate, Alosa also possesses otherworldly attributes that have yet to be fully explained, and these aspects of her identity will eventually transcend her familial duties to her father.
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