50 pages • 1 hour read
Sailing to Sarantium
A 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 1, Chapters 2-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1
Chapter 2 Summary
As a young boy, Crispin ventured into an orchard that the locals considered haunted. To prove his daring, he climbed over the wall and stole an apple. As he proudly ate it and considered how to prove his bravery to his friends, he heard birds discussing how they might peck out his eyes and eat his brains. The birds shared the same patrician voice, terrifying him. Despite rationalizing that he had imagined it, the voice would haunt Crispin’s dreams even into adulthood.
Martinian insists that Crispin visit Zoticus, the local alchemist, before setting off on his dangerous journey. To his surprise, Crispin discovers that Zoticus lives in the farmhouse attached to the very same orchard where the birds had frightened him. Though he knows it is a terrible idea, he climbs the wall and steals another apple. Zoticus arrives and observes, “Some people never learn, do they?”, having recognized Crispin’s aura from his youthful indiscretion (83).
Zoticus takes no offense for the thefts, inviting Crispin into his home. The appearance of multiple mechanical birds with their shared posh, drawling voice startles Crispin, challenging his belief that alchemy was no more than a parlor trick. Zoticus gives Crispin advice for his journey—where to stay, when traveling would be particularly dangerous—and two names of trustworthy people in Sarantium. One is a doctor, the other is his daughter, Shirin.
Crispin is intrigued, if also shaken, by the alchemist’s self-professed ability to imbue mechanical birds with souls—heretical creations of the half-world. The mosaicist exclaims that such power should surely be known and lauded throughout the empire, but Zoticus quickly disabuses him of the notion. He explains that if his ability was known, he would surely be burned for heresy and/or his creations would be used for spying on political rivals. After all, “Power tends to be co-opted by greater power” (95).
Zoticus spontaneously invites Crispin to listen for the thoughts of one of the birds and take whichever bird he hears with him to Sarantium for safety and companionship. To his great surprise, Crispin hears Linon, the dramatic sparrow, curse, “Mice and Blood!” (93). Zoticus is surprised not only that Crispin was able to hear one of his birds—a phenomenon which has only occurred once before, but also that the bird in question was Linon. Despite her protests, Zoticus insists that the sparrow will accompany Crispin.
As the two set out on their journey, Crispin realizes that Linon’s displeasure will not be silent. Her constant chatter and insulting narration grates on him and even using the command for silence fails to be an effective strategy as it only provokes Linon’s anger once the command is lifted. Their bickering provides some distraction and her lack of a need for sleep makes her an excellent security aid, but her crass commentary and suggestions frequently chafe at Crispin. However, Linon’s insight into the female mind, demonstrated through her predictions of a married noblewoman’s advances, leads Crispin to the surprising conclusion that Linon is female—a fact hidden by the voice the birds share.
Chapter 3 Summary
Crispin continues his journey an imposing temporary servant in tow, Vargos of the Inicii. As they travel, Crispin finds himself unsettled by the foreboding Saraudian forests and the lack of safety in travelling beyond city walls. He finds himself missing the luxuries he had not realized he valued—bathhouses, good wine, and civilized conversation. Eventually, they make their way to a Posting Inn, where they intend to stay for two nights to wait out the danger of the Day of the Dead, per Zoticus’ recommendations. His plans are derailed by the appearance of a damsel in distress.
Kasia, a pale, blonde Inici girl is a slave at the Posting Inn. Her family has died of plague and her mother sold her into slavery for food. Now, Kasia, also called “Kitten,” is forced into prostitution by her owner. Even worse, she quickly realizes that she has been chosen as the human sacrifice to the pagan god Ludan of the Wood on Day of the Dead. When Kasia meets Crispin, she blurts out that she is going to be murdered and begs him to take her with him. Her fearful blue eyes remind Crispin of his daughter’s when his wife was dying. Despite his own sense of self-preservation, when Linon tells Crispin of the horrors of the ritual (drugging, gang rape, rape by animal, removal of the still-beating heart, desecration of the remains), he cannot stand idly by. Kasia’s will to live strikes Crispin and spurs him to action: “What became almost intolerable was the look that entered her eyes as he spoke and she understood that he was going to try to save her. She wanted to survive, so much. It burned in her, this desire to live” (126).
Crispin hatches a plan which even the critical Linon agrees is clever. He sets a trap for the nephew of an honorable merchant. The young man attempts to rob him, Kasia “discovers” the thief, Linon alerts Crispin to their location, Crispin knocks the man unconscious, and then the manipulation begins. Using his perceived clout as someone with a permit personally signed by the Chancellor, Gesius, Crispin effectively blackmails both the inn keeper and the merchant. The merchant is eager to make amends for the wrongs of his nephew and agrees to pay the amount of money the nephew would have stolen. Further, he agrees to buy Kasia for Crispin, who claims that he wishes to reward the girl for her service to him with a place in his household as a servant.
The inn keeper is not pleased by the idea that his sacrifice will not go as planned, but is forced to agree so that Crispin will not report his illegal operations accepting nonpermitted patrons at his Posting Inn in exchange for bribes. Crispin cleverly goes on to demand the inn keeper give everyone expensive wine for free. This gains the support of the witnesses, who might otherwise be willing to kill him to preserve the inn’s questionable business practices and the plan for the sacrifice. While the plan works smoothly, it also means that he will not be welcome in the inn for a second night. He will have to travel on the Day of the Dead against both common sense and Zoticus’ direct instructions.
Part 1, Chapters 2-3 Analysis
As their adventure continues, Crispin finds himself more and more appreciative of the relative safety that a city provides. He observes that traveling out in the open feels more dangerous: “Cities, for all their dangers, had walls. Wild things—whether animals or men without laws—could generally be assumed to be outside those walls” (109). As his experiences grow increasingly dangerous, he also finds himself longing for the comforts of the familiar. The stranger the experience, the more he longs for familiar luxuries: “Sometimes, when the shadows of the half-world pressed too near, one needed the world” (169).
The initially antagonistic relationship between Linon and Crispin grows more intimate as more shared experiences bind them closer together. While Linon’s somewhat abrasive disposition continues to affect her word choice, the tone of her address becomes fonder, even when she is calling him by her favorite moniker: “imbecile.” Further, Crispin’s immediate circle grows with the addition of two new Inici compatriots: Vargos and Kasia. Vargos is the silent muscle/crime-deterring servant whose services he has engaged for part of his journey, whereas Kasia is a young woman in desperate need of rescue. The two initially present foils of one another: one, a large, dark-haired man, the other a small, blonde woman. One provides safety, the other brings danger.
Though Crispin and Kasia share the pain of losing family members, they present a greater foil in terms of their responses to the situation. Crispin is the depressed widower who resents being forced to continue on without his beloved family. On the other hand, Kasia is a young woman sold into slavery and forced to endure habitual physical and sexual abuse. Despite this trauma compounding her recent losses, Kasia chooses to fight for her own survival the only way she can—by asking for help; whereas Crispin, at least at the moment, seems to consider his own survival to be more of a burden than a gift to be protected. It is Kasia’s fierce determination to survive which personally discomfits Crispin to the point of intervention.
Though Kasia’s sad blue eyes remind Crispin of his daughter’s, Kasia’s situation provides a stronger parallel with Gisel’s. Though the two women come from immensely different levels of privilege, the blonde women are both desperately fighting for their lives against the surrounding population—for Gisel, it is her country, for Kasia, the town in which she resides. Both turn to Crispin in their hours of need, and he answers both.
Unlock all 50 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: