Ruin and Rising

Nikolai’s airships are symbolic of Ravkan freedom from the Darkling. The first clue to this association is when Nikolai rescues Alina and her companions from the soldiers who want to turn them in to the Darkling. The airship serves as a literal and figurative escape from the tyrannical rule of Alisha’s nemesis. Additionally, Nikolai himself, because of his ownership of the airships, is associated with the air, the wind, and the sky in general. It’s an appropriate connection because, like air, Nikolai is elusive and agile. When she gets to the Spinning Wheel, a place strongly associated with Nikolai, Alina is struck by its “eerie sense of openness, as if a wind might blow through and send me tumbling into the nothingness beyond” (137). When the Darkling transforms him into a shadow monster, Nikolai fittingly has wings, and Alina sees and hears “a flicker or movement, the silent beat of a shadowy wing” (262). Nikolai uses his new shape to his advantage, joining the battle against the Darkling’s forces, again personifying Ravkan freedom.