Serpent Sea

Serpent Sea is the second book in Maiya Ibrahim's fantasy trilogy, following Spice Road. It continues the story of Imani, a seventeen-year-old Sahiran Shield (warrior-sorcerer) whose people use a sacred Spice called misra, brewed from the bark of a magical tree in their hidden homeland, the Sahir, to gain temporary magical abilities. The Sahir has been protected for a millennium by an enchantment over the Swallowing Sands, a vast desert barrier.

The novel opens aboard the rebel ship Lion's Prize in the occupied city of Taeel-Sa. Imani has just freed her older brother Atheer from King Glaedric of the Harrowland Empire. With them are her fifteen-year-old sister Amira; Qayn, a djinni bound to Imani's ancient dagger; and Taha, an eighteen-year-old Shield and son of Grand Zahim Bayek, the Sahiran Council's elected leader, along with Taha's cousin Reza. Taha and Reza were sent by Bayek to assassinate Atheer for smuggling misra to Alqibahi rebels but now serve as uneasy allies. The group confirms that Glaedric's army is marching toward the Sahir with Atheer's stolen map and caches of misra. Qayn proposes a deal: If they recover three jewels containing his stolen magic, hidden a thousand years ago by a Sahiran woman named Nahla, he will reforge the crown they once adorned and summon an army to defeat Glaedric. Taha objects and plans to warn the Council in Qalia, the Sahiran capital.

Atheer privately tells Imani that their Auntie Aziza, the official who oversees the Sahir's misra supply, helped him smuggle Spice, and that Taha, as a boy, assassinated three of Bayek's political opponents. When the group reaches Brooma, Princess Blaedwyn, Glaedric's younger sister and a sorcerer with an affinity for darkness, ambushes them. Blaedwyn's shadow monsters kill Reza and Sinan, Taha's magically bonded falcon. Atheer is severely wounded, and both Amira and Taha are captured. Imani escapes with Atheer, who is smuggled to a healer, and departs with Qayn to find the jewels alone.

Blaedwyn assigns Taha and Amira to Ser Ulric, Marshal of the Vanguard, an elite force crossing the Swallowing Sands into the Sahir. The Vanguard seizes settlements one by one, using Taha to negotiate surrenders and loot misra stores. When a squire vanishes near ancient ruins, Taha discovers a Door, a glowing gash between the human realm and the monsters' realm. A si'la, a shapeshifting djinni, reveals that the Desert's Bane, the Sahir's most feared historical enemy, opened these Doors and cannot truly be killed.

Meanwhile, Qayn teaches Imani to fuse with her dagger to teleport and deepens their soulbinding, a direct soul-connection enabling mental communication. At the Temple of Asyratu in the Zeytoun Forest, they find the temple sacked and the jewels shipped to Darkcliff in Harrowland. Back in Brooma, a propaganda painting reveals that Prince Kendric has mounted the jewels in a tiara. Skerric Gray, a young Harrowlander selling Empire secrets to the rebellion, proposes that Imani enter De Wilde Hunten, a sacred tournament in which warriors fight to the death, because the Victors are invited to celebrate with Kendric inside the impregnable Royal Citadel, the only way to reach the tiara.

In the Sahir, Glaedric uses Taha and other captives as leverage to force Qalia's surrender. The golden gates open, Glaedric claims the misra tree, and Taha is imprisoned in the Sanctuary, the sacred complex housing the tree. Glaedric interrogates Taha about Qayn's crown while holding Bayek and Zahra, Imani and Amira's mother, as hostages, then orders Taha and Amira to Brooma to trace the siblings. En route, Amira reveals an ancient book she found in Zahra's office that she attributes to Nahla, containing references to the First City, the original Sahiran settlement, and the Desert's Bane. She and Taha suspect Qayn may be the Bane.

During the nine-day voyage to Darkcliff, Imani trains relentlessly. Qayn teaches her to wield her dagger without touching it and suggests her iron affinity could extend to matter itself. Their growing closeness coexists uneasily with Imani's lingering feelings for Taha. In Darkcliff, Skerric is revealed to be Lord Ashton Hargrave, dispossessed son of the executed Duke of Attencraw. Everett Hardy, a wealthy industrialist, sponsors both Imani and Taha for the Hunten. Taha and Amira reveal Glaedric's scheme to the group and choose to betray the king. Qayn agrees to feed Glaedric predictable details about the crown's forging so the counterplan will be easy to thwart.

At the Hunten, the king's champion Lord Wulfsyg Grim has organized a treaty with other competitors to eliminate the foreign challengers first. In the climactic battle, Taha saves Imani by intercepting Wulfsyg's axe, and another competitor kills Wulfsyg. Imani proposes mutual surrender under the ancient principle of gan umber, making all four survivors Victors. At the banquet inside the Citadel, Kendric drinks himself into a stupor, and Imani lifts the tiara from his head. The group escapes to the Lion's Prize.

At dawn, Qayn begins forging his crown from the three jewels. Taha fires an arrow at Qayn's back, but Imani deflects it. Amira stabs Qayn, seizes the crown, and delivers it to Glaedric's assassins hidden aboard the ship, declaring Qayn the Desert's Bane. Glaedric places the crown on his head, absorbing Qayn's power. Tiamat, a colossal sea serpent allied with Qayn, attacks the fleet. Glaedric wields devastating power at terrible physical cost. Bayek uses his lightning affinity to protect Tiamat. Imani seizes the iron in Glaedric's blood, drags him from the sky, and pulls the crown free. When Glaedric hurls the Lion's Prize into the air, Imani dons the crown to catch the falling ship, then removes it and vomits black fluid from the lethal strain.

Through their soulbinding, Imani enters Qayn's soul. He offers her a piece of his soul to shield her from the crown's fatal effects. She accepts, wakes, and uses the crown to heal him. Qayn rises, reclaims his crown, and obliterates Glaedric's fleet before disintegrating the king. Bayek dies from exhaustion on the deck; Taha learns his father's final words were of love and regret.

Amira confronts Qayn as the Bane. He reveals the true history: He once lived a mortal life before gaining immense power and fashioned the misra tree as a conduit to his magic, gifting it to Nahla's tribe. When tribal elders spread the Spice against his wishes, it lured monsters through thinning barriers between realms. After the tribe stole the tree and replanted it in Qalia, Qayn destroyed the First City and opened Doors to invite more monsters. Nahla used pieces of Qayn's soul to cast the enchantment over the Swallowing Sands, making her the Unknown Sorcerer of legend. The Council of Old, the former Sahiran ruling body, fabricated the story that the Great Spirit, the deity in Sahiran tradition, had gifted the tree to consolidate their power. Qayn reveals that Imani's dagger was forged by Nahla's father from a fallen star and was the weapon Nahla used to stab him a thousand years ago. The Beya clan, Imani's family, descends from Nahla's tribe. He offers to help liberate the Sahir on the condition that its people share misra's magic with others.

Using his restored power, Qayn propels the Prize toward the Sahir at supernatural speed. Below, the homeland is devastated: Settlements burn, giant serpents roam, and ghouls feast on the dead, because widespread misra use has accelerated the influx of monsters. Above a besieged Qalia, Qayn announces he must enter the monsters' realm to find a permanent solution. Imani and Taha volunteer to accompany him, setting up the next volume.