The Jasad Heir

Sylvia sneaks out of the keep while everyone is sleeping. She doesn’t have time to braid her curls before heading toward the vagabond road, careful to avoid any Nizahl soldiers who may be on patrol, as the other vagabonds know better than to bother her. Most of Mahair sleeps early, but Sylvia’s limited memories of Jasad include villages vibrant with light at night, a place where people celebrated magic. Sylvia passes the wall that divides Mahair from the woods, a relic of a bygone era when monsters roamed the world, spawned by magic. Nizahl slaughtered all the monsters 33 years ago, sending the surviving creatures into villages to kill civilians, further turning the populace against magic and against the magic-wielding Jasadis.

Sylvia stumbles into a Nizahl soldier who followed her into the woods. He accuses her of being a Jasadi and tells her to surrender and face trial. Sylvia knows the trials are rigged against Jasadis, as a man from Orban who sold body parts from dead Jasadis was freed with a slap on the wrist, while Jasadis frequently die before their trials even begin. Sylvia fights the solider off and kills him after revealing her true identity: She is the Jasad Heir who supposedly burned to death during the Blood Summit 11 years prior. After the solider dies, Sylvia runs back to the keep and wakes Marek and Sefa, asking them how fast they can run. It’s a risk involving them, but she has no other option.

Sylvia, Marek, and Sefa stand over the soldier’s corpse. Sylvia only tells them that the soldier caught her trespassing, keeping her Jasadi heritage secret. Sefa thinks the soldier’s death is a bad omen, as the Alcalah tournament is seven weeks away. She worries the Awaleen will wake, but Marek dismisses her concerns. Sylvia says they need to make the soldier appear as if he fell and accidentally died in the Hirun River. Sylvia breaks the soldier’s back, while Marek makes the knife wounds look more jagged. Sylvia asks Sefa why she and Marek are helping; Sefa says that they are friends, and this is what friends do. Sylvia reminds her she wouldn’t reciprocate the gesture for Marek or Sefa, but Sefa already knows that and still promises to follow Sylvia into death if necessary. Sylvia questions Sefa’s motives and remembers a strange moment between Sefa and Marek, in which Marek referred to a tomato by its Nizahl name instead of its Omalian name.

Sefa refuses to answer Sylvia’s questions and sings a traditional song about the history of the Awaleen as they carry the corpse toward the river. Many years ago, the four original kingdoms, Lukub, Omal, Orban, and Jasad, had ample magic. Nizahl raised armies to attack the four kingdoms, and all but Jasad became afraid. Sefa stops singing when they reach the river and dump the body. Sylvia worries the other soldiers will notice the missing soldier, but Marek assures her they’ll be too busy protecting the Nizahl Heir, Arin, before the Alcalah. Sylvia is suspicious about Marek’s wealth of Nizahl knowledge. They run back to Mahair as quickly as they can to serve breakfast before Raya realizes they’re missing.

Sylvia falls asleep and dreams that she’s Queen of Jasad, ruling over a faceless crowd in a palace ballroom. Sylvia finds the weight of the crown overwhelming as golden threads stitch her lips closed. Sylvia rips her mouth open and tells the crowd she can’t help them. She then sees her mother, Niphran, who calls Sylvia by her true name, Essiya. Niphran tells her that she can’t shirk her duty. The ballroom fades to a frozen lake, and Niphran catches fire. Despite the water around them, Sylvia can’t extinguish the flames as they consume both her and Niphran.

Four days pass with no news about the missing soldier. Raya prepares for the waleema, an event in which the noble women from across the four kingdoms come to purchase Raya’s beautifully made gowns. The Alcalah’s approach worries Sylvia, as her chance of recognition increases. Supreme Rawain’s wife, Isra, died at the Blood Summit, and the only survivors are Supreme Rawain, the Queen of Omal—two people unlikely to interact with an orphan—and Sultana Bisai, who has since died and passed the crown of Lukub to her daughter.

Sylvia rides in a cart into town with other orphans and Marek. Marek warns her that someone saw Arin, the Nizahl Heir, in a village an hour away, looking for a Champion for the Alcalah. It’s Omal’s turn to represent Nizahl in the tournament, in which representatives from each kingdom compete in three trials that are often lethal. The Alcalah takes place every three years and rotates locations among the four kingdoms. The winner of the Alcalah receives riches, bodyguards, and expensive property across the kingdoms. The Alcalah centers on the myths of the Awaleen, four siblings made of pure magic who created the four kingdoms of Omal, Jasad, Orban, and Lukub. The immortal Awaleen ruled over the kingdoms for millennia, until Rovial, the Awal of Jasad, experienced “magic-madness” and killed thousands of people (49). The other Awaleen agreed to an eternal slumber to stop Rovial and protect the kingdoms, entombing all four of them beneath Sirauk Bridge.

Marek claims Arin can sense a Jasadi by touch alone and may choose his Champion from the lower villages, but Sylvia tells him to stop talking. When the cart stops, Sylvia runs to Rory’s shop, and Rory tries to send her to the woods to obtain ingredients. Before she reaches the woods, Nizahl soldiers capture an elderly man named Adel and accuse him of being Jasadi and using magic, as he touched a loaf of burned bread and repaired it. Sylvia watches in terror as Adel tries to escape before the soldiers murder him. Sylvia hears Hanim’s voice in her mind, encouraging her to feel guilty and angry. Sylvia helps carry Adel’s body and performs the Jasadi funerary rites in their traditional language of Resar. She forgets to listen for footsteps and looks up to see Arin of Nizahl.

Arin asks the soldiers about Adel’s death before turning to Sylvia. Sylvia claims to have learned Resar and the funerary rites while studying in Ganub il Kul, a camp intended to foster understanding between children of the different kingdoms. Arin doesn’t believe her but offers her a ride back to the village. Arin leaves Sylvia at Rory’s shop and explains to Rory why she was late before leaving with his men. Rory reveals that he knows Sylvia’s real identity.

Sylvia questions how Rory knows she’s Essiya, as no one has called her that since Hanim in the Essam Woods. Rory says he knew the moment she arrived on his doorstep covered in blood. He never asked Sylvia what happened at the Blood Summit because he didn’t want to know what Sylvia’s grandparents and rulers of Jasad, Malik Niyar and Malika Palia, did to ensure her survival. Sylvia feels hurt that Rory would believe the Nizahl narrative. According to this official, Niphran was murdered, and the Malik and Malika attacked the other royals in their grief, but the magic went wrong, and they lost control, killing countless people. Supreme Rawain gathered the other kingdoms together and attacked the fortress. Without a Qayida (due to Hanim’s exile) and without an Heir, the other forces overtook Jasad.

Sylvia scoffs at the story, asking the question she’s never been able to answer: “how does an unassailable fortress fall” (70)? Hanim never cared about the deaths at the Blood Summit, as she imagined the vacant throne would allow her to manipulate and puppet Essiya as the Heir. Instead, Nizahl’s campaign of hatred against Jasad led to the collapse of the kingdom, and Hanim and Sylvia remained in Essam Woods in exile. Sylvia considers killing Rory to prevent him betraying her, but another death in Mahair would be suspicious. Fairel, one of the young orphan girls from Raya’s Keep, interrupts them to request some of Rory’s products.

Sylvia returns to the Keep upset, and Fairel tries to comfort her. Sylvia and Fairel go for a walk, and Fairel holds her hand until Sylvia pulls away; touch triggers a fear response in her mind and body. As a child, Sylvia was affectionate and warm, especially with her Dawoud, one of her family’s chief advisors. However, Hanim physically abused Sylvia until her desire for touch and trust in others died. Fairel and Sylvia reach a wall with a mural about the Awaleen. Fairel, originally from Orban but sent away when her family could no longer afford to feed her, tells Sylvia the story her mother once shared with her: The world already existed between the Awaleen, but they were the first to enter it with magic. They split into the four kingdoms, and their magic made them callous. Rovial was the first to experience magic-madness, and Dania, Orban’s Awal, thought to contain his magic via entombment. The four kingdoms then made an additional kingdom, Nizahl, to serve as arbiter for conflict between the other kingdoms. Rovial’s magic persisted in Jasad, making the kingdom more powerful than the others.

Sylvia tells Fairel a story Niphran once told her during one of their rare visits, facilitated by Sylvia’s favorite attendant, Soraya, in which people walking across Sirauk Bridge in hopes of asking the Awaleen for wishes die, trapped in the mist. Fairel thinks it’s a worthy sacrifice, and she fantasizes about being a Champion in the Alcalah. Sylvia tells her there’s no such thing as a worthy sacrifice.

The next day, Sylvia and Fairel get more chairs for the waleema. Fairel asks Sylvia about Arin, and as they approach Rory’s shop, they see Arin and his guards speaking with Rory. Rory asks Sylvia to fetch herbs, and Arin insists on going with her. As they walk, Arin accuses Sylvia of having magic, even though he didn’t feel it when he touched her. He promises to stick around until Sylvia’s magic reveals itself.

The waleema begins, and merchants overrun Mahair. Sylvia spies on Marek, who plans on fighting in the competitive matches to celebrate the Alcalah. She and Fairel prepare to watch the matches together, as Fairel thinks Sylvia is her only friend. Sylvia scans the crowd for Arin, and she wonders if Sefa knows more about the Nizahl Heir. Before she can find Sefa, Arin and his guards approach her. He produces a sesame-seed candy like the ones Marek and Sefa gave Sylvia, claiming he found it deep in Essam Woods. Sylvia claims her innocence again, but Arin again calls her a liar. Trumpets announce visitors as everyone at the waleema kneels.

Felix, the Omal Heir, arrives in his carriage. Sylvia has Omalian heritage; her father, Emre, who died in a hunting accident when she was three months old, was the Heir to Omal. Rumors flew that Sylvia’s grandparents, Malik Niyar and Malika Palia, ordered the killing. After his death, Sylvia’s grandparents wanted Sylvia to rule Jasad, so they renounced her claim to the Omal throne, allowing Emre’s nephew, Felix, to become Heir. Queen Hanan still rules in name, but Felix makes most of the decisions and wields the power of the throne. Sylvia, and most of Omal, thinks Felix is an idiot, as shown by his attempt to shake Arin’s hand, unaware of his ability to sense magic by touch and against Nizahl customs.

Felix’s carriage begins to move through the streets, and Fairel tries to stop them as his horses are about to trample a set of chairs belonging to her employer. Enraged by the supposed disrespect, Felix has his guards throw Fairel in front of the horses, who trample and gravely injure her. Overcome by emotion, Sylvia uses her magic to send a dagger into Felix’s thigh. Arin is the only one to see Sylvia use magic, but Felix is angry, believing she stabbed him. When Felix demands retribution, Arin tells him that Sylvia is Omal’s Champion in the Alcalah and thus cannot be harmed. Sylvia becomes trapped; to survive, she must agree to be Champion. As Rory and the doctor take Fairel away for medical care, Arin’s men take Sylvia out of Mahair.

In a room on the border of Mahair, Sylvia waits, surrounded by cases containing replicas of the magical items that belonged to the Awaleen, including dolls made from the skin of Orbanian soldiers from the ancient Battle of Zinish. Sylvia contemplates escape before she realizes it’s impossible. She rips her tunic to make a wrap for her arm before using her arm to smash the glass to retrieve a weapon. She can’t reach the axe, but she grabs a small blade just as Arin arrives.