The Jasad Heir

Sylvia cannot sleep and sneaks out of her rooms under the guise of using the washroom. She looks at a tapestry of Awala Baira, the Awal of Lukub, before Sultana Vaida interrupts her. Vaida insists on showing Sylvia around the palace. She brings Sylvia to a room still enchanted by Baira’s magic. Vaida shows Sylvia the names of those she believes are spies for Nizahl and responsible for killing her mother, the last Sultana. Vaida asks Sylvia to intentionally lose the Alcalah, as the Nizahl Champion has won the last three Alcalahs. She bribes Sylvia with property and a governmental position in Lukub, but Sylvia refuses. Vaida threatens to harm Rory and Fairel, showing Sylvia a wall on which she has mounted the cut-off faces of the spies she’s already killed.

Sylvia runs to Arin’s chambers. She asks to make a bargain, and Arin agrees. She tells him about her experience with Vaida. Arin posits that Vaida plots to goad Nizahl into conflict by ensuring the Lukub Champion wins and then bribing a Nizahl soldier or citizen to kill them; killing a Victor of the Alcalah is akin to an act of war. Sylvia agrees to try to win the Alcalah, against Vaida’s wishes, in exchange for Marek and Sefa’s freedom. Arin promises their freedom and protection for Mahair as a whole if Sylvia kills the Lukub Champion during the first trial, thwarting Vaida’s plot. Only the Champions enter Ayume Forest, so no one will know Sylvia did it. Sylvia agrees.

Sylvia allows her attendants to dress her for the banquet. She wears a gown in Nizahl colors, and the golden gloves Rory gifted her. When Arin sees her, he’s shocked by her beauty. They enter the banquet together, but Sylvia must sit with the other Champions. She meets Timur, the Lukub Champion; Diya, the Orban Champion; and Mehti, the Omal Champion. Vaida gives an eloquent speech about the importance of remembering the sacrifice of the Awaleen before the food comes out. Sylvia charms Timur, who is friendly, but Diya is standoffish. Mehti overindulges on food and wine and inappropriately touches the serving girls until Sylvia and Timur warn him that Vaida cut off the arm of a nobleman for the same offense. Sylvia realizes she enjoys Timur’s company and doesn’t want to kill him.

The evening devolves into semi-controlled debauchery, as Sorn, the Orban Heir, engages sexually with courtesans. Diya judges the courtesans for their sexually open behavior, as Orban is a more restrained kingdom than Lukub. When Sylvia pushes back, Diya reveals that she stabbed her parents 43 times each, which is why Sorn chose her as Champion. Timur interrupts, and he and Sylvia discuss why he agreed to be Champion: Vaida paid his family his wages while he trained. Timur asks her about training with Arin, but Sylvia gives little away.

Sylvia returns to her chambers and lets her attendant undress her. Sylvia feels a dagger plunge into her chest, and when she looks at her attendant, she sees Soraya, her childhood attendant. Soraya used glamor magic to change her appearance, but now Sylvia recognizes her. Sylvia holds the wall for support, the knife still in her chest, and asks Soraya why she’s trying to kill her. Soraya says she wishes Sylvia died at the Blood Summit and expresses disappointment that Hanim did not kill her afterward, calling this Hanim’s second betrayal of Soraya’s group. Sylvia realizes Soraya is the rogue Mufsid who tried to kill her in the woods. The other Mufsids want to recruit Sylvia, and Soraya claims they’ve forgotten their mission: to create an egalitarian Jasad without nobles or royals.

Sylvia asks why the Mufsids hate the Jasadi throne, and Soraya tells her that she knows why, prodding Sylvia to remember why the Blood Summit happened. Sylvia doesn’t remember, and Soraya tells her why she broke off from the Mufsids after leading them for over a decade: Sylvia has the power to be worse than any ruler before her. Her magic is powerful, and she can survive any situation. Soraya reminds Sylvia of the time she broke Mervat Ryan’s arm because she wouldn’t climb a tree with her and then forgot about it the next day. She also burnt Dawoud’s favorite quilt because he wouldn’t let her play with it, then again forgot. Sylvia’s mind is fractured, and Soraya says the “best thing” the Malik and Malika did for Jasad was putting the cuffs on Sylvia, though the cuffs, coupled with Hanim’s magic wards, made Sylvia hard to find (317).

Soraya is apologetic for her efforts to kill Sylvia, as she claims she loves Sylvia still. Soraya also confesses to bringing Arin to Mahair and wonders if he’s still angry with her, but Sylvia doesn’t ask why. Sylvia uses her magic to shatter the window and throws herself through it, determined to survive. Arin finds her and tries to save her, but she tells him to catch Soraya. He commands the soldiers to keep Sylvia alive before disappearing.

Arin rides after Soraya, and Wes goes with him, telling him that Sylvia is gravely injured. Arin realizes that Sylvia will die if he goes after Soraya, but Soraya will return if he keeps Sylvia alive. He returns to the Ivory Palace.

While unconscious, Sylvia dreams of Arin’s parents, Isra and Rawain, standing over a bassinet. Isra begs Rawain to wait two years before doing something to Arin. Rawain agrees to wait, and Isra picks up Arin, who has black hair instead of silver. Someone calls Sylvia’s name, and she falls into a dark room with water around her legs. She sees the Awaleen, minus Rovial, sitting on their thrones. Kapastra worries they will wake from their slumber, while Baira worries they never will. Dania soothes them, promising that eternal sleep is not their destiny. Dania sees Sylvia and tells her that she shouldn’t be there yet, but soon.

Sylvia wakes in a tent on the way to Orban with Arin asleep near her cot. Arin wakes and tells her she slept for two days. Arin often held her hand to activate her healing magic, but he could only rouse her magic when she was semi-conscious. It took a toll on Arin and was painful, and Sylvia is surprised he didn’t let her die. Arin wonders why Sylvia isn’t angry at him for failing to catch Soraya, and Sylvia says she shared the blame, as she let her guard down. Sylvia asks Arin about his past with Soraya. Arin confesses that he met Soraya at the Nizahl academy when he was 16, where she pretended to be the daughter of a noblewoman. She and Arin began a romantic and sexual relationship, but she tried to slit Arin’s throat. She was the prisoner who escaped the Citadel and killed Marek’s brother. Sylvia promises to kill Soraya before the Alcalah’s end.

The retinue continues through the desert toward Orban. Sylvia has a memory of Niphran refusing to give Sylvia over to her grandparents for dinner, with Niphran saying, “I know what they want to do with her” (330). Sylvia comes back to consciousness and rides alongside Wes, who tells her that Arin chose to return to save her instead of catching Soraya. They reach the Meridian Pass, a large canyon, and Sylvia passes through next to Arin, as it’s so narrow only two riders can enter side-by-side. Arin remembers the unauthorized massacre that occurred when he was 17. He was newly Commander, and the soldiers acted the way the former Commander, his father Rawain, taught them.

Arin begins acting strangely, as if under the effects of magic, and Ren takes an arrow through the eye, killing him instantly. Sylvia wants to protect Marek and Sefa, as the soldiers will only protect Arin. She uses magic to climb the side of the canyon and reaches the top to find the Urabi, who recognize her immediately. She begs their leader, Efra, to stop the attack, and Efra and the others are disgusted. They believed Sylvia to be held hostage by Nizahl, not willingly competing in the Alcalah. Hundreds of soldiers pour into the Meridian Pass, and Sylvia realizes Arin chose their route to Orban as a trap to lure the Urabi to attack. Unwilling to let any Jasadis die, Sylvia uses her magic to widen the pass, causing the Nizahl soldiers to fall and giving the Urabi time to escape.

Sylvia finds Marek, Sefa, and Jeru unharmed. She returns to Arin and gets on his horse with him as they ride forward. She wraps her arms around him and wills the magic to release its hold on him. She tries to distract him with stories of climbing trees in Jasad as a child, then tells him about how she sometimes misses Hanim, even though Hanim tortured her. Arin holds her hand, and she falls asleep against him. Sylvia wakes when they reach the end of the canyon. Arin, no longer affected by the magic, coldly asks her about how the Urabi managed to widen the canyon. Sylvia reminds him that she agreed to compete in the Alcalah, not help him catch Jasadis. Hurt by his callous attitude, she tells him that his father is cruel by nature, but Arin himself is cruel by choice.

Sylvia and the others arrive at Orban. Arin and the other royals stay in King Murib’s castle, but Sylvia and the Champions stay in the Champion’s Pavilion, a semicircle of five sparsely appointed houses symbolizing Orban’s rejection of extravagance. The Jasad Champion’s house sits empty. Sylvia unpacks, exhausted from Soraya’s and the Urabi’s attacks. Sefa interrupts and says that she overheard what Sylvia said to Arin. Sefa challenges Sylvia’s assumption that Arin chooses to be cruel, sharing her past with Arin: Sefa and Arin went to school together, though Sefa was a few years younger. She remembers that Arin often had broken bones and experienced his first stab wound at just 10 years old.

After Sefa leaves, Arin arrives. He isn’t angry at Sylvia for helping the Urabi escape, and he thanks her for saving him from the magic that gripped his mind. Sylvia asks him how he can sense magic, and he finally tells her: When he was two years old, his father Rawain executed a Jasadi merchant for using magic, which upset Malik Niyar and Malika Palia. Two weeks later, a musrira—a Jasadi whose magic that lets them move through space in spirit—misted into Arin’s room and began to lethally curse Arin, but his mother Isra interrupted and stopped the curse halfway through. The curse left Arin with the ability to sense and temporarily drain magic. Sylvia asks what would happen if her magic were freed from her cuffs and he touched her, and Arin thinks that he’d die. Sylvia asks if he had black hair before the curse without revealing her visions of his past and of the Awaleen. Arin doesn’t answer and tells her to sleep.

The Champions gather at midday. They have two hours to cross Ayume Forest, and the first three to do so advance to the second trial. Sylvia, Timur, Mehti, and Diya enter the forest with only a dagger each. Diya notes a strange smell, and Sylvia smells it too but can’t place it. The air smells foul, and Sylvia must traverse the cursed lake. She keeps her head above water and attempts to subdue her panic until she makes it to the other side. Sylvia struggles through the forest until she reaches the bluff. She looks for the other Champions before Timur approaches. Sylvia realizes he intends to kill her and asks what Vaida promised him. Timur’s sister is gravely ill, and if Timur kills Sylvia before the second trial, Vaida will ensure his sister gets the treatment she needs immediately. Sylvia warns him that Vaida has him trapped, but Timur doesn’t see any way out. Cursed dogs pursue Sylvia, and she realizes that what Diya smelled earlier was Timur’s repellant, which keeps the creatures of Ayume away from him.

Timur and the dogs chase Sylvia, and she climbs a tree to escape them. She uses her magic to freeze the dogs, and Timur realizes she’s a Jasadi. She gives him a swift death, using her magic to bludgeon him with a boulder before levitating his body into the lake to drown. Sylvia then remembers that the trees of Ayume can be lethal, and she grabs a rope dangling off the cliff and begins to try to climb. The sap on her hands makes her hallucinate a younger version of herself, when she was Essiya. Essiya says she’s a figment of Sylvia’s magic, not the tree’s curse. Essiya asks Sylvia why she won’t free her magic and make the necessary sacrifices for Jasad. Sylvia doesn’t want to risk the certainty of her existence as Sylvia for the uncertainty of leading Jasad. Essiya disappears, and Sylvia climbs to the top of the bluff. She’s the third Champion to arrive and advances to the next trial. Arin holds her as she passes out from the effects of the tree sap.

Sylvia wakes with a physician and Sefa at her side. Sylvia promises Sefa that she and Marek don’t have to return to Nizahl, but she needs Sefa’s help to steal Vaida’s seal ring to negotiate their safety. Before she can say more, Supreme Rawain enters the room. Sylvia’s mind floods with brief memories of the Blood Summit. Sylvia’s magic fights against the cuffs to get out as Rawain comments on how strong Sylvia is and insists she join him and Arin for dinner. Arin leads Rawain out as Sylvia struggles to control her magic. When she looks at her wounded palms, they’ve healed, even without Arin’s touch igniting her magic.

Sylvia struggles to choose a dress for dinner. Arin enters the room while she’s partially dressed, and he sees the layers of scars on her back from Hanim’s brutal whippings. He questions who harmed her, but Sylvia doesn’t give a straight answer, instead warning that Arin isn’t the first to use her as a pawn and end up disappointed. Arin tells her that he’s not disappointed in her yet.

Sylvia and Arin attend dinner in Rawain’s rooms in Orban’s austere palace. They are surprised by the arrival of Vaun, who antagonizes Sylvia throughout the dinner. Rawain and Vaun question Sylvia about how she survived the first trial, with Rawain even mentioning how one year a Jasadi used magic to cheat. Sylvia lies and claims she’d be upset to discover anyone used magic to complete the trial. At the end of the meal, Rawain kisses Sylvia’s forehead and says he’s looking forward to her success in the second trial.