The Daevabad Trilogy, #1
The City of Brass
by S. A. Chakraborty
Contents
Chapter 11: Nahri
Overview
Nahri and Dara reach the Gozan River on Daevabad’s threshold, share a charged kiss, and are ambushed by ifrit. Nahri kills one using her blood and learns a stunning claim: her mother Manizheh made a deal for Nahri’s safe return.
Aeshma spares Nahri but orders Dara’s death. A marid-forged river serpent attacks; the peri Khayzur intervenes, saving them at mortal cost. Nahri and Dara cross the river and flee toward Daevabad.
Summary
Exhausted from crossing the desert, Nahri and Dara reach the cliffs above the Gozan River, Daevabad’s hidden threshold. As a storm breaks, they shelter in a cave, share food and tense conversation about marid and Ayaanle, and a moment of vulnerability turns into a heated kiss.
Strange spiced winds and sudden lightning herald an ifrit ambush. Fleeing toward the river, Nahri is separated and confronted by a towering ifrit. She stabs him with Dara’s dagger; her own blood on the blade poisons him. Under torture, he claims the ifrit made a deal with Manizheh—Nahri’s mother—to return Nahri unharmed. Nahri kills him, shaken but resolute.
More ifrit arrive: Aeshma, Qandisha, and Vizaresh. Aeshma addresses Nahri politely, honoring the deal to spare her but unleashing the others on Dara. As Dara is drowned, the river itself withdraws, revealing a colossal marid serpent of living water. The ifrit flee.
Khayzur, the peri who had shadowed them, descends and blasts the serpent apart with hurricane force, saving them. His intervention violates peri law, and his wings wither as a fatal punishment takes hold. He urges Dara to fulfill his duty and save Nahri; peri and marid forces approach.
Dara, torn but resolute, carries Nahri away. With the Gozan receded and the river reformed behind them, they cross into Daevabad’s lands, leaving the dying Khayzur as dark shapes close in.
Who Appears
- NahriHealer-con and probable Nahid; kisses Dara, senses the ambush, kills an ifrit with blood-poison, learns her mother Manizheh made a deal.
- Darayavahoush (Dara)Daeva warrior; fears arrest in Daevabad, kisses Nahri, fights ifrit, nearly drowned, obeys Khayzur’s plea and carries Nahri to safety.
- AeshmaIfrit leader; speaks flawless Arabic, honors a deal to spare Nahri, orders Dara’s death, withdraws when marid power rises.
- QandishaFemale ifrit; taunts Dara about his enslavement, physically drowns him until marid threat forces retreat.
- VizareshSkinny ifrit; mourns Sakhr, vows vengeance on Nahri, restrained by Aeshma due to the deal.
- SakhrIfrit slain by Nahri; his death reveals Nahid blood poisons ifrit and provokes Vizaresh’s grief.
- KhayzurPeri; blasts apart the marid serpent to save them, is mortally punished for intervening, urges Dara to save Nahri.