The Daevabad Trilogy, #1
The City of Brass
by S. A. Chakraborty
Contents
Chapter 27: Nahri
Overview
Ali is shot again and falls into the lake, prompting Muntadhir to attack Dara. Nahri halts Dara from becoming the Scourge as he nearly flays Muntadhir. Ali then returns possessed, bearing Suleiman’s seal that nullifies magic. The entity maims Dara, severing the ringed hand, and Dara disintegrates to ash.
Summary
Ali is struck by a second arrow and topples into the lake. Nahri orders Dara to save him, momentarily triggering the ring’s compulsion, but Ali does not reappear. Muntadhir, crazed with grief, attacks Dara with the zulfiqar and is swiftly disarmed and beaten back as soldiers surge from below decks.
Dara tries to spare Muntadhir, but the emir goads him by recounting the slaughter of Dara’s family. Enraged, Dara manifests a scourging whip and begins flaying Muntadhir. Nahri intervenes, seizing Dara’s wrist and pleading for restraint. She urges Dara to leave with her, and he relents, casting the whip into the lake.
The moment shatters when Ali emerges from the water transformed—eyes black, body encrusted with lake debris, whispering in an unfamiliar, flowing tongue to kill the daeva. Dara’s arrows dissolve against Ali, who draws a corroded scimitar as a bloody sigil burns on his cheek.
A burst of pressure rocks the ship; Nahri is wounded and feels her healing vanish as she recognizes Suleiman’s seal on Ali. Dara collapses under its power, and Ali closes in. Nahri’s scream checks the killing blow, but Ali instead severs Dara’s left hand, separating the ring that bound him.
Dara stares once toward Nahri, then collapses and crumbles into ash. Muntadhir reels, badly wounded; Nahri is left powerless and horrified as the possessed Ali, the seal still blazing, stands over the ruined deck.
Who Appears
- NahriTries to save Ali, stops Dara from scourging Muntadhir, loses her magic under Suleiman’s seal, witnesses Dara’s destruction.
- Dara (the Afshin)Overpowers Muntadhir, nearly becomes the Scourge again, is subdued by Suleiman’s seal, hand severed to remove ring, crumbles to ash.
- Alizayd al Qahtani (Ali)Shot into the lake, returns possessed and waterlogged, marked with Suleiman’s seal, nullifies magic, maims and ends Dara.
- Muntadhir al QahtaniGrief-stricken, attacks Dara, is disarmed and scourged, survives wounded as events spiral into Ali’s possessed return.