The City of Brass

Ali discusses the differences in the sanitation of different quarters of the city as his sanitation inspector, Abu Zebala, admits that he accepted a bribe from the Daeva Quarter to give them more attention. Ali harshly tells him to fix it if he doesn’t want to lose his job.

He notices the ferry (that Nahri and Dara are on) and thinks about how lovely of a day it is to ride a ferry. He falls asleep at his desk to be awoken by Kaveh, who says that he is unable to speak to the king. Kaveh says that there is a rumor that a daeva girl converted to Ali’s religion to marry a man but now has been kidnapped by her family. The strange part is that there is no daeva girl, so without a girl to return to her husband they cannot solve the problem. In case a problem is brewing, Ali barges into his father’s study and finds Ghassan, Muntadhir, and a shafit man whom Ali does not recognize huddled around his father’s desk looking suspicious.

Once everyone scatters, Ghassan speaks angrily with Ali about the fact that he has not carried out his orders. He has not found the other two men who were with Anas, nor has he arrested or evicted any shafit as ordered. Ali defends himself by saying that there has been no rise in crime, and his father says that he must make up crimes if that is what it takes.

Muntadhir and Ghassan have clearly already discussed next steps and reference sending Ali back to Am Gezira, where he was before. Ghassan says not to worry because, after today, he will have enough reason to arrest the shafit.

A shapeshifting messenger flies through the window and tells Ghassan that there is a daeva with an Afshin mark on his face crossing the lake into the city. Ghassan dismisses this as unimportant and says that the last Afshin died 1400 years ago.

Ghassan dismisses them all, and as Ali runs to tell Rashid not to let anyone incite a shafit riot, his brother says that Ali must stay by his side. After bickering, Muntadhir brings Ali underground to a secret room that can only be opened by their blood. In the room they find coffins with rotting bodies, which shocks Ali because all of the tribes burned their dead. Ali’s ancestors kept their bodies to prove to themselves that they are dead. Muntadhir also shows Dara’s relic to Ali, which proves that Dara was turned over to the ifrit who enslaved him—a fate worse than death. They see Dara as evil incarnate, but even so, Ali is shocked because he was naive to the true suffering and brutality that happened during the revolution. Muntadhir tells Ali that something is going to happen today that he won’t like, but he must not intervene. Muntadhir knows that Ali is up to something with the shafit, so he is trying to protect him. He also promises that when he becomes king he will listen to Ali regarding the shafit. Ali agrees to trust Muntadhir.

Nahri and Dara finally enter the city of Daevabad. When they go through the doors, they enter directly into The Grand Bazaar, a bustling market. The goods on offer seem strange to her, and she notices a lot of snakes. People in the crowd wear sharp teeth and crocodiles and snakes.

Immediately upon seeing the Grand Bazaar, they can tell something is not right. A soldier calls for curfew and then, as they leave the bazaar and enter the location of the six gates, they witness a fight break out between a shafit man and a daeva man arguing about the stolen bride and shouting slurs at one another. As the shafit crowd begins to enter the Daeva Quarter, Dara takes the scythe of a scared Geziri soldier who claims that backup is coming and faces the hundreds of men himself. His magic also makes the two lions from the Daeva gate spring to life. Just then, Jamshid, (the son of Kaveh) rides up on an elephant, shoots a man with an arrow, and upon seeing Dara’s Afshin mark, invites Nahri and Dara to meet his king.

As they approach the castle, Dara tells Nahri to tell the king that Baseema’s family found her in the river as a child and enslaved her. She was singing playfully with Baseema and then everything happened.

Nahri takes in the beauty and architecture of the castle. As they enter the throne room, she lays eyes on the king, Kaveh, Ali, and Muntadhir as they listen to the bickering of tradesmen. All at once the king drops his wine, stands up, and says, “Manizheh.”

The king dismisses everyone else in the room as they recount their story. The king notes that Nahri must be under a curse because she appears pure-blooded to him and shafit, nearly human, to everyone else.

They discuss the demise of Manizheh and her brother, Rustam, who were murdered by ifrits as they traveled to another estate. As this happened 20 years ago and Nahri is about 20 years old, Ghassan theorizes that Manizheh planned this, but they do not know how Manizheh could still be alive.

They turn to Dara, and at last he shares his full name. The family is appalled when Dara reveals that he led a Daeva rebellion against the first Geziri King, Zaydi al Qahtani. Ghassan thought that Zaydi al Qahtani had been beheaded, but Dara explains that Zaydi al Qahtani was captured by the ifrit during a battle and enslaved. Dara struggles to explain how he stands before Ghassan and his family if the only people who can break the ifrits’ slave curse are the Nahids. He says that Khayzur found his ring on a human and brought it back to him. He was freed a decade ago, which means that he spent almost 1400 years enslaved by the ifrits, and Ghassan says that he would have been driven mad. Dara says that he doesn’t have many memories from the time.

Ali then asks if Dara remembers the war and if he remembers Qui-zi. Dara says that he remembers what Ali’s namesake did to his city. Ghassan cuts the conversation short. He offers them pureblood status and a life of riches in return for their loyalty. Nahri wonders what the catch is but pledges her word. Ghassan tells Nahri to go with Ali, and Dara tells her to go. Nahri is expected to become a healer.

Ali coldly leads Nahri through his gorgeous garden to be cleaned and tended to by servants. As she sits in the bath, Zaynab appears, seemingly testing Nahri about her background. Zaynab says that her tribe is celebrating in the streets and tells the servant girl to tell everyone that Banu Nahida is here. She feeds Nahri extravagantly and gives her wine instead of water to wash it down. Soon, Nahri is drunk and falls asleep in her bed.

When she wakes up, a daeva woman named Nisreen e-Kinshur waits in the shadows of her room. She says the she was the senior aide to her mother and uncle and tells her not to trust Zaynab as her mother, Hatset, does not like Nahids.

Dara enters and explains that he is going to hunt the ifrit. He says that Khayzur freed him, but he only found him near where the Nahids died, where Nahri was somehow saved. Then, 20 years later, he was summoned by Nahri. She protests and cries, but he insists and promises to return to her.

Ali presides over the last group execution of those who tried to sack the Daeva Quarter. Ali takes pity on a young boy who is dying slowly and beheads him with his zulfiqar (a type of sword) to shorten his suffering.

Ali finds his father, who has received word from Muntadhir and Dara’s expedition. They’ve found nothing, but they’ve met up with Wajed, the Qaid, and are heading to Babili to continue their search for the afrit. Ali tries to resign from being Qaid. Ghassan then tells Ali that he knows of his work with the Tanzeem. He tells his son to wash up because “[t]here’s a lot of blood on [his] hands” (313). He is giving Ali a second chance because Muntadhir persuaded him. He says that Ali can end his work as Qaid, but he must befriend Nahri so that she is willing to marry Muntadhir one day.

Nahri wakes up in her new fancy room and admires the architecture, clothing, and beauty. She is waited on all day by young shafit servants. Nisreen comes to look after Nahri before her first healing obligation, which is to remove a fire salamander from someone’s body. Nisreen reminds Nahri to keep her altar lit.

Nahri struggles with the salamander and then nearly kills her patient when she tells her to be quiet and the salamander grows and begins strangling her. Nahri feels homesick and starts to fear that she will not be able to rise to this occasion, which might mean the end to the palace’s generosity. She goes outside for air after failing to remove the salamander and finds Ali swimming in the canal.

They bicker for a moment and then Ali apologizes for a rude comment and says that he will walk her back. She sees the books he is studying, which pertain to Dara’s history, and she feels nervous that he is onto them. He offers to teach her to read and she hesitantly accepts.