A Torch Against the Night

A Torch Against the Night

First edition book cover
Author	Sabaa Tahir
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	An Ember in the Ashes
Genre	Young adult, fantasy
Publisher	Razorbill
Publication date	August 30, 2016
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages	452
ISBN	978-1-101-99887-8
OCLC	948088459
LC Class	PZ7.1.T33 To 2016
Preceded by	An Ember in the Ashes
Followed by	A Reaper at the Gates

A Torch Against the Night is a fantasy novel written by Pakistani-American author Sabaa Tahir. It was published on August 30, 2016 by Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House.^[1][2] It is the second book in the An Ember in the Ashes series, preceded by An Ember in the Ashes and followed by A Reaper at the Gates. The story follows Laia, a former slave; Elias, a former Mask, who are on a mission to save Laia's brother and Helene, the blood shrike; who finds her destiny through torturous events. The novel is narrated in the first-person, alternating between the points of view of Laia, Elias and Helene.

Plot

Elias and Laia flee the persuading empire soldiers through the tunnels of catacombs. They face a cave ifrit that wanted Laia’s silver armlet. They kill it and a group of soldier spot them. They manage to defeat them only to be confronted by several masks. The roof of the tunnels caves in due to tremors from bombs that resistance soldiers set off. They flee through the city and go to an abandoned Veturius warehouse near city wall that has a back door leading out of the city. They find out that the commandant was waiting for them. After a brief battle with the commandant, Elias managed to knock her out with Laia’s help. They leave her tied up and flee using the horse commandant brought. A group of sand ifrits attack them also wanting Laia’s silver armlet. They manage to defeat them, but Elias passes out. In his unconscious state, Elias visits what it called a waiting place for souls and there he meets the soul catcher. When he wakes up, they realize the commandant had poisoned him as she managed to a cut Elias during their fight. They head to Raider's Roost for a temporary cure for Elias as the poison the commandant used is incurable and Elias has less than five months to live. After reaching the city, Laia had to go to the city to find the medicine as Elias stays mostly unconscious. She gets spotted and a group of bandits capture her and force her to lead them to Elias. She manages to make Elias drink the medicine. He wakes up and kills the bandits before fleeing the city. Meanwhile, in Serra, Helene is captured under the suspicion of aiding Elias escape and given to an interrogator. After five days of interrogation, Marcus lets her out as her father made a deal with him in exchange for her life. Her sister Hana is to be married off to Marcus and he shall have support from Aquila family as other powerful houses do not accept Marcus as their emperor. Marcus sends Helene to hunt Elias. Before leaving she sees commandant talking to the Night bringer. After commandant leaves she confronts the night bringer. Here the night bringer offers Helene to teach her the magic of healing that she had awakened. But before she could respond, Cain appears and tells the night bringer to leave. Meanwhile, Keenan and Izzi track Elias and Laia and they meet. Reluctantly Elias and Keenan agree to work together to break Darin out of Kauf prison. Elias plans to go to the city Nur and exchange the favour token he was given by the tribe woman Afya Ara-Nur. He plans to ride the caravans of the Nur tribe out of the city as the empire is hunting them. Helene realizes that what Elias is going to do and comes to Nur herself with her old friend Dex and Faris and Harper who is the interrogator of Helene and spy for the commandant. However, the tribe Nur and Elias’s adoptive tribe saif causes a riot as a distraction. During the riot, the hundreds of tribal people attack Helene and her men. Elias saves her and escapes telling her that he misses her. Helene later sends his troops to search the desert to no avail and gets called back by Marcus as a war has broken out in the north. Elias learns from the soul catcher that he has only two months left. He decides to leave for Kauf and break Darin out himself. Afya Ara-Nur agrees to it and two weeks later, Elias reaches Kauf. However, on his way, he meets the soul catcher while conscious. She takes him to her home, a forest. He learns that Djinns were not dead but trapped inside the forest and she is one of them. Her betrayal leads to this entrapment of Djinns. However, she takes Elias to Kauf. He breaks into the prison and learns Darin is dead. However, the warden recognizes him and imprisons him there. After arriving in Serra, Helene is tasked with taking down the ten powerful families that defy Marcus. She carries it out but Marcus still threatens to execute her family if she does not bring Elias. She is enraged and heads to talk to the Augers. Cain tells her that she is the torch against the night and she has to endure more to reach her destiny. With the help of the cook, she learns that Elias going to Kauf prison and heads there. Meanwhile, Afya Ara-Nur’s wagon is searched by empire soldiers accompanied by a mask. He finds the other schooler people hiding inside the wagon. Laia uses her newfound power to be invisible and frees everyone. They fight but the wagons are destroyed. They manage to defeat them but several of them die, including Izzi. She and Keenan, leave on their own, releasing Afya of her vow. Keenan and Laia reach Kauf after several weeks. Helene reaches Kauf and goes to the cave Elias told Laia to wait. She finds his bags there realizes that he must be in Kauf as well. In the cave that is supposed to be the rendezvous point, Keenan and Laia find out that Elias is not there but she faces Helene in there. Helene does not harm her and learns from Laia that the commandant has an army stationed in the Argent Mountain. Helene realizes that commandant is planning something. She meets with the warden in an empty boathouse. She learns that Elias is imprisoned there but the warden is reluctant to let him out. Harper is revealed to have switched sides and no longer works for the commandant. Commandant comes to Kauf and meets with the warden. Helene secretly goes the meeting between the warden and commandant and learns that she is planning a coup (d'état) against Marcus. In the prison, Elias learns that there is another prisoner they call the artist and realizes that is Darin. He breaks free and goes to rescue Darin. He tells Elias that the warden only asks him about Laia. Elias learns what Darin has told to the warden and realizes that those were the same things Keenan said or did around Laia. Before he can get Darin out, he is caught by the warden and sent back to the cell. In the cave, Keenan coaxes Laia into giving him her armlet. He then transforms into the Night bringer. Laia holds onto him and looks into his memory. She learns that the armlet is a shard of a weapon that was used to imprison the Djinns. All the shards are needed to be given to the night bringer out of love and thus he can forge the weapon again and free his brethren. The night bringer then escapes Laia’s grasp, noting that Laia has hidden strength. Laia, seeing no other option, goes to meet Helene on her camp. She persuades Helene to tell her the prison outlay. Helene goes back to stop the commandant without Elias as the warden will not give him. Laia gets back to the cave and starts to master her ability to be invisible. Afya comes to the cave, following her all the way. Laia contacts with Elias in the prison through other scholar slave and forms a plan to escape. Elias with the help of the schooler boy and scholar resistance in the prison causes a fire. But before he could reach outside, the poison takes him. After he dies, he learns from the soul catcher that to become a soul catcher one has to die and then resurrect. Elias becomes a soul catcher and wakes up in his body. With the poison gone, Elias finds his former strength and breaks out of the prison with other prisoners and goes inside the forest of dusk, the waiting place for souls. He uses his power to safely transport them to safety. Harper reveals to Helene that he is Elias's half brother. Helene goes back with the news of the coup to Marcus. Enraged that she failed to capture Elias, Marcus kills all her family except her younger sister, Livia. Marcus decides to marry Livia. He then informs Helene that he knew of the coup. Helene realizes this is what the augers told her and accepts her fate as the blood shrike. After a month, she strengthens her position as the blood shrike and with Livia, she swears vengeance on Marcus.

References