Favourite Quotes
“Death in a free land is better than life in a gilded cage” - p. 110 “Free is a right only appreciated by those who lost it. That is the way of all lost things. One does not truly understand a thing’s value until it is gone.” - p. 325 “One cannot know the outcome of a journey if one is not brave enough to take it” - p. 362
Short Summary
- Loulie is the Midnight Merchant - she sells magic. She has a jinn companion named Qadir
- she has a magic compass that helps her track down magical relics to sell
- Loulie’s parents were killed before the novel starts. She’s dealing with the trauma.
- Loulie is an Atheist:
- she said “if these gods existed, they had not batted their lashes when her family was murdered” p. 12
- She hears that the Sultan is after a relic.
- The Sultan is trying to find Loulie because he thinks she might be able to retrieve the relic, which is located in the abandoned jinn city
- He sets a trap for her in an underground black market and forces her to accept the quest to retrieve the relic. It is a very dangerous trip so she is anxious about it.
- The Sultan commands his eldest son Omar to accompany the Merchant, much to his displeasure
- Omar makes his brother Mazen to switch bodies with him using a magical relic so that Omar doesn’t have to go. Mazen is at first hesitant, but eventually agrees to it.
- the crew to find the relic is Mazen (in Omar’s body), Aisha, Loulie, and Qadir (Loulie’s bodyguard)
- on their way they pass by a desert. Here they encounter a powerful jinn that they fight. Mazen stabs Loulie cause either he was possessed
- this jinn queen has a magical necklace relic that a human has to wear in order for the jinn to possess them
- once they defeated her, Aisha and Mazen took the collar to safeguard it
- once they are out of the desert they reach the city of Dhyme, led by a guy named Ahmed, who has a romantic history with Loulie
- Mazen shows the necklace to Ahmed and accidentally leaves it with him. Ahmed wears it and becomes possessed and goes on a killing spree massacring all the jinn hunters.
- Ahmed was fighting Loulie and Mazen
- during the fighting, Ahmed (possessed) was revealing some stuff to Loulie about the truth behind the relics.
- eventually Aisha saves the day
- Loulie confronts Qadir to reveal the truth about the relics
- he says that relics contain the soul of a jinn; that’s how it is enchanted
- Loulie is distraught to learn this. She feels as though she’s been selling jinn souls like they were mere objects or slaves
- Loulie is now distrustful of Qadir
- Mazen notices two weird things with himself:
- his blood is black
- he brings this up to Aisha and they figure out it’s cause of the bangle that allows him to appear as Omar
- he has a shadow that he can manipulate, such as becoming invisible
- later we find out this shadow was the relic of the jinn they killed earlier (in the underground black market)
- his blood is black
- They leave Dhyme and head back into the desert where they camp with a Bedouin tribe
- They leave and go back to the desert where they confront ghouls
- the ghouls are led by Imad, a former member of the Sultan’s forty thieves who killed Loulie’s tribe. He imprisons Mazen, Loulie and Aisha. Qadir dies in the battle.
- Mazen’s disguise is also revealed during the battle
- turns out Imad was hired by someone to hunt down a relic that Loulie’s tribe was safe-guarding. It was a very powerful relic with the soul of a jinn king, an ifrit. It’s the compass!!
- the are imprisoned by escape. Mazen uses his shadow magic to help escape. Events during the escape:
- Aisha dies. Later on the Queen of Dunes makes a deal with her to revive her in return for a body to live in. But Aisha still retains control over her body, but she hears the Queen in her mind. She also gains the ability to control the ghouls
- Loulie is tortured and distraught over Qadir
- they eventually escape. Qadir comes back. Turns out he is the jinn king and he’s the reason Loulie’s whole tribe died
- the jinn king’s relic that Omar and his men were after was not a relic after all, it was Qadir
- Omar’s thieves killed the tribe in order to protect the secrecy of their quest
- Qadir then took Loulie under his wing as a way to redeem himself
- So it was Omar who ordered the massacre of her tribe
- they make their way out of the desert and into the last city on the way to Sandsea, Ghiban
- in Ghiban they need to buy gear and horses for their trip to the Sandsea desert. So Aisha starts stealing and Mazen tell stories on the street. He attracts huge crowds who love his stories
- Mazen, using his shadow magic also sneaks into Tawil’s place. He is one of Omar’s thieves. Tawil has lots of relics in his place.
- They decide to steal and sell the relics to make money
- they go back into the desert to go to the Sandsea
- Aisha is having inner mental turmoil
- a plot by Omar is uncovered!
- at this point in the book, all that is revealed is that Omar has a secret plot. Mazen was sent on this journey like ‘a sheep going to slaughter’. The suspicious Wali (Ahmed) was taken care of. The Qaid (Sultan’s head guard) has no idea about the plot.
- Aisha is tasked with making sure Mazen dies. But she is having issues with that considering he saved her
- they arrive in the Sandsea desert, their final destination. Turns out their is a mini market (souk) here because it is a tourist destination
- Mazen goes into the souk and sees a poster on a wall: Mazen, traitor to the throne! Wanted for murder of the Sultan
- Mazen is shocked to see this. He comes back to his tent with Loulie and Qadir and faints. Loulie sees the poster and says “oh fuck” LMAO
- Qadir leaves to find out more info from the souk people. Aisha ran away. Loulie and Mazen are alone in the tent as a mercenary comes to arrest him. They make an escape while Qadir starts a fire in the souk as a distraction
- Loulie and Mazen find refuge in a hiding spot and Qadir returns to tell them what he’s found out:
- Ahmed Bin Walid (Wali of Dhyme) is dead. He fought against Omar’s men during the coup.
- Loulie is distraught hearing this
- Prince Hakim escaped during the turmoil
- Ahmed Bin Walid (Wali of Dhyme) is dead. He fought against Omar’s men during the coup.
- Loulie and Mazen are both distraught. Loulie vows she will make Omar suffer. Qadir, Mazen, and Loulie keep to their mission to find the relic first cause Omar is after it.
- Aisha meets up with Omar and Tawil at a meeting spot. Aisha is still having internal turmoil over betraying Mazen
- they descend through a pathway beneath the Sandsea. They intend on retrieving the relic
- Loulie Qadir and Mazen also make their way under the Sandsea
- Qadir seems to be under the influence of some magic and advances ahead of the others
- Mazen splits off with the compass to get the relic while Loulie goes after Qadir
- Qadir is shot with a bow and arrow. Turns out it was Aisha and Tawil
- Omar uses the lamp and commands it (Rijah, the shapeshifter) to kill Qadir. So Jinn King vs Jinn King battle ensues
- while they fight, it’s revealed that more than half of Omar’s thieves are Jinn, including Tawil, who Aisha kills
- it’s also revealed that Omar is either possessed or using the relic of Aliyah the Mystic, an Ifrit Jinn King (his earring is the relic)
- she was also the Sultan’s first wife, Omar’s mom
- this is the reason why Omar’s blood has always been black and he hated the Sultan his whole life… Omar himself is the son of a Jinn
- Aisha and the Resurrectionist Queen of Dunes come to an agreement to use their magic to kill Omar
- a big battle ensues. Omar has lots and lots of soldiers coming into the Sandsea.
- they are losing, so Qadir tells Rijah to take Mazen and Loulie to the jinn world, while he and Aisha continue fighting
- once they are in the Jinn world, Rijah tells them that my king (Qadir) commanded me to bring you here
- Loulie is SHOCKED to hear this… Qadir kept more secrets from her! He IS the supreme Jinn king. “as old as the flame of creation” - p. 462
- they know that Omar was working with Jinn to steal Ifrit magic. But why? That’s the question they don’t know the exact answer to
- BOOK FINISHED. Story continues in The Ashfire King, book 2
Reflections
Was a light read. Story was decent, not the best. Just a casual read, good to fall asleep to.