An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes is Sabaa Tahir's debut novel and the first book in a projected trilogy.

Jacket Copy/Teaser
" Laia is a slave.

Elias is a soldier.

Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself."

(source: Goodreads)

Characters

 * Laia, Scholar girl and spy inside Blackcliff
 * Elias Veturius, trained Mask and Aspirant in the Trials
 * Helene Aquilla, trained Mask and Aspirant in the Trials; Elias's best friend
 * Cook, former Resistance spy and now Blackcliff slave
 * Izzi, kitchen slave at Blackcliff
 * Marcus Farrar, Aspirant in the Trials
 * Zak Farrar, Aspirant in the Trials
 * Keris Veturius, Commandant of Blackcliff
 * Spiro Teluman, weapons-maker
 * Mazen, Resistance leader
 * Sana, secondary Resistance leader
 * Keenan, Mazen's third-in-command and Laia's handler

Plot Synopsis
Scholar girl Laia ekes out an existence with her grandparents and older brother, until Nan and Pop are killed before her eyes and Darin is arrested. Laia seeks out the Resistance and begs them to help rescue Darin, invoking the names of her dead parents, the former leaders of the Resistance. They agree to rescue Darin on the condition that Laia spies for them as a slave inside Blackcliff, the Martial Empire's training grounds for elite soldiers known as Masks.

Elias Veturius is about to graduate from Blackcliff at the top of his class of Masks, but he has secret plans to desert and flee the violence of the Empire. Instead, he and his best friend Helene Aquilla, along with their least favorite classmates Marcus and Zak Farrar, are drawn into a set of Trials to determine who will be the next Emperor.

The remainder of this section contains spoilers about the content and ending of the novel.



Laia is physically and verbally abused in her first days as a palace slave, especially by the Commandant. Elias observes this abuse but does not intervene; the guilt follows him. She seeks information about the Trials for the Resistance but instead struggles simply to stay alive. By the time she is able to meet with her handler, Keenan, the first Trial is ending without her knowledge. She is sent back with one more chance.

For the first Trial, Elias has been dumped in the desert Wastes and ordered to find his way back to Blackcliff in seven days' time. He is confronted with a vision of everyone he has ever killed, including some of his best friends, bodies that are allegedly prophetic of who he will kill one day. When he finally confronts his fear, he meets up with Helene and they start the return trip together. They are set upon by Marcus and Zak, who are determined to kill them at the Commandant's orders. Elias carries a dying Helene back to Blackcliff, barely arriving on time; Marcus is declared the winner and Helene is taken to the infirmary.

Elias and Laia meet when Elias encounters her running an errand but sick with infection; he carries her back to the palace and they go their separate ways. Laia befriends another slave girl, Izzi, and attempts with little success to get Cook to open up to her. Meanwhile, Elias and Helene face the second Trial, in which they are set upon by ghuls and jinni, creatures that they thought existed only in legend. Elias is badly hurt, but the encounter with the jinni has given Helene the power to sing him back to health. At the end of the night, Helene is the only one entirely unhurt and is declared the winner.

On her errands, Laia discovers that her brother has been working with the smith Spiro Teluman, but she still has nothing for the Resistance. Increasingly desperate to save her brother, Laia eavesdrops on the Commandant and a dark figure who calls himself Nightbringer as they discuss the remaining two trials. With Izzi's help, she sneaks out of the palace to attend the Scholar Moon Festival, where she shares the information with Keenan and is given the near-impossible task of finding a secret entrance to Blackcliff. Meanwhile, Elias has watched the girls sneak out and, in the guise of a Tribesman, dances with Laia at the festival. He also dances with a Tribal woman who gives him a favor token. When a raid threatens the festival, Elias reveals his identity and helps the girls back to the palace.

Helene gets wind of Elias's alleged affair with a slave girl and becomes furious. Elias slacks off in his practice, desperate for his best friend to talk to him. Eventually, one of their friends tells him that her ire is due to her romantic feelings for him, which Elias cannot return. The two fight it out on the practice field and share a near-kiss.

As the girls look for Laia's secret entrance, they are set upon by Marcus and Zak; Marcus decides he wants Laia and nearly rapes her, breaking her wrist and injuring her badly in the process. Elias steps in to rescue her, citing that she is the Commandant's property and begging Helene to sing her back to health. Helene initially refuses, but in the night she sneaks down to the kitchens and heals Laia.

In the third Trial, Elias's battalion is forced to battle Helene's battalion to the death; Marcus and Zak are similarly paired. Marcus kills his brother Zak; hating himself, Elias swings a killing blow at Helene, only to be interrupted by an Augur disqualifying Helene for wearing her armor and sparing Elias from killing her. With the most men left alive, Elias is declared the winner. Laia, meanwhile, is dragged from the kitchen in chains and deposited in a cell. The "cell" turns out to be Elias's room; she is his prize for winning the Trial.

Emotionally distraught over killing some of his friends and his willingness to kill Helene, Elias has no interest in Laia, but she gets him talking and helps distract him from his horror. He reveals his initial plan to desert, including the secret entrance he planned to use to get out of the castle. He also lets her keep one of his daggers. In the morning, she returns to her quarters, desperate to find a way into the city to meet with Keenan, but she is apprehended as a spy by the Commandant.

In the final Trial, Laia is dragged before the Aspirants in chains and the order is given that the first to kill her will be deemed Emperor. Helene knocks Marcus out and offers the win to Elias, but in his shame over killing his friends, Elias decides to protect Laia. As Helene pleads with him to get out of the way and at least let her claim victory, Marcus wakes up and throws a dagger at Laia. Marcus is proclaimed Emperor, Helene is sworn in as his second-in-command, and Elias is sentenced to death for protecting a spy and defying orders.

An Augur reveals that she has taken the blow meant for Laia and sneaks the girl, presumed dead, out of the arena. The Augur sends Laia after the Resistance, where she discovers that Resistance leader Mazen had planned for her to die in Blackcliff, had no intention of rescuing Darin, and has instead been busy killing the Emperor -- unwittingly allowing Marcus to be crowned. He also reveals that Darin is in Kauf prison, where Laia's parents died years earlier. The smith, Teluman, offers her a way to Kauf to rescue him; she sends Izzi in her stead. Meanwhile, with Cook's help, she rigs explosives to interrupt Elias's execution and rescues him in the chaos. Helene finds them planning to leave and offers Elias one last favor: she can keep the guards away long enough for them to escape, but after this, she will have to honor her vows to Marcus. Laia and Elias escape through Elias's secret passage and set off to rescue Darin.

Adaptations
An Ember in the Ashes is allegedly in development for a film adaptation.

Series and Sequels
An Ember in the Ashes will be followed by A Torch Against the Night in early 2016.