A Torch Against the Night

A Torch Against the Night

First edition book cover
Author	Sabaa Tahir
Language	English
Series	An Ember in the Ashes series
Genre	Young adult, fantasy
Publisher	Razorbill
Publication date	August 30, 2016
Publication place	United States
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. 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 former slave Laia and former Mask Elias 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 from Martials through catacombs and emerge to find Resistance fighters revolting in the city. Keris pursues the pair and nicks Elias with a blade tipped in Nightweed, a poison with no cure that leaves him with six months left to live. Later, Laia tells Elias about her captive brother in Kauf who could make weapons for the rebels. Seizures grip Elias and in unconsciousness, goes to The Waiting Place, where the Soul Catcher resides and the dead stay while still unwilling to pass on.

Marcus has Helene tortured by Lieutenant Avitas Harper for details about Elias's escape, but she says nothing. To save her, Helene's father bargains her sister Hannah to Marcus for him to marry and have an heir of noble blood with. Marcus orders Helene to capture, publicly torture then kill Elias. Keris assigns Harper to Helene's mission to keep an eye on her. Helene receives a message from a market that Elias's horse was found there and deduces his next destination. Keenan and Izzi encounter and inform Elias and Laia about Martials exterminating Scholars in retaliation for their rebellion. Elias takes the group to Afya Ara-Nur, a tribeswoman owing him a favor and demands she smuggle them out of Nur, take them to Kauf, and aid them in saving Darin. Elias meets with his mother and tells her about the things he was forced to do in Blackcliff. She shares his story to the tribesmen to incite a riot so that the group's caravans can leave without Martial inspection. In the confusion, Helene spots Elias but only makes a half-hearted attempt to arrest him. With two months to live, Elias decides to break Darin out alone instead. The Soul Catcher tells Elias to enter the Forest of Dusk as it is The Waiting Place in the physical realm. She explains she was once a jinn girl named Shaeva who betrayed the jinn to the humans and is now tied to the place, paying for her crimes by escorting ghosts from one realm to the next. With two weeks left to live, she takes him to Kauf.

Marcus dictates Helene to delay her current mission and ride for the capital Antium. He believes that the noble houses declaring war on each other threatens his position as Emperor. Ten house patriarchs are executed and Marcus commands their heirs to swear fealty to him. Marcus warns Helene that if she doesn't capture Elias by an impossible deadline, he'll kill her entire family, including his fiancé. Cook tells Helene that Elias is going to Kauf to free Darin and warns Helene against hurting Laia after Helene heals her stomach wound. Elias sneaks into Kauf prison posing as a guard, where the Warden finds him and expresses interest in experimenting on a mask and detains him in a cell. Martials locate Keenan, Izzi, and Afya but Laia uses her invisibility to free Keenan and fight the Martials. Izzi is killed in the fight and Keenan and Laia separate from Afya, who goes to reunite with her tribe. Laia and Keenan make their way to Kauf together, with Keenan comforting Laia about Izzi's death and the two have sex.

Elias names a Scholar slave boy who cleans his torture wounds, Tas. The boy tells him of a man who cries out the name Laia in his sleep whom Elias surmises to be Darin. Tas tells Elias that there are rebel Scholars in the pits. Near Kauf, Harper confesses to Helene that Keris instructed him to poison her when she got too close to Elias, but decided against it. Helene discovers Keris and the Warden serve the Nightbringer while eavesdropping on their conversation, with Keris planning to attack Antium with an army to usurp the throne. In the Waiting Place, Elias helps Izzi cross over into the afterlife. In Kauf, Elias escapes his cell and finds Darin. Darin says the Warden only ever asked about Laia and what he answered, which Elias recalls Keenan saying. Elias realizes Keenan is the traitor who notified the Warden about his arrival. Elias and Darin try to walk out, but the Warden ambushes them. The Warden questions Elias about Laia, but Elias does not know what information is relevant.

Laia promises to be Keenan's family and gives him her mother's armlet. He changes into the Nightbringer, revealing his true identity and mission of seeking the pieces of the shattered silver Star; the weapon that imprisoned the jinn, which Laia's armlet is one of. The Nightbringer asks Laia what she is and then disappears. In the Waiting Place, Elias asks Shaeva why the Nightbringer and the Martials are interested in Laia. Shaeva tells Elias about Keenan being the Nightbringer and about the Star, whose pieces have to be given willingly out of love and trust. The Nightbringer wants to free the jinn living in Shaeva's grove, but she thinks he shouldn't because their imprisonment has driven them mad. The Nightbringer cannot kill Laia; all who have been given the Star are protected from him by its power, which includes Elias, because Laia let him hold the armlet once. The Warden and Keris don't know about the armlet or why the Nightbringer is interested in Laia. The Nightbringer wants to use the jinn to kill the Scholars first then all of humanity. Laia and Elias plan together through Tas and another Scholar slave child. Afya meets Laia at a cave to help.

Before returning to Antium to thwart Keris' coup, Helene helps Laia with her plan to reach Darin and Elias. The day Shaeva prophesied he would die, a weakened Elias frees himself and Darin with the help of Tas. An altercation with a guard leaves Darin unconscious. The scholar rebels start a fire in the prison. As Elias carries Darin through the burning prison, he dies, unable to open the locked door to the outside. In the Waiting Place, Elias begs Shaeva to send him back. Shaeva says Elias caught her attention because the spirits he killed were not angry with him since he grieved for them. She had wanted Elias to replace her as the Soul Catcher, but now advises he accept death. Elias pleads to be revived, choosing to be Shaeva's successor and allowing her to train him which Shaeva accepts. Elias wakes to the door opened and then carries Darin and Tas outside. Laia, Elias, Afya and Tas fight the guards and free the Scholar prisoners. Tas kills the Warden and they all escape in boats.

In Antium, Helene reports the coup to Marcus, but learns the Nightbringer has brought Keris there first. Keris says Helene is deluded by her obsession with Elias and should not be believed. As Helene failed to return with Elias, Marcus kills his fiancé and her parents. Marcus leaves Helene's youngest sister, Livia, alive to be his new fiancé. Marcus tells Helene that he knew about the coup but her method of notifying him undermined him and that if she is anything but totally obedient in the future, he will make her last living family member suffer more than she can ever imagine. A month later, Cook offers to help Helene when she's ready to confront Keris. Keris had disbanded her army when she realized Helene was going to tell Marcus about the coup. Marcus sends Helene a letter saying it is time to kill Keris. Helene tells Harper she is going to find Elias's grandfather, Quin. Harper tells Helene that he and Elias share a father and are half brothers. Laia and Darin live in a cabin near the Waiting Place, Elias has to be close to the Forest, Tas and the Scholars make for the free lands, and Afya returns to her tribe. Elias and Laia kiss and lie entwined in the cabin. Darin wakes up.

Reception

Publishers Weekly, in a starred review stated the novel "has a darker tone and even higher stakes than its predecessor, setting the stage for a thrilling conclusion." Kirkus Reviews called the novel "An excellent continuation of a series seemingly designed for readers of the political, bloody fantasy style du jour, set apart by an uncommon world."