The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
S. A. Chakraborty (Shannon Chakraborty)
Amina al-Sirafi #1

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi Summary
Audiobook spelling
We start with the story being presented by Jamal, a scribe, and then Amina takes over the telling of the story with occasional interjections to Jamal and Jamal occasionally giving more background info.

Amina al-Sirafi is a retired pirate nahouda (captain) of some infamy. She has been trying to live a quiet life in Oman with her mother and daughter, fishing to support them. One day she agrees to take some young men out in a boat for what she assumes is a bogus supernatural ritual thing, but then it actually works and she has to reveal who she is to save them. She is hard to hide since she is very very tall and strong and has a gold tooth.

Shortly after this, when she is at home with her daughter, Marjana, an old rich noble lady shows up with some servants and guards and presses Amina until she reveals who she is. The lady wants to hire her to rescue her granddaughter who has been kidnapped. Amina is planning to say no but the lady turns out to be the mother of Asif, an old crewmate who died in some bad manner that is unexplained, and the granddaughter, Dunya, is Asif’s daughter. Plus she offers a million dinars if Amina succeeds. She also threatens to let the world know who and where Amina is if she refuses so she is kind of forced into accepting. Dunya was kidnapped by a Frank, who was interested in the families magical artifacts and history.

Now they have to get the gang back together. First Amina goes and gets Dalilah, a poisoner and assassin. Together they go to reclaim her old ship, the Marawati. When they get to Aden, they arrive just in time to see the Marawati get seized by the governors new warships on account of smuggling, and their friend Thimphu who has been running the ship, arrested. Pirates are always killed so he is on death row and they need to save him. They find an old Jewish merchant arguing on Thimphu’s behalf, so they approach him for help. He is dating Thimphu so agrees. Amina intentionally gets arrested and then when at the police station they just drug and hit people, then go free Thimphu and the crew.

They all swim back out to the Marawati (Thimphu leaves his boyfriend behind but promises to come back) and secure the ship, but the way out of the harbor is still guarded by the warships, however Thimphu has some Naft (Greek fire). They hurry to try to escape and set on of the enemy ships aflame, then threaten loudly to ram the other so it backs off and they are free.

They go somewhere to meet with the Kidnappers assistant who left his service. He reveals the man actually does have some magic and wanted to find more treasures. Importantly, he says Dunya was not kidnapped but came to them willingly, offering them the location of the Moon of Sabaa, a mythic pearl said to contain one face of the moon and it’s power. He tells them about an island but before he can say more, he starts choking. He chokes to death on the purse of coins Amina gave him, transported out of the bag somehow for breaking his magical contract with the Frankish man.

Amina goes back to the old lady, Dunya’s grandmother, to question her about Dunya leaving. The woman is very hostile and says she doesn’t care go get her, then threatens to have people kill Marjana (Amina’s daughter) unless she succeeds, so Amina has no choice. They go to their old friend Mahjeb, a navigator, in Mogadishu since they need to figure out what island the man meant.

Mahjeb has a happy family but agrees to help, then when he figures out where the island is he decides he wants to come. They are headed to Socotra, a pirate island. Very dangerous place. They get unreasonably good weather and wind and make good time. When they reach the island they find a recently half destroyed boat, which they assumed belong to the people they are chasing. Amina, Dalilah, and Thimphu go onto the island alone to scout.

They find a butchered village, with three elders stabbed into trees by spears. They bury the people and feel they are being watched. When they are about to leave Ruksh appears. He is Amina’s husband, who they had tried to kill before, since he is a demon. Amina has had many husbands but a number of years ago she got drunk and married Ruksh. He gave the ship good luck but ended up being responsible for something with Asif’s death, so they tried to kill and abandon him. Turns out he now was working for the Frank. He agrees to help them if they help him off this island, so they form an uneasy truce.

He leads them to a back entrance of the cave where the Frank is hiding out. They sneak in and find more of the villagers from before, all but four have been butchered so they try to free those four. To buy the others time Amina gives herself over to the Frank, who is clearly crazy and craves power. He shows her his men’s enhanced abilities, strength, speed, etc. and offers to make a deal with Amina but she refuses. He says Dunya stole a long boat and ran off a few days ago. He then has his men hold her down and forces her to drink a gross magic soup.

Amina wakes from unconsciousness and they are camped outside, the Frank shows her he has enslaved a Marid, a giant water beast thing. Then a poison / smoke cloud arrow is shot into the fire (Dalilah + Thimphu), and Amina is saved and they run. Ruksh cuts open her stomach and extracts whatever soup she was forced to drink. They all flee back to the Marawati, taking Ruksh because he is the only one who can find Dunya. They retrieve her and help nurse her back to health.

Amina goes to talk to Dunya. She learns first that the Moon of Sabaa is not a pearl, but a washbasin that when looked into gives you all sorts of power, but she stole the only tablets that say how to retrieve it. Then the reason Dunya ran away is she was going to be forced to marry the governor, but she does not feel like a woman, she connects more with men and the thought of marrying a man scared her. Amina does not want to force the girl but cares more for her own daughter, so still plans to return her.

Falco (That’s his name I remember now), the Frankish kidnapper, shows up riding the Marid with his men and they secure the Marawati. Ruksh fled on the only longboat. Dunya breaks the tablets and says now her head is the only place where the knowledge is kept, and he will not kill Amina’s crew if he wants her help. He agrees, then stabs and throws Amina overboard since she is not apart of her crew.

Amina floats for 2 weeks on the sea on a piece of driftwood and eventually floats to magic island, where she suddenly feels stronger and faster. She finds Ruskh, who she bears up, but he agrees to help again. This island is rules by Peri’s so they go and present themselves. The peris decide Amina is a transgression (Humans are not supposed to be here or have magic or stuff), so they drop her very far so she will die. But Khayzur (From City of Brass), saves her and takes her back up. Her and Ruksh convince them that Falco having the moon of sabaa is bad and they will go destroy it for the Peri. Amina strikes a pact that she will find and destroy five transgressions for the Peri council in exchange for her life.

Khayzur flies her and Ruksh to Socotra, then leaves them. They approach the local pirates and one egyptian captain agrees to help them. They sneak up to Falco’s camp and kill a lot of his men. Amina can now see the bond between the Marid and the men, giving them their power, and can sever that bond with a magic star dagger the Egyptian captain gave her. She climbs up the Marid, cutting the bonds and freeing it from Falco’s control, but it forms a small bond with her in the process. They kill all the mercenaries then Amina goes to chase Falco and Dunya into the cave.

She encounters lots of magic nonsense, she sees Asif die again and we learn he made a deal with Ruksh for his soul, then died and arose as a zombie and ate and attacked people so they burned him at the stake. She gets past more monsters, and arrives just in time for Falco to get the magic washbasin, the Moon of Sabaa. But Dunya had a plan, since it is the eclipse, instead the power swaps and the moon deity trapped gains control of Falco’s body. They reason with it and fight it and Amina calls on her bond with Marid and it breaks open the cave so the moon can go back to the moon. Falco is half trapped under rubble and Amina kills him and they all flee.

Amina returns to the grandmother and gives her a note from Dunya, saying she has been left somewhere secret and Amina is not responsible, and the grandmother just decides that is fine and does not carry out her threats to Amina. Then they return to Oman and Amina gets to see Marjana and family time on the boat and everyone made it out ok. We then get a epilogue from Jamal. Dunya was welcomed by the crew, and after haircuts and clothes changes, we are introduced to Jamal, who is getting used to this new change but he is excited and feels welcomed by the crew for who he is.