The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.
And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.Click "Read More" to find out what happens at the end of The Assassin's Curse.
As the river witch, Lelia, promised they make it to the port without any hitches. During that time, Naji tells Ananna that the Mists are after him because he was hired to kill several people which happened to be one of the Mists' most powerful ruler’s children. It cuts that ruler’s ties with their world and made him less powerful. Naji did not know what he was doing at the time and has been paying for it ever since then.
When they get to the port, Ananna dresses like a boy and tries to get them passage on a ship named Ayel’s Revenge which is heading to Qilar. She meets a woman named Marjini who convinces the captain to letAnanna and Naji on the ship even though Marjini knows that Naji is an assassin. Ananna gets along well enough with the crew and proves she was good on her word of being useful on a boat. Marjini decides to teach Ananna how to navigate after borrowing her to go over several routes to avoid sirens. Ananna enlists Naji to teach her mathematics and they grow closer.
One day, a powerful storm begins blowing though the sky is still clear. It drives them off course to the Isles of the Sky and Ananna goes below deck to realize Naji performed blood magic to do it. Marjini reveals that she was in on it and convinces the captain to give them a boat and let them try to make it on the islands for betraying them instead of killing them. Ananna rows them to the island which sits above the water and Naji uses the last of his strength to get them up on the island.
The island is made of magic so that Ananna can’t find anything she needs for them to survive. She finally finds water, Naji wakes up long enough to find berries and they make shelter so Naji can rest. He tells her when wakes up briefly that he is out of magic and needs to heal in order for it to be restored. Their shelter turns into a strange tree when they get water so they start sleeping in palm frond forts every night. Najifinally heals enough to start using magic and finds them a hut with a protection spell on it.
Both of their healing goes faster then and Naji decides to try to catch a fish since he is feeling so much better. He tells Ananna not to go outside and leaves. She goes to the door and sees a figure in the mist but before she can do anything, Naji comes back. The next day, Ananna wakes up to Naji mediating and is really thirsty but he didn’t fill the water jug. She grabs it and goes outside where she is caught by someone from the Mist named Echo. Echo offers her anything she wants to take off the charm and turn Naji over but she refuses and Naji chases Echo off with his sword.
Naji tells Ananna he knows where the wizard’s house is and they find it easy with his spell. The wizard welcomes them in, gives them fresh clothes and Naji tells them how he was cursed. He reveals he was hunting a leader of a tribe and chased him to a tribe up north. He killed some bystanders accidentally and an older lady cursed him. The wizard tells them that Naji’s curse isn’t impossible…he just has to complete three impossible tasks to remove it. He must catch the Princess’ starstones, make life out of an act of violence (which we establish is NOT rape) and must find true love’s kiss. At this, Ananna realizes she is in love with Naji but gets anger when Naji doesn’t even consider her for a kiss.
Naji and she storm out of the wizard’s house and Naji is depressed. They build a fire to get off the island since Ananna believes Marjini will come back for them and Naji tells her the other assassins would come for him but refused to take her by magic off the island. Ananna tells him not to lose hope, that they will cure the curse and let’s herself wonder what the last impossible task, true love’s kiss, will feel like.
Did I miss anything or do you have a question? If so, let me know in the comments below.
I really enjoyed this book!
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