The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)

A blizzard starts on the New Year’s Holiday. Nezha steals glutinous rice flour and Rin cooks tangyuan. Kitay asks what they think the next great military innovation will be; Nezha says arquebuses while Rin says shamanic armies. Nezha thinks Rin’s idea is dangerous and impractical. Rin leaves to go to the bathroom and trips over a mass grave of frozen children. Kitay hypothesizes that the frozen villagers were running from the Dragon Republic’s army.

They are plagued by snowstorms, but Jinzha won’t turn back. He wants to take a strategic city called Boyang, where the Imperial Fleet is. Nezha thinks that Jinzha’s reckless actions are meant to impress Vaisra and the Hesperians.

Jinzha moves the fleet up a tributary to avoid floating explosives, adding another week to their journey. However, this alternate path is laced with submarine explosives that begin setting ships on fire. Just as Jinzha, Rin, and Kitay’s ship enters danger, Nezha uses shamanic powers to envelop their ships in protective water.

Rin runs to Nezha as he collapses. The source of his pain is a large, moving dragon tattoo on his back. He begs Rin to kill him, but she can’t. Rin forces Nezha to swallow opium nuggets to cut off his access to the spirit realm. Later, Nezha’s family doctor tells Rin that Nezha has suffered from “seizures” since childhood. Rin sleeps in Nezha’s hospital room. When he wakes, she asks him why he didn’t tell her he was a shaman. He doesn’t answer, but he protests when she leaves the room. So, she holds his hand while he sleeps.

The army has mass cremations. Rin asks Augus what his religion thinks happens to people after death, and she is intrigued by the idea of an afterlife. Nezha tries to avoid Rin. When she confronts him, he at first denies his powers. Then, he confesses he doesn’t want them because the god “wants to take over” (348). Rin says she can help him control his powers and accuses him of hiding his useful power while people are dying.

Jinzha orders them to develop plans to attack Boyang. Rin says Jinzha’s soldiers are worth more than his ego, and when Nezha defends her, Jinzha hits him. In private, Rin compares Jinzha’s actions to Altan’s; this offends Nezha, who calls her and Altan “Speerly trash.” When Nezha leaves, Kitay tells Rin he doesn’t know whether they can win in Boyang, but they have no choice but to continue.

As they continue, prisoners of war die of overwork, and everyone is exhausted. When they reach Lake Boyang, they find that the Republican Fleet’s superior technology isn’t useful when overcome by the Imperial Fleet’s superior numbers in the lake’s tight quarters. The Empire takes over a Republican tower ship. Suddenly, the wind stops. Through a spyglass, Rin sees Feylen, the shaman possessed by his wind god. She tries to stop him, and Feylen tortures Rin by flinging her around in the air, holding her underwater, and buffeting her with hard winds. Chaghan and Qara try to stop him and are thwarted. Rin calls Nezha a coward for doing nothing as Feylen tears apart the decks of their ships. Rin and Kitay fall into the water and are whisked over a waterfall.

Rin washes to shore a mile downstream with Kitay, Chaghan, Qara, and a handful of Gray Company, including Augus. They’re found by fur-clad riders. The lead rider, Bekter, is Chaghan and Qara’s cousin. Bekter’s forces are hunting Feylen.

Chaghan and Qara’s aunt, a tribal leader called the Sorqan Sira, questions Rin on her past. The Sorqan Sira reveals that Chaghan’s assignment was to “observe and cull” shamans when necessary (382). His mother, Kalagan, created the Cike as an experiment to see whether Nikara could handle communing with the gods. The Sorqan Sira says that Nikara abuse their connections to the gods by calling them into the world. She shows Rin a vision of herself and Kalagan as youths, meeting with a young Trifecta. A Ketreyid named Tseveri tells the Trifecta that her kind taught them things no Nikara has ever known. The Ketreyids want to teach the Trifecta how to safely use power, but the Trifecta say they’ve “anchored” themselves to each other for stability and now want to call the gods for military might. They use their powers to kill and conquer the Ketreyids.

The Sorqan Sira investigates Rin’s memories and sees the seal. She deduces that Daji is afraid of Rin and agrees to let Rin live.

The Ketreyids construct a hut for a sweat, hoping it will draw out the poison in Rin’s seal if Rin can resist the temptation of her visions. Rin resists Altan in the vision several times. She stabs him with the trident, realizing she must stop “chasing the legacy” he left her (404).

The Sorqan Sira extracts Daji’s venom. Rin has a blackened handprint on her chest, which is a mark of “Altan’s work and legacy” (409). Rin feels a new freedom; she can access her memories better. She tries to call the fire but discovers that the seal is still in effect.

The Sorqan Sira says if Rin has an “anchor bond” to call the god for her, like with Chaghan and Qara, she will have access to her power again. Kitay agrees. Rin doesn’t want him to be corrupted by the influence of the Phoenix, but he insists. Qara says the bond will make Rin more “stable” and less likely to “lose [her] mind” (416). On the other hand, Rin and Kitay’s lives will be linked together. They’ll die when the other does. They can break their bond with their last word, but the anchor will tie together their thoughts so completely that “most would rather die than give that up” (418). The Trifecta undertook an unstable three-way anchor bond that magnified their power.

As they perform the ritual, Rin and Kitay see all the other’s secrets, memories, thoughts, and feelings. Rin feels spiritually elated. She doesn’t realize she’s “erasing” Kitay from existence. When she hears his voice, she stabs herself to disconnect from the power, successfully ending the ritual. After this, Rin can successfully call fire and manipulate it with ease. There is a wall in her mind now between her and the Phoenix.

That night, Rin asks Qara if Chaghan ever “dominates” their bond. Rin worries about erasing Kitay, but Qara thinks Rin can “trust [her]self to protect him” (427). Rin wonders if Qara and Chaghan, who are Naimads rather than Ketreyids, miss their home. Chaghan says the Ketreyids blame their mother for the Trifecta and treat the twins like “slaves” (428).

The next morning, the Sorqan Sira prepares them to leave, trusting that Rin will kill Daji. As Qara and Chaghan get ready to see Rin and Kitay off, they hear explosions from camp. They discover that the Hesperian missionaries have their arquebuses back and are killing Ketreyids. The Sorqan Sira tells Bekter to kill Augus before he kills Rin, and they realize Bekter gave them back their weapons in a coup. Bekter wants all shamans to die in revenge for Tseveri’s life. All the Ketreyids have secretly turned against the Sorqan Sira, thinking her too lenient on Naimads and Nikara.

Augus kills the Sorqan Sira. Qara jumps in front of Chaghan, taking a bullet for him. Rin kills Augus, and Bekter and his men ride away. Chaghan wants to die with Qara, but she thinks he is too important to die. She dissolves their anchor bond and dies alone. With the Sorqan Sira dead and Bekter chieftain, Chaghan goes to warn the Naimads.