All This Twisted Glory

This section amps up the horror and Gothic strains in the novel, with Cyrus’s meeting with Iblees filled with vivid, graphic imagery, such as a large, talking spider, a never-ending stairway and a cave turned into catacombs via curtains of charred human flesh. Surrealist in tone, the depiction of the cave is filled with symbols of duress and danger, such as a jagged precipice, eerie darkness, and a bottomless fall. The precipice on which Cyrus walks is a symbol of living in the moment: Like a tightrope walker, Cyrus must focus only on the next step. Dwelling on fear will make him fall, as it has done before, breaking his body. Thus, the torment is a metaphor for life itself, where one must exist only in the now to survive, rather than dwelling on the past or future.

Though Iblees is sometimes depicted in corporeal form in Islamic art, in the novel Cyrus experiences the devil only as a whisper. Alizeh too hears Iblees’s voice often, which sets her up as the counterpart to Cyrus. In the cave section, Iblees speaks to Cyrus in childish, circular riddles, agitating the king. For instance, he tells Cyrus: “Soon they’ll come together / And she will choose / And you will lose / To a clod tied to a feather” (62). The allusion here is to Alizeh ostensibly choosing Kamran, since Kamran summoned Simorgh with her feather. Iblees insinuates Cyrus will lose Alizeh to torture the king. However, the text suggests that this is not a prophecy, since Alizeh’s affection for Cyrus is only growing. Thus, Iblees’s words are neither true nor invincible: They are potential lies meant to agitate and confuse. The rhyming riddles and Iblees’s third-person reference to himself as “the jester” indicate that tormenting Cyrus is a game for him. This is further underscored by his infantilizing references to humans as “[c]lay girls and boys / my favorite toys” (62).

The Cyrus-Iblees encounter illustrates the theme of The Complicated Cost of the Devil’s Bargain. Arguably, Cyrus’s actions, such as his abduction of Alizeh, are not a matter of his choice, since reneging on his promise to the devil would have undisclosed but disastrous consequences. Further, the meeting with his father suggests that Cyrus made the deal at his father’s urging. At the same time, however, making the bargain with the devil was arguably Cyrus’s choice, despite Reza’s influence. In Islamic tradition, both Iblees and humans operate from free will, accepting or rejecting sin by their own choices. By showing Cyrus’s conundrum, the text suggests that there is a complex interplay between one’s context and free will, with choices not always as simple as they seem. The connection between Cyrus’s deal with Iblees and his father’s influence also reinforces the theme of Cultural Heritage as a Source of Power and Conflict. On one hand, Reza’s influence reinforced his kingdom’s continued power and sovereignty, benefiting Cyrus by ensuring his power would continue. On the other hand, the deal also ensure that Cyrus’s agency over his own life and decisions would be severely limited and that he would experience a great deal of physical and emotional pain.

The devil’s bargain or the deal with the devil is a common motif in world culture and literature. Often, a human sells their soul to the devil in return for a great prize, though the prize ends up a double-edged sword. For instance, in Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1592), the titular character gets great magical powers from the devil Mephistopheles for 24 years, but at the end of that period, pays for these powers by being carried screaming to Lucifer’s Hell. In Mafi’s series, kings like Zaal and Reza accept Iblees’s offers of immortality and power only to meet ignoble fates. Reza warns Cyrus that no one has ever won a bet against the devil.

Chapters 7 through 10 build the subplot of the romantic triangle between Kamran, Alizeh, and Cyrus, emphasizing how Alizeh is moving away from the Ardunian, Prince Kamran. Though Alizeh is happy to see Kamran and still finds him exceptionally handsome, she is appalled that he would ever think she left Ardunia on dragon-back of her own volition. Alizeh feels betrayed by Kamran’s lack of trust in her, and frets that “her good deeds had gone so quickly uncredited” (85) by Kamran. Alizeh’s waning interest in Kamran suggests that her initial attraction to him has not matured into love. Though Kamran admires and desires Alizeh, he doubts her loyalty toward him. Further, Kamran disregards Alizeh’s counsel to drop arms against Cyrus. Instead, he shoots recklessly at Cyrus, injuring Alizeh in the process. Kamran’s shooting of Alizeh symbolizes a vital break in their relationship.

Mafi uses lush, hyperbolic language to describe Cyrus’s feelings for Alizeh, emphasizing their otherworldly quality. For instance, when Cyrus senses Alizeh is near, he “didn’t need to turn to see her, for Alizeh lived always in luxury behind his eyes” (94). Cyrus’s overwhelming feelings for Alizeh and the fact that Alizeh endangers herself to save him from Kamran illustrate the theme of The Redemptive Power of Love.