Literature / The Bird King

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Written by G. Willow Wilson, The Bird King is a Historical Fantasy novel first published in 2019. Set during the reign of the last Sultanate of the Iberian Peninsula in 1491, it follows the story of Fatima and her friend Hassan as they make a daring bid for freedom — escaping from behind the walls of the Alhambra Palace and out of the clutches of The Spanish Inquisition with the help of the cantankerous jinn Vikram to forge their own path.

Born and raised in the Royal Harem, Fatima has never set foot outside the palace. She occupies a precarious position as the last Circassian concubine serving a Sultan of dwindling power and influence, afforded every luxury but freedom. Her only friend is the mapmaker Hassan, a man with a rare talent: Hassan can draw maps of places he's never seen, bending the shape of reality with a flourish of his pen. His magical gift has proven useful to the sultan’s armies in their faltering war with the rising tide of the newly formed Spanish Monarchy... and has entertained a bored Fatima (at least when the odd couple aren't spinning tales of the mythical King of Birds).

When representatives of The Catholic Monarchs arrive to negotiate the Sultan's surrender, Fatima unwittingly reveals Hassan's powers to one of their number — the sweet and mild mannered Luz, who serves as an unofficial deputy of The Spanish Inquisition. Too late Fatima realizes that Luz will see Hassan's gift as devil-craft and a threat to her Christian faith. In that moment Fatima decides she will do whatever it takes to save Hassan's life, even if it means turning her back on everything she's ever known.

But where can a fugitive concubine and a sorcerer wanted by the Spanish Inquisition even hope to run? Absconding from the palace with the help of a clever jinn and Hassan's Reality Warper powers, Fatima leads the trio on a daring trek across Iberia towards the sea and the promise of escape, pursued all the while by the Inquisition's agents. Even commandeering a ship (and kidnapping a pacifist Breton monk to help them sail it) only grants them temporary reprieve. In order to truly win their freedom Fatima and Hassan will have to accomplish the impossible, diving headfirst to a realm of fantasy and magic they've only ever told stories about.

Tropes in The Bird King:

• Barefoot Captives: As a bondswoman (i.e. slave, even a well treated one) in the Sultan's court, Fatima has never owned a pair of shoes (unless you count the slippers she might be permitted to wear when the weather gets cold). Hassan comments on this, and he ultimately has to lend her a pair of boots when they escape from the palace. Wearing Hassan's ill-fitting shoes while hiking across miles of hilly terrain causes Fatima to develop lots of painful blisters and slows down their progress.
• Beautiful Slave Girl: Circassian Beauty Fatima was raised in the lap of luxury in the Royal Harem as the bondswoman of Lady Aisha (mother to the Sultan) to become the Sultan's concubine. Fatima is incredibly beautiful, to the point that newcomers to the court will blatantly ask Lady Aisha where she bought her slave girl.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Downplayed — Fatima has dark hair, Hassan is a redhead (the unusual hair color comes from his Breton grandmother), and Gwennec is a blond.
• Born into Slavery: Fatima's Circassian Beauty mother was already pregnant when she was sold to the Royal Harem in the Alhambra; as a result Fatima was born in the harem and raised from birth to become another of the Sultan's concubines.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Zig-Zagged — Vikram and Azalel are ancient and very powerful jinn operating with Blue-and-Orange Morality when compared to humans. They've known each other for so long they call themselves siblings, but Azalel is very open about their intimacy.
  ''Vikram only talks about nonsense. We've known each other so long that neither of us can remember what we are, so brother and sister is what we call each other. We lie together sometimes, so perhaps we're really something else. Who can tell? When you've been alive a very, very long time, you learn to forget certain things."
• Circassian Beauty: Fatima's mother was a Circassian girl (specifically an Abzakh tribeswoman) sold into slavery and brought to the Alhambra as a concubine for the Sultan. Though the identity of Fatima's father is unknown, Fatima's own exceptional beauty is attributed specifically to her Circassian heritage.
  ''My mother was an Abzakh tribeswoman," she said. "From the mountains that border the black sea."
  Luz looked blank.
  "I'm Circassian," said Fatima.
  "Ah! Oh course you are. A real Circassian concubine! You're a very long way from your homeland."
  "I've never been there. I was born here, in the palace. My mother was pregnant when she was sold to the sultan. That's what they tell me, anyway."
  "Born into concubinage," said Luz, tilting her head back like a cat. "In the North, we have a hundred naughty songs about women like you."
• Comfort the Dying: Overlaps with Last Request and Deathbed Confession — Gwennec catches a spear in the side during the battle with the Inquisition's soldiers. He has no illusions that he's going to survive more than a few hours, even as Fatima and Hassan beg him to hold on and Deng tries to make him comfortable. Gwennec asks Luz (the woman who had declared Gwennec was in league with the devil for helping Fatima and Hassan, who tortured Hassan and tried to have Fatima executed) to hear his last confession, and she obliges.
• Continuity Cameo: Vikram the Vampire and his sister Azalel first appeared in G. Willow Wilson's 2012 novel Alif the Unseen, a cyberpunk adventure that takes place in the near future.
• Deathbed Confession: Of the religious variety — as part of his Last Request Gwennec asks for Luz to hear his final confession. Luz has no official religious power and can't absolve him of his sins; it is the act of confessing that is important to Gwennec. Fatima does not overhear his words, but she notes that Gwennec's confession make Luz smile, then cry.
• Defector from Decadence: With the threat of The Spanish Inquisition looming once the Sultan surrenders, Fatima fears that the church will learn about Hassan's powers and have him executed as a sorcerer. This is an unacceptable outcome for her only friend. Despite Luz's personal promise that Fatima could continue to live a life of luxury and comfort at the Spanish court after the surrender, Fatima turns her back on everything she's ever known (having never set foot outside the palace walls) to help Hassan escape. No more silk tunics and baths littered with rose petals prepared by servants, no more hot meals that appear whenever she wishes, no more soft cushions in perfumed gardens and no more safety behind the palace walls. When Hassan teases her for slowing their progress hiking through the wilderness, Fatima reminds him that the farthest she's ever walked in her life was from the Royal Harem to his workshop in the palace (and, as he was quick to point out, she has literally never owned a pair of real shoes).
• Divine Birds: A recurring motif in the story — trapped behind the palace walls during a siege, Fatima and Hassan have been retelling and re-imagining the story of "The King of Birds" to keep themselves entertained. When they escape from the inquisition they set out to locate the mythical island of Qaf where the King of Birds is waiting to be found. Once they find Qaf/ Antillia, Vikram helps Fatima to realize that she was always meant to become the King of Birds. She takes up the mantle to care for the "flock" of refugees that wash up on the shores of the magical island.
• Due to the Dead: The battle between the Inquisition's forces and the refugees of Qaf/ Antillia sees all of the Inquisition soldiers killed (mostly by the leviathan that Fatima convinces to interceded) and a third of the refugees dead. The survivors bury the dead near the center of the island where they're sure the land won't magically shift around and destroy the graves. Luz is asked to recite Christian funeral prayers over the graves, since all of the Inquisition soldiers and some of the deceased refugees (like Gwennec) were Christian. Hassan recites the janazah.
  "There are graves to dig," pressed Deng. "Our duties to our friends don't end in death."
• Fingore: When Fatima and Hassan are captured in Marbella, Luz tortures Hassan by pushing thin metal blades under his fingernails. Fatima is equal parts fascinated and disgusted by the implements, believing an artisan must have created them for the specific purpose of hurting others (and recognizing that Luz picked them out specifically to hurt Hassan psychologically as well as physically, as he can't draw maps without the use of his hands).
• Friends Turned Romantic Rivals: Downplayed — Hassan develops a crush on Gwennec, but Gwennec doesn't reciprocate Hassan's feelings due to Incompatible Orientation. Hassan shares his frustration with Fatima. Fatima has Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex with Gwennec, but she doesn't feel romantic love for him. Hassan tells Fatima he's upset that she could easily have what he wants (a relationship with Gwennec), but she doesn't seem to care about it.
• Gilded Cage: The Alhambra is the most gorgeous, well-appointed palace in all the Sultan's domain... but it's still a prison if one isn't allowed to leave. Fatima was born in the Royal Harem and raised since birth to serve as the Sultan's concubine. She has always lived in the lap of luxury, but she is well aware that she's allowed no agency in her future and has and no more rights than a piece of property.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Discussed — Fatima and Gwennec have sex on the boat after narrowly escaping the Spanish Inquisition at Marbella.
  "But I've come to realize that I must share God with the things that God has set askew."
  ..."Am I one of those things to you now? Something askew?"
  "You?" Gwennec's eyes widened. "Because we had a tumble once, after you'd saved my life and we were all giddy to be alive? I'm as askew as you are, if that's true, and more so, seeing as you've broken no vows. Lord, Fa, if I told you what sins some men drag with them, even monks—especially monks, I sometimes think. We oughtn't to have done it and we won't do it again, but it was so lovely that I haven't even repented of it yet, because I'd be lying if I said I was filled with remorse. I'm waiting until I can muster some proper humility."
• Here There Be Dragons: One of Hassan's first maps (kept in the Sultan's private quarters) includes a drawing of a sea serpent to fill the otherwise empty expanse of "the Dark Sea" (i.e. the Atlantic Ocean). When Fatima, Hassan, and Gwennec make it to Qaf/ Antillia, they find the island is already inhabited by the leviathan from Hassan's map. It's implied that the creature from the drawing came to life because of Hassan's powers.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Fatima, Hassan, and Gwennec argue about who is going to ram their pursuers with the cog while the other two cling to a barrel and hope the tides float them towards Qaf/ Antillia. Fatima gets Gwennec to help her tie Hassan to the barrel, then she tricks Gwennec into going overboard with Hassan while she steers the cog into a head-on collision. She only survives the shipwreck because Vikram shows up to drag her out of the sea.
    Fatima: If you get away, it's not suicide. If we all die, it's just silliness and dramatics.
  • When it is decided that "leaving the door open" to Qaf/ Antillia is too dangerous and that someone must destroy Hassan's map, Hassan and Fatima argue about who should be the one to leave the island and "close the door." Whoever takes on the task will need to sail away from the island; once they destroy the map they'll be stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Hassan argues that he created the map that allows Qaf/ Antillia to exist and be found, ergo he should be the one to destroy it and make the island un-findable. Fatima argues that she needs to fulfill her responsibility as King by protecting her subjects. In the end it's Luz who insists on taking the job, rowing out into the Atlantic Ocean in a tiny boat with barely enough provisions for a week. Even if she didn't destroy the map, she would still die on the waters and the map would be lost to the Inquisition.
• Historical Fantasy: The story is set in 1491 during the reign of the last sultanate in the Iberian peninsula as the Sultan prepares to surrender to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Some exceedingly rare humans display magical powers and a handful of secretive supernatural creatures (like jinn and sea serpents/ leviathans/ dragons) are thrown in, all of them dealing with the fallout of the Spanish Reconquista and the encroaching Inquisition.
• Kiss of Life: Overlaps with Underwater Kiss — When Fatima rams the cog into one of the pursuing carracks, both of the boats shatter and sink. Fatima nearly drowns in the wreck but Vikram saves her. He uses his jinn powers to breath air into her lungs as he drags her from the depths of the ocean back to the surface.
  Too wet down here, came a bright-dark voice. Not enough air, or not enough for you, at any rate.
  A mouth closed over her own, gently.
  Breathe, said the voice.
  Fatima breathed. The mouth withdrew; she sputtered water.
  All right, now stop breathing. Little idiot! Do I have to explain everything?
  Fatima's lungs ached. She reached out blindly, clawing at the dark water.
  More? You are a persistent creature.
  Warmth encircled her; lips pressed against hers again, coaxing her mouth open. Fatima gasped and gasped, thirsty for air.
• Language of Magic: Zig-Zagged — Vikram suspects that Hassan's Reality Warper powers come from an innate understanding of the "language spoken by the angels and the beasts and the jinn before the birth of humankind. Incorruptible knowledge." He cites Hassan's extensive childhood synesthesia as proof, since knowledge of the language allows humans to sense and manipulate the connections between things. Hassan expresses his powers not through language or incantations, but by drawing maps that alter the fabric of reality around him.
• Last Request: Gwennec catches a spear in the side during the battle with the Inquisition's soldiers. He knows he's dying even as Fatima and Hassan beg him to hold on. His last requests are for someone to read the Rite of Committal when he is buried, and for Luz to hear his last confession.
• Little People Are Surreal: Zig-Zagged — one of the first refugees Fatima and Hassan meet on Qaf is a Mary, a woman with dwarfism — she and her companion Deng were blamed for the troubles on their sailing ship (for being "very short" and "very black," respectively) and decided to escape in a shore boat before their crew mates turned violent. Mary is a kindly, cheerful woman who worked as a laundress before she washed up on Qaf, but her presence on the island serves to reinforce the surreal qualities of the place. The supernatural creatures of the island take a liking to her (moreso than Gwennec or Deng or Hassan, or any other refugee with standard proportions) possibly because of her dwarfism.
• Love Triangle: Zig-Zagged — Hassan has a crush on Gwennec, and he confesses this to Fatima because they're best friends who share these sorts of secrets. Hassan knows that Gwennec does not reciprocate his crush due to Incompatible Orientation. Fatima has spur-of-the-moment sex with Gwennec, but she doesn't feel romantic love towards him. Fatima's strongest emotional bond with anyone in the world is Hassan (her Platonic Life Partner), but her casual intimacy with Gwennec upsets Hassan because he can't have that. Fatima is upset because her best friend Hassan is upset. To top it all off, Gwennec is a monk who considers himself to be in a spiritual marriage with the church — in his mind, the encounter with Fatima was an act of adultery he'll need to repent for.
• Magic Map: Hassan's Reality Warper powers are expressed through his maps — with a few lines of charcoal and ink on paper he can create secret passages under an enemy's town, build towers out of thin air for Fatima to climb, and even fold space between doorways to make shortcuts through the palace. It's almost impossible to find his creations without holding one of his magical maps, and the spaces created by with his maps disappear once the paper they're drawn on is torn up — or more accurately, the pocket dimensions and wormholes might still exist once the map that leads to them is destroyed (as is the case with Qaf/ Antillia), but it is impossible to cross over from reality into the magically created space once the map is gone.
• The Navigator: Overlaps with Reality Warper — Hassan is never lost because of his magical map-making abilities. He can create maps of places he's never been and these maps are never wrong because his powers will warp the location depicted to match his drawings.
• Our Genies Are Different: Jinn are ancient creatures who can use magic to shapeshift, to move unseen, to travel through liminal spaces that humans can't normally access, to see the future, and to heal. They operate under comparatively Blue-and-Orange Morality compared to humans, but have a strong sense of debt and obligation:
  • Vikram most often takes the form of a mangy dog with sulfurous yellow eyes, though at times he looks like a wolfish man or a werewolf. He claims that he already knows when and how he'll die, and he has healing powers that he uses to close the wound on Fatima's face after the shipwreck. He has been indebted to Lady Aisha for decades because he once stole her jeweled slippers, and it's under Lady Aisha's orders he accompanies Fatima and Hassan on their escape.
  • Azalel, Vikram's sister, is described as looking like a beautiful woman with blue skin, ivory claws, and a double row of teeth like shards of glass. She likes to collect beautiful things and offers to make Fatima part of her collection.
  • Jinn who show up on Qaf/ Antillia have a wide variety of forms when they appear before the humans. One looks like a frog standing on two legs, another resembles a small bat, some look like slender walking trees, still another looks like a pillar of blue flame.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Fatima and Hassan are best friends, or perhaps the only true friend either of them has ever had. Fatima doesn't care that Hassan keeps male lovers or has incredible Reality Warper powers, and Hassan doesn't care that Fatima is the Sultan's concubine. They choose companionship with each other over any other person in the world.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Refugees who wash up on Qaf/ Antillia come from many cultures. The only thing they have in common is that all were victims of persecution who miraculously found their way to the island instead than drowning. They include:
  • Fatima, Hassan, and Gwennec, who first found the island. Hassan's Reality Warper powers created the island as the trio went on the run from the Spanish Inquisition (or, as is the case with Gwennec, were kidnapped by a fugitive concubine and a heretical homosexual sorcerer and press-ganged into helping them escape).
  • Mary and Deng, a washerwoman with dwarfism and a doctor from Timbuktu. The pair were blamed for the troubles on their ship and escaped in a shore boat before their crew mates could turn violent.
  • Sona, a Romani woman who fled in a rowboat on the Black Sea when her family's caravan was attacked by Ottoman soldiers.
  • Asher and his younger brothers, a quartet of traumatized children who arrived on a barely floating raft.
  • Religious refugees from Spain cast out by the new Spanish monarchy.
  • Jinn show up on the island too, drawn there by the magic of the place.
  • Even a handful of mercenaries who served in hopeless conflicts arrive on the shores of the island.
• Reality Warper: Overlaps with Rewriting Reality — Hassan has the ability to change the topography of the world around him by sketching out those changes on a piece of paper. He generally uses his ability to create doors, rooms, and hallways where there were none before. Hassan's doors can fold space in on itself and create shortcuts from one side of the palace to the other. The shortcuts exist so long as the paper they're drawn on remains intact — once the the paper is torn up, the passage disappears. The sultan uses Hassan's powers to make secret tunnels under an enemy's fortifications. His powers aren't limited to architectural cheats, as he discovers he can make caves and paths appear in the wilderness so long as he can sketch them out. Hassan later uses his talents to create an island in the middle of the ocean, and it is implied that one of his earliest maps gave life to a massive sea serpent that was included as a bit of decoration out in the open ocean.
• Redemption Equals Death: When the refugees on Qaf/ Antillia are trying to decide who must make the suicidal journey away from the island to destroy the map (thereby "closing the door" and preventing the Inquisition from ever finding and hurting them again), Luz volunteers to go. This is her way of making amends after leading the Inquisition's pursuit of Fatima and Hassan and causing Gwennec's death.
• Rewriting Reality: Overlaps with Reality Warper, see previous.
• Royal Harem: Within the walls of the Alhambra are the perfumed gardens of the royal harem. This wing plays host to the quarters of Sultan's wives, mother, female servants... and his concubine Fatima. Fatima's mother was also a concubine; Fatima herself was was Born into Slavery in the harem and has never left the palace. Due to budgetary issues caused by the ongoing war with Spain, the Sultan has had to sell off all his other concubines apart from Fatima. When representatives of the Spanish Monarchy arrive to negotiate the Sultan's surrender, the women in the retinue are given rooms in the harem to sleep in.
• Sex Slave: Fatima was Born into Slavery in the Sultan's harem, raised to be one of his concubines and first sent to his bed when she was fifteen years old. Her Circassian Beauty mother was sold into slavery in the very same harem and died not long after Fatima's birth. Although she has lived a life of comfort and security within the walls of the Alhambra, Fatima is conscious of the fact that she has no true freedom. Her luxurious lifestyle and personal safety are ensured only so long as she pleases the Sultan.
• She Is the King: Fatima takes up the mantle of "King of Birds" after arriving on Qaf/ Antillia.
• A Sinister Clue: Zig-Zagged — Hassan is left-handed. Luz and the Inquisition view this as another clue that he's in league with the devil (as if the fact that he is Muslim, has Reality Warper powers, and a stated preference for male lovers weren't enough to condemn him). When Luz tortures Hassan, she does so by jamming metal blades under the nails of his dominant hand.
• Sleep Cute: Fatima, Hassan, and Gwennec share a bunk in the cog. There are four berths to choose from (so no "there was only one bed" situation) but sharing a bunk is warmer and more comforting after all they've been through. The trio had set up a system so that two people could crew the ship while the third gets some sleep, but after Hassan folds space between their location and Qaf/ Antillia (causing the ship dropped into a pocket dimension with no landmarks to navigate by, no wind to catch, and no waves to be wary of) the three snuggle up and get some well-earned rest.
• Southpaw Stigma: Hassan is left-handed. Fatima and the Sultan are not bothered by this, but Luz and the inquisition view this as another mark against him to justify persecuting him (he is also Muslim, a sorcerer, and has a preference for men). When he is captured, Luz makes the torture really hurt by jamming metal blades under the nails of his dominant hand.
• Taking You with Me: With the Inquisition's gunships firing on the cog and the island of Qaf/ Antillia so close, Fatima tricks Hassan and Gwennec into tying themselves to a barrel so they can float to safety while she turns their damaged vessel back into battle and rams the nearest carrack. She attempts a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure their survival and nearly drowns as the two ships collide and sink. Fatima only lives because Vikram returns to rescue her from the water.
• Tastes Like Purple: When discussing the nature of Hassan's Reality Warper powers, Vikram correctly guesses that Hassan experienced synesthesia as a child. Hassan recalls how numbers seemed to him to have clear genders and loud sounds would appear to him as brightly colored patterns. Vikram takes this as evidence that Hassan's powers stem from an innate understanding of the Language of Magic, which can illuminate the connections between all things in the world.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Subverted and then Played Straight — Fatima has never so much as thrown a punch in her life and certainly never practiced throwing knives, so her first desperate attempt at throwing one results in the blade bounce harmlessly off their attacker's armor. When Hassan tells her to grip the knife by the blade before she throws, she manages to land a perfect shot through the eye slit in the helmet's visor and bring down their attacker.
• Translator Microbes: Being on Qaf allows every character to understand any language spoken by every other character. When Gwennec prays in Latin, Fatima and Hassan (raised in Muslim Iberia, speaking Castillian and Sabir) can understand the words. When Deng recites the names of medicinal herbs in his mother tongue, Mary (a washerwoman from England) knows exactly what he's saying.
  At night, they sang. It was in singing that they realized they had no common language: Hassan wondered aloud how Mary had come to know songs in Arabic, and she told him, baffled, that she was singing in the language of her own damp corner of Cornwall. Deng lapsed into his mother tongue without thinking as he taught them rounds learned in childhood on the red plains below the Nile, yet Fatima understood him just the same; Gwennec tried Latin and then Breton and sounded as he always had.
• Underwater Kiss: Overlaps with Kiss of Life, see above.
• Witch Hunt: Luz works for The Spanish Inquisition to root out heretics and sorcerers. When she discovers Hassan's Reality Warper powers, she immediately believes them to be the work of the devil and becomes obsessed with capturing and killing him — handing over Hassan to the Inquisition is even written into the terms of the Sultan's surrender. Fatima is determined to protect Hassan from Luz and prompts him to escape from the palace.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Time passes oddly on Qaf/ Antillia. When it seems like Fatima, Hassan, and Gwennec have been there for some time (four months according to Gwennec, not more than ten weeks according to Hassan) they find Luz and Stupid (the horse) washed up on the beach, alive and looking like they only just fell overboard. Luz and Stupid were lost in the same wreck that destroyed the cog when Fatima, Hassan, and Gwennec first found the island months ago.
  "Time isn't passing properly here the way it is in the rest of the world," she said. "Luz and the horse—they went into the water at the same time Gwennec and Hassan and I did. Weeks have gone by here, or months even, but only moments have passed in the world we left."
  Mary considered this for a moment and then lifted her chin.
  "That's not so bad," she said stoutly. "Is it? It's the sort of thing you expect from an enchanted island. Avalon was said to be the same way, in the mists, with the High King waiting young as ever."
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: Time passes oddly on Qaf/ Antillia. After a few months on the island, Hassan admits to Fatima that he's been talking with the other refugees who have washed up on shore. One of the refugees describes leaving Spain some two years after the capture of the Alhambra. From Hassan and Fatima's point of view, they've only been gone from the Alhambra for a few months.
  "There's a fellow here," said Hassan quietly, addressing the boot. "A Jew from Córdoba. He says the Spanish have issued a proclamation ordering all Jews out of Iberia. His family boarded a ferry to Morocco that overturned in bad weather. That's how he got here."
  Fatima felt sweat break out on her upper lip and dashed it away with the back of her hand.
  "And?"
  "When we left, you and I, I mean, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had issued no such proclamation. The man says—Fa, he says he left Spain two years after the fall of Granada."