It has been 15 years since the country of Tianjia was splintered into three smaller kingdoms, each with a powerful warlord in control. In those years, the culture of the Three Kingdoms have grown further and further apart. While there has been an uneasy alliance between the kingdoms, war is about to be declared as Ximing claims it struggles under the current truce and Anlia feels the need to put Ximing in its place. With the call to war started, so does conscription and men from all around Anlia are called in to be trained and sent to fight the Ximing army.
Hai Meilin is an 18 year old woman whose father is an opium addict and whose mother died by drowning under mysterious circumstances some years ago. Meilin doesn't see a very bright future for herself. She is about to be married off to a man who beats his staff and sees that she will soon move from the roof of one tyrannical man to another. Desiring just a bit more freedom, Meilin joins the army claiming to be Hai Ren, her father's illegitimate son.
Meilin realizes that if she is ever discovered, she will find herself in a worse position than married to an abusive husband. If her secrets come to light, Meilin will be executed, but she can't help but feel like she actually belongs for the first time in her life.
Unfortunately, Meilin starts off at a deficit to most of the other trainees. While she has a lot of experience in kung fu, thanks to her uncle's teachings, those lessons (as well as her control over her qi) do not make her an expert at the sword or bow. While the rest of her squad sleeps soundly at night after a hard day's work, Meilin stays up late practicing.
These late night solo training sessions quickly catch the eye of Prince Liu Sky, Meilin's commander. Prince Sky suffers from insomnia and soon joins Meilin and during their nightly training, the two quickly become friends. Of course, Prince Sky has no idea of Meilin's true identity, but the disguised woman can't help but recall the brief encounter the two of them had just before she joined the army.
If all Meilin had to deal with was training for war and hiding her true identity to her teammates, then she could probably handle herself. Unfortunately, since the night she left her father's house, she has started having strange visions and a voice in her head from a magical sea dragon named Qinglong. Meilin knows the myth of Qinglong, as well as the other four magical beasts, a phoenix, a tortoise and a tiger, but she doesn't believe in any of that superstitious nonsense. In fact, since Tianjia was split into three kingdoms, any talk of such superstitious matters was outlawed and deemed black magic in Anlia. That means the only rational answer must be that she is starting to go mad just like her mother did all those years ago. She did, after all, claim to have a powerful spirit living in her ear. This new voice in her head sounds too close to her mother's sickness for comfort.
Needless to say, Meilin isn't going mad and she really does have a godly magical beast talking to her and pushing her to do things with her budding magical abilities. Qinglong warns Meilin that the Ximing army is led by a man who has a similar bond with a similar mythological creature, the phoenix Zhuque. As it turns out, the rumors of unnatural fires spreading across the south are the result of Zhuque's influence. So, if Meilin has any chance of surviving the upcoming events, she is going to have to work hard to master the gifts that the sea dragon is letting her access.
Meilin's journey isn't a straight one. The Night Ends with Fire will have her seeing the war from multiple perspectives and, as her abilities grow, she will have to use her friendship with Sky to guide his men where they need to be. She will stumble, she will fall, and she will find herself deceived by those around her. With each new twist, Meilin will have to learn who she can trust and try to figure out the machinations behind those around her if she is going to have any hope of surviving the war. I will say, The Night Ends with Fire has a solid ending, but it wasn't exactly one I was expecting. I wouldn't call it a twist, per se, but the way the entire book wraps up does a good job of subverting expectations. While it's clear that The Night Ends with Fire is a one-and-done, I will gladly follow K. X. Song in more adventures, especially if they continue to focus on Chinese fantasy like this book did.
