Time's Assassin, page 1
part #3 of The Islevale Cycle Series
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Time’s Assassin
Book III of The Islevale Cycle
D.B. Jackson
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Contents
What Has Come Before
Untitled
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Glossary of Terms
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by D.B. Jackson
Falstaff Books
Friends of Falstaff
To Alex and Erin
With all the love in all the worlds I know What Has Come Before
TIME’S CHILDREN: Tobias Doljan, a Walker, born with the ability to journey back through time, is summoned from the Travelers’
Palace in Windhome, where he has lived since he was a boy, to the court of Sovereign Mearlan IV on the island of Daerjen.
The chancellor of the palace arranges passage for him to the royal city of Hayncalde aboard a merchant ship captained by Seris Larr. The night before he sails, his friend Mara, who is a Spanner, capable of crossing great distances in mere moments, speaks of wanting to follow him to Daerjen and then kisses him passionately before fleeing to the girls’ dormitory.
Droë, a Tirribin, has been watching. Tirribin, or time demons, appear as children but are lethal predators who feed on human
years and live for centuries. Because Walkers’ years are tainted by journeys through time, time demons do not prey on them. Droë and Tobias have developed an awkward friendship. But when Droë threatens to feed on Mara’s years, Tobias forbids her to do so, despite being powerless to stop her. They argue and part on poor terms. The following morning, after surviving an attack by a Belvora demon, Tobias sails for Daerjen.
His new home country fights dual wars with Oaqamar and Westisle privateers, and these wars go poorly. The sovereign, Mearlan, wants Tobias to go back in time to keep him from committing to the conflicts. This requires a Walk of nearly fourteen years, and, as Tobias explains to Mearlan, for every day he journeys through time, he ages that amount. After considering the stakes, however, Tobias agrees to make the Walk.
Quinnel Orzili and his beloved wife, Lenna, are Travelers—he a Spanner, she a Walker. They are also assassins employed by Pemin, the autarch of Oaqamar. They arranged the failed Belvora attack before Tobias’s journey, and a second unsuccessful attack on the boy the night he arrives in Daerjen. Now, Lenna follows Tobias back through the years and conspires with a younger Orzili to assassinate the sovereign.
The assassins who strike at Mearlan’s castle can Travel like Spanners, but do so clothed and bearing weapons, which shouldn’t be possible. They kill all of Mearlan’s family and ministers except Sofya and Tobias, who fights his way free and spirits the princess away from the castle. During the fight, his chronofor is broken. He cannot Walk to another time until he replaces or repairs it. The castle has been taken by soldiers of Sheraigh, Hayncalde’s bitter rival. And Tobias and Sofya are alone and helpless in the streets of Hayncalde.
Back at the Travelers’ Palace in Windhome, Mara wakes sensing that something with the world is not right. And, indeed, the palace is a bleaker place, patrolled now by Belvora demons and soldiers of Oaqamar. A different set of wars rage throughout Islevale. Spanners and Crossers are now the most valued Travelers; using what are called “tri- devices,” modified sextants and apertures, they can now Travel in groups, clothed and armed.
Droë, who has feelings for Tobias as well, approaches Mara and confirms that the disruption she senses is real. Time has changed because of what Tobias has done. In this new “misfuture,” Mara has no memory of Tobias, but though she is a Spanner, she also possesses abilities common to Walkers. Droë tells her that she and the boy were friends and more. Mara has to help him. She secures a chronofor and travels back fourteen years, intent on finding and aiding Tobias.
Tobias and Sofya are taken in by an older couple, who shelter the fugitives and treat Tobias’s injuries. But Orzili captures
Tobias, takes him to the castle dungeon, and tortures him, hoping to learn Sofya’s whereabouts. Agents of the Temple free Tobias from the dungeon and arrange passage for him and Sofya away from Daerjen. When assassins in Orzili’s employ thwart these plans, Tobias calls on two Tirribin, Maeli and Teelo, who help him kill the assailants. They lead Tobias and the princess to the Notch, a shadow city located along the shoreline.
Mara finds Droë in the past and confirms that she is in the right time, before Spanning to Daerjen seeking Tobias. After their conversation, Droë is intrigued by the idea that she might love Tobias, whom she has yet to meet. She seeks out Tresz, a Shonla, or mist demon, who carries her toward Daerjen.
Tobias seeks help from the Arrokad, Ujie. Like all of her kind, she is beautiful, capricious, and dangerous. She agrees to help Tobias in the future, for a price: an undetermined boon. Mara is taken hostage by Gillian Ainfor, a traitorous minister from Mearlan’s court, and her husband, the Binder, Bexler Filt. Tobias then encounters Gillian. Relieved to find her alive, he follows her to her shelter, where she and Filt turn weapons on him and demand that he hand over the princess. Tobias refuses. With help from Mara, he overpowers and disarms the couple. Gillian escapes and tells Orzili that Tobias and Sofya are in the Notch.
Tobias and Mara seek passage on a ship leaving Daerjen. Orzili and his trained assassins find them, and in the ensuing battle, Mara and Tobias wound Orzili, though not before he shoots Tobias and nearly kills Sofya.
Tobias survives and locates a younger Seris Larr, the captain who transported him from Windhome to Daerjen. She agrees to transport Tobias, Mara, and Sofya from Daerjen. As book I ends, they sail from the isle, knowing that Orzili and Sheraigh forces hunt for them.
TIME’S DEMON: The second Islevale book opens nearly two decades before the action described in book I.
Cresten Padkar, newly arrived in the Travelers’ Palace, is bullied into a fight with a group of older novitiates led by Jaer Tache. Tache beats the new boy bloody, but Cresten catches the older boy with a solid punch. Before Tache can retaliate, Cresten is rescued by Wink Wenikai, a senior novitiate whom everyone fears. She befriends Cresten.
Cresten meets Lenna Doen, who is a year ahead of him at the palace. The two of them spend much time together, and Cresten develops feelings for her. One night, they encounter Droë, the Tirribin, who is drawn by Lenna’s Walking ability. Droë, always fascinated by love, embarrasses Lenna and Cresten with a remark, undermining their budding romance.
Tache and Cresten have built a friendship, though Tache remains moody and strong-willed. When Cresten tells him of the Tirribin who ruined his romance, Tache, eager to treat with an Ancient, demands that Cresten arrange a meeting with Droë. Soon after, Tache spots Lenna and Droë speaking in the palace courtyard and forces Cresten to take him to them. Tache’s boorish behavior and poor treatment of Lenna offends Droë. The Tirribin attacks and kills Tache.
Twenty years later, Orzili returns to Hayncalde Castle bearing wounds from his fight with Tobias and Mara. He convinces the older Lenna Stenci to remain in this time and help him track Tobias. She has Walked back fourteen years and has refused Orzili’s romantic advances knowing that a younger version of herself waits for him in their home in Fanquir.
Orzili calls on Binder Filt to build him more tri-sextants.
Filt’s wife, Gillian, goes to see Orzili under the pretext of negotiating payment and delivery of the devices. She is desperate to be useful again, and to be independent of Filt. She offers her services to Orzili as a spy.
Lenna interrupts Orzili’s conversation with Gillian. She realizes it was the minister whose missive in her proper time ordered her back in time. The encounter disturbs her, and she decides abruptly to Walk back a few days more, to warn Orzili of Tobias’s escape from the dungeon. Preventing the boy’s escape, she reasons, will free her to return to her time, and to the older Orzili she loves. But upon Walking back this short time, she meets herself, and her thoughts shatter like glass.
Droë separates from Tresz. She feels restless and remains intrigued with the notion of human love and passion. She calls for Ujie and asks the Arrokad to bring her to adulthood. Ujie refuses, warning her of the dangers of what she contemplates, but she suggests that what Droë wants is possible.
Droë calls for another Arrokad, seeking a boon. Qiyed answers her summons and agrees to bring her to maturity with his magick. As payment, she will share her time sense with him and help him with commerce. Their arrangement remains vague. Though she questions his motives, she is impatient and desperate to change herself.
Over the next turn, Qiyed transforms her into a grown woman, but he withholds desire from her until she is indebted to him. He has bargained in bad faith, and sh e has submitted to an arrangement that will control her for years to come.
Back in Cresten’s time, blame for Tache’s death falls on Cresten and Lenna. Because Lenna is a Walker, valuable beyond measure to the palace, she largely escapes punishment. Cresten offers to leave in order to deflect blame from Lenna, about whom he still cares deeply. He convinces the chancellor to give him coin, a weapon, and a Bound sextant, and he finds shelter and work in the city of Windhome. There he comes under the tutelage of a scheming old innkeeper named Quinn, short for Quinnel Orzili.
Quinn puts Cresten to work Spanning for a smuggling ring. During one assignment, Cresten has a harrowing run-in with cut-throats.
Droë helps him, and they develop an unlikely friendship. When the smugglers murder Quinn and attack Cresten, the two of them kill the men. Cresten flees Windhome, taking Quinnel Orzili’s name as his own and seeking asylum in Milnos, where Wink has become the court Spanner.
Twenty years later, the crazed Lenna escapes Orzili and the other Lenna. Drawing on instincts she has honed over years, she kills a man and takes his money and blade. Orzili and his men search for her, but she evades the soldiers and bests Orzili in a fight on the strand. She returns to the castle and strikes a bargain with the other Lenna. She will remain with Orzili, whom neither of them loves. The other Lenna will return to her proper time fourteen years in the future.
After Sofya is nearly lost to slavers, Tobias, Mara, and the crew of Seris Larr’s Sea Dove sail Islevale’s seas seeking Bound chronofors to help them combat Orzili and his assassins. Belvora demons follow the ship to the Ring Isles where Tobias and Mara enlist the aid of a Shonla. Gillian Ainfor, now a spy for Orzili, hears of their search for devices and sends word to the assassin, suggesting a trap that will end their pursuit.
Still harried to Belvora, Tobias and Mara finally hear of Bound devices available near Westisle, where pirates are known to deal in such items. The Sea Dove heads in that direction.
Droë and Qiyed voyage together but their relationship is fraught with conflict. Qiyed controls her with threats, violence, and magick. Droë tests the limits of his power, and learns to combat it, though while they are at sea, she cannot risk fighting him.
When they sense Walkers nearby, she knows they have found Tobias, and sees an opportunity to escape the Arrokad.
Orzili, his assassins, and the Belvora attack the Sea Dove . Mara is shot. Tobias and Orzili fight to a stalemate. Mara calls for aid from the Shonla, but one of Orzili’s men kills the creature.
Its death cry draws Qiyed and Droë to the ship.
Qiyed wishes only to avenge the Shonla; Droë seeks to intervene in the larger battle. She overpowers him and throws off his control, taming and humiliating him. She still loves Tobias and considers harming Mara. She chooses instead to help them. She has
Qiyed take Orzili far away so that he can’t hurt Tobias. But Qiyed and Orzili scheme together to defeat the boy and punish Droë.
Sad and jealous, Droë cannot face Tobias for long. She leaves him and calls for Ujie. Tobias and Mara know they must leave the Sea Dove ; Orzili knows of the ship and of Captain Larr. They will find a new home, strike at the assassin, and end this conflict.
All they have is each other, and Sofya, whom they both love. But that may well be enough.
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30th Day of Sipar’s Settling, Year 633
They fall out of the gap onto a strand south of the Notch, flame-lit, the sand firmed by rain. Twelve of them in all. Orzili and his assassins, and eight uniformed Sheraighs from Hayncalde Castle.
Lenna has come from the future to warn him that he failed once at this. Hence the extra soldiers. Surely twelve should be enough to overpower a Walker and a princess. Tobias will not—cannot—escape him again.
The boy and a woman Orzili doesn’t know stand before them, grim and drenched. The woman raises a musket to her shoulder. Tobias trains his pistol on Orzili, his other arm cradling the infant princess to his chest. Firelight warms Tobias’s scarred face and glimmers in his eyes. Orzili senses that men and women gather around the fire behind him, closer than he would prefer. He doesn’t care.
“Good evening, Tobias,” he says, baring his teeth in a smile.
“We’ve been looking for you.” He raises his pistol. “Put down your weapons, or I’ll kill the princess.” He glances at the woman but senses that she won’t act without leave from Tobias.
“We won’t,” Tobias says. “Drop yours or we’ll kill you where you stand.”
“Brave words, but you’re outnumbered.”
“That doesn’t matter. We’re leaving here tonight, and I won’t let you stop us.”
Orzili laughs. “Leaving? Why should I care if you leave? I can track you anywhere. Don’t you understand that by now?” He gestures at the golden tri-sextants wielded by his assassins.
“With these devices, I can go anywhere I wish, armed and accompanied by soldiers. You won’t escape me again.” He flashes another grin at the woman. “He isn’t as pretty as he once was.
I’m sorry for that. Couldn’t be helped. Shall I tell you how he wept at the mere thought of being subjected to more torture?
Shall I tell you how he screamed and begged us for mercy?”
She casts a pitying look at Tobias but holds her musket steady.
“Give me the princess,” Orzili says to this boy in a man’s body.
“Or die. Those are your choices.”
Tobias says nothing.
“I can spare your companion. She need not die. The two of you can go free. Just give me the child. Everything else is negotiable.”
“No.”
“What do you think to gain?” Orzili asks. “As I’ve already said, we can find you anywhere.”
The woman’s musket booms. Tobias staggers, and the princess screams, flailing in his arms. Orzili can’t help but flinch as well.
Yet, only when he sees what she has shot does he recognize the danger. One of the tri-sextants lies on the wet sand, gleaming with firelight, dented, bent, useless. The assassin who held it rubs his hand. The woman has dropped her musket and produced from within her overshirt two pistols.
“You can’t follow us anywhere now,” she says.
Orzili levels his pistol at Tobias again. “That was foolish!”
“Actually,” the boy says with a grin, “I think it was bloody brilliant.”
The Sheraighs grip their weapons. Men and women near the fire shout. Orzili peers back at them. Many hurry in their direction.
Perhaps bringing uniformed soldiers was a mistake. This can’t end badly again.
“What are you waiting for?” he demands of the soldiers.
Before he can say more, the woman fires both her weapons. Two soldiers drop to the sand, both bleeding from chest wounds. She’s good.
Reports echo from the crowd behind him, and bullets whistle past.
The surviving soldiers dive to the sand, as do Orzili’s men.
Orzili roars his frustration.
Seeing Tobias hesitate, he raises his own pistol again and fires.
At the same time, Tobias wrenches away, seeking to shield the princess. The babe’s screams spiral into the night. Tobias cries out as well and collapses, still clutching her to him. Blood glistens on his sleeve.
Orzili’s assassins and the soldiers will fight off the rest. Or not. He is intent on killing the princess. He draws his dagger and throws himself onto Tobias and the child.
The woman screams a warning. More pistol fire crackles.
Orzili drives his blade toward Tobias’s face. The boy catches him by the wrist, fights him off. He’s stronger than Orzili would have guessed, but Orzili has the advantage. He forces the point of the knife closer to the boy’s eye. Tobias’s arms shake. He gives way, grudgingly, but inexorably.
Orzili hammers his free fist into the bloody bullet wound on Tobias’s arm.
The boy bellows but still holds fast to Orzili’s blade hand.
Orzili feels him reaching for something, pounds at the wound yet again. He pushes himself up and punches the boy in the face.
Tobias’s eyes glaze.
Orzili rears back for one final, killing thrust of his knife.
And agony sears his leg. The boy’s blade. Orzili roars, rolls away, the blade ripping his flesh. The pain redoubles, and he howls again. Tobias grabs for his pistol.
