Thieves' Quarry (The Thieftaker Chronicles)
Page 33
Diver shook his head. “You asked me to do some work for you. I knew the risks.” He grinned, winced, and lifted a hand to his black and blue jaw. “Anyway, it was fun until Osborne started using me as an anvil.”
“Well, speaking of working for me,” Ethan said, pulling out Hutchinson’s pouch of gold. “This is the ten pounds I earned for finding the Osborne sisters. Hutchinson gave it to me today. I believe half of it is yours.”
“Half?” Diver said, looking like he might argue. Instead he shrugged. “All right. Half it is.”
Ethan laughed and placed a pile of coins in his friend’s outstretched palm. Diver wrapped his fingers around the money, a contented smile on his face. Even five pounds, though, wasn’t enough to overcome the young man’s weariness. He lay back against his pillow and closed his eyes.
“I’ll let you rest,” Ethan said.
“Aye, all right.” Before Ethan could leave, though, Diver looked at him again. “Say, Ethan, can you do me a favor?”
“Of course.”
Diver’s face reddened and he wouldn’t quite look Ethan in the eye. “I haven’t gotten word to Deborah that I’m all right. And I think she might be worried about me. Could you let her know that I’m here?”
“I’ll go to her right away.”
“Thank you,” Diver said. He lay back once more, still clutching the coins in his hand.
Ethan went back down to the tavern, where Kannice waited for him.
“Is he all right?” she asked.
“I think he’s fine,” Ethan told her. “He wants me to go find his girl and tell her where he is.”
Kannice’s expression soured. “I might have to start charging him for that room.”
“You should,” Ethan said, striding to the door. “He’s got some money now.”
“And what about you, Mister Kaille,” she asked. “Will you be staying here tonight as well?”
“That was my plan.”
“Well, go on then,” she said, smiling once more and shooing him from the tavern. “They sooner you’re gone, the sooner you’re back.”
Ethan held her gaze, lingering in the doorway.
“Go,” she said, mouthing the word, her cheeks flushed, the blue of her eyes as deep as an autumn sky.
Ethan nodded, grinned. And buttoning his coat, he stepped out once more into the cool New England air.
Historical Note
Writing historical urban fantasy demands that an author strike a balance between fictional elements and known history. The central premises of the Thieftaker books, that thieftakers and conjurers were active in the American colonies, are not true. Thieftakers were known in England at this time, and they made a brief appearance in the fledgling United States in the early nineteenth century. But there were no thieftakers in Boston in the 1760s. Sephira Pryce and Ethan Kaille have no direct, real-world counterparts. As for the magic … well, you can make up your own mind about that.
The other historical elements of the novel, however, are largely accurate. The occupation of Boston by British troops began at the end of September in 1768, after a summer of unrest, precipitated by the seizure in June of John Hancock’s ship, Liberty. The search for quarters for General Gage’s soldiers provoked a good deal of controversy and concern throughout the city. The fleet that carried the troops to Boston from Halifax did include HMS Launceston, HMS Bonetta, and HMS Senegal. I added the Graystone for the purposes of this book.
In writing this novel and others in the Thieftaker series, and interweaving my fictional characters and storylines with actual events, I have consulted a number of scholarly sources, as well as documents from the pre-Revolutionary period. A partial list of my sources for this and other Thieftaker books and stories—along with a good deal of other information—can be found at my website: www.dbjackson-author.com.
Acknowledgments
I have a good many people to thank for their help on this novel.
John C. Willis, Ph.D., Professor of United States History at Sewanee, the University of the South, again proved an invaluable resource as I delved into Colonial history, answering questions and steering me toward sources.
Christopher M. McDonough, Ph.D., Professor of Classical Languages at Sewanee, served once more as my Latin translator, turning my odd incantations into spells that sound truly magical. He also shared with me his vast knowledge of Boston and its environs.
Dr. Robert D. Hughes, Professor of Systematic Theology at the School of Theology of the University of the South, has taught me more than I ever thought I might need to know about Anglican clergy in the eighteenth century.
Dr. Richard Archer generously responded to my written questions about the 1768 occupation with an email that was friendly and deeply detailed.
Also a word of thanks to the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library for allowing us to use the map of Boston that appears at the front of the book. I am especially grateful to Catherine T. Wood, the Center’s office manager, for locating the map.
As always, any mistakes that remain despite their efforts on my behalf are entirely my own.
My wonderful agent, Lucienne Diver, not only sold the Thieftaker books, she also offered enormously helpful editorial feedback on this novel. The dedication is small thanks for all that she has done for me over our years together. I’m grateful as well to Deirdre Knight, Jia Giles, and the other great people at the Knight Agency.
James Frenkel, my editor at Tor, has edited every book I’ve ever published. He is not only an insightful and perceptive reader, he is also a terrific friend. Thanks as well to his assistants, Kayla Schwalbe and Gayle Cottrill, each of whom in her turn helped shepherd the project, and his intern, Katherine Busalacchi, for her help.
I’m also deeply grateful to publisher Tom Doherty, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, art director Irene Gallo and her staff, Cassie Ammerman, Leah Withers, Diana Pho, and all the other great people at Tor Books. And I want to thank Terry McGarry; who again did an excellent job copyediting the book.
Deepest thanks to my colleagues at the Magical Words blogsite (magicalwords.net): Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, C. E. Murphy, A. J. Hartley, Carrie Ryan, Kalayna Price, John Hartness, Mindy Klasky, and Diana Pharaoh Francis, and also to Charles Coleman Finlay, Kat Richardson, Blake Charlton, Kate Elliott, Eric Flint, Mary Robinette Kowal, Alethea Kontis, Stephen Leigh, Lynn Flewelling, Joshua Palmatier, Stuart Jaffe, Edmund Schubert, and Patricia Bray, all of whom have helped to shape this series in one way or another through emails, online exchanges, and the occasional conversation over beer.
Finally, I want to thank my wife and daughters, who are the most important people in my life. Their love and laughter are more powerful than any conjuring I’ve ever written into a book.
ETHAN KAILLE NOVELS BY D. B. JACKSON FROM TOR BOOKS
Thieftaker
Thieves’ Quarry
About the Author
D. B. Jackson is the award-winning author of thirteen fantasy novels, many short stories, and the occasional media tie-in. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. He has a master’s degree and Ph.D. in U.S. history, which have come in handy as he has written the Thieftaker novels and short stories. He and his family live in the mountains of Appalachia.
Visit him at www.dbjackson-author.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THIEVES’ QUARRY
Copyright © 2013 by D. B. Jackson
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Chris McGrath
Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library
Edited by James Frenkel
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of To
m Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Jackson, D. B.
Thieves’ quarry / D.B. Jackson. — First edition.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2762-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4299-4395-6 (e-book)
1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Boston (Mass.)—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3610.A347T488 2013
813’.6—dc23
2013006322
e-ISBN 9781429943956
First Edition: July 2013