Zane Halloway: Omnibus Edition

by P. T. Hylton

  The king smiled when he saw Lily. “Abditus Rhodes! Come! Sit with us.”

  She hesitated, then made the formal bow required and sat down at the table.

  King Edward said, “We have to leave shortly. We’re meeting with King Richard in Harken. But I wanted to talk to you first.”

  Lily raised an eyebrow. There could only be one reason for meeting with the Taveller king away from both their camps. “You’re negotiating a treaty, Your Majesty?”

  The king nodded. “Richard is as anxious to see this thing ended as we are. No one wants another day like yesterday. So we’ll meet, and we’ll each make a few trade concessions to save face. We’ll probably end up giving those damn Craggish rights of passage through Opel on trade routes. But we all want the same thing.” He paused for a moment.”I was very sorry to hear about Zane.”

  Anger leapt up inside Lily. He’d sent assassins to kill Zane, and now they were suddenly on a first name basis? “Are you?” she asked, and instantly regretted her lack of poise.

  The king met her eyes. “I am. I came to understand something about Zane yesterday. He was the type of man who did what he believed to be right regardless of the consequences. He trusted his own moral compass, and that’s a rare quality. I believe, in other circumstances, he would have been a good Sword. Maybe a great one.” He raised his mug. “Let’s drink to Zane Halloway.” He then did just that, apparently not noticing that Lily didn’t have a mug.

  He wiped the foam from his beard and set down his mug. He was serious when he spoke again. “Lily, I’m going to be honest with you. We are in a bad way. The advisor I trusted most was a traitor. The Abditus Society has been scheming against the crown for who-knows-how-long. We have to dismantle it. Rebuild it. What happened with the Pruits is proof the abditus had their fingers in the Ferox Society, so there’s work to be done there, as well. The Army is depleted. Even after we declare a truce, relations with both our neighbors will be tense for some time to come. The King’s Guard lost over half its men. And we have no Sword and no Shadow.”

  Lily could see where this was going. The king was going to offer her a position. Whether it would be in his court or as a stooge in his newly restructured Abditus Society, she did not know. Neither seemed very appealing.

  “It is indeed a difficult position,” she allowed. “There is much work to be done.”

  The king nodded absently. “It’s customary for my advisors to leave a letter among their belongings naming their suggestion for a replacement if something were to happen to them. You’re aware of the practice?”

  Lily nodded, a sudden, sinking feeling in her stomach. Was it possible, after everything, that Jacob had identified her as his replacement? The thought made her head spin. To be the King’s Shadow was too much responsibility. She wasn’t sure she was ready for that, and she was certain she didn’t want it.

  “Between Caleb and Jacob, I have a terrible track record in appointing advisors,” the king said. “I hate Jacob for the way he orchestrated this war, and anyone he named as his replacement must fall under suspicion. But then there’s Zane. He left a letter, too.”

  Lily was suddenly unsure whether she was about to be taken into custody or appointed King’s Shadow.

  “Jacob told me something once,” the king said. “He said Zane believed the positions of Sword and Shadow need not be performed by two separate individuals. He believed that the right person could fill both roles.”

  Lily’s mouth suddenly went dry.

  “It’s an insane idea,” the king said. “Unconventional, to say the least.”

  Prince Christopher spoke for the first time since Lily’s arrival. “Perhaps now is a time for unconventional ideas.”

  “Perhaps,” the king said. “Lily, I’m in a bit of a dilemma. You see, when I opened their letters, I found both Jacob and Zane had named you as their replacements.”

  Lily felt the words echo in her head, but she wasn’t sure she understood.

  “If it were just Jacob, that would be one thing,” the king said. “But Zane, too. Two men, at odds ideologically and physically, yet they agreed on you. That says something.”

  “She’s not afraid to question authority,” Prince Christopher said. “That’s a good thing in an advisor. She already knows the inner workings of the court. Plus, she passed both the ferox and abditus placement exams. I’m not sure that’s ever been done.”

  That was a surprise. She didn’t think the prince even liked her.

  The king nodded slowly. “Lily, we are depleted, and I need help now. It wouldn’t be forever, of course, but for now, would you agree to serve as my advisor? As my Sword and my Shadow?”

  Lily paused. She felt numb. After everything she’d been through the past two days, was she really prepared to answer that question? Then she thought of Zane. He was the greatest man she’d ever known. He would have hated this position, but she knew what his answer would have been nonetheless.

  “I need to know you’ll keep your promise to Ewrkind,” Lily said.

  The prince laughed. “You see what I mean? She’d unafraid!”

  The king nodded. “Yes. I’ll free the elves behind the Blue Wall. They’ll have their land in the northern forests. Half of the Crags is after Ewrkind for killing the High Prince, but the crazy elf actually seems to like it that way.”

  “And those in the other ghettos?” Lily asked.

  “That was not part of the agreement,” the king said. He paused a moment, then continued. “I’m not against having that discussion.”

  Lily took a deep breath. “Then I accept.”

  The king slammed his hand on the table. “Wonderful! You can’t do it all alone, of course. You’ll need help. Apprentices, perhaps? One ferox and one abditus?”

  Lily’s face went pale. Being the King’s Sword and Shadow was one thing, but being a mentor? She couldn’t imagine herself in that role.

  The king leaned across the table and put his hand on Lily’s. “We are going to do great things together, Lily. First among them, let’s end this war.” He drained his mug, then stood.

  Lily said her vows and took her place at her king’s side. Then she followed him into Harken.

  EPILOGUE

  Bartholomew didn’t speak for a long while after Lily finished her story. He watched her eyes, usually so lively despite the ancient, wrinkled face in which they were set. She stared into the fire. Something in her tale appeared to have sparked melancholy in her, the same as the ember sparked the flames in the hearth.

  He felt a little numb. He’d known Lily killed his grandfather, of course. But the rest…How many people had ever heard the tale? And how much of it was true?

  Bartholomew was almost certain she’d forgotten he was sitting next to her, when she said, “I think time is a ferox.”

  He didn’t know what she meant by that, so he waited for her to continue.

  “It takes its payment in advance, the moment you’re born into this world of pain. It makes no guarantees. Its results can be guessed at, we all end up in the same place after all, but its methods rarely fail to surprise.” She turned her gaze away from the fire and toward the young man, the hint of a smile playing on her lips. “And it kills—oh, how it kills—but it never kills for free.”

  Bartholomew bit his lip. He wasn’t sure he understood, but he didn’t dare question her. His mentor was in a strange mood, and there was no telling how she’d react. He didn’t want to spend the night practicing his forms on the roof in the rain.

  She sighed and stood up, her body creaking audibly as she did it. “I never was one to wallow, but I find myself dwelling on the past more and more lately. Maybe because there’s so damn much of it.” She winked at him. “Maybe Zane had it right. Go out as close to the top as you can. Though I’ve seen some things in this life that I wouldn’t give back.”

  Surely Lily couldn’t have known everything she’d told him. Much of it had happened outside her presence. She’d said Zane had told her his story, but that was impo
ssible given the way he’d died. There wouldn’t have been time for Zane to tell her the story is so much detail.

  Something sparked in Bartholomew’s mind. He hesitated, unsure how she would react to what he was about to say. His voice caught a bit when he spoke. “My father told me about one of his grandmothers, one of the Longstrain pirates. Her name was Amber. He said she gave up her ship and got married. She moved to the forests near Gippen.”

  Lily picked up a poker and stirred the embers. “Aye, I remember hearing the same.”

  “Father said Amber’s husband was a tall, quiet man who’s hands were covered with scars. He said they kept to themselves, and the people of Gippen were helpful in turning away any inquisitive strangers who came asking after them.”

  Lily continued tending the fire. “It is as you say. Strange thing for you to bring up now, though.”

  Bartholomew wet his lips before continuing. “The man Amber Longstrain married…was it Zane?”

  Lily hesitated. After a moment, she screwed up her face at the ridiculousness of the idea. “That’s what you ask me? After everything I’ve told you, that’s your question?”

  She poked at the fire a bit more fiercely now, still not looking at Bartholomew. “It’s impossible. For Zane to survive the Farns thorn, he would have needed more than just a powerful tangle. He would have needed a tangle specifically designed to stop that exact thorn. Who would do that? And do you know how difficult it would have been for someone to build a tangle like that? They would have needed to study that thorn for at least a couple years. Even then, if it were made by a novice, the tangle would only have dulled the effect, perhaps caused the metal to merely rip through Zane’s skin rather than his heart.” She paused for a moment. “Allowing that, someone would have had to guess Jacob would use that particular thorn, that he’d known it existed and that he’d steal it from my tent. That person would have had to know Jacob very well.”

  “As well as his apprentice would have known him?” Bartholomew asked. “And you had the Farns thorn for years, didn’t you? You could have studied it. You are known for your tangles, after all. Second only to your glides.”

  Lily ignored the comments. “Imagining he did survive, someone would have had to rush him away in secret, and taken him, what, to Amber Longstrain’s ship?” She scoffed at the very idea. “I suppose next you’ll suggest Zane worked on Amber’s crew after he’d recovered. Imagine that, Zane Halloway practicing piracy, of all things.

  “Then, you probably think he wooed Amber Longstrain, a woman who’d vowed to never fall in love again until she met her former husband’s equal. And I suppose Zane convinced her to retire from the Sweet Trade, to move to the forests of northern Opel where they could live out their lives in peace.” She poked at the fire a bit more. “It’s preposterous. I traveled to Gippen on a regular basis over the years—all on the king’s business, you understand. If such a thing took place, I certainly would have known about it. And I certainly would have visited my old mentor whenever I got the chance.”

  That would have given Zane plenty of opportunity to tell Lily his story, Bartholomew realized.

  He opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, Lily said, “It’s idle speculation, and I’ll speak no more on it.” She set the poker down and turned to him.

  “I’ll tell you, boy, life is a road that twists. I signed on to serve as Sword and Shadow on a temporary basis, but I served a good deal longer than I’d anticipated. I lost both positions and I regained one of them. I’ve been exiled. I’ve been accused of being a traitor, a schemer, a half-elf, and plenty more.”

  She looked at him sharply. “You asked why I’m training you in the sword. It’s because I’m the only one who can. I’m the only one left who remembers the truths that inspired the silly songs. I’m the only one left who remembers the old ways. The Ferox Society is a den of petty thieves now, and the idea of legal assassins seems barbarian in this world that works so hard to pretend to be gentle and kind. The Abditus Society has grown bloated and pompous, barely teaching you the parts of magic that really matter.” She tapped herself on the temple. “The old ways are locked up here, safe from the modern world, but I’ll make sure they don’t die with me. That’s why I’m teaching you.

  “I’m teaching you the ways of the ferox and the ways of the abditus. Not as they are now, but as they were when those Societies were feared and loved. I’m teaching you the things Zane Halloway taught me, and trust me when I say I have no greater gift to give.”

  She smiled and touched his shoulder with a gentle hand. “Enough talk. We have work to do. Come, Bartholomew Longstrain, and I will teach you the old ways.”

  NOTE TO READERS

  Thanks for reading the Zane Halloway Omnibus.

  It might have been a little insane to put out a series of novellas in a genre where a five-hundred-page novel is considered relatively short, but I’m very glad I did. I hope you are, too. Writing Zane and Lily’s adventures was probably the most fun I’ve ever had behind a keyboard.

  Lily Rhodes will return. Her story is epic, and it can't be told in a novella, or even a series of them. She'll get a few novels, and they will probably be lengthy. Maybe these other fantasy writers are starting to rub off on me.

  As to when she’ll return, I’m not sure. I have a lot of books I want to write in the next few years. If you’d like to see Lily’s trilogy sooner rather than later, please let me know. I tend to crumble under peer pressure.

  If you enjoyed the Zane Halloway series, please consider leaving a review wherever you bought this book. Reader reviews help my books reach a wider audience, and a wider audience means more motivation for me to start working on Lily’s books.

  Finally, as a way of saying thanks for reading these novellas, I’d like to give you a free copy of my novel Regulation 19. It’s a modern day supernatural suspense story. If you enjoyed these novellas, I think you’d like it. It’s my most popular book by a long shot. Click here to get your copy.

  If you’d like to learn more about the Zane Halloway series, I made a video where I discuss some behind-the-scenes stuff, like my original plans for the story and why it’s called the Zane Halloway series instead of the Zane Halloway and Lily Rhodes series. Click here to check it out.

  If you’d like to stay in touch, you can find me at:

  My YouTube channel - where I post weekly (at a minimum) videos about what I’m reading

  My Twitter account - where I mostly talk about books

  My blog - where I mostly write about writing

  Or, if you just want to say hello, email me at pt@pthylton.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  P.T. Hylton is a writer, podcaster, and instructional designer. He lives in beautiful east Tennessee with his wife and daughter. Check out his blog at pthylton.com.