Contents (11)
—Laura Resnick, award-winning author of In Legend Born
“It’s a brilliant beginning to an exciting new series. The world is vivid and intriguing, and the characterization as strong as always in a Kate Elliott novel.”
—Katharine Kerr, author of The Spirit Stone
Books by Kate Elliott
CROSSROADS SERIES
*Book I: Spirit Gate
*Book II: Shadow Gate
*Book III: Traitors’ Gate (forthcoming)
THE NOVELS OF THE JARAN
Jaran
An Earthly Crown
His Conquering Sword
The Law of Becoming
CROWN OF STARS SERIES
King’s Dragon
Prince of Dogs
The Burning Stone
Child of Flame
The Gathering Storm
In the Ruins
Crown of Stars
The Golden Key
(with Melanie Rawn and Jennifer Roberson)
Writing as Alis A. Rasmussen
The Labyrinth Gate
THE HIGHROAD TRILOGY
Book I: A Passage of Stars
Book II: Revolution’s Shore
Book III: The Price of Ransom
* A Tor Book
SHADOW GATE
BOOK TWO OF CROSSROADS
KATE ELLIOTT
A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK
NEW YORK
NOTE: If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
SHADOW GATE: BOOK TWO OF CROSSROADS
Copyright © 2008 by Katrina Elliott
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
Map by Elizabeth Danforth
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 Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-4931-6
ISBN-10: 0-7653-4931-0
First Edition: April 2008
First Mass Market Edition: April 2009
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Constance and Kit,
who aren’t afraid to wrangle with the difficult issues
troubling the universe, and who keep me honest
and always show support
AUTHOR’S NOTE
IN THE HUNDRED, any and every set and sequence of patterns is seen as having cosmological significance. Every number has multiple associations. For instance, the number 3 is associated with the Three Noble Towers present in every major town or city (Watch Tower, Assizes Tower, and Sorrowing [or Silence] Tower); with the Three States of Mind (Resting, Wakened, and Transcendent); with the Three Languages; and with the Three-Part Anatomy of every person’s soul (Mind, Hands, and Heart). The number 7 is associated with the Seven Gods, the Seven Gems, the Seven Directions, and the Seven Treasures.
Folk in the Hundred measure the passing of time not via year dates set from a year zero, but rather through the cyclical passage of time. The standard repeating twelve-year cycle is named after animals, in the following order: Eagle, Deer, Crane, Ox, Snake, Lion, Ibex, Fox, Goat, Horse, Wolf, Rat. However, this year cycle is meshed with the properties of the Nine Colors to create a larger cycle of one hundred and eight years. A clerk of Sapanasu, or anyone else who can do this kind of accounting, could thereby identify how long ago an event happened, or how old a person is, depending on what color of animal year in which he or she was born.