Carnival

Andrй Deschкnes is a killer, but he wants to be more. If he can find a teacher who will forgive his past, he can learn to manipulate the odds, control probability, become a conjure man. But the world he lives on is run by the ruthless Charter Trade company, and the floating city called Novo Haven is little more than a company town, where humans and aliens alike either work for the Greene family or are destroyed by it. In the bayous and back alleys, revolution is stirring. And one more death may be all it takes to shift the balance…

Here’s a special preview:

UNDERTOW

Elizabeth Bear

Coming Soon!

Over the years, Andrй had come to accept that his luck was often ridiculous, but he hadn’t expected a shot at filling the contract his first night out. He folded his forearms over the handlebars of his wetdry scoot and let it bob, lights dark, on the moonlit water of the bay. The floor pushed at his feet as it yawed; he ducked behind the faring so his head wouldn’t silhouette on the horizon. The craft was low-profile; without the brightness of the sky or of Novo Haven’s lights behind him, Andrй was nothing more than a blacker patch on the water.

About that luck, he thought, watching Lucienne Spivak and her guest come chattering down the floating dock. Ridiculous wasn’t the half of it. Epic, maybe. Operatic. Farcical. Because even by moonlight, with his lowlight adapt kicked up, he recognized the woman walking alongside Spivak, leaning into her so that their shoulders brushed, ducking down as they shook their heads over some joke funny enough that Andrй could hear their laughter across the water.

“You know,” he murmured under his breath, “you couldn’t make this shit up.”

He wasn’t going to kill anybody in front of his girlfriend. Some things were beyond the call of duty, and it would be difficult to make it look like an accident if Spivak suddenly went down, clutching her throat. Andhe wasn’t in a hurry. Impatient men often didn’t do well in Andrй’s line of work. Luck will only get you so far.Even ridiculous luck—

With his lowlight, he could make out the hunched shape of a minifab at the top of the dock, a white shell path leading up to it. The residence itself was in a sheltered inlet, not quite up the bayou—as Nouel had suggested—but on a channel and away from the open bay. A paramangrove swamp cut sight lines to the city, and the approach path of descending lighters lay directly over the house, which explained why this wasn’t more popular property. That, and the inconvenience of being an hour and a half by scoot or boat from the city.

He’d wait for Cricket to leave, and then he’d slip close enough to get an overview of the location. It would be better if he could catch Spivak away from home, but it didn’t hurt to know the turf. He’d have to be careful, though; Jean Kroc’s house was a homestead, no plans on record, and he had no idea what sort of security devices the conjure man might use. Anything from tiger pits to tracking lasers were possible, and it would be embarrassing to take a load of buckshot in the fundament.

Andrй folded his arms and waited, listening to the women laugh. The breeze across the water was cool, carrying a taint of the heady sweetness from the parasitic flowers that swathed the paramangrove limbs. The scent carried over miles, and right now it told Andrй that the wind was offshore. Which was also helpful to him; even if Kroc had a sniffer or a smart guard dog, it wouldn’t pick up Andrй’s scent.

Yep. Luck was wonderful.

Pity he couldn’t talk any conjure on Greene’s World into helping him train it. Ah, well. He shifted on the hard seat of the scooter, pretending resignation to himself. No matter how much of a hurry Closs was in, it wasn’t as if Andrй had to kill anybody tonight.

Except it didn’t look like Cricket was leaving alone. She climbed into the passenger chair of the waiting flashboat, and Spivak followed, settling in the pilot’s seat. If she was just running Cricket down to the ferry, about fifteen minutes, then—

—Andrй might not need the research after all. More luck, that he hadn’t mentioned it to Cricket.

It could have put a strain on the relationship.