Ten stories. Ten characters. One city full of secrets.
Tales from the Assassin Without a Name: Volume One arrives on May 15 and is available for pre-order now. This collection brings together ten stories set in the World of Uhl — some told from the shadows, others from the streets, the wilderness, and the counting houses of a world where no one's hands are entirely clean.
Most of these stories have never been published before. Two — The Assassin's Ruse and The Assassin's Dilemma — were previously available as standalone ebooks but appear here in print for the first time, alongside eight brand-new tales.
If you've read the Assassin Without a Name novels, this collection fills in the gaps: origin stories, first meetings, and the events that set larger things in motion. If you're new to the series, several of these stories were written to stand on their own and make an ideal starting point.
Here's what's inside.
Master Thief — Elizabeth West has spent years proving herself inside Alchester's thieves' guild. Now the guild masters have given her one night and one impossible job to earn the rank of master thief: break into a collector's fortress, crack a Khorasi triple-lock mechanism, and steal a priceless jewel.
Escape from Shantytown — Mathilda is a witch and a mother on the run. When the blood witch Isadora closes in, Mathilda must escape with her daughter, Eliza. A tight, tense survival story that requires no prior knowledge of the series.
The Case of the Vanishing Gold — Over the course of a year, gold has vanished from the royal treasury of Kallendor. No forced entry. No trace of magic. No suspects. Inspector William Wright, young and ambitious, is tasked with solving the impossible.
The Malefang Horn's Omen — Far from Alchester's streets, in a half-buried temple in the Black Hills, High Priest Onius of the Jakaree acquires a relic of terrible power. This story pulls back the curtain on one of the series' most dangerous factions and the ambitions driving them toward a confrontation that will echo across multiple books.
The Sorcerer Hunter — Jarek Blackwell hunts sorcerers for a living. He dresses well, keeps his conscience flexible, and calls himself a pragmatist. When a former friend turned rogue sorcerer surfaces in the lawless Steel Islands, Jarek takes the contract — but hunting someone you once trusted is never as straightforward as it should be.
The Assassin's Ruse — The Nameless Assassin and Elizabeth West cross paths for the first time. What starts as two separate jobs — a theft and an assassination — unravels fast when a third party beats them both to the prize. Throw in a shadowy client, a fortune-teller with inconvenient insights, and a trail that winds through Alchester's wealthiest drawing rooms, and the evening soon stops resembling anything either of them planned. This is the longest story in the collection and the best introduction to the title character's distinctive first-person voice.
The Withered Woods — Captain Geoffrey Belford of the Black Guard and Captain Madilyn Oakthorn of the Mavens take a contract that leads them deep into a forest where something ancient and wrong has taken root. This story marks the first crossover between the Assassin Without a Name series and The Alchemancer series — the earliest point where both worlds intersect.
The Assassin's Dilemma — The Nameless Assassin faces a contract that tests the boundaries of his code. Originally available as a standalone ebook, this story appears here in print for the first time.
The Finest Wine — When a routine assassination goes sideways thanks to a hidden money belt and a spectacularly theatrical victim, the Assassin Without a Name finds himself in an unexpected negotiation. Readers may recognize this story's roots — it began as the opening chapter of The Assassin's Blade, the first novel in the series. For this collection, it's been expanded with additional scenes and details that enrich the encounter and set up the final story.
After the Deal — The assassin spared Abelard Whitfield's life. Now Abelard must deal with the aftermath. Someone paid to have him killed, and the ruthless merchant intends to find out who — and make them regret it. Told from Abelard's perspective, this story of investigation and financial retaliation shows what happens when you cross a man who understands that money is both a weapon and a shield.
Pre-order now:
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