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Authors: S. M. Stirling

Shadows of Falling Night

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Shadows of Falling Night

ALSO BY S. M. STIRLING

NOVELS OF THE CHANGE

ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME

AGAINST THE TIDE OF YEARS

ON THE OCEANS OF ETERNITY

DIES THE FIRE

THE PROTECTOR’S WAR

A MEETING AT CORVALLIS

THE SUNRISE LANDS

THE SCOURGE OF GOD

THE SWORD OF THE LADY

THE HIGH KING OF MONTIVAL

THE TEARS OF THE SUN

LORD OF MOUNTAINS

NOVELS OF THE SHADOWSPAWN

A TAINT IN THE BLOOD

THE COUNCIL OF SHADOWS

OTHER NOVELS BY S. M. STIRLING

THE PESHAWAR LANCERS

CONQUISTADOR

S. M. STIRLING

Shadows of
Falling Night

   A Novel of   

THE SHADOWSPAWN

ROC

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014, USA

USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia | New Zealand | India | South Africa | China

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

For more information about the Penguin Group visit penguin.com.

First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, May 2013

Copyright © S. M. Stirling, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Stirling, S. M.

Shadows of falling night: a novel of the Shadowspawn/S. M. Stirling.

p.  cm.

ISBN: 978-1-101-60894-4

I. Title.

PS3569.T543S54   2013

813’.54—dc23                2013001052

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-one

Twenty-two

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Richard Foss, for help with the fine details of food, wine and restaurants and invaluable hints about Paris and other locations.

To Kier Salmon, for
all sorts
of help throughout construction!

To Marino Panzanelli and Marco Pertoni for help with Italian, and also the other members of the Stirling listserve, including Marcus Baur, my native Viennese guide.

Walter Jon Williams, Vic Milan, John J. Miller, Lauren C. Teffeau, Matt Reiten, Jan Stirling and Ian Tregellis of Critical Mass, for constant help and advice as the book was under construction.

To Jack Williamson, Fred Pohl, Sprague de Camp and other Golden Agers for inspiration; and Roger Zelazny and Fred Saberhagen.

To John Birmingham for advice on speech patterns from Oz.

To Joe’s Diner, for putting up with me working in the corner—especially after the accident, when I had to switch to a dictation program.

CHAPTER ONE

Paris

“If you’re evil and you know it—

Give a shout!

Rape and torture, drink their blood,

Grind their hearts into the mud!

If you’re evil and you know it—

Then you really ought to show it!

Shout ‘Hurray!’

“This fascination with vampires…” the young Frenchman said as she finished the song and collapsed backward onto the sofa.

“Tsk, Henri,” Adrienne Brézé said. “Not
vampires
. Vampires are a
myth. We Shadowspawn are the
source
of the myth, and of many others.”

Henri grinned. “Then my innocent and merely human self has fallen into the hands of beings out of legend, who are inflicting upon me an evening of superb food, drink and intriguingly varied sexual intercourse as a prelude to their more sinister plans?”

“Exactly! We are
loup-garou
, sorcerers, oni, ghūl…Nearly all of the wicked ones, in fact. We aren’t really supernatural, of course, though we thought so until a few generations ago. In practice that makes little difference.”

BOOK: Shadows of Falling Night
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