Thirteenth Night (32 page)

I took the club from her hand and kissed her.

“I prize them too highly to cheapen them by wagering,” I said. “Let's go pack.”

T
HE SUN WAS STARTING TO SET, TURNING ORANGE AND MASSIVE AT THE
edge of the world. All my time in Orsino, and I had never once seen the sun set from the cliffs. It was dinnertime, when jesters make their living or die hungry. So many years looking at audiences through thickened lashes, hiding behind the double artifice of masks and words. Rare to have this moment of isolation, God's glory on full display, the waves crashing below and the wind whispering through the woods behind. “Fool,” I thought it whispered …

But it wasn't the wind. A man laughed somewhere in the woods behind me …

There was a large boulder, about twenty feet to my left. I took a step, and something went whistling by my ear and out to sea.

“Stand still, Fool,” said a voice from my past. “I want to see what Time has done to you.”

The fastest I've ever seen a man reload a crossbow was to a quick count of four. I made that boulder in about three and a half, diving into a somersault and rolling behind it in a tight ball. Something clattered off it an instant later …

“Entertaining.… Long on mystery and humor.… The beginning of an enjoyable series.”

 —
The Tampa Tribune

“Delightfully constructed, featuring an intricate whodunit with political overtones, plenty of intrigue, and a healthy dose of humor.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

“Witty wordplay, comical characters, and exaggerated circumstances mark this fanciful and entertaining historical.”

 —
Library Journal

“A spellbinding medieval mystery, THIRTEENTH NIGHT hurls one into a world that is brilliantly depicted. The plotting is excellent and the story moves at an exciting pace through a skillfully portrayed series of characters to the final thrilling denouement.”

 —Peter Tremayne, author of
The Subtle Serpent

“Continuing a story first told by Shakespeare is a challenge that would freeze the ink in most writers' quill pens, but Alan Gordon attempts the task with commendable courage and accomplishes it with dismaying ease … It is a thoroughly enjoyable tale told by a born storyteller.”

—Michael Kurland, author of
Too Soon Dead
and
The Infernal Device

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MURDER ON THE LUSITANIA by Conrad Allen

THE BLACK BOOK by Ian Rankin

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MURDER IN GEORGETOWN by Elliott Roosevelt

THIRTEENTH NIGHT by Alan Gordon

St. Martin's Paperbacks
is also proud to present these mystery classics by Ngaio Marsh

COLOUR SCHEME

DEATH AND THE DANCING FOOTMAN

DEATH IN A WHITE TIE

ENTER A MURDERER

THIRTEENTH NIGHT

Copyright © 1999 by Alan Gordon.

Excerpt from
Jester Leaps In
copyright
© 2000 by Alan Gordon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-44612

ISBN: 0-312-97684-4

St. Martin's Press hardcover edition / February 1999

St. Martin's Paperbacks edition / November 2000

eISBN 9781466843363

First eBook edition: March 2013