Tales of the Left Hand, Book One: Recent Episodes
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In the tropical-island region known as the Frees, magic is growing stronger, and gunpowder is becoming less reliable. Amid this world of "swashbuckling, intrigue, and a dash of magic," two adventurers literally run into each other and are forced to fight together against pirates, sinister assassins and powerful merchant families, in the process developing a most unlikely friendship.
Tesca is the Left Hand, a spy and assassin serving the Duke of Kohaya, ruler of one of the independent realms within the Frees. Kayrla is a sailor and sometime pirate with a few magical tricks up her sleeve. While fleeing the wrath of her former captain, Kayrla collides with Tesca, who’s on a mission of his own, and her captain, assuming them to be partners, sics his crew on both of them. Cutting their way free of the pirates' wrath, the pair come to realize that they make a very effective team, but will their combined talents be enough to stop an assassin seeking the Duke’s life, and who appears to be more than a match for either Tesca’s blades or Kayrla’s magic?
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Epilogue: Alezandra Feyne returns home after the fete, brooding over her family's losses and planning for the future.
The morning after the fete, the Duke and his officers begin piecing together the jumbled events of last night.
Kayrla must convince one of the guards, not all of whom know she's become one of the Duke's spies, to follow her orders.
Kayrla and Grivus discover a body on the grounds, another victim of the assassin, then are found next to the corpse as the alarm is raised.
Tesca receives Kayrla's warning and begins making plans to escort the Duke safely back to his private chambers.
Kayrla takes a gamble and enlists the Sabrian exile Captain Grivus to take her warning to Tesca for her. But Grivus won't do it for free.
Escaping onto the estate grounds, Kayrla doesn't know whom to trust as she seeks a way to warn Tesca and the Duke of the assassin's presence.
Tesca, learning that Kayrla and the Duke's physician have disappeared, realizes that something is very wrong.
Kayrla, having escaped the assassin only to find herself trapped in a locked room and unable to warn anyone of the danger, seeks a way to escape her confinement.
Rejecting the assassin's offer to join him, Kayrla flees for her life into the darkest recesses of the Ducal estate.
Kayrla finds the reason for the doctor's disappearance: An assassin seeking the Duke's life.
Kayrla discovers that the Duke's personal physician has disappeared and goes looking for him.
Kayrla, disguised as a serving maid, does her best to play the role she's been assigned during the fete.
While attending the fete, Tesca crosses paths with Alezandra Feyne, an old flame and daughter of one of the Duke's greatest enemies.
Tesca and Kayrla join in the estate's preparations for the grand fete celebrating the Duke's reign.
Tesca escorts Kayrla to an audience with Duke Stephen Kohaya, who has an offer for her.
At the end of Chapter 17, Kayrla was stabbed and her body was lost in the harbor. Or...was it?
Galen, learning that Jolly Red may have learned where Kayrla is hiding, decides the time has come for action.
Pursuing the Sabrian who sold information on Kayrla to Jolly Red, Tesca learns that he is not the only person interested in this exotic stranger.
Kayrla learns that the reason Jolly Red is pursuing her to regain a pendant that she took while escaping the Cutlass.
A mysterious Sabrian exile sells Jolly Red valuable information that could lead him to where Kayrla is hiding.
Tesca spies on Jolly Red in hopes of learning more about why the pirate captain is so insistent on capturing Kayrla.
Kayrla, restless after being cooped up on the Duke's estate for several days, experiments with her magic in the hopes of creating a new disguise that will fool the bounty hunters Jolly Red has put on her trail.
Tesca brings Kayrla before Galen, the Duke's spymaster, where she learns the consequences of her escape from Jolly Red.
Kayrla, while enjoying the comfortable accomodations in the Duke's home, starts to worry if she's escaped one trap only to fall into another.
Tesca invites Kayrla to remain as a guest on the Duke's estate until Jolly Red gives up his search for her.
For a change, our heroes try to talk their way out of trouble, and Tesca is challenged to a duel.
Tesca and Kayrla manage to elude the pirates, but at the cost of Tesca learning Kayrla's secret.
Tesca and Kayrla, mistakenly identified as partners by her former captain Jolly Red, must work together to escape from Red's enraged pirate crew.
A young lady named Kayrla, a crewmember of the sometime-pirate ship Cutlass, comes to a parting of the ways with her crewmates.