Shadowspawn

In 2072 a mysterious disease sweeps the world, killing nearly everyone. Civilization collapses. A brutal Dark Age follows. Most people blame scientists and engineers for developing the technology, which they call tek, for causing the pandemic and resulting chaos. The City of Nelefer punishes the use of tek by death. Orphan Jack Mors turns 18 in the 677th year after the pandemic. As the secretive thief and prankster called the Shadow he passes smoothly between the City’s criminals, slum dwellers and the Notables without owing allegiance to any.

Though currently wanted by the police on a trumped-up charge Jack avoids them with little difficulty. A private person, no one, not even his best friends Flin and Suraiya know where he lives. He makes his living by means of nighttime depredations either alone or with Flin that they call “deals.” Before his problems with the law he ran errands for a crime boss and Notable clients.

Remaining aloof and secretive doesn’t spare Jack from entanglement in others’ lives. He rescues farm girl turned barmaid Cristeen Hansen from gang members. For her safety he takes her to stay with his friends Flin and Suraiya. They live in a secret series of tunnels and caverns below the streets of Nelefer called the Underground. Jack and Cristeen grow increasingly close.

Meanwhile, the Notable, Mistra Mikela Moer, convinces Jack the murder of her cousin Juulyen Moer would benefit them both. Though the crime repels him, Jack finally commits the crime. Mistra Mikela replaces Juulyen as the powerful Advisor and revokes the charges against Jack. Her new rank draws enemies, led by Chairman Tomlin Torralban, who try to depose her. She foils their plan, yet knows her safety and that of Nelefer’s people depend on permanently removing the threat they pose.

Jack introduces Cristeen to Mistra Mikela’s brother Samyel, a bookish man and author. Seeing how they relate to each other, Jack knows he will lose Cristeen. Yet he realizes he could never fit the intellectual life she desires and she wouldn’t condone his “deals.” Cristeen soon moves in with Samyel and Mikela but on a working relationship.

Jack meets itinerant merchant Vinni Como, wanted by the police for practicing tek. Since he, like Samyel, writes, Jack introduces them. Vinni and Mikela become lovers. Vinni shows the Moers and Cristeen the fabric he sells, silk, an unfamiliar material. Vinni promises Mikela that for a price he will give her the monopoly on the Nelefer silk trade.

Samyel finally realizes he loves Cristeen but fears she will reject him because of their age difference; he’s 37, she 21. He finally makes his feelings known to her. She shocks him by running out of the house crying. Samyel asks Jack to find her and apologize to her for him. Jack finds her and discovers why she fled. She’s pregnant with Jack’s baby. Though ashamed to face Samyel, she believes she could have lived happily with him. Jack convinces her to return to him. Mikela, delighted that Samyel will finally marry, starts planning the wedding. The child of an orphan and a farm girl cannot achieve Notable status. Yet Mikela finds a way to make it happen.

While eavesdropping on Vinni and his men Jack learns they plan to leave town. And that they never intended to ship any silk to Nelefer. He had promised other fabric manufacturers the monopoly on silk sales just as he had Mikela, all for a price of course. When Vinni tries to leave he finds himself stranded in Nelefer. The police would recognize him trying to leave. Jack devises a scheme for smuggling him out of town while retrieving Mikela’s money and some for himself.

Mikela and Torralban have continued to plot and work against each other. Torralban and his conspirators plan to assassinate Mikela. At last she makes a mistake that seems to deliver her into their arms.

At last Samyel and Cristeen marry and the conflict between Mikela and Torralban and his conspirators reaches resolution.