Ashes of Honor is the sixth book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. Toby searches for a missing changeling whose powers may rip apart the fabric of the world itself.
| “ | So shall she leave her blessedness to one, when heaven shall call her from this blessed darkness, who from the sacred ashes of her honor shall star-like rise... | ” |
–William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII | ||
Summary[]
Author's Description[]
October "Toby" Daye is still reeling from the death of her lover, Connor O'Dell , and the loss of her daughter, Gillian Marks, to the mortal world. It seems like no matter how hard she struggles to get her feet back underneath herself, something is always coming along to knock her down again. She's pretty sure she's found rock bottom...
...but apparently rock bottom has yet to find her. There's been another kidnapping: this time, the daughter of her friend and colleague, Sir Etienne of Shadowed Hills, is missing. The trouble is, he didn't even know the girl existed until she was gone. Worse yet, no one knows quite why a kidnapper would want a changeling teenager. Toby will have to move fast, or this will be one missing child story that doesn't have a happy ending.
Ashes of Honor is the sixth book in the October Daye series, a modern urban fantasy set in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the Faerie Kingdom of the Mists which overlays Northern California. It was released in North America by DAW Books on September 4th, 2012.[1]
Back Cover[]
It's been almost a year since October "Toby" Daye averted a war, gave up a county, and suffered personal losses that have left her wishing for a good day's sleep. She's tried to focus on her responsibilities—training Quentin, upholding her position as Sylvester's knight, and paying the bills—but she can't help feeling like her world is crumbling around her, and her increasingly reckless behavior is beginning to worry even her staunchest supporters.
To make matters worse, Toby's just been asked to find another missing child...only this time it's the changeling daughter of her fellow knight, Etienne, who didn't even know he was a father until the girl went missing. Her name is Chelsea. She's a teleporter, like her father. She's also the kind of changeling the old stories warn about, the kind with all the strength and none of the control. She's opening doors that were never meant to be opened, releasing dangers that were sealed away centuries before—and there's a good chance she could destroy Faerie if she isn't stopped.
Now Toby must find Chelsea before time runs out, racing against an unknown deadline and through unknown worlds as she and her allies try to avert disaster. But danger is also stirring in the Court of Cats, and Tybalt may need Toby's help with the biggest challenge he's ever faced.
Toby thought the last year was bad. She has no idea.
Plot[]
Chapter 1: Toby hunts the streets for goblin fruit, a drug that is enjoyable for fae but fatal for changelings. A year has passed since Connor’s death, and she knows she’s been overly reckless but cannot care enough to stop. She finds a group of changelings who used to belong to Devin and now deal in goblin fruit. She goads them into a fight, and Tybalt jumps into assist after she suffers a flesh wound. The kids run and she sends Tybalt after them. She uses magic to heal herself and cast a human disguise just before she is found by the human police.
Chapter 2: The police question her extensively at the station but eventually admit they have nothing to hold her on. Officer Thornton, who recognizes her from a run-in in Golden Gate Park,[2] releases her to Tybalt who waits in the lobby. Tybalt walks her home to the Victorian house she recently moved into with May, Jazz, and Quentin. Though she has been avoiding him and putting a strain on their relationship these last few months, Toby invites Tybalt inside as a peace offering.
Chapter 3: Etienne is waiting in her home. After cleaning herself up and checking in with her housemates, she agrees to speak to him alone. With much hesitation, he tells her that he has a changeling child, sixteen years old, who he hadn’t known about until now. The mother is a folklore professor who Etienne dated to cope with Sylvester’s madness while Toby was in the pond. The mother, Bridget, called because their daughter had literally vanished off the street and she believed Etienne had finally claimed her for Faerie.
Chapter 4: Etienne begs for Toby’s help in finding his daughter Chelsea. He cites her history of heroism and her own status as a changeling. He also wants to avoid, for as long as possible, telling Sylvester that Etienne has put the secrecy of Faerie at risk. Toby agrees but makes Etienne swear to give Chelsea the Changeling’s Choice once they find her.
Etienne teleports away, and Tybalt reveals that he has been listening at the door. Toby is neither surprised nor upset. They update May and Quentin, and Toby asks Tybalt to have his cats keep an eye out for clues.
Chapter 5: Toby asks Walther for information about Bridget since they are coworkers at UC Berkeley. Tybalt is displeased by Toby’s recklessness and tries to convince her to turn the case over to Sylvester, but she brushes him off. He is concerned, too, that a lost-teenager case will be triggering after what Toby went through with Gillian. When she refuses to listen, he says he’ll wait for her to see reason and leaves by the Shadow Roads.
Quentin and Toby go to Chelsea’s neighborhood to look for clues. However, they are recognized as fae by Bridget, who orders them to return her daughter.
Chapter 6: They try to placate Bridget, but she will not be distracted. Using iron and other repelling charms, she confirms her suspicions that they are not human. Finally Toby gives up and tells her the truth, and that Etienne sent them to look for Chelsea. Grudgingly, Bridget allows them into her house to look for clues, which reveal that Chelsea has been experimenting with her portal-making powers.
Chapter 7: Toby and Quentin head for the Luidaeg’s, going slowly enough to follow Chelsea’s magic signature through her neighborhood. They must stop to wait out the dawn at a small park, but when they return to their car a monstrous creature is sitting atop it. They call Sylvester for help, who arrives with a guard and recognizes the creature as an Afanc, a relatively harmless beast from one of the sealed-off Faerie. Toby realizes that Chelsea must have brought it through via portal, although she lets Sylvester think it escaped a local menagerie. Sylvester offers to get her car repaired and Etienne, who came with Sylvester’s guard, portals Toby and Quentin the rest of the way to the Luidaeg.
Chapter 8: Toby and Quentin call upon the Luidaeg and discover is home is not the trash heap she usually shows to guests; it is luxurious and sea-themed. When Toby explains their problem, the Luidaeg tells Toby that she’ll need to shift Chelsea’s blood to fully human or fully fae in order to put the appropriate limits on her powers. The Luidaeg makes Toby a charm that will alert her when Chelsea is nearby. She also warns that if Chelsea makes a portal too deep into the sealed lands of Faerie, only her blood and death will close it.
Bridget calls and says Chelsea just checked in from Seattle and cannot control where she jumps.
Chapter 9: The Luidaeg lends them her car. Tybalt joins them mid-drive, startling Toby, and they leave Quentin to drive the rest of the way to Walther while they detour through the Court of Cats. Chelsea has just ripped through the Court, bringing in lava from a Fire Kingdom and injuring a number of Cait Sidhe. The damage was so great that Tybalt actually died, though he came back, and Toby is hit by panic nearly on par with losing Connor.
Samson is furious that Tybalt brought Toby, an outsider, so deep into the Court. Tybalt wishes he had banished Samson and raised Raj as his own son, rather than letting the power-hungry cat remain in the court. Then he reveals that when Chelsea portaled away, she accidentally dragged Raj along with her.
Chapter 10: Tybalt recognizes that Raj is Toby’s squire in all but name, and he asks for her help in getting Raj back. Toby investigates Chelsea’s path through the court and keys the Luidaeg’s charm to Chelsea’s magic signature. She theorizes that Chelsea found the Court of Cats on accident since it is where all lost things eventually end up. Toby uses her own blood to search deeper and realizes Chelsea hadn’t opened the portal herself. Whoever had done it used a blood charm, suggesting they were chasing Chelsea.
Chapter 11: Tybalt drops Toby off at UC Berkeley, though she is reluctant to part with him. She meets with Quentin and Walther, who created an experimental potion that should dampen the recipient’s magic for a year and a day, long enough to contain Chelsea and teach her control. He also provides an antidote in case any of their allies are hit on accident, warning that the potion is especially volatile to shapeshifters.
Toby shares her Chelsea-finding charm with Quentin, giving them each a tracking device, and tells him about Raj’s disappearance. Quentin worries for Raj, and Toby threatens to sideline him if his emotions interfere with looking for Chelsea.
Walther sends them off with four doses of the potion. They go to Bridget’s to find the police already there since Chelsea has been missing long enough for Bridget’s original police report to be taken seriously. The officers are suspicious of Toby and Quentin. After they leave, Toby gives Bridget one of the potions and warns her not to use it frivolously.
Chapter 12: The seeking charms direct them toward Fremont. They call Tamed Lightning to ask April to watch out for unusual magical activity. Toby notices their car is being tailed by Officer Thornton. They shake him using a hide-and-seek spell, then go to Tamed Lightning where they are met by Li Qin and April. Li Qin realizes Chelsea’s portals are causing instability in knowes throughout the world.
Chapter 13: April notes that Duchess Treasa Riordan has pulled her troops from the border between Tamed Lightning and Dreamer’s Glass. Toby, suspicious, wants to visit Riordan’s Duchy and Li Qin reveals that as Jan O’Leary’s widow, she can call upon hospitality privileges and visit the Duchy. Before they all go, Toby calls home to update Jazz and asks her to send Tybalt as backup. She also asks Li Qin about getting access to the Library of the Stars.
Li Qin takes Toby and Quentin to Dreamer’s Glass, where they are halted by a guard of Folletti. Li Qin claims hospitality, and Riordan notes that the privileges wouldn’t normally extend to guests like Toby and Quentin. Riordan takes an uncomfortably frank interest in Quentin. Toby requests an audience with Riordan, who sends them off to wait for her convenience. This gives them time to explore, and when Toby scents Chelsea’s magic she sneaks off to investigate.
Chapter 14: Toby eavesdrops on Riordan yelling on the phone, increasing her suspicion that Riordan is responsible for Chelsea’s situation. Tybalt pulls Toby into the shadows, startling her but also saving her from discovery by the Folletti. Toby is so delighted, she jokes about kissing him.
Tybalt returns them to the antechamber where Quentin and Li Qin worriedly wait. Tybalt takes Toby up on her “offer” and kisses her deeply; to her own surprise she kisses him right back before he steps away into the shadows.
Riordan’s guards summon them to Riordan’s throne room. Toby goes through the motions of asking if Chelsea has ripped through Dreamer’s Glass, and Riordan dismisses their concerns.
Chapter 15: On the drive back they debrief and realize Riordan revealed more knowledge about Chelsea than they had explicitly told her. They reconvene at Tamed Lightning where Toby isn’t sure how to act around Tybalt. He chides her for worrying her allies with her recklessness. They brainstorm about finding Raj and wonder if the young cat is somewhere that he can’t access the Shadow Roads.
Tybalt takes Toby to Shadowed Hills and notes that she is not longer scared and resistant on the Shadow Roads. They seek out Luna and ask for her help in reaching Raj. Luna opens them a path on the Rose Roads.
Chapter 16: Tybalt uses his powers as King to finds Raj’s signature. He and Toby break an opening through the wall of the Road and come out in Annwn, where they find Raj who is overcome with relief. They return to Shadowed Hills via the Rose Roads.
Chapter 17: Luna is shocked that they visited Annwn, remembering it from her childhood. Tybalt then takes Toby and Raj back to the Court of Cats where Samson confronts them and insults Toby, calling her Tybalt’s whore. Samson lays into Raj next for needing rescue from a changeling, but Raj verbally dresses him down.
Toby and Tybalt take the shadows to Tamed Lightning but are caught in an ambush. Tybalt is attacked and Toby nearly stranded on the inhospitable road. They escape to a mortal alley where Shade, the local Queen of Cats, guards them long enough to recover. Toby thanks Tybalt for defending her. In turn, Tybalt tells her about Anne O'Toole, his human wife of long ago who died in childbirth. He confesses his love for Toby, wanting to say it in case he is about to die. They kiss, sweetly.
One of Shade’s cats calls a warning. Samson and his allies have come, determined to kill Tybalt and make Raj a puppet king. Before the fight can start in earnest, Chelsea rips through a portal and Toby and Tybalt race through her exit route to escape.
Chapter 18: They are in Annwn again. Chelsea asks if her mother really sent them and Toby confirms that both her parents are worried. Chelsea freaks out at the mention of her fae father, but Toby assures her Etienne is not one of her kidnappers. Toby asks Chelsea to try making a portal to Tamed Lightning and, due to Li Qin magically manipulating their luck, Chelsea succeeds. Unfortunately, only Tybalt and Toby actually pass through to the other side.
Tybalt is in bad shape from the fight. As they stagger through Tamed Lightning, he says he intends to court Toby properly and wishes Toby to know all that he is, even the darker parts of his past.
They find their allies and Tybalt collapses. They call in Jin, who must magically subdue a panicking Toby. Jin heals Tybalt and Etienne, who teleported her there, volunteers to stay and help with the search.
Chapter 19: Raj arrives armed with a pistol and a promise to kill Tybalt, who immediately realizes that Raj has been pressured by Samson. Tybalt talks Raj out of it; Raj is not strong enough to kill Tybalt in a fair fight or to hold the Throne of Cats.
May calls; Samson has attacked the house. They arrive after the aggressors are gone and are outraged that Samson pulled innocents into this fight. Jazz is hurt, so Toby sends her and May to Goldengreen to for medical aid and refuge. Before leaving, May tells Toby to stop being so suicidally reckless. Toby apologizes and willingly vows to be more careful.
Tybalt tells Toby that he can’t go back to the Court of Cats right now or he’ll have to stay until the Samson situation is resolved. He professes how long his heart has belonged to her, and for the first time, she initiates a kiss.
Chapter 20: After Toby gets cleaned up and Tybalt assures Cagney and Lacey that the sneak attack wasn’t their fault, Officer Thornton visits the house. He tells Toby off for hiding her role as a private investigator from the officers working Chelsea’s case and warns her to leave the job to the police.
Tybalt and Toby return to ALH. April says that Etienne left for Dreamer’s Glass, where April’s calculations predict Chelsea has recently gone. Toby distributes the power dampeners among her allies before heading to Dreamer’s Glass.
Chapter 21: They find a massive portal to Annwn in the Duchess’s receiving room. Riordan spots them and reveals her trap: the Shadow Roads have been closed to Tybalt after their arrival, preventing their escape. Samson joins Riordan; he has been her ally in all of this, using her blood charms to follow Chelsea around. Riordan orders them to lay down arms or be killed, they obey, and Toby is knocked out.
Chapter 22: Toby wakes up bound in a dungeon. Her ropes are twine, which means she can cut them off on the stone walls as long as she is willing to tear her quick-to-regenerate skin to shreds. One free, she picks the lock to her cell. Her Chelsea-charm flares as she walks the dungeon, identifying Etienne’s as Chelsea’s blood relative. Toby frees him and resets the charm to focus again on Chelsea.
Together they find Tybalt, who is bound by much-crueler iron manacles. Toby must poison herself in order to pick his locks, but manages it. Tybalt is weak, so she offers to carry him in cat form. They dodge guards and find Officer Thornton imprisoned as well. They realize that kidnapping human police officers means Riordan no longer has interest in maintaining a persona in the mortal world.
Chapter 23: They free Thornton but must convince him that he is hallucinating their faerie forms. They get him on board by speaking of Chelsea and Raj. Samson attacks them as they escape. Etienne uses a portal to sneak up and stab Samson, who retreats. Thornton is horrified and runs away; Etienne follows him.
Toby uses Etienne’s abandoned knife to ride Samson’s blood and sees how he teamed up with Riordan to capture Chelsea. His memories show Riordan’s plan to colonize Annwn, using Chelsea as the conduit.
Chapter 24: Tybalt and Toby enter Annwn and find both Chelsea and a bound Quentin under Riordan’s supervision. Toby walks right up to Riordan and her army and blinds the guards by throwing the seeking charm at them. Samson tries to disembowel Toby, but Etienne kills him before Toby is too far injured to recover. She sends Etienne to free Quentin and Chelsea. Quentin trips a Foletti while he is still bound, but before the Foletti can retaliate, Thornton shoots it. Toby frees Quentin, and Etienne drives by in a wagon to rescue them before racing toward the portal. Riordan climbs into the wagon and tries to stab Toby, but Tybalt appears, takes the blood-charm that ties her to Chelsea, and throws her off the wagon. They cross the portal to the mortal world and Toby collapses.
Chapter 25: Toby wakes to find her allies in Riordan’s entry hall, Jin admonishing her for nearly dying again. Li Qin and Tamed Lightning are holding Dreamer’s Glass in the Duchess’s “absence” since Riordan and her people, along with Thornton, were trapped in Annwn. Etienne is still chasing after Chelsea as she portals wildly across worlds.
Toby asks Li Qin to bend Chelsea’s luck to Tamed Lightning so they can catch her. When Chelsea and Etienne appear, Toby tosses the potion to Etienne who douses himself and Chelsea both with magic-blockers. Toby offers Chelsea the Changeling’s Choice. Chelsea chooses Fae, and Toby pulls all the human out of her so that she will have the normal Tuatha de Dannan restrictions.
Later, Sylvester is disappointed that Toby hadn’t told him what was going on, but he also understands why. He says that they forgot to use the potion’s antidote on Etienne, so both Etienne and Chelsea will be powerless for a year and a day.
Chapter 26: Etienne, Chelsea, Quentin, and Toby visit Bridget, who douses Etienne and Chelsea with another dose of power dampener. Etienne explains that Chelsea must live in Faerie for a time, and asks Bridget to come with them. She agrees.
Chapter 27: Toby and her roommates clear up their trashed house. Tybalt visits and Toby tells him that she loves him and has for a long time. She invites him inside.
Characters[]
Major[]
Allies[]
- October Daye: Dochas Sidhe changeling leaning toward fae, knight of Shadowed Hills.
- Quentin: Daoine Sidhe, Blind foster to Shadowed Hills; Toby’s squire and housemate
- Sylvester Torquill: Daoine Sidhe, Duke of Shadowed Hills
- Etienne: Tuatha de Dannan, Sylvester’s seneschal and knight
- May Daye: Toby’s Fetch and housemate
- Walther Davies: alchemist and chemistry professor
- Tybalt: Cait Sidhe, King of Cats
- Raj: Cait Sidhe, Prince of Cats
- Luidaeg: Firstborn, sea witch, Toby's aunt. Lives in San Francisco.
- Chelsea Ames: Tuatha de Dannan changeling (pureblood after Toby shifts her blood), daughter of Bridget and Etienne.
Antagonists[]
- Samson: Cait Sidhe, Raj’s father
- Treasa Riordan: Daoine Sidhe, Duchess of Dreamer’s Glass
Minor[]
- Bridget Ames: human, folklore professor
- Luna Torquill: Blodynbryd, Duchess of Shadowed Hills
- Jin: Ellyllon healer
- Jazz: Raven-maid, May’s girlfriend and housemate
- Spike: rose goblin, Toby’s pet
- Jack Redpath: human, Walther’s graduate assistant
- Officer Daugherty: human
- Officer Thornton: human
- Julie: Cait Sidhe, Toby’s ex-friend
- Shade: Cait Sidhe, Queen of Cats
- Cagney and Lacey: Toby’s mortal cats
- April O’Leary: techno-Dryad, Countess of Tamed Lightnint
- Li Qin Zhou: Shyi Shuai, January’s widow, April’s mother
- Elliot: Bannick, seneschal of Tamed Lightning
Mentioned[]
- Connor O'Dell (deceased): Selkie, ex-husband to Rayseline, boyfriend to Toby until his death
- Gillian (mentioned): human, Toby’s daughter
- Katie (mentioned): human, Quentin’s ex-girlfriend
- Devin (mentioned, deceased): Changeling, Toby’s former mentor
- January O’Leary (deceased): Daoine Sidhe, Former Countess of Tamed Lightning
- Barbara Lynch (mentioned, deceased): Cait Sidhe Queen of Cats
- Aethlin Sollys: High King
- Anne O’Toole (deceased): Human, Tybalt’s ex-wife, and her unborn child
- Dean Lorden: Merrow / Daoine Sidhe, Count of Goldengreen
Places[]
- The Land Kingdoms
- North America, ruled by High King Aethlin Sollys
- The Kingdom in the Mists, ruled by the Queen of the Mists
- Shadowed Hills, ruled by Sylvester Torquill and Luna Torquill
- Tamed Lightning, ruled by April O'Leary
- Dreamer’s Glass, ruled by Treasa Riordan
- Court of Cats, ruled by Tybalt
- Goldengreen (mentioned), ruled by Dean Lorden
- Toby’s house
- Luidaeg’s home
- UC Berkeley
- The Ames home
- The Kingdom in the Mists, ruled by the Queen of the Mists
- North America, ruled by High King Aethlin Sollys
- Faerie
- The Summerlands
- Annwn
- Shadow Roads, accessible by Cait Sidhe
- Rose Roads, accessible by Blodynbryd
- The Fire Kingdoms
- Undersea
- The Snow Kingdoms (mentioned)
- Oversky (mentioned)
- Blind Michael’s Realm (mentioned)
- Amandine’s tower (mentioned)
Continuity[]
Debts[]
- Toby and Tybalt are now freely exchanging “thanks” with each other.
- Presumably their dating means Toby no longer owes Tybalt for helping her search for the Dean and Peter Lorden[3]
- Etienne is indebted to Toby for helping rescue Chelsea and shift her blood to be less volatile.
- Toby owes Li Qin for helping rescue Chelsea; Li Qin owes Toby for the acquisition of Dreamer's Glass.
Current book[]
- For once, Toby is the one avoiding Tybalt.
- May is disappointed when Tybalt leaves; she definitely ships them.
- Car gets damaged, but is repairable. Toby’s car-fatality rate has greatly improved since the early books.
- Very few people visit the Luidaeg’s home, and even they are led to believe she lives in squalor.
- Tybalt prefers to look upon Toby without illusions between them
- Quentin is good at solving the puzzles into the servants’ hallways
- Toby wonders if Riordan’s coat of arms, a lily and spindle, refers to the Lady of Shallot
- Luna was present when Oberon evacuated Annwn.
- Why did April have a sword on hand?
Previous books[]
- Tybalt learned how to prepare Toby's coffee and picked up a taste for it[3]
- “Coats removed in your presence tend to leave my possession” (Tybalt)[4]
- Quentin and Toby check the backseat of the car for attackers.[2]
- The dead ALH Computing employees are still being kept in the basement; only Jan, who wasn’t backed up to a server, was cremated.[4]
- “Now drive into that wall.” “Wouldn’t be the first time.”[5]
- Tybalt has trusted Toby with access to his blood for some time now, not just traveling the Rose Roads.[2]
Future Books[]
- The Kingdom of Silences was nearly annihilated in the last faerie war[6]
- Raj: “You can’t tell me what to do forever.” Tybalt: “Yes. I’m counting on that.”[7]
- The High King and Queen live in Toronto. Someone else we know is from there, too.[8]
- Officer Thornton is trapped in Annwn.[7][9]
Suspected Foreshadowing (unconfirmed)[]
- Li Qin vaguely remembers a footnote about the Daoine Sidhe from a book in the Library…
Quotes[]
Cultural References[]
- "So shall she leave her blessedness to one, when heaven shall call her from this blessed darkness, who from the sacred ashes of her honor shall star-like rise..." -William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII
- "From the sacred ashes of her honor..."
- Ashes are the smell of broken illusions
- Etienne preserves his honor as long as possible by keeping Chelsea a secret from the fae nobility
- In the play, a cardinal ruthlessly schemes to gain greater power and autonomy beyond his king's allowances
- Riordan is not content being a duchess; she wants to be at the top of the chain and will colonize an abandoned faerie realm to do so.
- "From the sacred ashes of her honor..."
- Lord of the Rings, Firefly, Star Wars, The Labyrinth, The Princess Bride, The Lady of Shallot
Miscellaneous[]
- "We were having a perfectly nice evening until it got ruined by a corpse."
- “I believe he may have lied to me!” (April)
- “Don’t make the mistake of writing Riordan off as crazy. If you want madness, visit the Court at Golden Gate. Riordan has something much more dangerous. Ambition.”
- “I did not consent to your presence. Please depart, and attempt your political assassination on someone else’s property.” (April)
- "Oberon must really love your dumb ass." (Jin)
- “It’s like trying to eat soup with a fork. Just because a few things work out, that doesn’t mean you’re going about them the right way.”
- “The San Francisco Bay Area claims to be a single place, much like the United States of America claims to be a single country.”
See more: Ashes of Honor Quotes