October Daye Wiki
Advertisement
October Daye Wiki


When Sorrows Come (2021) is the fifteenth book in the October Daye series. It follows Toby and Tybalt, accompanied by their loved ones, visiting the High Court of the Westlands in order to get married.

When sorrows come, they not come not as single spies but in battalions.

–William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Synopsis[]

Toby's getting married! Now in hardcover, the fifteenth novel of the Hugo-nominated, New York Times-bestselling October Daye urban fantasy series.

It's hard to be a hero. There's always something needing October "Toby" Daye's attention, and her own desires tend to fall by the wayside in favor of solving the Kingdom's problems. That includes the desire to marry her long-time suitor and current fiancé, Tybalt, San Francisco's King of Cats. She doesn't mean to keep delaying the wedding, it just sort of...happens. And that's why her closest friends have taken the choice out of her hands, ambushing her with a court wedding at the High Court in Toronto. Once the High King gets involved, there's not much even Toby can do to delay things...

...except for getting involved in stopping a plot to overthrow the High Throne itself, destabilizing the Westlands entirely, and keeping her from getting married through nothing more than the sheer volume of chaos it would cause. Can Toby save the Westlands and make it to her own wedding on time? Or is she going to have to choose one over the other?

Includes an all-new bonus novella!

Plot[]

Chapter 1: Dean and Quentin, who has been disguised as a Banshee boy, are caught making out on Toby’s front porch.

Chapter 2: Quentin explains his reasoning for giving up his identity to the Luidaeg for the duration of Toby’s wedding, and the Luidaeg shares the political importance of Toby marrying a King of Cats. Then Quentin announces they will be traveling to Toronto the following morning.

Chapter 3: Although Toby has abdicated wedding-planning details to her friends, she’s still upset to have been left in the dark. Tybalt joins her and explains some of the political complexities of traveling across the continent, and offers her the chance to change some of the smaller wedding details like the cake. She admits she’s happy to avoid all planning.

Chapter 4: Both Toby’s and the Luidaeg’s households travel to Muir Woods, where they chat with the Windermere siblings and then take a series of portals to reach Toronto.

Chapter 5: Toby’s group is met by the High Court’s seneshal, Nessa. She makes several courtesy missteps and Quentin mutters that something is wrong with her. She leads the group to their quarters to change for dinner, and then to the dining hall. Toby identifies Nessa as a doppelganger imposter.

Chapter 6: The false Nessa tries to hold Toby hostage and stabs Toby in the ribs. The royal archers attempt to shoot her, but their arrows endanger the courtiers as well. Toby orders Chelsea and Etienne to portal the arrows to other destinations. Toby fights and subdues the doppelganger, who is taken into custody.

Toby prods the king and realizes the royal  chatelaine may also be compromised. She goes with the High King, Tybalt, and Raj to the woman’s quarters. One of the king’s guards grabs the chatelaine’s doorknob and immediately falls down, dead.

Chapter 7: Toby takes charge and tests the door, finding a poison dart on the knob. She disables the trap with Raj’s lock picks, but before she can check for more traps Aethlin orders his Candela guard to teleport inside. She finally opens the door to find the Candela apparently dead. When another guard rushes in, he also keels over. Toby orders the king to go to safety.

Chapter 8: Toby uses cake frosting pilfered from Kerry to avoid the tripwires within the room. She confirms that the second guard is dead, but finds the Candela still alive. She sends Tybalt off to find a healer.

The night-haunts arrive while Toby is alone with the fallen. Gordan is among them. The haunts carry the fallen away without leaving a fake body.

Tybalt returns with the healer Galen, who sets off a trap of an elf-shot dart. It misses. Toby asks him to check the whole room for more traps. There are an absurd number of them.

Tybalt gathers Caitir and Toby to help them safely exit the room via the Shadows. Just as they enter the Shadow Road, Tybalt is hit with an elf-shot dart.

Chapter 9: From the faint light of Caitir’s Merry Dancers, Toby approaches her and tastes her blood to borrow Candela magic. She opens a portal and drags Tybalt to safety. When she returns for Caitir, Raj joins her and helps.

Once outside, Galen confirms that both of the fallen are elf-shot. Toby sends them off to receive the cure from Walther and takes Quentin in search of Nessa. She sweet talks the knowe into opening a secret passageway, to Quentin’s embarrassment.

Chapter 10: They find Nessa held in a water-prison. Toby breaks it and releases her, but Nessa is too weak to put up the illusions that would protect onlookers from her beauty. Toby sends Quentin to fetch the Luidaeg, who restores the illusions. Nessa says there are rumors that the Crown Prince is squired to a king breaker in the Mists, which Toby brushes off as incorrect.

Chapter 11: The group returns to their quarters, where Tybalt is awake and anxious to see that Toby is safe. They discuss events and Toby suggests having May, Stacy, and Cassandra act as decoy brides to confuse the apparent assassins.

Chapter 12: Aethlin arrives and takes Toby, Tybalt, and Cassandra to see the imprisoned doppelganger. Fiac, a truth-detecting Adhene, also attends the interrogation. The doppelganger claims Absalom Shallcross should have been declared High King when the Westlands were founded and tries to attack. In the chaos, one of Aethlin's guards stabs him then slits their own throat.

Chapter 13: Aethlin is dying from a knife to the kidneys. Toby feeds him her blood so he can borrow her regenerative abilities. When he wakes, disoriented, he thinks he is Toby. They knock heads and he falls unconscious again. His guard gets upset, and they call in Maida. When Aethlin awakens properly, he demands to see his son.

Chapter 14: They reconvene in the guest quarters. Aethlin yells at Quentin, who vents pent-up frustration at feeling abandoned for the past several years. Then everyone parts ways: The monarchs to interrogate the household staff, the teenagers to meet new wedding guests, and Toby and Tybalt with Nessa see their wedding venue.

Chapter 15: They head to the kitchens, where the Luidaeg has claimed a table to the kitchen staff’s dismay. Luidaeg accidentally outs Oberon’s identity to Nessa, then whammies her with a memory compulsion to forget.

Toby learns more about the founding of the Westlands and Absalom Shallcross’ quest to become High King. Then Nessa takes Toby and Tybalt to see where their wedding will be held.

Chapter 16: Toby panics to realize it is officially her wedding day. Stacy and Kerry talk her down. Stacy also berates her for not taking care of herself over the years, and is glad Tybalt and the rest of their found family finally give Toby reason for self-preservation. Julie arrives and joins in for a group hug and is shocked Toby would forgive her actions.

Then Quentin interrupts to say the king has been poisoned. They go to Aethlin, where Walther is already working on an antidote. As Aethlin recovers, Toby wonders about the proclamation establishing the Westlands.

Chapter 17: Toby and Fiac discuss Amandine on the way to the Library. After they arrive and meet the Librarian, they learn more about the controversy over the Kingdoms of Maples versus the Kingdom of Ash and Oak becoming the High Court. Toby accuses Fiac of being Absalom Shallcross in disguise, and Tybalt helps hold him for interrogation. Toby realized Shallcross’s wife was Evening Winterrose in disguise. She also identifies the loophole Shallcross planned to exploit to take over the crown.

Chapter 18: Toby’s loved ones help her get dressed and ready for the wedding, then escort her to the ceremony.

Chapter 19: The wedding ceremony begins but is interrupted by doppelgangers who turn the ceremony into a battle. Toby, with Sylvester's surprising help, intercepts an attempt to break Shallcross out of the dungeon.

Chapter 20: Toby and Tybalt are finally wed.

Characters[]

Mentioned[]

Locations[]

Mentioned[]

Continuity[]

Debts[]

  • No new debts are incurred or resolved.
  • Toby still owes the Luidaeg blood from a previous debt.

Previous Books[]

  • As a result of Toby choosing Simon as her only legal parent, Amandine cannot claim offence for not being invited to the wedding, even if she is a Firstborn.
  • As a result of Amandine outing herself as a Firstborn, Toby is getting invitations from nobles looking to curry favor with her mother.
  • The Luidaeg has denied Toby's petition to awaken Rayseline Torquill from her slumber, for unknown reasons. Raysel is still waiting for Toby to wake her, claim offence, and have her as a "servant" to get away from Shadowed Hills for a while.
  • Elliot and Yui Hyouden married shortly after the latter's resurrection in Of Things Unknown.
  • Toby has reconciled with Julie after the death of her boyfriend Ross Hampton. She has also reconciled with Gillian Marks in the accompanying novella, and has begun to build bridges with her sister August Torquill.

Current Book[]

  • Toby's primary party during the investigation includes Quentin, Raj, Chelsea, Dean, Tybalt, May, Jazz, Stacy, Kerry, Luidaeg, Oberon, Poppy, Cassandra, Walther, Nolan
  • Eira had been revealed to have led the Kingdom of Ash and Oak under her alias - Vesper Shallcross - until Absalom lost his bid for High King. This was one of many alias that Eira has used.

Future Books[]

  • Toby and Tybalt are finally married.
  • August is aware of Gillian's existence and cherishes her as a niece.

Quotes[]

Cultural References[]

  • "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but batallions." -William Shakespeare
    • Neither the Doppelganger who first tries to assassinate the High King, nor Absalom Shallcross himself, attempt their treason by themselves. Shallcross has infiltrated the High Court with a veritable battalion of spies over the course of centuries.

General[]

Trivia[]

  • This is the first book in "Act Three" of the Toby series.[citation needed]
  • Originally slated to be the thirteenth book in the series, after Night and Silence. Unknown whether the plot or just the title were delayed for several books.[1]

References[]

Advertisement