Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected from death and wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? There's hell to pay--literally. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.

In this reading, we meet the undead assassin Eveen as she readies to set out on a job. Gliding high above Tal Abisi from rooftop to rooftop, she surveys the night Festival of the Clockwork King--where careful readers will catch glimpses of a mashup of New Orleans Mardi Gras, Carriacou Shakespeare Mas, Trinidad Canboulay, allusions to Lord Blakie's "Steelband Clash"--and more. 

Phenderson Djéli Clark is the award-winning and Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon nominated author of the Abeni’s Song series and A Master of Djinn, and the novellas The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. His short stories have appeared in venues such as Tor.com and anthologies including, Hidden Youth and Black Boy Joy.