title: The Return of Ixtab
author: Robert Zitella
description: This is a near-future science fiction action novel with three main settings. The unifying aspect is the end of the Maya calendar in 2012: is this really the end of the world coming? The story lines are interesting [and] the novel is hard-hitting with a smashing conclusion. --Piers Anthony, New York Times bestselling author of the Geodyssey series
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  [Contents](0312874960_toc.htm)
  
  # **CHAPTER 1**
  
  Ilna could see her reflection in the silvered backplate of the man who'd been
  her childhood friend Garric, the innkeeper's sonbut who now was Prince Garric
  of Haft, the King of the Isles in all but name. He was speaking to his fiancee
  and secretary, Lady Liane bos-Benliman, as she jotted notes onto a thin board
  with a small gold pen.
  
  As she watched, Ilna's fingers knotted and unknotted patterns from the lengths
  of cord that she kept in her left sleeve. The patterns were simple, as simple
  as so many knives; and like knives, they could be tools or weapons if the need
  arose.
  
  Ilna's reflection was distorted, of course. She smilednot bitterly, or at any
  rate without any more bitterness than her usual expression. Ilna prided
  herself on clear thinking, but there'd been a great deal of distortion in her
  view of her possible future a few years ago when she lived in the backwater of
  Bar