1610 - Mary Gentle

Valntin Rochefort, professional duellist and down-at-heels aristocrat, arranges the assassination of Henri IV, King of France. Fleeing from the consequences, he makes for England, on the way picking up two companions
a young boy, Dariole, and a ship-wrecked demon.

Dariole is discovered first to be a girl, and then to be Rocheforts sister; the demon is Tanaka Saburo, a Japanese samurai on ambassadorial mission to England from the Shogun; and Rochefort is found by a pack of Hermetic mages and conspirators, who want him to arrange the same thing for King James I/VI of England as he did for Henri of France.

Rochefort is blackmailed into arranging the death of King James at the performance of a Hermetic magic play. Meanwhile, Dariole is busy making forays into Shakespeares theatre as Englands first (and worst) female actor . . .

1610 really isnt Rocheforts year
And as the plays performance and the assassination approach, Rocheforts dreams of the future that may spring from this crucial year grow increasingly stranger and more contradictory. He realises he must act
but, how?
What is the right choice? And how much of the future will depend on what he does?