Sneak Peek to the New Release: Wavebreak!

Somewhere North

Miandra, my love… I know that you are far from here, but I need you now more than ever.  Something is very wrong.  I hope you never have to witness a place such as this.  I don’t think we’re safe here.  I don’t think we’re safe here at all.

Edren stared deep into the thick ocean haze.  A dense fog hung over the crystal sea, clinging so tightly to the surface he could barely tell where the water ended and the air began; the mist crept across the deck as if it was trying to claim the ship itself.  He grasped the tiny silver locket strung around his neck for comfort, inside it the only piece of home he carried with him.

I want nothing more than to hold you in my arms again, he thought.  I pray that you are here with me in spirit and that I make it through this to return to you.

“Oi!  Why the stone face, Captain?” said a tall, slender man with dark hair and broad shoulders, slapping Edren on the back hard enough to shake him from his reverie.  “We’ve brought in a grand haul, maybe even enough to feed half the city for a whole season!  The ocean spirits have certainly cast favor on us!”

“Not yet they haven’t, Drei-as; ’Tis plain to the eye that we’re far off course.  I’ll rejoice to see ground that is not the wood planks beneath our feet,” Edren said with a sigh as he ran a hand through his short brown hair.

“Just because we cannot see does not mean we are certain to be heading in the wrong direction.  The mist can only hold us for so long.  Perhaps our fortune will continue and the sea will guide us home!” Drei-as replied with a wide grin.

Drei-as was the first mate aboard the Sea Seraph, their city’s largest fishing vessel.  It was half the size of the kingdom’s warship galleons, and fortified enough that smaller pirate ships dare not approach it.

Edren normally found Drei-as’s unyielding optimism a pleasant distraction, but now was not the time for bold confidence.  Now was the time for caution.

“It’s more than that,” Edren said, pointing at the pool of water adjacent to the ship, the only part of the ocean they could actually see.  “There is wind in our sails, yet the water is still as glass.  We’ve traveled far across the sea together; but never once have I seen water like this, water the color of the night itself.  Look down, Drei-as, there’s barely even a ripple from our ship.”

“He’s right, you know,” said Truggen, a short bald man with a thick, curly mustache as he approached.  Truggen was the quartermaster of the Sea Seraph, and someone Edren could always rely on to see reason, even if it meant clashing with Drei-as’s playful nature most of the time.

“Of course you’d say he’s right, you always take his side,” Drei-as argued.

“Only because his side isn’t caught in a net of optimistic fantasies,” Truggen retorted, crossing his arms.  “There’s something mighty unnatural with these waters.  They look almost cursed.”

Well… almost always, Edren thought.

“Oh, cursed waters, huh?” Drei-as quickly shot back, raising a sharp eyebrow.  “I’m glad you’re here for such a logical and enlightening insight; and here I was looking down at the dark water and thought it was made of chocolate.”

“Let us light no torches, less we risk revealing our position,” Truggen advised, ignoring the first mate’s provocations.

“We could light a massive funeral pyre at the bow of the ship to grieve the loss of your sound counsel, and I’d still wager I wouldn’t be able to see it from the stern,” Drei-as teased.

“I think your words would be better served at the end of a hook.   We could taunt the fish into our nets and never have to leave the shore,” Truggen shot back, finally succumbing to the First Mate’s taunts.

“You’ve used that one before, your wit is like the bread I ate this morning, stale,” Drei-as said with a chuckle.

“Enough you two, this no time for debate; I need your focus,” Edren ordered.

“Understood, Captain.  Well, then I shall most certainly continue to provoke the quartermaster with the relief of no longer having to gaze upon his hideous face,” Drei-as responded, turning his head towards the front of the ship.

Truggen grunted loudly at the remark.

“Onto happier subjects,” Drei-as continued, “I bet Edren is just excited to get back home and see his wife.  She’s just about to pop out your first born, is’ she?”

“Aye, that’s right,” Edren replied with a faint smile.  “The high priestess thinks it’s going to be a girl.”

“And you’ll be bringing her the best gift a father could bring,” Drei-as said cheerfully, “many dinners for all of us!”

Edren briefly left his worry behind as the three of them shared a laugh.

“Seven points off the starboard bow!” a sailor ahead of them called out, cutting the moment short.

“What is it?” Truggen answered, as he trotted over to the side of the ship.  He came running back twice as fast.

“Captain!  You need to see this!” Truggen insisted, breathing heavily with fear.

Edren followed the quartermaster to the ship’s edge, his eyes widening as he looked out across the water.

“What am I beholding here?” he asked, his hands gripping the wooden ledge so tightly he could feel his heartbeat within them.

Large droplets of water were rising from the surface of the sea, forming into orbs the size of cannonballs as they floated upwards.

The men pointed and shouted as they all watched the water twist and churn, and then the spheres of liquid combusted into flame.

“I told you— I told you these were cursed waters!” Truggen hissed.

Edren stared at the fires blazing around the ship, with glimmers of the ghostly lights extending through the mists beyond.  His stomach twisted as he watched the fire freeze over, leaving nothing but hollow remains of the burning orbs; and then the floating ice trickled back to the sea, not as shards of the frost but as grains of ashy sand.  It dissipated into the water, and he hardly had a moment to process what he had just witnessed before the process began anew.

“I can’t believe it.  In all the seasons that I’ve drawn breath, I’ve never seen such sorcery as this,” Drei-as’s voice reached Edren’s ears, he turned to see the first mate standing beside him, the color drained from the man’s face.

“These waters are the maw to oblivion!” a sailor shouted.

“Reverse course, lads; let’s turn this ship around,” Edren called out, his wits returning to him.  “We’ll venture no further.”

“Aye Captain!” Truggen said.  There was a scurry of movement as the sailors raced around the deck, each running to their posts.

“You heard the Captain, let the current take us far from this cursed place!” Truggen barked.

The ship had begun to come around when a sudden loud crack echoed from the ship’s hull.  Shouts of panic erupted from the men as the water shifted around the vessel, tilting it sharply to its side.

A dark shadow rose beneath the water’s surface, its length stretching far beyond the side of the Sea Seraph.  Waves crashed against the ship’s hull, rocking it violently.

“Captain, we’re taking on water, we need to abandon ship!”  Truggen yelled, struggling to not fall as the ship tipped further.  “She’s not going to hold!  We’re ‘bout to capsize!”

“Jump overboard!” Edren commanded.  “Shore can’t be more than a quarter day’s swim!  Abandon ship!  Abandon—”

Edren froze as a massive form rose from the waters until it towered over the ship.  He looked up at the titan looming above them.  His eyes widened and he fell to his knees.

Waves around the ship rose, lifting it skyward; he heard planks on the ship crack and split.

Miandra, he thought, reaching for his locket. I love you — I love you so much.

The shouts of his fellow sailors were drowned out by a deafening bellow that echoed across the sea.  Edren clutched the locket tightly to his chest as the world around him faded to white.

Chapter 1

I never knew my father.  My mother told me that he left this world before I was born, claimed by the sea.  I wish I had met him, even if just once, even if just for a single conversation.

I never knew my father.

I only knew his consequences.

“Come on, don’t screw with me Magun; you’re telling me you don’t have one fruit left?” Aeralyn ran her hands through her long, curly brown hair as she scowled at the merchant.

“Nope.  Sorry.  All out of stock.  Come back another day,” Magun replied, starting down at her from inside his caravan, practically smirking.  “Not a single pear, melon, or apricot left.”

“You’re telling a bundle of lost sea tales and I know it!” Aeralyn accused sharply.

“I tell only the truth, and you better watch your mouth, young lady!  Be grateful that I trade with you at all,” Magun replied.  The chubby bald man placed his hand over his chest under his strikingly dark goatee and raised his head with a dignified expression.  “Like I said, we were picked entirely clean this morning; perhaps if you had come by earlier.”

“It’s dawn,” Aeralyn protested.

“No, it isn’t,” Magun countered.  “You must have slept in.”

Aeralyn pointed at the sun, still not having rising above the stone buildings of the inner city.

“I — er — well,” Magun stammered.  “They— they came before the sun rose.  I’m a very popular vendor, you know.”

“No, you aren’t,” Aeralyn countered heatedly.  “Otherwise you’d be doing business in the main plaza, and not haggling with me in the back market.”

“Just take my word on it,” Magun insisted.  “I swear to you that I have none left, upon the honor of my deceased great grandmother, who was a respected high priestess, and upon every dignified virtue of my dignified trade and profession, that I have faithfully served the city of Lunar Cove for the last twenty-five seasons—”

“I can see a pile of fruits behind you!” Aeralyn protested as she leaned to her side.

“The sea salts must have gotten to your eyes, there’s nothing of the sort in this cart,” Magun replied quickly, not-so-subtly moving to block a view of the inside of his shop — and only succeeded in blocking sight of half his wares.

“Yes there are!” Aeralyn snapped.  “I can still see them!”

“Fabrications do not become you,” Magun retorted.  “There’s nothing here.”

Aeralyn pointed at a small stash of pears that had almost been successfully tucked behind the vendor.

Magun struggled to turn around and look behind him within the cramped wooden space, his eyes widened as his movements made a few of the pears roll even further into view.

“Oh, those fruits.  Well, yes.  I indeed have a few fruits left,” Magun backpedaled.  “But those were meant for my own dinner this evening.  A merchant must feed himself, you know.  Selling wares is dreadfully hard work.”

“There are at least twenty pears behind you,” Aeralyn replied flatly.

“And I was going to donate the remaining few to the homeless children of Lunar Cove,” Magun lied.  “You wouldn’t want homeless children to go hungry now, would — hey!”

A silver winged lizard, resembling a sleek, tiny dragon, flew over the merchants head, the largest of the pears in each of its talons.  It hovered above Aeralyn, dropping the fruits into her outstretched hands and then landing on her right shoulder.

“Thanks Ikibee, good to know there’s still one good merchant that cares,” Aeralyn said, running her hand gently across Ikibee’s neck.  The little drake chirped happily.

“You and your cursed drake give those pears back right now or I’ll call the guards!” Magun shouted, shaking his fist at them.

“What pears? You were all out of stock since this morning?” Aeralyn said, flashing the angry merchant a wide grin before she turned and darted away from the caravan.

“You little brat!” Magun shouted, his face turning red as he raised a plump fist at her.  “You think you can get away with stealing from the great Magun?  You think you can—”

Magun’s yelling faded into the distance as Aeralyn ran towards the edge of Lunar Cove, towards the coast.

Two pears isn’t much, but it’ll have to do, Aeralyn thought with a sigh, as she stared out across the bay.   The sun rested just a short distance above the city, casting a shimmering blanket of ruby and tangerine across the shallow waters.

For a brief moment, Aeralyn was actually afraid that Magun would report her thievery to the city guards, but then she reminded herself that Magun was a coward who secretly traded goods with Umbra Poachers.  If he turned her in, he’d go down with her and he knew it; so his threats were no more than a ruse, one he wouldn’t dare follow through with.

Ikibee gently flapped his wings, taking in the ocean breeze.

As slimy as Magun was, at least he would pretend to be civil with her, which was more than what she could say for most others she’d encountered in Lunar Cove.  Most other people that she had met within the city would intentionally ignore her, or acknowledge here only through vile remarks and scoffs.  All she had ever known for her entire life, it had always been just her and her mom against the world.

Aeralyn felt Ikibee nibble on her long cinnamon-brown hair.

“You ready to go home?” she asked.

The drake squawked softly.

“Alright,” Aeralyn said.  “A stroll along the beach first, so you can stretch those wings some more?”

Ikibee chirped.

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” she said with a smile.