The high seas and another adventure await Rose Larkin as her handsome captain and she embark on a mission to fix the damage to his eye patch caused by their foe.
The waters take them to the capital, the very heart of their enemies, where an old acquaintance of Marc’s hides in the shadows of the lofty clocktower. A chance encounter with a bold thief causes a stir when Rose’s powers manifest. To make matters worse, their assailant has a paid membership in the local thieves’ guild, and Rose is roughly introduced to another of the world’s more unsavory ruling groups.
Rose’s uncontrolled gift also catches the attention of an old friend of Marc’s from his former island home. She’s a world-famous singer with an eye for rising talent, and she has grand plans for our sweet-voiced heroine. Rose doesn’t think much of the limelight, but she may not have a choice as a shadow looms over her.
Sun. Sun and sea. I was getting a little tired of both.
I sat on a crate near the bow of the Tempest, a soft sea breeze wafting over me. The horizon was a plain picture of blue-green seas and a few scrags of uninhabited land that stuck out of the waters. A few of the masses were large enough to plop a house, if that house didn’t mind being slightly larger than an outhouse. Otherwise, the view was water reflecting the bright sun above my head.
I shifted on the crate and winced when my ribs complained. I set my hand on my stomach and felt the stiff bandages that kept me from moving too much.
“You look a little lost.” The voice came from behind me, and I twisted around in time to watch Marc saunter up to me.
I looked him over. “And you look a little tired. Shouldn’t you get some rest?”
He chuckled. “You sound like Doc. As for that rest, I’ve had enough of that over the last week to last a lifetime.”
I found my attention pulled toward the patch over his left eye. “How’s the patch holding?”
Marc wrinkled his nose, and the cloth wrinkled along with it. “I’ll be glad when it’s put in its proper place again.”
I leaned forward and examined the patch. “How was Jaeger able to pull it off if magic stuck it on?”
“Jaeger has many nicknames,” he mused as he took a seat on the large wooden box. “Hunter is his most well-known one, but he also goes by the name ‘Glintgrip.’”
My eyes lit up. “Like the light that came from his left hand?”
“That’s the glint. He had a spell cast on his hand to be able to dispel most any magic.”
“Do a lot of people have that ability?”
“No. All magic has some sacrifice to it,” he mused as he stretched himself up. “For Jaeger, he can’t use that hand, not even to pull a rope. Not many sailors would make that sacrifice for something they couldn’t use more than once in a while.”
I nodded at his patch. “You lost an eye for that magic?”
A faint smile played across his lips. “Yes, but it was worth it. The Tempest is the fastest ship on the sea when I’m aboard.”
I cocked my head to one side. “What is that, um, eye that replaced yours? It looked like a storm.”
“The eye of the worst sea storm mixed with the fury of the gods,” he told me with a wink. “And some of my own passion, of course.”
I snorted. “I’m surprised I haven’t seen the roads paved with women who are waiting for you.”
“The cart drivers wouldn’t like that,” he quipped as he turned his attention back to the sea ahead of us. A particularly large outcropping rose in front of us. “There are stories about this place and these stones.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to brag about his conquests?”
“Never talk about another woman when you’re with a woman,” he scolded me as he stood. “The stories go that the giants had a great battle here. They tore the rocks from the ocean floor and hurled the stones at each other.”
“What were they fighting over?”
“Mankind.”
I blinked at him. “Come again?”
He turned to me with a smile. “They were fighting over who would rule over us.”
My face drooped. “Did the good guys win?”
“No.”
My heart sank into my stomach until I remembered something. “This really is a story, isn’t it? There aren’t really gods in this world, are there?”
He chuckled. “That depends on whether you’re looking for divine help. No one is an unbeliever in the eye of a storm.”
There was something in his smile that I didn’t like. Some lingering touch at the corners of his lips that told me there was more to his story than he was telling me.
He turned back to the stones. “But these stones show sailors something else.”
“What’s that?”
“The capital,” he told me as he swept an arm ahead of us. “And there it is.”
I stood to get a better look, and my eyes widened. We sailed around a particularly large crag, and a huge island appeared in front of us. The land mass was at least a hundred times larger than Rynek and three times taller. There were also little, plant-covered islands that protruded from the larger island, creating a messy archipelago of life.
The main island was covered by a large city that stretched up its main slope to a flat top once occupied by a volcanic cone, but long blown away during some terrible eruption. The great distance between us meant I couldn’t make out any fine details, but I could see many tall buildings with white stone walls and even some kind of tower situated in the center of the metropolis.
The bustle of ant-like people along the streets was matched and surpassed by the busy wharf. Hundreds of ships of all sizes and varieties were anchored in the huge bay or at the docks. Tens of thousands of pounds of goods moved in and out of the dozens of warehouses that stretched along the shore.
“Captain,” Fidel called from the wheel deck. “Shall we anchor here?”
“Around the far side of the crag,” Marc answered before he turned his attention back to me. “Now we wait for the signal.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
“My handsome features precede me, and the Admiralty is looking for you,” he pointed out as he folded his arms. “We can’t just go strolling in there without special passage. Once there, we’ll have to disguise ourselves.”
There was something in his voice I didn’t like. “As what?”
“As husband and wife with an adorable baby on the way.”
