Page 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1

Gavin Guile lay on his back on a narrow ski in theon his back like this, he’d once almost believed he was one with the sea Now the dome of the heavens above hi

Two hours before noon, here on the southern ri deep blue-green The sky above, cloudless, mist burned off, should be a peaceful, vibrant sapphire

But he couldn’t see it Since he’d lost the Battle of Garriston four days ago, wherever there was blue, he saw gray He couldn’t even see that much unless he concentrated Robbed of its blue, the sea looked like thin, gray-green broth

His fleet aiting Hard to relax when thousands of people aiting for you and only you, but he needed this measure of peace

He looked to the heavens, arertips

Lucidonius, were you here? Were you even real? Did this happen to you, too?

So through the waves

Gavin sat up on his skimmer Then stood

Fifty paces behind hih to cause its oell It could have been a whale

Except whales usually surface to breathe There was no spray hanging in the air, no whoosh of expelled breath And from fifty paces, for Gavin to have heard the hiss of a sea creature cutting through the water, it would have to bein light to draft his oar apparatus--and froze Right beneath his tiny craft, so the landscape speed by when you’re riding in a carriage, but Gavin wasn’t e,closer and closer to the surface, closer to his own little boat A sea delowed A peaceful, war

Gavin had never heard of such a thing Sea demons were monsters, the purest, craziest form of fury known toin their wake Not carnivores, so far as the old books guessed, but fiercely territorial--and any interloper that disrupted their seas was to be crushed Interlopers like ships