The Boiling Seas: The Story So Far
I’m in the US at the moment so time is weird – apologies.
The sequel to The Blackbird and the Ghost is coming in a few weeks – so I figured it might be a good opportunity to recap on what’s happened in the world of the Boiling Seas so far.
Obviously, spoilers follow for The Blackbird and the Ghost. If you haven’t read it, you might like to.
Tal Wenlock: adventurer, thief, and archaeologist, depending on who you speak to. A renowned treasure-hunter, he takes to the Boiling Seas to hunt for an ancient scroll of healing magic – one of five created long ago by an unknown but incredibly powerful wizard, long lost to myth. While the scroll is immensely valuable, if it exists, Tal isn’t in it for the money. He wants it to cure the incurable disease that has crippled his sister for years.
The Boiling Seas are a dangerous place, of course. Volcanic activity on the ocean floor has made them permanently boiling hot. Only the hardiest serpents and metal-scaled fish can survive in their depths, and a wooden boat will not last long. Great steel-hulled ships and airships are the only ways to cross the steaming waters – and it is on the former that Tal pursues a lead to the city of Port Malice on the Corpus Isles.
Into the earth Tal goes: deep into the furthest reaches of an old mine, following clues from an ancient journal to find the buried remnants of an ancient palace. But he doesn’t find the scroll there. Instead he finds the agents of his bitterest enemy: another treasure-hunter, a man without moral or scruple, a man purely after profit and prepared to do anything to get it. Mikhail Siras, the Ghost, the Nowhere Man. Tal flees into the tunnels, is shot, and very nearly dies beneath the ground.
Instead, however, he is rescued by the scholars of the Lantern, a great university of every subject under the sun – and magic too. There he meets Maximillian Odyn, a young scholar who he persuades to join him on his quest. With her mastery of magic and deep knowledge of ancient languages and history, Max is able to help Tal figure out the real location of the scroll.
Together, they sail out to the tiny island of the Palm, and in its caverns they find the resting-place of the scroll – at the heart of a forgotten tomb packed with traps and tricks for the unwary. Those Tal can handle – but not the Nowhere Man, who very nearly kills him with the scroll already in his hands. But with Max’s help, the Ghost is defeated – and with the scroll of healing, Tal is saved.
The pair head for the mainland to tend to Tal’s sister – and from there, to the next of the five scrolls. And if I said anything else, I’d be giving you spoilers.
Nightingale’s Sword will tell you what happens next.
