Excerpt from The Captives

As a gift to you, my reader, the whole trilogy of The Heart of the Caveat Whale is free for download for the next three days! Here’s an excerpt from book 1 The Captives

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Here’s the text:

“I’m not even sure this one’s alive anymore,” a man spoke as she awoke once again.

Since the net no longer surrounded around her, she figured they referred to her. Waves pounded in the distance, and she could smell the salt of the sea. The sand beneath her was hot and soft, yet the thicker grains grated every cut and scrape across her body. If she dashed quickly… But she had to make a thorough assessment before she did anything rash. Perhaps they would just toss her into the sea. Her hands were still tied, but the palm branches, although they scraped her wrists cruelly, could be easily cut once she found a rock beneath the waves.

“Oh, she’s alive, alright,” another man said.

The men dragged her over the dry, hot sand to the edge of the waves; she heard the pounding of their feet as they ran swiftly off the beach again. Two daughters of the sea, who were laying to her left, cried softly, their hands still bound.

“We can go,” Qoshonni whispered urgently. “Follow me; I will lead you to safety. I know these waters well.”

“Then you would know they are no longer free,” a son of the sea replied harshly.

Qoshonni pressed down the panic bubbling to the surface of her mind.

“What is your name?” the aquavian on her right asked.

“Qoshonni,” she replied, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

“I’m glad you have more hope than the rest of these,” the aquavian whispered. “You’re going to need it. I’m going to need it as well, for I can’t sustain all the hope on my own.”

“And what is your name, daughter of the sea?” Qoshonni asked.

“Ashwain.”

“Any hope I would have, Ashwain, would be in Elenonia.”

“All the better,” Ashwain replied. “We will need his aid if we need any at all, and we need plenty.” She moved her bound hands to her left side as Qoshonni moved hers to her right and they greeted one another as aquavians do, rubbing the webbing between each other’s fingers.

“Have you any ideas for escape?” Qoshonni asked.

“We could stay on land and hide in these jungles, but there would be no way to hide all of them,” Ashwain explained in a hushed whisper.

“The men of this land would capture us all again if they saw us,” Qoshonni returned. She could feel one of the waves lap against her feet. “The tide is rising, and the sun is setting. I’m sure we could slip into the sea without their notice, and we’d find somewhere to hide past the first ridge. There are a few underwater mountains to the east, and we’d find shelter in some of the caves.”

“Too many unfriendly octopi haunt those caves,” Ashwain replied. “Besides, we wouldn’t get past the patrols before we reached those mountains. I only just escaped their patrols when I climbed to this land for safety.”

“Mermen?” Qoshonni asked. Another wave crashed higher against her legs. Never before had the ocean frightened her. She fought the fear crawling with crab-like legs across her skin.

Ashwain nodded in return. “I was on my way to see my sister…” she began and then cringed with disgust.

Qoshonni lifted her eyes as she felt a thud of weight upon her legs. It was heavy and sharp whatever it was, and it scraped her skin as it moved higher with the next wave. A merman. At least what she remembered from the legends of them. He pressed down on the legs of the aquavians. But she couldn’t distinguish his features, for every inch of his torso, arms and neck was covered in thick barnacle. Even his fins and tail were covered in barnacle. She cringed and winced under the scraping pain of that barnacle. And then there were more of them, and more, until the beach seemed filled with their hideous forms.

What she had expected to be blond hair on their head was actually a stringy mass sticking haphazardly from the top of their heads. Their grey eyes with the pinpoint pupils were the blackest pools she had ever looked into. The one leaning over her had breath that smelled like rotted flesh.

For the first time, the each book of the trilogy is available for FREE download! This offer will end on Midnight of Wednesday, 1/22, so act fast!

The Captives

Pyromarne

The Tiller and the Song