SOLVED. YA Fantasy book/series about a Boy who finds Magical Talking Sticks that use Sound to Perform Magic. Spoilers. [s]

[Eli]

I borrowed this book from my friend in the Summer of 2013 when we were both teenagers, though he spoke of the book and the series as if he had already read them all at this point so it would have been published before that. The book was a paperback, and was about as thick as other YA books like The Hunger Games. I think the title included a word like "wind," "sound," or "silence." I distinctly remember there was a subtitle that said "Book One of the Keys," although none of these clues have turned up anything. I assume the The Keys is the name of the series (I never read the subsequent books) and that it refers to the islands that act as the setting.

The cover featured the protagonist, a young boy with simple dark clothes on standing in the middle of a road or field with some kind of leaves/brush in the foreground. The boy seems to be standing at a distance so most or all of his body can be seen. He is at an angle but is looking over his shoulder so his face can be seen. He is holding a smooth wooden stick in each hand at his sides while his blonde hair is being blown by the wind (which I thought made him look a bit like Alex Pettyfer in the movie Stormbreaker). I seem to remember the cover looking like a painting or sketch as opposed to a photo or digital illustration.

The book was set in a fantasy world that seemed vaguely Caribbean-inspired. Technology-wise, it seemed close to the 1700s or even early 1800s. Pirates would fit in perfectly in this world. The world featured in the story was comprised of several islands dominated by a maritime empire reminiscent of the real-world British Empire. One detail I remember is that the empire were fairer-skinned than the native population of the islands they ruled over.

There were three main characters; the chapters would alternate between their perspectives. None of them know each other at the beginning, but towards the middle of the story, the three characters all come together in the same location and become close friends.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
The most prominent of the characters (the one featured on the cover) was a teenage boy who was the youngest son of an important official in the empire and who was ill-behaved and listless. His father wanted him to get serious and put his mind to something. At one point his father tried to get him to join the clergy of the fictional religion, which was monotheist but didn't have an afterlife and so preached making the most of life while you have it, but the boy was disinterested and dodged the clergyman's questions. Then the boy finds a pair of old wooden sticks in a chest/box that was brought back by his naval officer brother (from a foreign island he helped conquer) and the sticks speak to him. It seems like the sticks used to be a person that were either trapped or hidden in the form of the sticks by magic. The sticks both comprise one entity which has a name and has a snarky, sarcastic personality. The sticks often point out the boy's shortcomings and make fun of his brash attitude. The sticks can perform magic using sound waves of some kind. The boy gets in trouble for finding the sticks and is caught up in some kind of ancient conspiracy involving them, and so has to run away with the sticks' help. There was some kind of training element to the boy's relationship with the sticks, as he had to learn how to use them and the sticks needed a wielder to some extent. At one point he asks the sticks to conjure up money, but the sticks explain that they can't produce it, only take it from somewhere else where it already exists nearby. The boy hitches a ride on a horse carriage with a man and his wife despite the sticks' protests, and he wakes up a few chapters later on the side of the road. The sticks explain that the man knocked him out and robbed him after he'd bragged about his wealth over dinner.

Meanwhile, one of the other main characters is a girl, close to the boy's age, who is living on a farm with her grandparents (her parents have apparently died). They are from the native population of the island and so have darker features. They had a more pantheistic, spiritual belief which does have an afterlife in comparison to the empire's religion. Their daily routine and general lifestyle was reminiscent of "Little House on the Prairie." There was a coachman who delivered letters and bank notices to their farm who was also from the island, but he dressed and acted more like the imperials and he wanted to take their farm and had a creepy infatuation with the girl. One of the big plot points was the threat of the family losing their farm due to not being able to pay their debts.

The third main character is an adult. He is a scurvy sea-dog who is known as "Tilt" due to his habitual drinking and the way he walks. He was once captain or navigator or something on a ship that he caused to wreck by mistake, and since then he has been a washed-up drunkard. He is hired by a pair of thugs to help them with a robbery of some kind, but he backs out and runs away because he's morally uncomfortable with it and because he was being set up as the fall guy by the thugs. He ends up running into the boy and the two of them wind up on the girl's farm. They both agree to work the farm in exchange for food and lodgings. The girl's grandmother dislikes the nickname "Tilt" and insists that he use his real name. The girl's grandfather dies at some point due a condition related to his old age. There is a drought and the grandmother becomes ill. The boy convinces the sticks to help him cause rain so that the crops don't die. All seems well for a short while, and Tilt buys small gifts for each of them using his stash of money, including a painting of the rocky coastal region where the grandmother is from; he hangs it up in her bedroom so she can look at the mountains of her youth. However, the coachman is revealed to be working with the two thugs from earlier and arrives to seize the farm as part of his ambitious scheme to become a prominent administrator in the region. The grandmother dies. Tilt is press-ganged into the imperial navy, while the boy and girl manage to evade and kill the coachman and the thugs with the help of the sticks. They decide they can't stay at the farm and go on the road together. The final chapter of the book is from Tilt's perspective on the navy boat where he's chained up with other conscripts below deck. He hears noises on the deck and screaming as all the officers and crew are killed by something. The door opens and all the prisoners stare in astonishment at a sea creature resembling a merman. It observes them curiously and then leaves them chained up as the ship begins to sink. To be continued... From what I can remember, my friend told me there was a war between the empire and the merpeople in the subsequent books.

[Becca]

Unheard Of by Seth Hammons, first book in The Keys series

[Eli]

Becca wrote: "Unheard Of by Seth Hammons, first book in The Keys series"

Outstanding, thanks for your help!