Prologue
Lightning cracked.
The sound sliced through the darkness like a knife.
Aldric was already moving before he fully woke.
His hand found his sword as he rushed from his cabin onto the deck.
Rain struck his face.
Cold.
Heavy.
Violent.
The sky above had transformed into a swirling abyss of black clouds.
Lightning exploded across the heavens.
For a brief moment, the ocean illuminated white.
Aldric froze.
The wave towering before the Nightblazer looked like a mountain.
"Gods..." someone whispered.
The wave crashed.
Wood splintered.
Sailors were thrown screaming across the deck.
The ship groaned as if some enormous beast had seized it in its jaws.
Chaos erupted instantly.
"Reef the sails!"
"Secure the lines!"
"Man the pumps!"
Another bolt of lightning shattered the sky.
Thunder followed with enough force to shake the vessel.
Aldric's eyes searched the deck.
Then he saw her.
Sylmora struggled against the storm near the main mast, soaked by rain and surrounded by terrified crew members.
Relief lasted only a second.
A deafening crack echoed through the air.
The mast snapped.
Aldric's blood turned to ice.
"Sylmora!"
The massive beam began falling directly toward her.
Time slowed.
The queen looked up.
Her eyes widened.
Aldric ran.
The world vanished beneath the roar of wind and thunder.
He slammed into her.
Both crashed across the deck as the mast exploded where she had been standing moments earlier.
Wooden debris flew everywhere.
Sylmora gasped.
"Aldric-"
"Move!"
Another wave crashed over the ship.
The deck vanished beneath freezing water.
The Nightblazer lurched violently.
Crew members screamed.
A section of the hull tore apart with a sound like the world splitting in two.
The captain's face turned pale.
"We're losing her!"
The words struck harder than any wave.
The Nightblazer was famous throughout the world.
Unsinkable.
Legendary.
The pride of the Emerald Isles.
And she was dying.
Aldric grabbed Sylmora's arm.
"We have to abandon ship."
Her eyes widened.
"No."
"The ship is finished."
"We can still save-"
The deck beneath them cracked.
That settled the argument.
Aldric dragged her toward the lifeboats as sailors fought desperately to lower them.
The storm showed no mercy.
Lightning struck the sea.
Waves swallowed entire sections of deck.
Men and women disappeared into darkness.
Then came the final blow.
A monstrous wave rose from the abyss itself.
Higher than the ship.
Higher than anything nature should have been capable of creating.
For a heartbeat, everyone stared.
Terrified.
Speechless.
The wave fell.
The Nightblazer shattered.
Wood erupted in every direction.
The world became water.
Aldric plunged into the freezing ocean.
Darkness consumed him.
The sea dragged him downward.
For a terrifying moment he lost all sense of direction.
Then he remembered.
Sylmora.
Panic exploded through his chest.
He fought upward.
His head burst through the surface.
Rain hammered his face.
Broken wreckage floated everywhere.
"Sylmora!"
No answer.
His heart pounded.
"Sylmora!"
A flash of lightning illuminated the chaos.
There.
A glimpse of green skin.
A hand struggling against the waves.
Aldric swam.
Every muscle screamed in protest.
The ocean battered him mercilessly.
Still he pushed forward.
He reached her moments before another wave dragged her under.
His arm wrapped around her waist.
"I have you!"
She coughed violently, barely conscious.
The storm fought to tear them apart.
Aldric refused to let go.
Not now.
Not ever.
A battered lifeboat drifted nearby.
Half broken.
Barely afloat.
It was enough.
With the last of his strength, Aldric hauled Sylmora toward it.
Wave after wave struck them.
Twice he nearly lost his grip.
Three times the sea pulled them under.
Yet somehow he reached the boat.
He shoved Sylmora inside.
Then climbed in after her.
The storm swallowed everything else.
Together they watched from the lifeboat as the mighty Nightblazer disappeared beneath the waves.
Gone.
The legendary ship sank into darkness.
The ocean claimed her.
And with her vanished the world they had known.
As thunder echoed across the endless sea, Queen Sylmora and Sir Aldric drifted into the unknown.
Unaware that far beyond the storm, beyond every chart and trade route ever drawn, an island waited for them.
An island filled with forgotten ruins.
Ancient secrets.
And dangers that had slept undisturbed for centuries.
