The Silent Isle

by Nicholas Anderson

  “Ahthala will be disappointed,” Tomka said. “She went into the hills to light incense for you. We’ve sent a runner. She should be back soon.”

  Dane paused, looking at the sand. Then he started walking towards Mirela, but said over his shoulder to the Tiran chieftain, “I think she’ll understand.”

  Dane took Mirela by the hand and helped her to her feet. “I have something for you.”

  He led her back down the beach, to where a little skiff lay just above the water line. “I think I got ripped off,” he said. “But I just had to have her.”

  “You bought this?”

  “Traded for it. Gave Tomka our ship in exchange for food and housing for all of us and passage back to the mainland. And this. Told him I wanted something that could be manned by a single person but strong enough to take on the open sea.”

  “That’s not such a bad break.”

  Dane shrugged. “Well, I didn’t actually get him to agree to all of us. Just all of us minus two.”

  Mirela looked at him.

  “Look,” he said. “We’ve got a fair wind now, and she’s ready to go. So why don’t you get on board?”

  “And where are we going, Captain?”

  “Why are you asking me? I’m just first mate. You’ll find your things and enough food for a month on deck.”

  She stood for a moment, studying his face. Then she turned and walked back up the beach to the circle of fires. Dane waited for her.

  A short time later she returned, wiping her eyes. “I couldn’t leave like that. Not without saying goodbye to Josie and the others.”

  Mirela slipped deftly over the gunwale. Dane set his shoulder against the stern and pushed the skiff into the waves. Before he pulled himself aboard, he shifted the boat in the water, pointing her prow towards the sunset blazing in the west.

  ***

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, love and thanks to my beautiful wife, Sarah, for making me get back on the horse and finish the fight after I lost some 20,000 words of my original manuscript. To Megan, my twin – please know I am just as much a fan of the stories you are writing with your life as you are of mine. To all my pre-readers (you know who you are) for your friendship, feedback, and encouragement (a priceless and all-too-rare resource). To Robert Thiessen, for editing my work and being nice about it. To Chris Leake, for his advice on how to get this thing into people’s hands. To my dad, whose constructive criticism freed me up to write more like me and less like them (whoever they are). To my mom, for giving me her blessing in pursuing this dream, all the while praying under her breath that it wouldn’t leave me a heartbroken and starving artist. (Thanks, Mom, for the prayers as well, as I have yet to see heartbreak or starvation). And finally, to you, for getting this far. This is the end of the book and the beginning of whatever you’re going to do next. So do it well. For, as that flaming messenger told Bailus Conley: This is now, and you are it.

  About the Author

  Nicholas Anderson lives in the sun-bathed mountains of southern Mexico, where he helps people find wholeness and healing in their relationships with God, others, and creation. He has one wife, two children, and five chickens. He hopes to eventually increase the numbers of the latter two. He writes for pleasure and to support his LEGO habit. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, thesilentisle.com, or wrapped around the little finger of one of his sons.

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  Table of Contents

  Prologue:

  The Watcher

  I

  The Gray Apostle

  II

  Marked to Die

  III

  Last Night on Earth

  IV

  Stowaway

  V

  The Raid

  VI

  Inside Information

  VII

  The Rangers

  VIII

  Dead Reckoning

  IX

  Valley of the Shadows

  X

  Of Monsters and Miracles

  XI

  Ugly Business

  XII

  Hollow Men

  XIII

  Eddie

  XIV

  The Hall of the Pale Princes

  XV

  Deathdreams

  XVI

  Fools’ Errand

  XVII

  Where Night Never Sleeps

  XVIII

  The Darkness at the End of the Tunnel

  XIX

  Drowning Man

  XX

  A Pyre for Hope

  XXI

  The Runaway

  XXII

  An Honest Day’s Work

  XXIII

  Ambush

  XXIV

  The Man Who Turned

  XXV

  Black Sails

  XXVI

  Pillars of Smoke, Pillars of Fire

  XXVII

  The Crooked Mile

  XXVIII

  Warren

  XXIX

  Sleeper Cell

  Epilogue:

  The Sea of Possibility

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author