Prologue

Devil's Cove

I stood, facing the setting sun, squinting to blur the sight of the masts of the ships, each scuttled and left to rot with her honored crew aboard her. I was soon to join their number, the so-called unremembered. And what was worse, my crew with me.

The seas here were not the bright blue I knew from the Deeps, but rather, dull grey, like quicksilver poured out over the seas. The waters of the cove, and the shallows that surrounded it, were tainted by too many good men brought unjustly to their ends without provision for their souls.

The noose was beginning to chafe a new spot on my neck and so I shifted my weight. I instantly regretted the movement because it broke open some of the blisters caused by the rough, hand-twisted rope. Heavy black chains jangled with every movement I made, and a young boy stood in front of me, hand to the hilt of his sword ready to lay me low if I should resist too much.

One of the men behind me wore a whip curled around his shoulder, ready for use if I should become too cheeky in my reply. And it was that knowledge alone that kept me civil. In my Two hundred thirty-odd talon asea I had had more of the lash that I appreciated, I wasn't about to add more indignity to my lot.

"Jalen Delphe Shenn," The hangman stripped me of my title that quickly. He spoke the clipped, and precise dialect of Thalgiri that was found in all the legal documents.