Red Tide

 

Begin Reading

Table of Contents

About the Author

Copyright Page

 

Thank you for buying this

Tom Doherty Associates ebook.

 

To receive special offers, bonus content,

and info on new releases and other great reads,

sign up for our newsletters.

 

Or visit us online at

us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

 

For email updates on the author, click
here
.

 

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce, or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.

 

Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author's copyright, please notify the publisher at:
us.macmillanusa.com/piracy
.

 

F
OR
J
AMES

 

D
RAMATIS
P
ERSONAE

The Olairian Court

Mazana Creed,
the emira of the Storm Isles

The executioner

Kiapa,
the emira's bodyguard

Jambar Simanis,
a Remnerol shaman

Uriel,
Mazana Creed's half brother

Mokinda Char,
a Storm Lord

Imerle Polivar,
the old emira, now dead

Cauroy Blent,
a former Storm Lord, now believed dead

Dutia Elemy Meddes,
former commander of the Storm Guard, now missing

Revenants

Jodren Labarde,
commander of the Revenants

Twist,
his subcommander

Tali and Mili,
the twins, former bodyguards to Imerle Polivar

Erin Elalese

Senar Sol,
a Guardian

Amerel Duquy,
a Guardian

Noon,
a Breaker

Emperor Avallon Delamar

Strike,
the emperor's bodyguard

Tyrin Lindin Tar,
second in command of the Breakers

Jelek Balaran,
a water-mage

Kolloken Kanar,
a Breaker

Gill Treller,
the First Guardian

Li Benir,
a dead Guardian, Senar Sol's former mentor

Jessca,
a dead Guardian, Senar Sol's former partner

The Rubyholt Isles

Spear Clan

Dresk Galair,
warlord of the Isles

Galantas Galair,
his son

Magdella,
Dresk's wife

Talet,
Dresk's chamberlain

Qinta,
Galantas's Second

Barnick,
Galantas's water-mage

Drefel,
Galantas's quartermaster

Faloman Gorst,
a krel

Karsten Berg,
a krel

Clamp,
a krel

Worrin,
a krel

Critter

Squint

Reska

Carlo

Vos

Scullen

Other Clans

CLAN LEADERS

Ravin Corre of the Falcons

Kalag Bluefinger of the Raptors

Malek Tenclaws of the Needles

Tolo the Unready of the Keels

Enigon Treach of the Squalls

Starboard Stonne of the Corals

Ysabel Tremeval of the Blades

OTHERS

Toben Stark,
a Raptor krel

Tub,
a Needle krel

Blist,
a Needle krel

Cleo,
a Falcon krel

Corm,
a Falcon krel

Yali,
a Falcon krel

Klipp,
a Squall krel

Lassan,
a Needle

Allott,
a Falcon

Galitians

Ebon Calidar,
prince of Galitia

Vale Gorven,
his timeshifter bodyguard

Gunnar, a
water-mage

Rendale Calidar,
Ebon's brother

Lamella Dewhand,
Ebon's partner

Silvar Jilani,
Galitia's ambassador to Mercerie

Augerans

Commander Eremo al First,
leader of the Augeran expeditionary force

Sunder al First,
his subcommander

Hex,
a mage

Ilabari Usco,
Eremo's Keeper

Ostari Abrahim al Third,
an Honored

Gilgamarians

Lydanto Hood,
Gilgamar's ambassador to Olaire

Iqral,
a soldier

Tia,
a racketeer

Peg Foot,
Tia's minion

Wirral Dray,
first speaker of the Gilgamarian Ruling Council

Pettiman Teel,
Wirral's deputy

Others

The Spider,
a goddess

Romany Elivar,
a priestess of the Spider

The Chameleon,
a god

Karmel Flood,
a priestess of the Chameleon

Caval Flood,
former high priest of the Chameleon, Karmel's brother

Veran,
a
former Chameleon priest, now dead

Zalli,
Veran's widow

Artagina,
high priest of the Lord of Hidden Faces in Olaire

Fume,
an elder god,
now dead

Darbonna,
former high priestess of the dead god Fume

Ocarn Dasuki,
prince of Mercerie

 

P
ART
I

B
LOOD FROM
S
TONE

 

C
HAPTER
1

S
TANDING ON
the quarterdeck of the
Whitecap
, Guardian Amerel Duquy watched the headland fall away to reveal the city she had come to condemn. Bezzle, capital of the Rubyholt Isles. Judging by the smoke above the place, someone must have beaten her to the punch, damn them. But then the wind veered so it was in her face, and the sudden stink made it clear the haze was caused not by fires, but by the brine boileries and fish-glue factories clustered round the harbor.

If you
were
going to condemn a city, Bezzle was a good one to choose. Since Amerel had last been here, the place had bloated like a carcass in the sun. To the north was the Old Town with its crumbling buildings of pale blue-veined stone that shimmered in the midmorning sun. While to the south and west were districts of shanties that looked like they might slump into the bay with the next breath of wind. No more permanent than a castle of sand, but when you'd been invaded as often as the Rubyholters had, you didn't build things to last. At the ring of a bell the whole population would board their ships and melt away into the maze of waterways all about—as they had so many times before.

Even at this distance, Amerel could make out scores of ships bobbing at quayside. Among them was a Thaxian brigatina with its black-and-white-banded hull, an Androsian corrick with its high-rounded stern, along with a host of other vessels the Guardian had no name for. No two craft were of the same construction, but pirates couldn't be particular when it came to sourcing their fleet. Oh, the Bezzlians would chafe at the name “pirates,” but if there was a better word to describe them—to describe
all
Rubyholters—it wasn't the sort you would use in polite company. What else did you call a people with no culture, no trade links, no industry worth mentioning? A people whose very existence relied on the bounty they stole from the ships of Erin Elal, Corinia, Mellikia, and the Sabian League?

As the
Whitecap
entered a strip of water between two islets, its Rubyholt guide shouted, “Rift to starboard!” It was a cry Amerel had heard a dozen times during their passage through the Isles. As she now scanned the sea off the starboard bow, she saw a telltale shadow in the water that marked a gateway where this world overlapped with another. There were countless such gateways scattered across the Isles. Legend had it they were created in some apocalyptic clash between gods and titans in the Eternal War—a clash that had shattered a once hale continent into the tangle of islands and waterways that it now comprised, and burned holes through the fabric of the world to create portals to other lands. In the waters through which the
Whitecap
now sailed, there was evidence aplenty to support that tale. Amerel could make out flooded buildings of the same blue-veined stone as in Bezzle's Old Town, statues and obelisks draped in strands of fireweed, forests of columns reaching so close to the surface it seemed the
Whitecap
's keel must scrape them as it passed.

The submerged ruins throughout the Isles had sunk more ships than even the rocks along Erin Elal's Bone Coast. But the underwater gateways posed a still greater threat to passing vessels, because beyond those gateways were otherworldly creatures waiting to ambush the unwary. Some were even large enough to take down a ship the size of the
Whitecap.
Earlier the vessel had passed the entrance to a channel called the Dragon's Boneyard, and Amerel hadn't needed their Rubyholt guide's gleeful commentary to guess how the waterway had earned its name. Now, as the
Whitecap
approached the rent, the wave of water-magic carrying it subsided. Doubtless the captain had slowed the vessel to avoid drawing the eye of any creature lurking below. Amerel, by contrast, would have raised the wave of water-magic as high as it would go, and fled for the safety of the harbor.