Man was born of nature, and carries deep within him the will to survive…
Our new fantasy novella, Hardway (I) Sea of Souls, is due for release on kindle on 17 April 2019 and is available now for pre-order. This is the latest story co-written by myself and David Pilling and set in The World Apparent.
Hardway (I) Sea of Souls – available for pre-order and due to be released on 17 April 2019.
Hardway is an independent island state. Once a penal colony, now a den of iniquity where only the strongest and most devious survive. Hardway has enjoyed its freedom for hundreds of years, with wealth (for those quick and ruthless enough to grab it) to be made through its convenient position on trade routes.
The story follows the exploits of various of the island’s inhabitants and their struggles to survive Hardway’s mean streets. Their fates are gradually intertwined when they are each affected by and drawn into the City Fathers’ desperate plans to protect the island from an expanding empire to the East and an ambitious kingdom to the West. The two powers are on a collision course that will spark a war for power and control of the Narrow Seas. A critical strategic position for both sides, Hardway sits right in the firing line.
Two such characters who epitomise the spirit of Hardway are Limpet and Liss. Limpet is a fifteen year old boy living in a sandstone hovel, taking care of his ten year old sister, Liss, a frail, blind girl who rarely speaks, and when she does it is in cryptic rhyme form.
“Limpet returns, life of the brood,
Liss awaits her bite of food.
Supper, he brings, caught in a net
Yet the fish is dry, and he is wet.”
Limpet is a streetwise urchin, making money doing whatever he can on the streets of Hardway, often running errands for the various characters of the island’s criminal fraternity. His only plan? To keep himself and Liss alive until the day he figures out a way to escape the island and take her somewhere safe, far away from Hardway. Their father long gone and their mother long dead, Liss is Limpet’s entire world, and he will stop at nothing to protect her.
Liss is a pale, spindly bag of bones, her milky eyes staring blindly into space. Her occasional utterances mean little to Limpet, but there may be more to the girl than meets the eye. Gradually, Limpet begins to realise that what his little sister lacks in body she more than makes up for with words. Limpet soon finds himself wondering, what is she and who is really keeping them both alive?
“North beneath the treasure chest,
Their lonely vessel drifts,
On the World Apparent’s breast,
The breath that falls and lifts.
His past pursues him, close behind,
His future fights his grip,
Protection lies within his mind,
Not hanging from his hip.”
Article by Martin Bolton
The World Apparent 