*** PREAMBLE ***
Chase is unique, the only female soldier in all of King Adonas II's armies, and she has her fair share of difficulties with it. When her troop is sent by the king to fortify a colony town in the newly discovered Midsea Archipelago, her problems only become more complicated. Especially when her troop comes face-to-face with the island's inhabitants, strange beings that echo the ancient myths of Chase's homeland. Unlikely friendships abound, until the troop finds itself in the middle of a conflict between new and old ties, and suddenly Chase is the only thing standing between two sides of disaster ...


Prologue: Dispatch

I stood with my hands on the rail, breathing deep of the cool, salty air. As if to mock my serenity, the gentle rocking motion of the ship picked up as it crested a wave. The rise of the bowsprit momentarily blocked the thin line of green and brown on the horizon. On aside, the rise of the ship coincided with the drop of my head over the rail, as my supper hit the churning water.

'Long trip, eh Chase?'�

I wiped my mouth on the sleeve of my shirt, glad I wasn't in full uniform. 'Too long, sir.'�

Lieutenant Friesen clapped a hand on my shoulder, just as the ship bucked again. Fortunately, my stomach seemed content to merely churn in protest this time.

Friesen turned to look towards the bow, and the green strip beyond it, fast fading to grey in the distant fog. 'With this headwind, we'll make the evening tide and luckily dock before sunset, Lieutenant,'� he said, giving me a brotherly smile. 'In the meantime, Thyson wants to see you.'�

I saluted and headed towards the officers' cabins, vaguely glad I didn't have to go below deck. I passed two troopers at a laundry basin, who didn't stand up or salute. The sailors, on the other hand, either blessed themselves or spat on the deck as I went by, but after six weeks I was used to their superstitions. As long as none of it hit my boots.

Pausing outside The Captain Commander's door to straighten my hair and cuffs, I snapped my heels together and knocked briskly.

'Come in, Lieutenant Chase.'�

I quietly swung the door open and shut it behind me, standing at attention as my captain penned something on a thick envelope on the desk before him. I waited until he'd finished and slipped it into an already full dispatch bag.

'Deliver these to First Lieutenants Friesen and Bradigan and Lord Montgomery, if you will, Lieutenant,'� he said, beckoning me forward and holding it out.

I held back a sigh as I took the bag. I'd figured out on the first leg of our journey that being an 'Honourary Lieutenant' aboard a king's ship, even to my own commander, meant a lot of fetching and carrying. Taking a quick glance into the bag, I looked back at Captain Thyson.

'Sir, there are four dispatches in here.'�

'I know,'� he said, not looking up from his papers. 'The last one is for you, Lieutenant.'�

My shock had to have been evident, even if he was looking. Lowly lieutenants, especially 'honourary' ones, did not receive official dispatches. 'Sir?'�

'You heard me, Chase,'� Thyson wet the nib of his pen on his tongue. 'Mind you read it before we dock.'�

I swallowed. 'Yes sir.'� I snapped a salute and turned to the door.

'Lieutenant.'�

I turned back. Thyson's blue eyes were on me, icy stark under his black hair, the lines on his face set and serious.

'Mind you read it carefully.'�


Chapter 1: Breaking tides

What do you get when you take a company of battle-hardened mountain troops and mix them with a company of pampered noblesons playing soldier, throw in some clergy, a few King's men and their familes, and stuff them all on a ship two sizes too small? You'll have some idea of my last six weeks as Honourary Lieutenant aboard his Majesty's fleetship, the Kingfisher.

I stood beside the helm facing out into the open harbour, anticipating the first steps onto the dry, unheaving land that I could barely see out of the corner of my eye, but that my senses couldn't ignore if they tried. The assembled troops, noble and otherwise, stood on the lower deck, some more at attention than others. The few lords and ladies who dared brave the morning sun stood fanning themselves in the shade of the mainmast. The clergymen stood in the foreground, to the side of the assembled troops. The two First Lieutenants, Friesen and Bradigan, stood before me and to either side, facing the lower deck. The helmsman stood at his place, carefully ignoring me, as did all of the sailors assembled behind the troops. There was not a soul who wasn't standing someway, somewhere.

The very last person, on whom everyone's attention was fixed, stood two paces in front of the helm, his uniform as crisp as the day we'd set sail from Brisington. The sun gleamed white on his black hair, and though his back was to me, I could picture his sharp blue eyes narrowed as he slowly looked over the company.

He was not amused.

'Lieutenant Byron,'� Captain Commander Thyson drawled, 'care to explain your sudden change in, ah '� colouration?'�

Three of the troopers had to force down a smile, while one snorted a laugh into a coughing fit.

Lieutenant Lord Byron stood before all the assemble company, with all the attention of an indignant pussycat. Blond-haired and fair-skinned, he was a northern nobleman's son who preferred the Royal City to the backward mountain reaches. His foppishly curled hair belied the straight, conservative cut of his white uniform, which somehow seemed to have gotten dyed a pale purple.

'Laundering accident, sir,'� supplied Lieutenant Friesen, when Byron didn't answer. 'Someone was dying clothes and didn't empty the vat.'�

Lieutenant Lord Bradigan cast me a glance from Thyson's other side. 'And who pray tell, would be dying clothes aboard a warship, eh Lieutenant Chase?'�

My cheeks reddened as several chuckles broke out among the lords' sons. The ladies tittered behind their fans, while the helmsman pursed his lips at me.

I managed a straight face. 'Lady Lithia commandeered Troopers Ryle and Kefor to revitalize some of her, ah, delicates, before we landed, sir.'�

I might not be a commanding officer, but blast if I didn't know how to turn a petty insult around, delivered by a superior officer or not. Lithia gave a short squeak before disappearing back behind her fan. Thyson looked at me for a second, then nodded. 'Understandable,'� he said, turning to the troopers in question. 'To make up for your forgetfulness, the two of you will launder Lieutenant Byron's clothing for the duration of this voyage, until we return to Brisington. Is that clear?'�

As Ryle and Kefor mumbled their acquiescence, I forced down my own smile at Lithia's sudden fading into the background of her fellow aristocrats. Thyson, however, was not finished. With the matter of his Purple Lordship dealt with, he moved on to the real reason we'd assembled.

A gust of sea wind tugged at my braided hair and ruffled my uniform as the Commander slowly paced the deck. I noticed that everyone but the sailors were also trying not to look out of the corners of their eyes at the great sweeping mountain and its roiling plains of green, and especially at the sounds of the bustling harbour off the starboard, and especially not at the lowered gangplank but a stone's throw away. The smells of smoke, fish and rotting garbage competed with the fresh salty air. I tore my eyes upward and away, and caught a speck of something white shining at the top of the mainmast.

'Listen to me carefully,'� Thyson said, snapping everyone's attention back to the helm. 'You are here either as representatives of His Majesty's court or as soldiers in the service of His Same Majesty's army, and as such have all been placed under my responsibility and that of the garrison commander. You will act like His Majesty's representatives, or you will be shipped off so fast the fleas you've recently collected will be left behind on the gangplank, am I clear?'�

'Sir, yes sir!'� even the King's courtsmen intoned. The Reverent Father Haroll, with his fellow clergy to the side, went so far as to place their hands over their hearts. The white speck on the mainmast moved in the breeze and I frowned. All the sails had been furled tightly when we'd landed.

'When we are passing through town,'� Thyson continued, addressing the troops only now, 'you will behave as befitting a company of King's soldiers. When we are garrisoned with the First Commander's men, you will not leave the compound walls without express permission from every officer and his mother, and when on patrol, you will follow your Lieutenant's orders as if they came from the holy mouth of God himself. Is that clear?'�

'Sir, yes sir!'� I added my voice this time, squinting against the sun's glare. My eyes watered slightly and I blinked. The white speck vanished.

Thyson didn't seem to see the aghast looks the clergy had donned at his last statement as he continued to freeze the soldiers with his icy stare. 'You are all to be in dress uniform and ready to disembark within the hour. Dismissed.'�

A barrage of clicking heels and snapped salutes later, the troopers dispersed and Thyson finally turned to us. 'Cloud-watching, Lieutenant?'� he asked, fixing his icy eyes on me.

My own eyes snapped forward. 'Sir, no sir.'�

He gave me a solid stare, then spun on his heel. 'With me, Lientenants.'� We followed behind, with me taking up the rear, our boots thumping down onto the maindeck. 'Friesen, I want a full inspection of the troop quarters before we leave. Bradigan, you're to see that the troopers are in proper formation for the trip to the garrison. Chase?'�

'Sir?'�

'I noted Lord Montgomery did not join us on deck this morning,'� Thyson stopped at the railing beside the gangplank. 'Will you make sure he is ready to disembark with us?'�

'Yes sir.'� I smiled to myself. Lord Montgomery, a self-proclaimed naturalist, had accompanied us at the express order of His Majesty himself. He'd been closeted in his cabin since daybreak, when he'd found a peculiar insect scuttling around on the poop deck and had decided it took precedence over any summons to assemble.

Thyson peered past the docks, where several horse-drawn carriages waited in the dusty street. 'On second thought, bring him straight to our rides.'� His private smile echoed my own. 'I'd like to keep His Majesty's personal emissary well within my sight, as this island is a tad bigger than the ship was.'�

'Yes sir,'� I saluted, turning on my heel to head belowdecks, glad that the other officers were busy getting ready to leave. Being the only non-command officer in the company I was more or less a servant to whatever ranking officer happened to come my way. Luckily, most of my orders came from Thyson anyway, which no one else could gainsay.

The short walk across the deck in the bright sunshine was enough to make me functionally blind once I'd descended below the deck. Blinking in the darkness, I nearly fell over the two figures sitting at the bottom of the stairs, both of whom jumped up and made mock salutes at me.

'Give over, the both of you,'� I gripped the edge of the stairs as my vision adjusted.

'But the blasted look on her ladyship's face,'� Kefor chuckled around his gap teeth.

'Serves her right, acting like we all are her servants,'� Ryle added. 'You coulda left our names out, though, Chase.'�

'Could have, but didn't,'� I said, finally able to make out the faces of my former troopmates. I let go of the stairwell and swept past them. 'You bloody well know you shouldn't have done it.'�

'You don't have to live with the bugger,'� Kefor said darkly, falling into a step beside me. 'Even the jumped up junior nobles turn their noses up, having to share quarters with the likes of us.'�

'You wouldn't know about that,'� Ryle added. 'Miss 'Honourary Lieutenant', bunking with the high officers.'�

I snorted at both of them. 'And if it were Mr. Honourary Lieutenant, I'd be right down here in the muck with the rest of you.'�

'Too right,'� Kefor agreed.

'Such a shame.'� The two of them peeled off as I turned down the corridor to the passenger cabins. Though lit by lamps, they were still just as gloomy and dark-looking as the stairwell had been. Not, however, dark enough that I could miss the figure leaning in a doorway a few paces down. The smell of sharp tobacco hit my nostrils. Damn.

'Well, if it isn't Thyson's little pet.'�

I stopped just out of reach. 'Pet' was probably one of the nicest terms Lieutenant Kelsofer had ever used for me, and the lack of insults made me even more nervous. I'd never even seen the lieutenant before setting foot on the ship six weeks before. One of the noble city-soldiers assigned the voyage, it seemed that a female soldier, one who got an officer's bunk to herself no less when he was below with the common troopers, had been too much for him to handle. He was one of those who took advantage of whenever I wasn't running for Thyson's to eat up any spare moment I might have to myself. Though constantly running fore and aft at his direction was one of the reasons I knew so much of what went on among the ship's inhabitants.

I stood not quite at attention but not quite at ease. 'Captain Commander Thyson sent me, sir,'� I said, forcing my voice into a nearly toneless drone.

Kelsofer took a long drag of his cigar. In the narrow corridor, his feet nearly hit the opposite wall. 'Don't see him here, pet.'�

I frowned. Kelsofer usually gave over, if reluctantly, at the mention of Thyson's name. Though Thyson had captained our lowly mountain troop, even the noble soldiers stepped clear and walked straight when he was around. This time, I suppose, Kelsofer knew damn well he was in my way. I pretended to be unfazed. 'I'm supposed to return with Lord Montgomery, sir,'� I said, in the same monotone. 'He's expecting me back shortly.'�

He straightened, looming over me in the tiny hallway. 'I think you're a lying little trollop,'� he said, grinding his cigar out on the mantle of the doorway. I kept my face still. Though the insult was nothing new, I was suddenly very aware of the witnessless situation I was in. At that sudden, still moment, the door behind Kelsofer opened abruptly and the bushy grey head of Lord Helden Montgomery poked out, blinking in the dim light.

Kelsofer nearly jumped out of his skin, thankfully causing Lord Monty to actually notice him. He raised his head, merry blue eyes twinkling absently under bushy grey brows, behind a pair of square spectacles perched crookedly over his long beaked nose. Catching sight of me around the Lieutenant, his face broke out into a smile, crinkling under a thick moustache that matched the hair on his head.

'Chase, my lass!'� He pushed past Kelsofer and caught my shoulders with one sinewy arm, leaning his wiry frame conspiringly over my shoulder as he ushered me back along the hall. 'Look, look at this!'�

I looked at what he held before him. A wooden case, with white paper over a cork backing and slots for a glass cover. Pinned to it was a beetle the size of my thumb which sported a rather impressive pair of horns.

'It's lovely,'� I said, eager to be away from Kelsofer's eyes between my shoulderblades.

'Lucanus Seraphis,'� he said proudly, holding the case before him. He winked at me, adjusting his square spectacles. 'Named it after my daughter.'�

'Lucky girl.'� I grinned at the wiry old man. Lord Monty had become almost an uncle to me over the last six weeks. He'd latched onto me almost immediately, claiming I reminded him of his granddaughters, tomboys, all of them. He'd been a welcome refuge during the voyage, always available for tea and conversation in his quiet cabin, away from pestering noble officers trying to take up my free time.

'Lucky, yes,'� he said distractedly, as we climbed the stairs to the maindeck. 'Never seen anything like it. Right off the deck, too. Wonder what else I'll find here?'� He stopped his schoolboyish ramble to look up into the bright sun. 'I say, it's rather late. Wasn't there supposed to be a rally on deck and all that?'�

'No,'� I said, hiding a smile. 'Captain Thyson is waiting for you at the docks.'�

'Is he? Are we leaving already?'� Tucking the case under his arm, Monty straightened the lapels on his brown tweed jacket and brushed off his sleeves. 'Why didn't you say so?'�

'My apologies.'�

He peered at me above his spectacles. 'I gather you were a bit distracted, lass, what with the Lieutenant staring bloody murder at the back of your head.'�

I failed to hide the smile this time, biting my lip. Lord Monty was not quite the doddering old fool most took him for. He learned more just from watching people than most do from living with them, and six weeks was long enough for him to take measure of everyone in our company and file it away somewhere in the infinite tidy space of his mind. It was one of the reasons he let me spend so much time in the quiet of his cabin, even while he was studying.

He patted me on the head like a favourite uncle. 'Never mind that,'� he smiled and offered me his arm. 'Let us not keep the old boy waiting, what?'�

I knew Thyson would frown at my skipping down the docks with the gangly old man, especially in front of the people already gathering in the street where the carriages waited, but since Lord Monty was the King's emissary, there was little he could object. I took Lord Monty's arm and he stood up straight to his full height, making us look even more like niece and uncle, and we walked arm in arm down the gangplank.

Thyson frowned when he saw us, but said nothing. The captain was standing beside an open carriage, its dark interior a tantalizing change from the bright sun. The two First Lieutenants were nowhere to be seen, off on their various inspections. Thyson greeted Lord Monty with a short bow as I disengaged and went to stand beside him.

'I hope you're well, your lordship,'� he said. He motioned to the open door of the carriage. 'After you?'�

Lord Monty frowned, tapping his fingers on his wooden beetle-case. 'Are we leaving now, captain?'�

'Shortly,'� Thyson said. 'But if it's all the same, I'd prefer to be out of the sun.'� Somehow he managed to fix us both with a blue-eyed stare, even with me standing to the side. 'And we have things to discuss once the two lieutenants return.'�

The idleness in the old lord's eyes faded, his bugbox forgotten. With a short nod, he climbed into the carriage. I held the door for Thyson, and as I turned to climb in after him the corner of my eye caught on a speck of white on the mainmast.

As I'd known, the sails were all tightly furled and grey, trailing vines of brown rope down onto the decks. The sunlight caught again just above the crowsnest and I squinted, trying to make out what it was.

'Lieutenant.'� I blinked, breaking the stupor. I looked into the dark carriage, spots dancing before my eyes. Thyson regarded me wryly, his ice-blue eyes shining dimly. 'If you will?'�

'Yes sir,'� I said, abashed. I climbed in and shut the door behind me, looking once more to the mainmast. The white glow was gone.

Next: Chapter 2: Onwards and Forth

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