Mardan's Mark (Mardan's Mark, #1)
Release Date: 12/25/14
Summary from Goodreads:
Srilani is second in line to the throne, and she’s always known what is expected of a princess — bring honor to her family and marry well. Aldan has been a pirate’s slave for as long as he can remember, and all he wants is to be free. The Twin Kingdoms have been sister nations for centuries, but now their unity and existence are threatened by enemies both inside and outside their borders.
After pirates abduct Srilani and her three siblings, they are stranded behind enemy lines and across the Great Gulf. As the eldest, Srilani is faced with the dangerous task of bringing her father’s heir home. She convinces Aldan and his two fellow slaves to share their journey to freedom. These unlikely allies — seven young captives — must defeat the web of lies, murder, and betrayal tearing the kingdoms apart.
After pirates abduct Srilani and her three siblings, they are stranded behind enemy lines and across the Great Gulf. As the eldest, Srilani is faced with the dangerous task of bringing her father’s heir home. She convinces Aldan and his two fellow slaves to share their journey to freedom. These unlikely allies — seven young captives — must defeat the web of lies, murder, and betrayal tearing the kingdoms apart.
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Excerpt:
Twelve
years later, The Cathartid,
off the coast of Southern Marst
Aldan crept past the
sleeping crew members drooping in their hammocks, his bare feet
soundless on the well-worn boards. One of the men mumbled. Aldan
froze, the daggers hidden in the belt beneath his ragged tunic
pressing into the small of his back. The pirate turned his head, but
his eyes stayed closed.
Keep moving. The
skin between his shoulders itched. Nobody’s
there. Stop imagining things.
Dawn’s dull gray
fingers poked through the latticework of the hatch in the deck
above--barely enough light to maneuver around the sea chests and
discarded clothing littering the deck. Aldan ducked into the dark
passageway and down to the pitch-black hold. The hot, musty air
closed in around him.
He stopped and held
his breath. The skitter and scrape of a ship’s rat in the beams
reassured him. The gulf slipped past the ship’s hull, a constant
rush of water. Satisfied, he hurried to the forsaken space reserved
for Captain Rozar’s slaves in the hold near the stern, picking his
way by memory through the maze of barrels, crates, bolts of
sailcloth, and coils of rope.
“Sam. Linus. Wake
up.” He shook Sam’s shoulder and received a grunt in reply. Aldan
pushed harder. “Get up.”
“Go away.”
“You’ve got to
see this.” He reached out to wake Linus and found an empty hammock.
“Where’s Linus?”
A quiet voice
answered near his ear. “I’m behind you.”
Aldan whirled around
with a hiss. “Don’t do
that.” He sagged onto the foot of Sam’s hammock. “I think my
heart stopped beating.”
Sam’s bass voice
rumbled in the darkness. “How’s a man supposed to get any sleep
around here?”
“Never mind sleep.
Linus, light the lamp so you can see what I found.”
A tiny spark jumped
from the flint to the char cloth, sizzling bright in the depths of
the hold. A single point of red light glowed, followed by the birth
of flame in the lamp as Linus held the cloth to the wick.
Aldan looked into
the obsidian glitter of Linus’s eyes. “Where have you been?”
“Behind you.”
“How long?”
“The whole time.”
Aldan blew out a
breath and pushed his hair away from his forehead. “I woke you?”
“Indeed.”
Aldan shook his head
and dropped the subject--Linus would do whatever Linus would do.
“Look.” He drew three daggers from the back of his belt and
handed one to each of his fellow slaves. He unsheathed the remaining
blade and ran his thumb along the edge.
“I could do some
damage with this,” Sam whispered. He struggled to swing his legs
over the side of his hammock and straightened to his full height. Sam
was the most heavily muscled of the group and the oldest at
twenty-three summers, but he wasn’t as tall as Aldan, four years
his junior.
Linus, younger and
taller than the others, re-sheathed his dagger and made no comment.
He reached into his tunic’s neckline and drew out a small leather
pouch. He loosened the cord, and five gold pieces clinked into his
palm. They gleamed against his brown-black skin.
Aldan jumped to his
feet. “Where did you get that?”
“Fratz’s sea
chest.”
“What?” Aldan
and Sam asked in unison.
Linus shrugged. “I
saw Fratz steal it from Biscuits.”
A grin split Sam’s
face, and his red beard bristled. “So Fratz can’t cry about
losing the gold pieces he wasn’t supposed to have in the first
place.” Sam punched Linus’s arm. “Well done.”
Aldan frowned. “Are
you out of your mind? What if you’d been caught?”
Linus leveled a
meaningful stare. “What if you’d been caught?”
“It’s not the
same,” Aldan said. “Nobody’s counted the weapons we captured
yesterday. Not Captain Rozar. Not Scar. So nobody will know they’re
missing. But even if he can’t say anything, Fratz will know the
gold is missing. And he’s going to look for it.”
Linus shrugged
again. “I’m good at hiding things.”
“He’s got you
there,” Sam said, and he grinned. “That means we’ve got weapons
and gold. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get ashore.”
Aldan rubbed the
stubble on his chin. “Aye, that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
“You think? We’re
stranded in the Great Gulf, leagues from any shore.” Sam’s mouth
pulled down at the corners. “Our chances of getting off this cursed
ship are almost nil.”
“We’ll think of
a way. We must.” Aldan took the dagger from Sam’s hand and gave
both weapons to Linus. “Hide these and the gold. I’ve got to get
things ready for Rozar before Scar figures out I’m not where I’m
supposed to be.”
“That sea
serpent.” Sam’s fists clenched at his sides. “Scar’s getting
bolder every day and the men listen to him. Rozar had better watch
his back, and we’d better be gone by the time Scar makes his move.
Once he’s the captain, we’re dead.”
Linus nodded.
“Indeed.”
Aldan swallowed and
looked away. And
I’m at the top of Scar’s list.
About the Author
Kathrese McKee writes epic adventures for young adults and anyone else who enjoys pirates and princesses combined with life's difficult questions. She is committed to exciting stories, appropriate content, and quality craftsmanship.
Mardan's Mark, the first book in the Mardan's Mark series, has won a couple of awards:
Winner: 2014 Novel Rocket Launch Pad Contest, MG/YA Category
Finalist: 2014 Phoenix Rattler writing contest, Christian Writers of the West (CWOW) - Arizona's ACFW affiliate
The sequel, Mardan's Anointed, is in process along with a related novella.
Author Links:
The sequel, Mardan's Anointed, is in process along with a related novella.
Author Links:
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