Of Sea and Stone
by Kate Avery EllisonGenre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: February 2014
Summary:
Aemi lives in a village carved from stones and surrounded by sea. She wins spear-throwing competitions in disguise and earns slaps from her spoiled mistress by talking back. She hates being a slave. She survives by remembering her mother's tales of home, a paradise called Perilous.
Aemi intends to find it.
But then, black ships rise from the sea in the night. Aemi is captured and taken to Itlantis, an underwater world of cities and gardens encased in glass, dazzling technology. and a centuries-long war.
She is determined to escape, even if it means conspiring with fellow prisoner Nol, who fills her with equal parts anger and desire. Even if it means impersonating her mistress. Even if it means fleeing into the territory of the Dron, the bloodthirsty barbarians of the deep.
But when Aemi witnesses firsthand an attack by the Dron, she realizes not all is as it seems below the sea.
And Perilous might be closer than she thinks.
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EXCERPT – The Floating Gardens
In this
excerpt, Aemi is scheming to access to a map of the city to better help her plan
her escape. She talks her mistress, Lyssia, into exploring the floating gardens
with her under the guise of finding a young man named Cal whom Lyssia likes.
The
gardens were at the top of the city, nearest to the sunlight that filtered
through the vast expanse of blue water above our heads. We took a lift enclosed
in a gilded chute, and my stomach knotted with anticipation as the city fell
away around us.
The
lift came to a shuddering stop, and the door opened. Lyssia grinned at me.
“You’re going to like this.”
We
stepped onto a platform surrounded by a smooth, rounded bubble of glass. The
floor was glittering metal set with lights in the floor. Ramps led away in six
different directions, some of them curling overhead, others leading straight
away from us.
“Each
ramp takes us to a different garden sphere,” Lyssia explained. “Cal could be in
any of them. You said we should try Verdus?”
I
nodded. The platform had captured my attention. Verdus’s ramp spiraled up to
high above the platform, entering a tunnel of glass that gave views of the sea
on all sides, even beneath our feet. As we reached the top, the sound of
trickling water filled my ears.
“Here
we are,” Lyssia said. “The garden sphere of Verdus.”
A
glass sphere enclosed the garden, and lush green vegetation trailed up and down
a forest of columns that reached to the top of the glass bubble. A sign next to
the entrance informed us that Verdus was built amid a forest of kelp, an
underwater plant that grew in tall, straight lines, and these columns were
meant to mimic that in design. Pathways wove between the columns, some winding
around them to take visitors to the top of the garden. Sunlight filtered
through the ocean above and danced over everything in shivery bands of gold,
mingling with spotlights that illuminated the columns in soft colors of blue
and green. With the fish swimming past outside, I could almost believe we were
underwater too.
“Where
did these plants come from?” I asked as I turned a circle. “Aren’t they from
the surface?”
“Our
ancestors brought plants below with them when the world burned, saving
thousands of varieties from extinction in gardens such as these,” Lyssia said.
“My father could tell you more about it, I’m sure.”
We
wandered through the paths, looking for Cal. At least, Lyssia looked, while I
read every sign in search of information. But the beauty of the garden
threatened to distract me from my mission. Sculptures of fish and otters were
displayed among the vegetation, gleaming statues of gold and silver metals
created in playful designs, and benches made to look like sea stones were
tucked between columns. It was beautiful, a masterpiece.
“Let’s
go up to the top,” Lyssia suggested, gesturing at the highest pathway that rose
to the highest part of the garden sphere. “It’s the highest point in the whole
city. We’ll be able to see better.”
I
followed her up one of the winding pathways, scanning the surrounding area for
any sign of the map the device from Merelus’s study had mentioned. When we
reached the top, though, I forgot why I’d come.
The
sunlight felt so close here, and it was almost like being in a cave by the sea,
with light reflected from the water dancing on the rocks. I shut my eyes and
pressed my hands to the glass. I could almost dredge up a dream of the Village
of the Rocks, except for the fact that no wind stirred my hair and no scent of
fresh seawater met my nose. Instead, I felt the faint mist from the waterfalls
that trickled down the sides of some of the columns, and smelled the scent of
green growing things mixed with the aroma of Lyssia’s perfume.
“Help
me look for Cal,” Lyssia said, and the daydream was broken. I lowered my hands
and turned to peer over the rail.
“He
may not be here,” she murmured. “He may be in another garden, or not here at
all.”
A
glimmer of light caught my eye. Below, in the center of the garden sphere.
“What’s that?” I demanded, leaning over the rail.
Lyssia
looked. “Oh, that’s a map of Verdus. All the gardens have one for their city.”
The
map.
“I
would like to see it,” I said, trying to contain my eagerness.
We
descended the ramp that led to the center of the Verdus garden. There, set atop
a slab of green stone, hovered the glowing map of the city.
About the Author
I'm the author
of the Frost Chronicles, an Amazon bestselling series and source material for
the adventure app game Frost by Delight Games, as well as numerous other
fantasy and science fiction novels. I love putting a dash of mystery in
everything I write, an ode to a childhood spent reading Nancy Drew, Agatha
Christie, and Sherlock Holmes. I can’t resist adding a good twist in the story
wherever I can.
I wish I could live in a place where it’s always October, but until that’s possible, I make my home in humid Atlanta with my husband, children, and two spoiled cats.
I wish I could live in a place where it’s always October, but until that’s possible, I make my home in humid Atlanta with my husband, children, and two spoiled cats.
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