A web of lies, murder, and betrayal - Mardan's Mark (Mardan's Mark, #1) by Kathrese McKee

"It's such a wonderful story. There are pirates and princesses but this isn't your typical pirate and princess story. It's so much more than that. There's kidnap, escape, adventure, danger, intrigue, politics, and stumbling on a secret that will rock the world." - Goodreads

Description:

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.

"It has been a while since I have been so captivated by a book! I spent the better part of two days neglecting my Christmas crafts, laundry, and other adult-type things because I was reading this book.The characters and their individual stories, including the supporting characters, kept me glued to my Kindle for several straight hours. I loved the way the relationships and the characters (including supporting characters) developed, slowly, but steadily throughout the story. The book explored moral lessons such as respect, chastity, loyalty, and trust without once sounding preachy or letting those examples get in the way of the story." - Goodreads

EXCERPT

“Aldan, bring wine!”

Aldan stopped polishing the brass lantern in his hands and hung it back on its hook. Wine? In the middle of the day?

A watchful silence fell over the pirates on deck. Captain Rozar rarely drank and never before nightfall. Aldan turned to see what held the crew’s attention and noticed a tiny sailboat approaching from the west.

Rozar glared around at his men. “Get back to work, you lot.” The captain’s attention swung back to the sailboat. Scar, the first mate, was out of sight. Aldan took the chance to linger near the hatch.

The craft drew up along Cathartid’s port side, and a stranger in riding boots and a green tunic climbed the ship’s ladder, greeted the captain like an old friend, and spoke near Rozar’s ear. A wicked smile bloomed across the captain’s face.

Aldan slid down the ladder without touching the rungs and hurried to fetch wine and two goblets on a tray from the galley. Biscuits, the cook, delayed him with questions, but Aldan broke away, promising to talk later. He reached the captain’s stout door and listened hard. The door masked most of the words, but they were speaking in Marstan instead of Norlan. He knocked on the door, waited for Rozar’s answer, and swung it open.

“Ah, Aldan. Come in, come in.” Rozar laughed and rubbed his palms together.

Aldan set the tray on the captain’s table and backed into the corner to watch, as stealthy as a ship’s rat, taking care not to rap his head against the angled beams.

Rozar poured a liberal amount of wine into each vessel. “Join me in a toast, my friend.”

“With pleasure,” Green Tunic said. He took the proffered drink and waited.

“You’ve brought me the best possible news at exactly the right time.” Rozar set aside the flagon and lifted his goblet. “To Fortune! May she shine as brightly on you and me as Sol shines today.”

“Hear, hear,” Green Tunic said, lifting his glass to touch Rozar’s. “To your success.”

Rozar took a long sip. “Mmm,” he murmured.

Wait until Sam and Linus heard about this. Aldan dug his bare toes into the captain’s prized silk rug and relished the cool sea breeze flowing through the open porthole. He studied the stranger, memorizing every detail. A golden wolf’s head adorned his uniform’s left breast. What was the man’s name? If the stranger was Rozar’s friend, why hadn’t they seen him before?

Rozar took another swig of wine and thumped his goblet down. “Please, sit with me a few moments before you cast off again.” His dark gaze darted to Aldan, and he snapped his fingers. “You. Out. Wait outside the cabin door until I call.”

Aldan bowed himself out of the cabin and pulled the door closed. He didn’t dare listen through the keyhole. No news was worth a thrashing. He put his back to the beam across from Rozar’s cabin and listened to the sounds of the pirate ship and her crew.

Cathartid creaked and groaned around him, complaining about being too close to land when she could be hunting in the Great Gulf. A shadow fell over him, and he ducked in time to avoid Scar’s beefy fist.

“You got time to stand around, do you? I know you have work to be doing, you layabout.” The first mate grabbed Aldan’s wrist and gave it a vicious twist. “Well? Why are you still standing here?”

“Captain Rozar’s orders,” Aldan said through gritted teeth. He met Scar’s bloodshot eyes glare for glare. Every detail of the mate’s disfigured face sprang into sharp focus, including Azor, the alligator god, tattooed on his cheekbone.

“Oh, that’s likely.” Scar gave his arm a wrenching yank and let go. “You know Marstan. What did they say?”

Aldan shook his head. “They drank a toast to Fortune, and Rozar told me to get out and wait here. That’s all I know.”

“Don’t know much, do you?” Scar spit at his feet.

Aldan didn’t answer or move a muscle.

“Stupid slave.” The first mate turned on his heel and ascended the nearby ladder to the deck above.

Aldan checked both ways before he grimaced and rubbed his throbbing wrist. A whisper of sound captured his attention.

Linus emerged from the space beneath the ladder. He wore unrelieved black. Combined with his ebony skin, his clothing acted like camouflage in the ship’s gloomy interior.

Linus paused, tilting his head to listen. “That one is the son of a devil,” he said.

Aldan nodded. “His mother was a squid.”

“Indeed.” Linus gestured to Rozar’s closed door. “No news?”

“Not yet. Rozar’s half-crazed, he’s so excited.”

His friend heaved a solemn sigh. “Someone will suffer.”

“Better clear out before anyone sees you, Brother.” But Linus was already out of sight, gone without a sound.

*****

Ten bells rang after Sol went to bed beneath the western horizon. Aldan leaned over the stern railing to savor the end of the day. The surface of the Great Gulf rolled back from the hull, murky and mysterious with traces of luminescence from the Cathartid’s wake.

Rozar’s shrill whistle echoed through the ship. Aldan turned from the railing, ran to the captain’s cabin, and knocked once on the frame of the open door.

“Help me out of this coat,” Rozar said with a snap. “Where were you?”

He didn’t answer. Long experience told him the question was probably rhetorical. As soon as the door was closed, the captain launched into his nightly soliloquy in Marstan. Rozar enjoyed talking to him as if they were friends. As if they were more than jailor and captive, master and slave.

“What a day. Can you believe it? We’re to take the richest prize imaginable in two weeks. Our provisions will be stretched, to be sure, but this will be the most profitable voyage of my life.”

Aldan strove to keep the interest from showing on his face. Perhaps Rozar would say what was going on. He reached out and grasped the collar and one sleeve of Rozar’s finest coat as the captain tried to shrug out of it.

“Have a care, boy. That’s my hair you’re pulling.”

“Sorry.”

Rozar extract his other arm from the fitted garment. “I’ll make you sorry.” The threat sounded half-hearted at best.

Aldan placed the garment on the bed, bundled his master into a dressing gown of scarlet silk, and waited as the captain sank into his favorite chair.

Rozar chuckled. “Yes. King Dzor, Azor bless his soul, will likely give me the deed to my family’s old estate as a reward.”

Aldan knelt and grasped Rozar’s boot in his hands, and the captain allowed him to pull it off. He put it aside and took the other boot Rozar pushed off. With the boots in one hand, Aldan retrieved the boot blacking from a shelf on the wall, sat on a low stool, and set to work.

The captain chuckled. “You just don’t have a clue, do you, Aldan?”

He glanced up.

Rozar’s dark eyes twinkled with malice. “You remember nothing before you came to me. Isn’t that right?”

Aldan looked down at the leather of the boot he’d been buffing. It’s true. Hadn’t he tried hundreds of times to remember his life before becoming Rozar’s slave? Marstan was his native language. He’d learned Norlan from the crew in the school of hard fists and swift kicks. Rozar used Marstan with Aldan “to stay in practice.”

“Well, boy? You’ve been aboard my ship a dozen years. Don’t you remember yet?”

The captain usually didn’t want or expect answers. Apparently, he did now. “I only remember the language.”

“Ha! What a jest!” Rozar laughed again. “If only you knew-- But no, I don’t believe I’ll tell you. Suffice it to say, there’s nothing like being paid twice for the same work. In your case, I might be paid more than twice if the stars align the right way.”

Aldan’s eyes widened. Had someone paid to make him a slave?

“I’ve really confused you now.” The captain gasped and sputtered, pounding his knee in apparent glee. “You should see your face.”

A knock at the door cut the captain’s laughter short. “Enter.” The alligator tattoo on Rozar’s cheek seemed to bristle with outrage.

Linus came in bearing a tray laden with food, and Rozar’s dark expression lightened.

“About time.”

Linus placed the tray on the table at the captain’s elbow. The smell of wonderful, spicy soup filled the air, and Aldan’s mouth watered. Linus poured the captain’s favorite tea into a heavy mug.

“Out.” One word, in Norlan.

Aldan hid a smile as Linus closed one eye in a sly wink, and his spirits rose. The joke was on Rozar. Linus and Sam had learned Marstan long since, but the captain always used Norlan for their benefit.

Linus let himself out of the cabin, and the door latch clicked quietly into place. Aldan finished with the first boot and moved to the second one.

“Bet you didn’t know I was raised to be a farmer,” Rozar said. “That’s how I plan to spend my old age, just watching the crops grow on my father’s old property. I can afford to pull down the manor and build a new one. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get a wife or two and father some brats.”

Similar nonsense followed. About different crops. About horses and cattle. Such a strange state of mind--the captain had become more unpredictable each passing year. What would happen to them when Rozar went completely mad?

How did I become the one he talks to? He’s already mad.

Rozar mopped up his soup with a crust of bread. “It all depends on Dzor and what he thinks of my prize, of course.” The captain switched topics to the weather, sails, and supplies.

After completing his duties, Aldan closed the door and let out a deep breath. What prize would Rozar be so eager to take? A rival pirate’s treasure? A shipment of slaves? A rich merchant ship? Now he had more questions than ever.

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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. 

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