Mardan's Mark (Mardan's Mark, #1)
Release Date: 12/25/14
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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.
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:
Excerpt #1:
Twelve years later, The Cathartid, off the coast of Southern Marst
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.
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