Release date: December 28, 2019
Subgenre: Dark Fantasy
About Stemming the Tide:
They may have lost their ship and cargo after audaciously
challenging the pirates that rule the sea, but Calder Cerberius, Koby
Bacia, and their crew of misfits refuse to surrender. The pirate
leader's right-hand man, Cale Woodburn, plans to establish a
stranglehold in the wildlands and steal its precious local resource: ferris,
the herbal drug shapeshifting beastmen rely on to prevent the agony of
transformations from breaking their minds. Calder and Koby's crew pursue
Cale across the seas to regain control of the lucrative ferris trade
and save the wildlands from ruin.
Indigenous tribes of beastmen rise up to defend their homeland. Shapeshifters on both sides transform into beasts of the land, sea, and sky to brawl to the death. A run-in with an ancient sea creature of apocalyptic size gives Calder the idea to spark a massive rebellion against the pirates using dangerous and unconventional means, but other mercenaries will only agree to come to his aid once he defeats the deranged Cale Woodburn and restores peace to the wildlands. When Calder finally catches up with Cale, two mentally unstable captains will clash in beast form until only one emerges the victor from a pool of blood.
Indigenous tribes of beastmen rise up to defend their homeland. Shapeshifters on both sides transform into beasts of the land, sea, and sky to brawl to the death. A run-in with an ancient sea creature of apocalyptic size gives Calder the idea to spark a massive rebellion against the pirates using dangerous and unconventional means, but other mercenaries will only agree to come to his aid once he defeats the deranged Cale Woodburn and restores peace to the wildlands. When Calder finally catches up with Cale, two mentally unstable captains will clash in beast form until only one emerges the victor from a pool of blood.
Excerpt:
“Nooo!” Hassan's hoarse scream was that of a broken man. Silver bolts flew
through the sky as he attacked Cale with an urgent need for
vengeance. Most of the ammo bounced off the wyvern-kin's scales,
but others hit their targets in soft joints and the flesh of wings.
Hassan's sudden rage fueled my own. I swam to the hull of the
barque and clambered up its ornate woodwork with my only working
arm, far faster than I had any right to be. Bodies were strewn over
the wide quarterdeck between splashes of crimson. Koby and the
others removed grappling hooks from the taffrail to free our ship
from the clutches of the pirate schooner. Cale's crew was dead, but
the crazed captain remained alive, and his reinforcements
overwhelmed us. Ajax's mercenary cog was heavily damaged from
cannon fire, its hull dented and splintered. Rather than continue
to destroy the vessel, the pirates re-evaluated their plan and were
positioning one of their galleons beside the cog to board and take
it. On the far side of the scene, at least a dozen more ships
loomed in the north, ready to squelch us from existence with sheer
numbers alone.
Escaping this battle was nigh impossible, but right now I did not
fear death. I turned when I reached the middle of the quarterdeck
and crouched in a trembling power stance with my eyes on Cale as he
wavered in the sky with one mangled wing, still fighting off
Jaecar's angry persistent assaults.
I didn't fear death. Not yet. With the demise of a good friend
repeating itself in my head, I refused to fear death until I
brought its cold touch upon someone who deserved it more. I lost
any fragment of sanity I'd managed to hold onto; my mind floated
above my body, giving it permission to go berserk with rage.
I charged forward, ravenous for blood. Cold rains sliced down my
scales. Winds howled by my ears. Movement and sound sought to
distract me, but my homicidal gaze lingered on target. In a fluid
motion, I vaulted up onto the taffrail, using the momentum of my
charge and the strength of my haunches to launch off the ship at
Cale.
The wyvern-kin turned his attention away from Jaecar as I sprung
toward him with only one good arm. I spread my jaw; my shimmering
razor-sharp fangs reflected back to me from Cale's reptilian silver
eyes. We crashed in mid-air, my webbed hand gripping his throat.
Caught off balance, Cale ducked forward and plunged to the seas,
his elongated neck unable to support the weight of my muscular
body.
Against a backdrop of blurred skies and wooden vessels, I focused
only on the wyvern-kin's shiny silver head. It was narrower than
mine. As we tumbled toward the ocean together, I tilted my head and
snapped forward, clamping my jaws on either side of his scaled
snout.
Pssh!
Two overgrown lizards crashed once more into the seas, this time in
a deadly gnashing embrace. The smooth whipping echoes of a tense
underwater struggle accompanied our mutual mauling. As his wings
desperately tried to make movement in water, Cale kicked his feet
at my torso, his talons dislodging silver-blue scales and exposing
strings of torn bleeding muscle. Intending to crush his skull, I
clamped down with full force on his snout. The wyvern-kin's
skeleton was evidently stronger than that of a man's. A muted crack kissed my ears after the slight shifting of his lower mandible as
it broke, but it did not crumble. I twisted my bite, tearing fangs
through scales and underlying tissues.
Cale jerked back from me, kicking off my torso with his feet.
Trailing blood, he folded his wings to his sides and darted for the
surface. I gave chase, but my ruined arm inhibited my pace. Cale
burst through the water and into the air, sweeping out his wings
and flapping them to take off rapidly; a spattering of water and
blood flew off him from his brisk motion, sprinkling over the seas.
Lightning seized the skies with a lavender-blue glow; veins of
electricity split into branches, seeking to conquer every inch of
the heavens. Once more, the ocean was luminous with the storm's
residual light. Great movement drew my gaze to the depths. My heart
plummeted to boil in the acid of my gut as I realized my eyes did
not deceive me.
Underneath the shadows of battling ship keels, dark glimmering
tentacles of tremendous proportions reached out of the ocean's
void, racing toward the surface water as if summoned by our petty
spat. The water tickled my scales with a tremor as the seas shook
like the beast was so legendary its movement persuaded the tectonic
plates of the earth to shift. A chill ran down my spine as I became
acutely aware that the sea creature we faced was the same one
responsible for the annihilation of navies and the trading
stranglehold south of Nahara. Rumors claimed it left few survivors.
Rumors claimed this beast had migrated from the waters south of the
beastlands, a place dominated by creatures designed by the gods
themselves, monstrosities so large and deadly they destroyed
well-equipped armies and brought a country to ruin.
Here the rumor was before me, each tentacle gigantic enough to curl
around a dwarven galleon like it was merely a toy. As it rose from
the depths, I should have rushed to the surface to flee and save my
ship and crew. I should have fled or moved or acted at all.
Instead, I did nothing. For the rumor itself was before me, and I
could do nothing but stare in absolute awe.
For our battle had awakened the beast.
Amazon
About Rosie Scott:
Rosie’s novels tend to explore darker themes and are not for the faint of heart. No philosophical question is unable to be examined. No character is immune to death. No hero is truly righteous. Rosie has a penchant for writing unapologetically strong characters, brutal inconveniences, and crude humor, and she will forever test limits by exploring questionable morality and scenes of gore. Rosie loves entertaining with long battle sequences and witty banter, but she also seeks to plant questions in her readers’ minds that will stick with them for long after a book is read.
Besides writing, Rosie spends her time video gaming via her gaming PC and twelve consoles, collecting medieval and video game weapon replicas, sketching the characters she creates, and building models of medieval siege weapons and cars. If she isn’t writing about bloody warfare and conquest in one of her novels, she is probably leading an army with a mouse and keyboard.
Rosie Scott is continually writing to please her fans. She invites you to visit her blog at http://www.rosiescottbooks.
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