Title: Goddess Tithe
Author: Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Series: Tales of Goldstone Wood
Expected Release Date: November 12, 2013
Publisher: Rooglewood Press
Page Count: 130 pages
The Vengeful Goddess Demands Her Tithe
When a stowaway is discovered aboard the merchant ship Kulap Kanya, Munny, a cabin boy on his first voyage, knows what must be done. All stowaways are sacrificed to Risafeth, the evil goddess of the sea. Such is her right, and the Kulap Kanya's only hope to return safely home.
Yet, to the horror of his crew, Captain Sunan vows to protect the stowaway, a foreigner in clown's garb. A curse falls upon the ship and all who sail with her, for Risafeth will stop at nothing to claim her tithe.
Will Munny find the courage to trust his captain and to protect the strange clown who has become his friend?
You can learn more about Goddess Tithe, which novel it's connected to and read Chapter 1, here:
Excerpt from the Story:
Here is an excerpt from the middle of the story. In this
scene, Munny has been ordered to Captain Sunan’s cabin to clear away his
breakfast . . . an unexpected task, for a lowly cabin boy would not ordinarily
dare enter his captain’s private quarters! Munny hopes to slip in and out
quietly without attracting the captain’s notice. But his hopes are dashed when
Sunan addresses him, asking how their strange, foreign stowaway is faring:
__________
“And
what do you make of him yourself?”
Munny
dared glance his captain’s way and was relieved when his eyes met only a stern
and rigid back. “I’m not sure, Captain,” he said. “I think he’s afraid. But not
of . . .”
“Not
of the goddess?” the Captain finished for him. And with these words he turned upon
Munny, his eyes so full of secrets it was nearly overwhelming. Munny froze, his
fingers just touching but not daring to take up a small teapot of fragile work.
The
Captain looked at him, studying his small frame up and down. “No,” he said, “I
believe you are right. Leonard the Clown does not fear Risafeth. I believe he
is unaware of his near peril at her will, suffering as he does under a peril
nearer still.”
Munny made neither answer nor any move.
“We
will bring him safely to Lunthea Maly, won’t we, Munny?” the Captain said. But
he did not speak as though he expected an answer, so again Munny offered none.
“We will bring him safely to Lunthea Maly and there let him choose his own dark
future.”
“I
hope—” Munny began.
But
he was interrupted by a sudden commotion on deck. First a rising murmur of
voices, then many shouts, inarticulate in cacophony. But a pounding at the
cabin door accompanied Sur Agung’s voice bellowing, “Captain, you’d best come
see this!”
The
Captain’s eyes widened a moment and still did not break gaze with Munny’s. “We’ll
keep him safe,” he repeated. Then he turned and was gone, leaving the door
open.
Munny
put down the pot he held and scurried after. The deck was alive with hands,
even those who were off watch, crawling up from the hatches and crowding the
rails on the port side. They parted way for the Captain to pass through, but
when Munny tried to follow, they closed in again, blocking him as solidly as a
brick wall.
“Look!
Look!” Munny heard voices crying.
“It’s
a sign!”
“She’s
warning us!”
“It’s
a sign, I tell you!”
Fearing
he knew not what, Munny ran for the center mast and climbed partway up, using
the handholds and footholds with unconscious confidence. Soon he was high
enough to see over the heads of the gathered crew, out into the blue waters of
the ocean. And he saw them.
They were water birds. Big white albatrosses,
smaller seagulls, heavy cormorants, even deep-throated pelicans and sleek,
black-faced terns. These and many more, hundreds of them, none of which should
be seen this far out to sea.
They
were all dead. Floating in a great mass.
Munny
clung to the mast, pressing his cheek against its wood. The shouts of the
frightened sailors below faded away, drowned out by the desolation of that
sight. Death, reeking death, a sad flotilla upon the waves.
“I’ve
never seen anything like that.”
Munny
looked down to where Leonard clung to the mast just beneath him, staring
wide-eyed out at the waves. “How could this have happened? Were they sick?
Caught in a sudden gale? Are they tangled in fishing nets?”
There
was no fear in his voice. Not like in the voices of the sailors. He did not
understand. He did not realize. It wasn’t his fault, Munny told himself.
But
it was.
Anne Elisabeth Stengl makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Rohan, a kindle of kitties, and one long-suffering dog. When she’s not writing, she enjoys Shakespeare, opera, and tea, and practices piano, painting, and pastry baking. She studied illustration at Grace College and English literature at Campbell University. She is the author of the Tales of Goldstone Wood, including Heartless, Veiled Rose, Moonblood, Starflower, and Dragonwitch. Heartless and Veiled Rose have each been honored with a Christy Award, and Starflower was voted winner of the 2013 Clive Staples Award.
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