The Quartered Sea
Tanya Huff
DAW Books, 1999
ISBN:0-88677-839-5 (paperback)
ONE QUARTER-- No one could deny that the young bard Benedikt was the most powerful Singer
of water in teh entire kingdom of Shkoder. But water was the only Quarter
he could Sing. And without the ability to Sing air, he
was isolated from his fellow bards in a way few among them could even begin
to understand. So when Queen Jelena asked for a bard to volunteer
for a dangerous mission--to take ship aboard the newly
build Starfarer and search beyond the known lands
on a quest to find the homeland of the legendary
Dark Sailor, Benedikt immediately volunteered.
After all, he had more to prove than any other bard, and with Bardic Captain Kovar
adamantly against the queen's proposed
expedition, Benedikt was the only one rebellious enough to go.
The trip went smoothly enough untilthe Starfarer
was deep into uncharted waters. It was then that
disaster struck, leaving Benedikt stranded with no way
to get a message back to Skoder, no way to let
anyone know what had happened, no way
to tell anyone that he was still alive.
Washed up on the shores of a distant land,
Benedikt was soon claimed by his rescuers as a pawn in their intricate and perilous game of politics
and religion. Could this One Quarter bard find a Song
that would let him survive without disturbing the precarious power balance
of a civilization he barely understood?
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