HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2019
Copyright © Den Patrick 2019
Map copyright © Nicolette Caven 2018
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020
Cover images © Shutterstock.com
Den Patrick asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008228163
Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008228187
Version: 2020-01-21
For Matt
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Map
Chapter One: Steiner
Chapter Two: Kimi
Chapter Three: Kjellrunn
Chapter Four: Silverdust
Chapter Five: Steiner
Chapter Six: Kimi
Chapter Seven: Kjellrunn
Chapter Eight: Steiner
Chapter Nine: Silverdust
Chapter Ten: Steiner
Chapter Eleven: Kjellrunn
Chapter Twelve: Kimi
Chapter Thirteen: Silverdust
Chapter Fourteen: Steiner
Chapter Fifteen: Kjellrunn
Chapter Sixteen: Kimi
Chapter Seventeen: Silverdust
Chapter Eighteen: Steiner
Chapter Nineteen: Kimi
Chapter Twenty: Kjellrunn
Chapter Twenty-One: Silverdust
Chapter Twenty-Two: Steiner
Chapter Twenty-Three: Taiga
Chapter Twenty-Four: Kjellrunn
Chapter Twenty-Five: Silverdust
Chapter Twenty-Six: Steiner
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Kimi
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Kjellrunn
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Silverdust
Chapter Thirty: Steiner
Chapter Thirty-One: Kimi
Chapter Thirty-Two: Kjellrunn
Chapter Thirty-Three: Silverdust
Chapter Thirty-Four: Steiner
Chapter Thirty-Five: Kimi
Chapter Thirty-Six: Kjellrunn
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Silverdust
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Steiner
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Taiga
Chapter Forty: Kjellrunn
Chapter Forty-One: Silverdust
Chapter Forty-Two: Steiner
Chapter Forty-Three: Kimi
Chapter Forty-Four: Kjellrunn
Chapter Forty-Five: Steiner
Chapter Forty-Six: Kimi
Chapter Forty-Seven: Silverdust
Chapter Forty-Eight: Steiner
Chapter Forty-Nine: Kimi
Chapter Fifty: Steiner
Chapter Fifty-One: Kimi
Acknowledgements
Also by Den Patrick
About the Publisher
It was just before dawn; a prelude to the sun lay across the horizon like shimmering gold. The few clouds that scudded across the sky were a spectral white, travelling over a sea of deep and majestic blue. Steiner stood at the prow of the Watcher’s Wait in awe, adoring every second of the early morning. Cinderfell, his home of eighteen years, had always existed under a pall of permanent grey cloud. The winters promised grey snow and the spring gritty rain. There were few places more bleak in all of Nordvlast, few places more grim in the whole of Vinterkveld. But not so today. They were many leagues from Cinderfell and the dark red frigate