BooksBarbecue
Back The Woman from the Waves Save as PDF
Chapters (59)
  1. THE WOMAN FROM THE WAVES
  2. Copyright
  3. CONTENTS
  4. Dedication
  5. PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
  6. GLOSSARY
  7. PROLOGUE
  8. THE SURFACE
  9. CHAPTER ONE
  10. CHAPTER TWO
  11. CHAPTER THREE
  12. CHAPTER FOUR
  13. CHAPTER FIVE
  14. CHAPTER SIX
  15. CHAPTER SEVEN
  16. CHAPTER EIGHT
  17. THE SHORE
  18. CHAPTER NINE
  19. CHAPTER TEN
  20. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  21. CHAPTER TWELVE
  22. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  23. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  24. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  25. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  26. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  27. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  28. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. THE STORM
  38. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  39. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  48. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  49. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  56. EPILOGUE
  57. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  58. ALSO BY ROSLYN SINCLAIR
  59. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In the late eighteenth century, Orkney was home to some of the most infamous witch trials in European history. Before that, for centuries, magic was considered a reasonable explanation for many phenomena of daily life. Some folktales maintain that a witch’s curse is responsible for the Swilkie, a dangerous whirlpool in the Pentland Firth. In fact, another name for the Swilkie is the Sea Witch’s Wheel…

PROLOGUE

THE SEA

This would be a hungry storm. It would eat up the coasts, swallow the sand, and probably chew up a boat or two.

So Hæra had heard from some of her fellow Each-uisge, ones who’d actually ventured beyond the surface of the ocean to places she was forbidden to go. Here, down in the depths, she could only watch the storms begin. Still, the sight never failed to thrill her.

As Hæra observed from a distance, the herd’s Sire led his eleven Stormhorses toward the North Sea’s surface. Calder’s front legs were muscular, his hooves lined with shell edges. At his back half beat his mighty marine tail, which would change to a horse’s hindquarters when he ascended from the water. His fearsome horse’s head pointed skyward. Between his shoulders, ocean currents began to swirl, resolving into a shape.

The shape of wings.

Before Hæra’s eager eyes, Calder’s wings grew into a wider span than his fellows’, marking him as the Sire of the herd. The wings were a magnificent sight. Though they began as water, when he and the other Stormhorses took to the skies, they would harden into muscle, feather, and bone. The feathers, Hæra had heard, were as sharp as hoof-shells. In spite of this, her father had always said the process wasn’t painful.

Not that it would matter. Hæra would take the pain a thousand times over if it resulted in a pair of wings lifting her into the sky, carrying her over the roiling sea until she and the other Stormhorses unleashed thunder, lightning, and wind over all that lay below. Those wings would keep her steady in gale-force winds that whipped the waves to madness. When Hæra finally became a Stormhorse, her wings would be the most powerful of all.

Fierce longing surged through her. Today, she’d do more than watch from below.

Carefully, darting in and out of kelp and rock formations, Hæra followed the Stormhorses as they made their way toward the surface. The Great Mare willing, they wouldn’t look behind them and see a female about to trespass above the waves, seeking the forbidden air. Her father had taken her up once as a secret treat, and in spite of his injunctions otherwise, she’d sought it several times since then.