The Sorceress of Atunluck
by
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A young girl, aged a mere fourteen summers, sat high on the northernmost cliffs of Atunluck. Over her left shoulder she watched the Sun as it sank into the darkening waters of the Narian Sea. Her father, Captain Melvious, was due back from the island of Puntendra earlier that sun. He had left over a moon-cycle ago with a group of fishing vessels to aid in the evacuation of Sunderigo. Three of the ships had returned, but not her father’s.
The young girl’s name was Zeffa. Her short, disheveled, sandy-blond hair batted in the northern winds as she smiled sadly at the brilliant purple and red clouds streaking the sky. Her face was darkly tanned against her sea-blue eyes. Her skin was smooth and unblemished, though it was difficult to see that, given the layers of dirt that matted her cheeks.
Zeffa loved her father. She had pleaded with him not to leave. Her brother and cousin had already been killed in the war, along with so many others from her village. All she had left were her parents. With the deep emotional wounds left by her brother’s death, she couldn’t bear to lose another member of her small family.
Why can’t life be as simple as it once was? Zeffa wondered.
As Zeffa stared at the horizon, empty now of the Sun and any approaching ships, she recalled the picnics that her family once enjoyed on the very spot where she now sat. She would play in the water and along the cliffs, digging in the gravel and climbing the giant boulders until nightfall. When she was exhausted and her legs could no longer support her weight, her father would lift her into his strong arms and cradle her against his broad shoulders. He would carry her home, and when they arrived, he would gently tuck her into bed.
Sometimes when she wasn’t so tired, her father would tell her about the stars and the constellations. He would teach her how to use them to navigate and to calculate the summers.
Picnics weren’t the only things she loved to do with her father. She especially loved to go sailing with him. She would lie high up on the stern and hold her head out into the incoming streams of air and sea mist. Captain Melvious taught her the fundamentals of sailing his small ship; how to tack so the ship could sail into the wind, how to command the helm. He would even let her yell out the orders for the crew to jibe or bring the craft about. But when he was given a large war ship by the provisional government, to Zeffa’s disappointment, she had not been allowed on board.
Zeffa and her father sometimes took smaller boats out to sea, just the two of them. It was during these trips that Zeffa truly learned the art of sailing. Once while tacking, she had knocked her father overboard as she brought the boat about without warning. The boom of the sail had broadsided him across the face and sent him flying into the water. From this, Zeffa learned that you cannot make mistakes at sea. She vowed to become a sailor worthy of her father’s command.
As Zeffa pondered her memories, the clouds above her grew dark and threatening. Lightning streaked the sky where colors once had reigned, and a heavy downpour began. The rain pelted her mercilessly, soaking her clothes and washing the dirt from her face and hair, revealing the surprising beauty that lay beneath. When the sea began to mirror the sky’s angry and combative mood, Zeffa noticed her father’s ship far in the distance.
It seemed strange and awkward, floating deeper in the water than she had ever seen it before. It wasn’t gliding with the strength she expected. As it drew nearer, Zeffa was horrified to realize that it had been severely damaged. One of the three masts was missing altogether, and the sails on the other masts were tilting clumsily.
"Father!" Zeffa called out in a burst of panic.
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About the Book
Zeffa is a young human girl who grows up in the war-torn Leidan Islands. One evening, perched high on the cliffs of Atunluck, she awaits her father's return from a military expedition. The sea becomes hostile as her father's ship approaches, and before it can reach the safety of Atunluck Harbor, it capsizes. Everyone onboard is lost. Zeffa is heart stricken, but her fellow villagers are Strangely at ease.
Unbeknownst to Zeffa, she used a "Neal light," a powerful mage's tool, to brighten the darkening skies so she could see her father's ship. She may be the only human alive who has the gift of magic. But in order to develop it and save her people from the tyranny of the Flintermond, a barbaric race of dark elves, she must leave her beloved home to become a sorceress in another land. Magic grows strong within her, but the obstacles she encounters are overwhelming. As death confronts her at every turn, she wonders whether she will ever see her homeland again.
Please visit www.zeffa.com.
About the Author
AARON DEAN HALL was born in Spring Lake, North Carolina in 1973. In 1974 his family moved to Alpine, Utah where he resided for sixteen years. He is the third of eleven children (four brothers and six sisters) born to Blaine Dean Hall and Virginia May Hall.
His junior year of high school (1990-91) was spent at Riga's Secondary School #34 in what was then the Soviet Union. After graduation, he attended the University of Utah where he obtained a B.A. in Russian and anthropology. He went on to earn his M.Ed. in special education. After receiving his advanced degree, he continued his academic pursuits in math and physics. He was initiated into Pi Mu Epsilon National Honorary Mathematics Society in April of 1999.
Hall got his first teaching job at Highland High School in Salt Lake City, the high school from which he himself had graduated. He worked there for three years. In 1999, he accepted a third/fourth grade teaching position in Togiak, a remote Yup'ik Eskimo village in southwestern Alaska, where he wrote The Sorceress of Atunluck.