FREE! Sea Of Fire by J.F. Holmes

Pirates and Privateers

The Fantasy adventure tale Sea Of Fire (The Cumberland Chronicles Book 1) by J.F. Holmes is FREE today and tomorrow!

Here's the blurb (with excerpt):

Being the Captain of a Privateer is hard work. Having your hard-charging but impulsive younger brother as the Master at Arms is harder. Trying to keep your ships' wizard from drinking himself to death is even harder. Having your long-lost royal love show up in a bordello when you're trying to get a little R & R after months at sea, and being attacked by cultist? Hardest.

Brian Cumberland does the best he can to balance the lives of his crew with his own desire to live life as a free man. Skirting the border between being a privateer and an outright pirate, Cumberland stumbles into the middle of a religious cult intent on corrupting the kingdom of an old friend. Swords are drawn, magic flares, and ships burn.

**EXCERPT**

I asked Lilith for her bow and, when she handed it to me, asked her if she needed it back.

“No,” she answered, an amused smile on her face. She handed it to me, and followed it up with a kiss. It was deliciously warm on my cheek. I smiled and started jogging down the beach.

The Marines halted their advance when they saw me, a single man walking towards them. “CHALLENGE!” I yelled at the top of my lungs in Ringlander, and their commander stepped forward out of the ranks. I knew it was their leader by the moonlight shining on his golden armor, and the stiff horsehair plume on his helmet.

“Cumberland, I knew it would be you,” he said when he got close enough to speak without shouting. “There will be a pretty reward when I bring your head in.”

“Lord Farstal. Been a long time.”

“Not long enough. My sister still has a broken heart. You left her standing at the altar, and brought shame on my house.” He paced back and forth in front of his men, slowly swinging his sword.

“As nice of a set of teats she had, she would have still turned into a fat harpy within a few years, and she had a sour disposition, like her brother. You always were an uptight prick.”

He stopped swinging his sword and smiled at me. “You will pay for that, baseborn. Do you challenge me to single combat?” I had forgotten how huge the man was, a veritable giant. He handled the two handed sword like it was a toothpick, and I had seen him in the pits of Dece, fighting death matches for FUN. His troops were shouting encouragement, and he was pumping himself into a rage, the better to cut me in half.

“Nope!” I said, pulled back the bow, and shot him in the face. He stood for a second, then fell forward onto the sand, dead before he hit the ground, the head of the arrow standing out from the back of his helmet. Like I said, I’m strong, and honor be damned. There was a stunned silence from the Marines. Before they could react, I dropped the bow, turned and ran my ass off.

“TRISTANNNNNNNN!” I took a second to shout, before I lost my breath from running. I lowered my head and powered on through the sand, all the while angling to my left, steadily moving diagonally towards the trees. My objective had been to prevent the Marines from forming a shield wall, and it had worked. Every single one of them was chasing after me, bent on avenging their commander. Thankfully I was unburdened by armor and faster than most. As I ran towards the trees, they angled after me, presenting their flank to the waiting archers of Lilith and the rest of the Halfies.

The Marines ran into an arrow storm that came whistling out of the moonlight, mowing down a dozen of them and throwing the rest into a mass of confusion. At the second volley, more fell, and then the half dozen Widowmakers, in full armor and lead by Tristan, charged forward in a solid wedge, shields up and interlocked, stabbing forward with their short swords. Behind them were Lilith and a half dozen archers, with short bows singing, releasing an arrow every second. They crashed into the disorganized Marines and started the brutal butcher’s work of cutting their way through the mob.

*****

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