A League of Salt
- Romantasy
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- Morally Gray
- One Bed
- Opposites Attract
- Angsty
- Emotional
- Suspenseful
A smuggler captain. The Crown officer she blames for her brother's death. One sea-witch's bargain gone wrong.
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The story
The story
A smuggler captain. The Crown officer she blames for her brother's death. One sea-witch's bargain gone wrong.
Wren Tallow runs contraband tide-magic through the reefs of the Shoalmere, and she has never forgiven Commander Soren Vale for the night her brother's ship went down. Then a bargain struck on a trapped lugger marks them both: stray more than a league apart, and they drown on dry land.
Now the Crown's most careful warden shares her ship, her cabin and her only bed, while they hunt the warlord trading in stolen magic. Wren is hiding who sold that warlord his charms. Soren is hiding what he really did the night her brother vanished. And in forty days the spring tide will either break the mark or break them.
A steamy enemies-to-lovers pirate romantasy with forced proximity and one very small bed.
Spice map
Where it gets hot
Heat, chapter by chapter. No spoilers, just warning.
The world
Know your way around
Ship
- Kittiwake
- Hobb's lugger, carrying forty jars of Wren's unlicensed cargo on the night of the Crown's raid. Her deck is where the bargain is sworn.
- Merry Widow
- Wren's own ship and crew. On the night of the raid she rides short-handed at the far anchor, a quarter mile off, waiting for her captain.
Character
- Nerys Quill
- A sea-witch called Mother Quill, whom Wren has never once seen surprised. Her bargain on the Kittiwake goes wrong and leaves Wren and Soren holding the price.
- Pem
- One of Wren's crew, sent back in the longboat on the night of the raid to get the Merry Widow under way and stand off without her captain.
- Soren Vale
- A Crown tide-warden and commander who works the sea small and exact instead of for show. His name was on the report the night Wren's brother's ship burned.
- Wren Tallow
- Captain of the Merry Widow, a smuggler who runs unlicensed charms through the reefs. For three years she has blamed Soren Vale for the night her brother's ship burned.
Magic
- Oath-mark
- The cold ring the broken bargain left on Wren's and Soren's left wrists, binding them until spring tide. Stray more than a league of salt apart and the water drowns them where they stand.
- Sea-witch's bargain
- Terms sworn on salt, in plain words with no crossed fingers. As Nerys puts it, bargains don't fail, people fail inside them, and the price always gets paid.
- Tide-magic
- The working of currents and moving water. It takes its wage out of the body's salt and leaves a tremor behind, even when it is licensed and done by the book.
Term
- Spring tide
- Forty days after the bargain, the one tide at which the mark can break. It breaks only if both of them give back what they lent, freely, with no hand forcing the giving.
Faction
- The Admiralty
- The Crown's naval command, to whom the patrol sloops answer and the prizes go. As Nerys warns on the Kittiwake, the Admiralty hangs what it takes.
- Tide-wardens
- Crown officers licensed to work tide-magic and to seize contraband under warrant. Most of them throw water around like rich men throwing coin.
Place
- The Saddle
- The narrow passage out of the raid anchorage. On the night of the bargain, the Crown strings a glowing tide-net across its throat so nothing can sail it.
Object
- Unlicensed charms
- Fist-sized, wax-sealed jars of tide-magic made outside Crown license. Each is worth more than a lugger, and a hold full of them is a hanging cargo.
Spoiler-safe. Only what you learn in chapter 1.
