Marin, short for Mariner, is a supply runner whose routes take her through the many islands of the Crescent Empire. As she pilots her sailboat, the Silver, with her companion sea serpent, Perri, she takes orders for things people request, searches for the merchandise, and delivers it back to the customer for a fee. She finds out that her controlling fiance was trying to bankrupt her parents and ruin her for being a free spirit, and she breaks their engagement. Her parents took out a large loan to purchase Marin's boat and have it outfitted with a magical hold, so that the inside of her vessel could carry much more than anyone imagined-it made it easier to house a large cargo and all of her supplies. She made it her mission to repay the loan when it was due, a year from now.
Alyssium, the capital city of the Empire, was the trade hub of the islands, where Marin would be able to pick up multiple job requests. She also had two drop offs, a harp for the Conservatory of Music and a box of books for the Great Library. As she manipulated through the many canals of the city, she noticed an eerie stillness at every guardhouse-they were not manned, as they usually were. Waiting at the Conservatory dock was her friend Dax, a young composer who was working on his capstone musical piece. He was there to receive the musical instruments that Marin brought, and always had a piece of fish for Perri. Marin felt sorry for Dax, as he was always sequestered in the practice rooms and had no knowledge of the world around him, but that was his fate and he seemed to accept it.
Her next stop was the library where the head librarian received the books and tasked Marin with delivering a wooden statue of a woman and a letter to a gardener on another island-this was to be a secret-smuggling statues out was illegal. But Allysium wasn't safe, and if there was going to be political turmoil, that statue was safer elsewhere. When she sailed to the island and delivered the statue, she was asked to deliver another letter back to the Library, and also obtained a new crew member in the form of a sentient plant.
On this trip, Allysium was on fire and the buildings were burning. When Marin stopped at the Library, she found the books being distributed among the fleeing librarians for safekeeping. She knew that Dax was in danger and went to the Conservatory to rescue him, but found several of his colleagues wanting to also evacuate-she ended up taking all of them. While they were happy to be dropped on a nearby island, Dax refused to go with them, defying for the first time the wishes of the other musicians. He preferred to go to sea as one of Marin's crew, joining the plant, the sea serpent, and Captain Marin in her quest to repay her parents for their gift. But did he, himself, have an ulterior motive?
This fantasy is the third in Durst's Spellshop series, but can be easily read as a standalone. It is a beautifully written paean to life on the sea, and especially to the joy of sailing. The descriptions of the novel's islands and characters are colorful and imaginative, always challenging the readers to think beyond their expectations, and while you are sure of the outcome, you will certainly not imagine how it gets there. The author has previously won the Alex Award for Adult Literature that crosses over into Young Adult-it looks like she might be up for another one.
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