Excerpt: Knight's Kingdom

Rain always made his fingers itch, as if the droplets could squeeze between the stitched folds of skin on his forearm and find the nerves that used to lead to fingers. He shook his arm but it didn't do any good. Dutch unwrapped himself from the waterproof wrap (which obviously didn't work perfectly), being careful to not expose his rifle to the water. He didn't expect to need it for this mission - if an escape could be called a mission - so he left it literally under wraps, keeping it dry just in case. The rifle worked wet like most decent military weapons, except why take that chance? He ignored the niggling doubt that told him he wouldn't return to Knight's Kingdom. The city had been his home for years and it seemed impossible that it may have been destroyed. The explosion and fire they had seen could have been anything. Truly.

At least The Province wasn't expected to follow them. Three days at sea so far with two of them beneath the cover of a storm. Fenley said the ship was perfection, even though it was built to resemble some ancient galleon. He even swore the broken mast wouldn't affect anything since it was propeller driven. Leave it to the Governor to decide he had to own a ship disguised as something archaic that really was engineered as a yacht. But then, he'd been a strange man ever since Dutch had met him.

Though it wasn't nice to speak unkindly of the dead. Dutch crossed himself with his right hand, a silent plea for forgiveness and continued to patrol the deck. His mission, no matter where they landed, wouldn't change. He needed to keep Lantis' children safe - and alive.