Passing the Narrows (4 page)

 

    "Do we have a whistle?"

 

    "Nosir," shouted Barker. "But I can -- "

 

    "Fix it," shouted the Captain. "Make it loud. Let's wake
them up in Vicksburg, right before dawn. I want them to jump up
cussing all the way to Farish Street."

 

    "Jump up cussing, right away sir."

 

    The Captain bent, rummaged in the ledger-desk, produced a
whiskey bottle and three miraculously clean shot glasses. "Join
me in a toast," he said, proffering a glass to the sorceress and
another to Swain. "To victories won, to wars forgotten."

 

    The captain poured. "To peace," said the sorceress. "To
peace, and healing, and courage."

 

    "To busted down steamboats, Yankee wand-wavers, and crippled
old Rebs," said Swain. "Forever and ever amen." He drank.

 

    The
Yocona 's
whistle sounded, long and high and loud.

 

    The Captain smiled. "Again, Mister Barker," he yelled.
"Make a racket all the way."

 

    The
Yocona
churned ahead, whistle shrieking triumph
all the way to the bluffs of Vicksburg.

Other Tuttle Titles for your Kindle!

 

 

The Markhat Series

 

 

The Mister Trophy

 

All the weary finder Markhat wanted was a cold beer at One-Eyed Eddie's. Instead, Markhat gets
a case that will bring him face to fang with a dark House of crazed halfdead, a trio of vengeful Troll warriors, and Mama Hog's
erratic backstreet magic. All that, and the possible resurgence of the Troll War.

 

 

All right there in his own none-too-quiet neighborhood.

 

 

It's beginning to look like Markhat will never enjoy that one last beer...

 

 

 

 

Dead Man's Rain

 

Can a haunted man help the dead find peace?

 

 

Markhat is a finder, making a living tracking down sons and fathers gone suddenly missing when
an outbreak of peace left the Army abandoned where they stood. But now that ten years have passed
since the Truce, all Markhat is finding is trouble.

 

 

This time, trouble comes in the form of a rich widow with a problem. Her dead husband keeps ambling from the grave to
pay her household regular nocturnal visits. Markhat is skeptical of the widow's story but not of her coin.

 

 

But as a storm gathers and night falls, Markhat finds that darker things than even murder lurk amid the shadows of House Merlat.

 

 

 

 

Hold the Dark

 

Quiet, hard-working seamstresses aren't the kind of woman that normally go missing even in a tough town like Rannit. Martha Hoobin's
disappearance, though, quickly draws Markhat into a deadly struggle between a halfdead blood cult and the infamous military sorcerer known only as the Corpsemaster.

 

 

A powerful magical artifact may be Markhat's only hope of survival -- and the source of his own inescapable damnation.

 

 

 

 

The Cadaver Client

 

Being hired by a guilt-ridden ghost to make amends to the wife and child he abandoned right after the War was a first for Markhat.
But as Markhat begins to search for the missing Mariss Sellway, he quickly discovers that even the dead keep secrets - secrets that
may conceal murder. As Markhat's search leads him back in time and deeper into the dark, he wonders if the next grave he sees might well be his own…

 

 

 

 

Other Fantasy Titles by Frank

 

 

Wistril Compleat

 

All three of Wistril's magical misadventures are included in this complete compilation of cantrips and catastrophes!

 

 

Wistril Besieged --

 

Wizard Wistril's wants are simple -- four meals a day, a steady supply of honey-gold Upland beer, and above all else, peace and quiet.
All but the latter are in plentiful supply at Castle Kauph. Despite secreting himself in the Wild, Wistril finds himself battling an army of relentless mercenaries while the entire population of the nearest village takes refuge in his home. Even Kern, Wistril's long-suffering, sharp-tongued apprentice, isn't sure whether the army or the houseguests will prove to be Wistril's undoing!

 

 

Wistril Afloat --

 

Wistril doesn't believe in lake monsters -- until they invade the lake that just happens to provide Wistril's favorite fish dinners. Faced with the choice of adjusting his menus or daring the wilderness around Lake Ovinshoon, Wistril and Kern soon have bigger problems than mere lake monsters on their hands.
Because while Wistril wishes only to study the beasts, others wish to hunt them and skin them. Will Wistril's peaceful White Chair magics prevail against a ruthless band of wyvern-hunters who have only profit on their minds?

 

 

Wistril Betrothed --

 

If ever there was a determined bachelor, thought Kern, his name was surely Wistril.
So when Wistril's wife-to-be shows up with a pursuing army on her heels, life at Castle Kauph is turned upside down. And when another suitor for Lady Emmerbee's hand arrives, with a dark and menacing wizard of his own in tow, it's up to Kern and the rest of Castle Kauph to get Wistril wed without losing his head!

 

 

 

 

On the Road

 

Being a female Sorceress with a bodiless but smart-mouthed assistant is trouble enough
for anyone. But for Mallara, appointed by the Crown as Royal Sorceress to the Five Valleys,
trouble is all in a day's work.

 

 

Join Mallara and her quick-witted companion Burn the Shimmer as they take to the road to keep the peace! Featuring four Mallara and Burn
short stories, this anthology is sure to amuse lovers of fantasy fiction.

 

 

In "The Ringed Round," Mallara must face a ring of vengeful stones and the trapped embodiment of an ancient harvest feast
-- which may or may not be the friendly old sprite he appears to be!

 

 

"Night Stand" finds Mallara and Burn camped amid the ruins of a haunted villa for what the villagers swore
was a routine Cleansing. But as night falls, the duo realize the villagers may have left out a detail or
two concerning the true nature of the haunting.

 

 

Trolls haven't been seen about for decades -- but in "The Asking and the Vow," Sorceress Mallara
comes face to face with not just a Troll, but with the weight of history itself.

 

 

Finally, Mallara and Burn arrive at a village besieged by a small but growing army of overly-helpful goblins. Every roof has been patched, every walk has been swept, every fence has been mended. But what will the goblins do next, when they've run out of chores?
Join Mallara and Burn as they take on the task of patrolling the Five Valleys, and discover magic and mayhem with every turn of the road

 

 

 

 

Frank's email address is
[email protected]

 

 

 

 

Visit Frank's webpage at
www.franktuttle.com