Headhunters, sorcerers, pirates and Indian princes thrive in this adventurous, poetic tale of a young outcast in Borneo. Born in 1609, son of a native woman and a Dutch sea captain he never knew, Jaki Gefjon grows up in the jungle as a sorcerer's apprentice. Later kidnapped by pirates, he befriends his captor, Trevor Pym, notorious for his dreaded man-of-war, Wyvern. The scientific marvels on the European privateer become the young soul-catcher’s passion—until he falls for Lucinda, the headstrong daughter of Pym's sworn enemy. Propelled by intrigue, pirates' battles, curses and visions, this seafaring saga takes Lucinda and Jaki from the South Seas to India—and to a bold, unforeseen destiny in the New World.
Genre: FICTION / HistoricalWyvern has sold steadily since the first hardcover publication of this historical adventure novel by Ticknor & Fields in 1988.
Dawn built a temple of clouds above the jungle. The north wind, tangled with stars, blew west, and the clouds followed into the mountains. A sudden, brief torrent crashed over the peaks, clattering across ledges of black slate and rushing down rocky slopes toward the forest.
On a mountain ledge where the deluge tattered to misty veils, a narrow figure stood, peering down at a maze of crooked chasms. The enormous vista swarmed with vapors, valleys exhaling like graves.
The mighty cumuli lifted and vanished in the purple sky among the last wind-shaken stars, and the slim shadow stepped from the cliff darkness into dawnlight. Black and angular, he wore only a snakeskin loincloth. The flesh of his chest and shoulders beaded like tar where ritual scars linked their proud stories. Serpent tattoos coiled up his legs, and on his flat head bristly hair braided viper loops. His breath smoked violet in the cold light.
The man-snake scanned the terrain below until he spotted the high valley where the giant trees of the forest came to their knees before the stone peaks. There, a day's hike away, a demon dwelled. For seven years, the man-snake had watched this valley to see that the demon did not escape, and he had entered the glen to bring offerings only when certain that he would not be seen. Lately, the drum songs of neighboring tribes spoke of sighting the dread creature, and the time had come for the man-snake to go down from the cold paths into the hot frenzy of the jungle and confront the demon.
The sun climbed the sky as he descended the planet's wall. Ahead, bald outcroppings of rock loomed and twisted pygmy trees squatted among cobbles and boulders. Farther down began the flower fields, knolls and braes drumming with color as the up-sailing mists dispersed in sunlight. Ferns walled the forest where the big trees towered, at the top of the demon's valley.
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Mattia Dalla Benetta
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