Key Keeper’s Daughter

Brian K. Kerley resides in Tok, Alaska, has published several short stories in a variety of genres in numerous print and online publications and is the author of The Octagon Key, Key Keeper's Daughter, with Fortress in the works. He has an Aviation degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage, an English degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing through National University. He is a seasonal bush pilot, substitute teacher, freelance editor, and small business entrepreneur. Besides homesteading, his experiences include operating cranes, snowplows, and cabs, carpentry and welding crab boats, Army medic and scuba instructor. One of his goals is to make his wife laugh each and every day.

Key Keeper's Daughter On her eleventh birthday, Aideen senses an intruder-an Hamaudi Assassin hired to kidnap her. Once contracted, none can stop a master of that dread guild, and this one carries a grudge. Her father is on a quest and has a price on his head. Her grandmother flew south to find her husband and the girl fears to endanger her mother by crying out. Once taken, Aideen must use her mind skills to survive and her charisma to gain friends and alliances. The ransom is the coveted disk, the octagon key that unlocks the great technology of the ancient past and Imar must give it up to save his daughter. The continent is broken by continental shifting. The climate has radically changed. The world is repopulating several millennia after war nearly wiped humans into extinction. Magic is explained with science. Old world wizards are genetically enhanced. Cryosleep chambers are real, and technology is rapidly evolving from swords and sailing ships to firearms and powered flight.