Return of the Golden Age: [Book III of the Fisherman's Son Trilogy]

Chapter 1

Beneath the ocean surface, Wiley slid from the back of Elden the dolphin and placed his feet as firmly as he could on the ocean floor. He worked to steady himself in the moving current. With one hand on Elden s smooth gray back, Wiley surveyed the others in his caravan.

Keegan, the son of King Reginauld from the ancient city under the ocean, sat, with Arthur Bragon close behind him, on top of Beluga the white whale. Keegan s long, golden hair floated out behind him. Dressed once again in his royal clothing from The City of the Golden Sun, Keegan wore an oatmeal-colored tunic and toga, both trimmed in gold and purple stripes along the edges. On his feet, Keegan wore brown leather sandals trimmed in gold. Twelve-year-old Arthur wore a light brown tunic with a dark brown belt and brown leather sandals. His dark black hair floated in all directions around his serious, intelligent face.

On top of Colt the dolphin, rode ten-year-old Nevin and his younger brother, six-year-old Neil. Nevin wore a gray tunic and bare feet. With his light brown hair bobbing up and down around his face, Nevin wrapped his arms tightly around his younger brother s waist. Golden-haired Neil wore his favorite outfit: an oatmeal-colored tunic and toga, both trimmed in bright red stripes, with red closed shoes that looked like slippers.

Eleven-year-old Calder Torannen, with his vibrant red hair and pale, freckle-splashed face, sat atop Gladwin the dolphin. He wore a light brown tunic without a belt and brown leather sandals. Behind him sat twelve-year-old Kingston Ivers with dark brown hair, deep brown eyes and ruddy cheeks. Kingston wore a dark gray tunic tied at the waist with a brown leather belt and brown leather sandals.

Wiley thought about what he himself was wearing: a plain oatmeal-colored tunic and brown leather sandals. He realized that his outfit would hurt his chances to slip, unnoticed, back into his early nineteenth century, poverty-stricken village. He would have to change his clothes first chance he got.

As he stood, observing his friends, Wiley patted Elden s side fin. He did not want to see him go. As he looked from one friend to another, trying to find the courage to say goodbye to Elden and Beluga, and also to Colt and Gladwin, and to call the boys from the safety of their rides to the unknown of the ocean depths and their futures ahead, Wiley s attention was captured by a school of bright red fish suddenly swimming around Calder and Kingston. They swam briefly around the boys, then flicked their tail fins, and took off for another place. As Wiley watched the fish depart into the blue-green water thick with salt and seaweed, he noticed that a large sea turtle had come up behind Keegan, Arthur, and Beluga. With large, sleepy eyes, the turtle looked at the boys, as though waiting to see what they would do. Apparently bored, he turned and swam off when nothing interesting happened.

Wiley jumped when the sand a few yards from his feet exploded outward to release the head of a gray-and-black spotted eel. Even after all this time beneath the ocean, Wiley still startled when something moved from beneath the sand.

Wiley turned to Elden. "Well, what now "