THE THUNDER DANCE
ANYONE CAN LEARN THE SECRET.
THAT'S WHY IT MUST REMAIN ONE.
Sagiron’s father died protecting him. His killers spared the boy because he was too weak to matter.
In a land colonized by an empire and preyed on by bandits, a scrawny hunter’s son has little hope of justice. But a strange code on a scroll unlocks the Secret: a power that lets him mirror a seasoned warrior’s skill, bend another’s will, and dance with thunder. For the first time, revenge seems possible.
Then the code falls into enemy hands.
Allied with a scholar his people despise and a band of outlaws, Sagiron must reclaim the code before the enemy learns the Secret.
He only wanted the strength to avenge his father. Now, the knowledge he carries could free his people – or give their conquerors the power to enslave their minds.
Finnish author Eric Highwater’s Thunder Dance blends the sweep of an epic chronicle with vivid, physical storytelling, irreverent humor, and the friction of unlikely friendships. Set in a world nearly two decades in the making, it explores how a power anyone can learn reshapes both ordinary lives and the empires built to govern them.
Book details:
U.S. Edition
Third Edition | 2024 | Helsinki
Cover art: Eagle Arts
Editing and formatting: P. Paul
Publisher: Highwater International Publishing House
Short synopsis
The last heirs of the lone survivor have taken matters into their own hands and recover their heirloom, the Prime Code: a cipher that lets anyone learn the Secret, the world’s only form of magic. Hunted by colonial knight-detectives, the heirs hide their discovery before they are run down.
Sagiron stumbles upon the scroll, only to lose his father to bandits soon after. Bent on vengeance, he trains under a local Skill Games master, but once the scroll’s significance becomes clear, the quest for justice turns into something far larger.
He and his mentor travel to the Brethren to reveal the find, who rally their order for war to reclaim their homeland. Yet the colonial empire moves first. Sagiron survives the siege that follows, learning that another copy of the Code exists.
But the enemy is closing in and driven into an ambush, he watches the cipher fall into enemy hands. With the help of an unlikely ally, he must reclaim it before the empire deciphers its power, gathering his own forces for a desperate strike on their stronghold.
Chapters
Notes. 3
Chapters. 4
Maps. 6
Of Thunder and Fire. 10
The Arkman. 12
1. Leap of Fate. 20
2. Hilltop. 28
3. Marks. 33
4. Bandits. 46
5. Alone. 56
6. Herbmaster 67
7. Baggat Deal 76
8. Skill Games. 80
9. Intruders in the Night 88
10. Lessons. 97
11. Confessions. 109
12. Tempered. 114
13. Way of the Warrior 119
14. Branding Day. 129
15. Initiation. 135
16. Practicing. 142
17. Worst Swordfighter 153
18. Thunder Dance. 161
19. Travelers. 171
20. Legacy Unveiled. 180
21. Trial of Skill 193
22. Anointed and Initiated. 204
23. Doomsday. 210
24. School of Shadows. 221
25. Crossroads. 230
26. Dead End. 233
27. Two Halves. 239
28. The Great Leader 249
29. Wagonmen. 256
30. Bethrat Walks. 264
31. Journal 270
32. Bard. 280
33. Yellow and Black. 290
34. Last Argument 296
35. Collectors. 305
36. Whistler 310
37. X-bow Squad. 317
38. Chieftain. 325
39. Past Things. 336
40. Locked in the Tower 343
41. Furious Warrioress. 354
42. Ravenstone. 365
43. Perillimoon Plot 378
44. Lightning Warrior 387
45. Empire for the Journal 403
46. Flight to Bearhill 420
Appendices. 431
