Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure: Dane Maddock Universe, #6
    Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure: Dane Maddock Universe, #6
    Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure: Dane Maddock Universe, #6
    Ebook171 pages3 hours

    Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure: Dane Maddock Universe, #6

    By David Wood and Ashley Knight

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    An ancient myth comes to life!

    The discovery of a lost treasure out of Greek mythology sends Maddock and Bones on a perilous quest where danger lurks around every corner and legends come to life! But the road through the ancient world is paved with danger and the waters teem with evil. When friends turn traitor and allies appear to be more than they seem, who can Maddock trust when he is chosen to be the Herald?

    PRAISE FOR DAVID WOOD AND THE DANE MADDOCK ADVENTURES!

    A great read that provides lots of action, and thoughtful insight as well, into strange realms that are sometimes best left unexplored." Paul Kemprecos, author of Cool Blue Tomb

    "Dane and Bones.... Together they're unstoppable. Rip-roaring action from start to finish. Wit and humor throughout. Just one question - how soon until the next one? Because I can't wait."  Graham Brown, author of Shadows of the Midnight Sun

    "David Wood has done it again. Quest takes you on an expedition that leads down a trail of adventure and thrills!" David L. Golemon, Author of the Event Group series

    "Ancient cave paintings? Cities of gold? Secret scrolls? Sign me up! A twisty tale of adventure and intrigue that never lets up and never lets go!" Robert Masello, author of The Medusa Amulet

    "A non-stop thrill ride triple threat- smart, funny and mysterious!" Jeremy Robinson, author of Instinct and Threshold

    "Let there be no confusion: David Wood is the next Clive Cussler." Edward G. Talbot, author of 2010: The Fifth World

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAdrenaline Press
    Release dateDec 17, 2018
    ISBN9781386653073
    Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure: Dane Maddock Universe, #6
    Author

    David Wood

    David A. Wood has more than forty years of international gas, oil, and broader energy experience since gaining his Ph.D. in geosciences from Imperial College London in the 1970s. His expertise covers multiple fields including subsurface geoscience and engineering relating to oil and gas exploration and production, energy supply chain technologies, and efficiencies. For the past two decades, David has worked as an independent international consultant, researcher, training provider, and expert witness. He has published an extensive body of work on geoscience, engineering, energy, and machine learning topics. He currently consults and conducts research on a variety of technical and commercial aspects of energy and environmental issues through his consultancy, DWA Energy Limited. He has extensive editorial experience as a founding editor of Elsevier’s Journal of Natural Gas Science & Engineering in 2008/9 then serving as Editor-in-Chief from 2013 to 2016. He is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Geo-Energy Research.

    Read more from David Wood

    Related authors

    Related to Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure

    Titles in the series (12)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      Rock Hard

      Sep 10, 2020

      Rock Hard
      7 min read

    • Article

      Befogged And Bewildered

      Nov 9, 2022

      FOG, with apologies to Dickens, everywhere. Fog up on the hill behind the house, fog down in the valley. Fog on our little stream, where it meanders through the water meadow. Fog in the town, fog in the village. Fog in the harbour, creeping into the

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tempting Fate

      May 11, 2023

      Read about sailing all your life and you won’t find another book quite like Bound for Cape Horn, with its interesting subtitle Skills for Expedition Cruising. Any suggestion this might be yet another text book on how to do it is dissipated in the ope

      7 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Dec 1, 2022

      Nothing is as important to our ability to survive as our ability to hurt. -Haider Warraich, The Song of Our Scars, 2022 In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead. -William Blake, T

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Dragon’s Perspective

      Jun 10, 2022

      There once lived a dragon named Deathwing. Well, at least that’s what they called him. Deathwing was growing old, far too old for his liking. The joints of his claws ached and groaned under his ever-growing weight and his scales were beginning to los

      18 min read

    • Article

      Siren Song

      Aug 27, 2021

      Siren Song
      10 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Mar 4, 2024

      To Err Is Human; to Forgive, Supine —S. J. Perelman, Baby, It’s Cold Inside, 1970 You must know the bees have come early this year too: I see them visit aster, sweet Williams, bleeding hearts, and azalea blossoms hardy enough to not have crisped with

      3 min read

    • Article

      McCARTHY AND THE MOUSE

      Nov 13, 2018

      McCARTHY AND THE MOUSE
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Hermit Of Suvarov

      Jul 30, 2020

      The Hermit Of Suvarov
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

      Feb 16, 2021

      For centuries, coastal communities from all round the world have told tales of terrifying serpent or squid-like sea monsters that lurk beneath the waves, waiting to snatch unwary sailors and fishermen to their deaths. But is there any truth to these

      4 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      May 1, 2020

      Hemingway: a real man’s man; red wine, bulls and wrestling with fish were all central themes of a life of unremitting machismo. Having read a bit of Ernest in my time, I generally find that he spends a good deal of time droning on about death, impote

      6 min read

    • Article

      Time Out

      May 1, 2020

      Time Out
      6 min read

    • Article

      Of a Fire on The Marsh

      Mar 5, 2018

      Of a Fire on The Marsh
      20 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Dec 1, 2021

      The light from the full moon lent a silky, glacial sheen to the towering front of the cloud, which stretched off to the horizon in both directions. I stood transfixed as it made its way down the street toward me at a little over the town’s speed limi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      WILD EYES & RESTLESS WINDS

      Oct 4, 2017

      We’d taken refuge in the harbour. Westerly gales and westerly swell roared east across the Pentland Firth, the notoriously dangerous stretch of water situated just north of Scotland. Even the tide was emptying from Northern Atlantic to North Sea – ev

      6 min read

    • Article

      An Everlasting Call

      Sep 9, 2020

      An Everlasting Call
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Whale Who Will Come Soon

      Sep 8, 2021

      The beachfront narrows to an ocherous ribbon, belted by blue, above and below. After a while, a handful of shearwaters appear in the air above the Cat Balou. The birds flash around us; like knife-thrower tricks at a circus. Diving through the water,

      8 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of ...

      Apr 1, 2019

      Fifteen-year-old Tay lives on Rannoch, a distant planet covered with water, where undersea pods or living chambers provide life support for up to three people—usually two adults and one child. Tay learns that her parents are expecting another child a

      8 min read

    • Article

      Holding Power

      Sep 11, 2020

      Holding Power
      5 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 1, 2020

      After every war someone has to tidy up. — Wisława Szymborska, “The End and the Beginning,” 1993 The road, just in front of the sidewalk where I sat and played jacks, would be ankle-deep in dust, and seemed to drink up the moonlight like folds of ve

      3 min read

    • Article

      Fowling With A Fox Under A Wolf Moon

      Feb 16, 2022

      I hung my chest waders to dry over a roof joist in the shed. They had dangled there, like a headless corpse, for four weeks. The business of hedge laying had got in the way of my wildfowling for far too long. My abstemiousness ended when I accepted a

      5 min read

    • Article

      Skein Is land

      Nov 6, 2019

      Skein Is land
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Passage To Greenland

      Oct 16, 2018

      A Passage To Greenland
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Island

      Dec 15, 2019

      The Island
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Herald- A Dane Maddock Adventure - David Wood

      An ancient myth comes to life!

      The discovery of a lost treasure out of Greek mythology sends Maddock and Bones on a perilous quest where danger lurks around every corner and legends come to life! But the road through the ancient world is paved with danger and the waters teem with evil. When friends turn traitor and allies appear to be more than they seem, who can Maddock trust when he is chosen to be the Herald?

      PRAISE FOR DAVID WOOD AND THE DANE MADDOCK ADVENTURES!

      A great read that provides lots of action, and thoughtful insight as well, into strange realms that are sometimes best left unexplored." Paul Kemprecos, author of Cool Blue Tomb

      Dane and Bones.... Together they're unstoppable. Rip-roaring action from start to finish. Wit and humor throughout. Just one question - how soon until the next one? Because I can't wait.  Graham Brown, author of Shadows of the Midnight Sun

      David Wood has done it again. Quest takes you on an expedition that leads down a trail of adventure and thrills! David L. Golemon, Author of the Event Group series

      Ancient cave paintings? Cities of gold? Secret scrolls? Sign me up! A twisty tale of adventure and intrigue that never lets up and never lets go! Robert Masello, author of The Medusa Amulet

      A non-stop thrill ride triple threat- smart, funny and mysterious! Jeremy Robinson, author of Instinct and Threshold

      Let there be no confusion: David Wood is the next Clive Cussler. Edward G. Talbot, author of 2010: The Fifth World

      Herald

      Copyright 2017, 2018 by David Wood

      All rights reserved

      Edited by Sean Ellis

      Published by Adrenaline Press

      www.adrenaline.press

      Adrenaline Press is an imprint of Gryphonwood Press

      www.gryphonwoodpress.com

      This is a work of fiction. All characters are products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.

      Prologue

      381 CE

      Somewhere across the Sea of Atlas

      ––––––––

      Titus slept a tortured sleep, but he could not wake.

      It had begun as a whisper—a mere hint - a secret shared once and caught by the warm breeze. Tousled through the richly scented valleys of the Peloponnese, the cryptic message was safely delivered to the edge of the blue Mediterranean waters.

      And there was where it was accepted and written into myth.

      Hermes had not meant it to happen, but honestly, after being one of only three surviving gods, he had grown desperate. There was no way in hell or on earth that he would leave it with Hades. The thought made him chuckle before sighing deeply. Poseidon would have to do. He could bury it beneath the waves, down within the leviathan depths of the sea. He could carry it to the ends of the earth for all he cared but this one thing—this last remnant of power—his staff possessing the ability to raise the dead—could not be found by the mortals.

      Zeus had smiled in his death. He had never counted on the mortals having absolute power in the end. To lose their faith had meant the end of their kind and one by one, the Greek gods melted into oblivion. How strange it was that Hermes, a mere presence of sorts, would be one of the last to fade away. So it was with a heavy heart that he summoned the second brother of Zeus.

      He waited, tapping his feet in the quietness of the delay. The air grew thinner by the minute and he knew he did not have long before he too, would become a pinch of glittering sand cast upon the golden Greek beaches. 

      The azure waters breached, pulling back along themselves, revealing a dulled glow that once had been more vivid than the most lustrous of stars.

      Poseidon, Hermes said, his tone revealing his relief.  

      Hermes, Poseidon acknowledged, dipping his head.

      I wane.

      As do I. Poseidon motioned to the aura about him. I’m sure it is most apparent.

      I have no choice but to deliver the staff to you.

      Poseidon frowned. You have not yet concealed it?

      I cannot. I have no time left.

      It will be Hades and I who linger.

      But not for long, I think.

      No, not for long. Poseidon smiled sadly. It should not have come to this.

      And yet, here we are. Hermes extended the Caduceus. I hope to meet you among our ancestors.

      May you be remembered, the god of the Seas accepted the staff and nodded his farewell.

      The waters advanced, descending Poseidon into the deep.

      Hermes watched until the waves cyclically returned. A warmth had spread throughout his chest, radiating to the ends of his fingertips. Holding his hand before him, he clenched his fist and watched his glow brighten once more before bursting into a shimmering shower of gold.

      The wind, ever greedy in its need to collect treasure, caught the remains of the god and carried it to the clouds.

      Titus sat bolt upright, the memory of the dream still fresh in his mind. He’d been tormented by these dreams, these visions, since the accursed staff had come into his possession. Now, more than ever, he was convinced of its power.

      I was right to take you far across the sea. He directed his words at the crate in which the staff was secured.

      They’d captured it from a sinking Corinthian vessel. The lone surviving sailor, driven mad by his injuries, could only mutter herald and return. The man had died soon after, and when Titus took the staff from his death grip, he’d received a shock, both to his body and his mind.

      One glimpse of the terrible visions convinced him that he must rid his beloved home of the foul sorcery. He had lost count of how long they had spent crossing the great ocean, and he began to give up hope. Perhaps he should simply have cast it into the water and have done with it.

      No sooner had the thought passed through his mind, than a cry rang out.

      Land! I see land!

      He tore his gaze away from the crate to see a tiny speck of green on the horizon. An island! Was this the place the gods had chosen?

      As if in reply, the sun was blotted out. Thunder boomed and the wind roared. A chill ran down his spine. He understood! Jupiter had set the island before him as a safe haven, but Pluto called him to the world of the dead.

      We must get to the island before the storm reaches us! he shouted.

      His men bent to their oars, and he felt the boat surge forward.

      He looked back, mesmerized, as the dark clouds rolled in, the hand of the Underworld reaching out for him.

      We must make it, he whispered. We must.

      Chapter 1

      Good morning, folks! It’s a blustery day here in paradise with winds picking up overnight. It’s 6 am and if you’re the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed type who’s up at this hour, you’d better get your trash cans back in the garage. Looks like we’re expecting quite a storm this morning.

      Dane Maddock rolled onto his back, his bedsheets wrapping about his torso like a python as he turned. Extending his hand, he clumsily felt about for the alarm clock, knocking over a half-empty water glass before hitting the snooze button.

      His eyes closed to the intrusive light seeping in from between the wooden blinds, and groaned. The news had warned the residents of Key West that a hurricane was heading their way and the fact that he could hear the boat buoys hanging on the exterior wall of his condominium thumping against the slats meant it wasn’t far off. The last thing he wanted to do was face another hurricane. Living in Key West had its benefits to be sure, but five hurricanes in one year was downright exhausting.

      Tugging the sheets away, he rose and stretched. His spine cracked in response to the immense effort making him groan. It wasn’t especially hard work keeping in shape, but he had noticed it took more than it used to when he was in his twenties. Not that he could really complain—he was fitter than most men ten years his junior. Still, the fact that aches and pains had begun to sneak up on him had not gone unnoticed. He dropped to his hands and pounded out a few pushups before righting himself and opening the blinds.

      The tropical waters had darkened to a deep gray, the tips of the choppy water foamy and white. Palm trees swayed to and fro like drunken fan dancers. Maddock frowned at the foreboding scene. The ocean was not just angry—it was livid. From this vantage point he could just glimpse the marina where Sea Foam was moored. She bobbed up and down, slamming into the sides of the slip and dipping sharply against the violent waves.

      Crap. Sea Foam had withstood worse, and he was confident she’d weather this storm, but he hated seeing her take a beating.

      Maddock actually spent most of his time aboard the eighty-foot motor yacht, traveling the world with his crew of professional marine salvage experts—which sounded a lot better than treasure hunters—searching for lost shipwrecks and... well, treasure. It was more a home to him than the condo.

      Dressing quickly, he headed out the front door to the third-floor balcony. Heavy wind ruffled his short, blond hair and a spray of sand swatted at his arms and legs, stinging like pinpricks.

      You ever see anything like that? Tom Benson, his next-door neighbor, stood at the rail, shielding his face with a hand. His hot pink Bermuda shorts flapped against his thighs as if desperately trying to rid themselves of him.

      Not in some time. Maddock waved, doing his best not to glance at the old man’s bare, fuzzy chest. Tom, a retired Vietnam vet had lived next door almost as long as Maddock could remember—in fact, he’d moved in just a few weeks after Maddock himself—and in all that time, he had never shown the least inclination toward self-consciousness.

      Tom rubbed a tattooed arm before pointing out at the ocean. It’s like someone high up’s pissed off.

      Maddock hated when people ascribed divine motives to natural disasters, even in jest, but he laughed politely. Either that, or Neptune’s got his toga in a twist. A palm frond blew toward him and he snatched it out of the air before it could wallop him upside the head. "I’ve got to check on Sea Foam before this stuff really hits the fan."

      That would be wise. Tom wiped his forehead free of the stinging sand. I guess I don’t have to tell a Frogman to be careful down there.

      Frogman was an old school name for members of the Navy’s elite Underwater Demolition Team, which had later transformed into the SEALs—the acronym stood for sea, air, land, a reference to the universality of battlefields on which the commandos could fight.

      Former Frog, Maddock murmured, almost automatically. His time as a SEAL seemed like something from a past life.

      Tom threw an intentionally sloppy salute, then headed back inside his condo.

      Maddock hurried down the stairs and set off at a sprint for the marina. The place was deserted—apparently he was the only one foolish enough to race the storm. He looked out again at the sea and nearly slipped on slimy seaweed that had been tossed by the waves onto the wooden dock. Teetering like a drunken tightrope walker, he regained his footing and set off again, grateful no one was around to see.

      Sea Foam came into view and he muttered a curse. Two of the tiedowns had come loose and the rear of the boat banged against the dock, making the wood creak in agony.

      Oh, come on, Corey! Maddock shouted. Corey Dean had tied down that side after their last outing. Corey was a computer guy, not a sailor. I should have checked his work, Maddock grumbled.

      The wind howled about Maddock like an angry animal, the sound drawn out and painful. He secured the first tiedown, kneeling in the chilly water that sloshed across the dock. Time was growing short. He made his way to the second tiedown, racing against the waves rolling in his direction.

      He was too slow.

      A

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1