The Glass Frog

by J. Brandon Lowry, Teresa Jenellen

Genres: Fantasy action & adventure; YA Contemporary

Synopsis

Sophie Farrier—a bright and imaginative teen girl—was born with rotten luck. Misfortune has placed her in Seaside, a dull and dreary village filled with dull and dreary people. It is a place where creativity is frowned upon, outsiders are shunned, and no one dares to stand out. Those who actually muster up the courage to leave are never heard from again.

After a terrible storm, the sea casts ashore a mysterious, unconscious man who bears the gifts of magic. Seaside is thrown into an uproar, and in the resulting chaos, Sophie gets a glimpse of the dread secrets buried at home. Now she must set out on a journey to learn more about her family, her world, and herself.

Yet the road out of Seaside is fraught with peril. There is a keeper of secrets lying in Sophie’s path, one whose ruined past is entwined with her own. A master of deception, he seeks to destroy her very sense of self using the cruelest weapon of all—the truth.

 

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Release date: June 20, 2023

Publisher: Trailerback Books

Print pages: 390

Sample

 

THE GIRL ON THE HILL

The eponymous tree was a grand old oak, with thick, gnarled roots and heavy branches that sprawled out in all directions. Sophie lounged comfortably on a tuft of grass beneath that expansive canopy, reading a book. At a glance, she gave the impression of being permanently disheveled. Her clothes were simple, plain, and mostly free of holes. Mostly. Her long, mousey hair kept falling into her face as she read, only to be automatically tucked behind her ear once again. So completely absorbed was she in the fantastic tale that was unfolding on the page that she barely noticed her hair’s obstinacy. It was a story about a far-flung kingdom beset by evil; a beautiful princess in terrible peril; a malevolent witch with a host of hideous, monstrous familiars and a lust for vengeance; and the brave, stalwart knight hacking and slashing and stabbing his way through them all. Her eyes rapidly scanned the pages in a mad rush to get to the end.

Only three pages left.

Two more.

One.

With the final words read, Sophie took a deep breath, slammed the cover closed, and tossed the book aside.

“Rubbish.”

Sophie pulled a sheet of paper from her knapsack, a list. She scratched Sir Bridgard and the Woods Witch at the bottom. It was the thirty-seventh entry on her list, joining such classics as The Knight of Eryrie by the Sea, Roddy Tottenham’s Fantastic Misadventures, and The Vengeance of the Merling King. At the top were written the words CHILDISH NONSENSE.

“They’re all the same,” she complained aloud. This was a normal thing for Sophie. There weren’t many other children her age in Seaside, and so far as she knew none of the others even owned a book, so she had no one to share her hobby with. No matter; the oak was a great listener. “Once again, the hero returns without a scratch to sweep the swooning princess off her feet. For once I wish the ending would be different, somehow. New. Unexpected.” She continued to ramble, sharing her literary critiques with her oaky friend. If, coincidentally, she happened to be putting off her daily chores

 by continuing the conversation, well… that was a matter of circumstance.

One Tree Hill was a risky place for Sophie to be, on account of the view. The southern slope faced the village, with the beach and the ocean just beyond, all plainly visible from the summit. Common knowledge held that such a marvelous view could lead to dangerous pastimes, such as daydreaming, woolgathering, mooning, and other forms of general ideation. There was no telling what sort of things might occur to a person while sitting beneath that tree.

But there was another risk to being up there, one that only those villagers who had ventured Out There could have warned her against—the call of the hills. They spoke with the voice of the wind, whispering her name every time the breeze caressed the brushy stalks of field grass, and spinning fanciful yarns about the adventures awaiting the brave. That soft, soughing voice never failed to draw her eyes to the endless, verdant sea. In those moments, she’d wonder if a place that looked so peaceful could really be so bad.

These combined hazards ensured that Sophie’s trips to One Tree Hill were unaccompanied and undisturbed. Safely insulated from the prying, judgmental eyes of adults, she could read and discuss her books in peace—which suited her just fine. The place had become hers, and hers alone.

On this morning, though, the hills were silent. She let her gaze linger outward to watch the waves wash over the beach. They were low and calm and not at all like the frothy breakers that had erupted from the sea the night before. A sudden and terrible storm had come barreling ashore, the kind accompanied by massive dark clouds, heavy torrential rains, and great peals of thunder. Now, it was as if the storm had never existed at all. Such a horrifically beautiful day, and she was meant to spend it doing other people’s laundry. Resigned to her fate, Sophie collected her things, brushed herself off, and began the trip home.

It was only once she’d stood that she noticed the brilliant light flashing up at her from the beach. Golden hued and twinkling, it looked as though a star had fallen from the sky. She wondered if perhaps it had been jostled loose by the storm. Beguiling as it was, Sophie Sophie ignored it and moved on, for she had more pressing things on her mind. There was no way she could have recognized that light for the beacon that it was, nor could she have foreseen the path that its bearer would set her upon.

 

THE BRIGHT SIDE

The day after a storm is the best time to harvest kelp. Kelp farming, for the unaware, is the act of gathering dead kelp that has washed ashore, hauling it onto land, and drying it out for various industrial uses. Dead kelp, for the unaware, smells an awful lot like rotting sulfurous diarrhea and feels like the skin of a slug that has had its guts squeezed out. Successful kelp farmers, therefore, have a knack for looking on the bright side of things. 

In the same way that a butterfly’s wing stirs the mighty hurricane into life, so it was that the bright side of a thing brought the winds of change to Seaside by blinding a moderately successful kelp farmer that day. His name was Mert.

Mert had just stooped over a particularly rich glom when a gleaming, golden flash caught his eye. He glanced up, looked around, and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, shrugged and dug his bare fingers into the moldering, mucousy mound at his feet. The flash came again, this time accompanied by the gentle shhh of an incoming wave. Ahhh said the wave, and the light stung Mert’s eyes for a third time. Frustrated and glad of the excuse to get his face away from the horrendous slime pile, he stood and stared at the shoreline.

Mert was motionless for a full minute, waiting for the momentary bursts of reflected sunlight. An internal struggle was taking place. Having been born and raised in Seaside, and—it must be said—being of a somewhat simple nature, Mert’s powers of imagination were shamefully impotent. He’d never seen anything so shiny on the beach before. It was clear he should investigate, but he simply couldn’t imagine what the source could be. Surely, it couldn’t be anything interesting enough to justify leaving his kelp behind. Or could it?

It was a real conundrum.

His inactivity caught the attention of his wife and fellow kelp farmer, Frances. “Mert,” she said. “‘Chu doing?”

“Uh?”

“I asked whatchu was doing.”

Mert pointed. “There’s a thing.”

“A thing?” She put her hands on her hips and frowned. “What sort of thing?”

“Dunno.”

“Then why you starin’ at it?”

Mert’s gnarled face

, contemplating. “Was thinking ‘bout going over there.”

“Well I don’t much like the sound of that.” Frances came from a long line of proud, practical people who really knew how to keep their noses to the kelp. Mert, on the other hand, had a great-great-granduncle who had disappeared after wandering Out There. This marred family history had caused quite a lot of tension over the years. “Why d’you want to go and ruin our perfectly adequate day? We’ve got all these fresh gloms lyin’ about and a nice spot of sunshine to boot. What more could you want?”

Mert secretly harbored all sorts of wants. Long experience had taught him that this question was rhetorical in nature.

Shhh. Ahhh. Flicker-flash.

It’s hard to explain why Mert did what he did next. It may have been the sunshine, or his rambler’s roots, or the weight of all those hidden desires. Perhaps he was simply tired of being told what to do. Whatever the reason, Mert hitched up his britches and said, “I’m going over there.” And then he did.

The source of the glinting lay half-buried in a loose mat of kelp. It was a medallion, a thin, circular wafer of onyx surrounded by a rim of gold. Arcane symbols were engraved along its circumference. It bore an inlaid rosette formed from triangular gemstones, each point radiating outward from a pearl embedded in the center. An attached chain disappeared into the ropy, rotting glom. Leaning over to admire it, Mert was shocked.

No, really. As he reached out to touch the medallion, a tiny bolt of lightning leapt out and singed his fingertips. Instinctively, Mert shoved his insulted digits into his mouth, completely forgetting their sulfurous, slimy slug coating. He collapsed to the sand, retching. Moments later, an exasperated Frances stood over her husband, who was busy admiring the puddle of warm breakfast between his palms. Feeling that Mert had not been sufficiently punished for giving in

to his curiosity, Frances said, “Serves you right.” 

As if in agreement, the kelp groaned.

Mert and Frances had seen a lot during their time as kelp farmers, but not once had either of them encountered a glom that groaned. It was simply too much. “Come along,” said Frances, desperate to get Mert up and away from this new oddity, lest his curiosity take hold of him again. Frances had been haranguing him for decades; she knew what a slow learner he could be.

But it was too late. A fist pushed up to the surface with a thick, slopping noise. It held tight to the medallion’s chain. The glom groaned again, and Mert’s imagination leapt into overdrive. This time, however, he was untouched by indecision. For once, he knew exactly what to do. He began clearing the kelp off of the fist’s owner, and after a moment’s deliberation, Mert and Frances hauled out the unconscious stranger and began a trek that would end at the only place that made any sense.

 

A TRIP TO THE PUB

Of Seaside’s two pubs, Walden’s was by far the more popular. The food and drink were bland. The service, passable. The atmosphere, subdued. Only two things tarnished its otherwise sterling reputation. The first was the large picture window along the pub’s rear wall, which provided a spectacular, unimpeded view of the ocean, and was widely regarded as a terrible business decision. Its installation had caused quite a stir. Nominally, it was for the enjoyment of his guests. Secretly, though, Walden just wanted something nice to look at while he was working.

The pub’s other infamous feature was its location on the edge of town. This was viewed as some inconvenience by the pub’s stuffier patrons, which gave them plenty to complain about on the walk over. This sense of being slightly inconvenienced nourished their sense of self-importance and superiority. Said customers generally felt that they were doing Walden a favor by the time they actually arrived. Not one of them recognized the man’s sheer tactical brilliance.

The door to Walden’s crashed open, disgruntling the lunching patrons within. Two animated silhouettes shuffled and shoved their way through the portal, carrying the limp third member of their disruptive trio like a life-sized marionette. They also carried a powerful stench that completely ruined an otherwise unremarkable meal. Eventually, the kelp farmers cleared the obstacle and dragged their slack companion inside, laying him out on an unoccupied table.

A loose circle formed around Mert and Frances and their strange, unconscious counterpart. And to them, he was strange. Neither his skin tone nor the angles of his face were known in Seaside. His long hair extended well past his shoulders, black with a shock of white. He wore a white shirt with frilled cuffs and collar, now stained, and over this a vest of midnight blue, upon which unfamiliar shapes, swirls, and lines had been embroidered in gold. Similar sigils had been graven in his skin in black ink. His chest rose and fell slowly, body loose and relaxed as if he were merely taking an afternoon nap, all except for his right hand, which still clutched

 the medallion’s golden chain.

Walden pushed politely through the crowd, his face knotted in confusion and concern. “Mert? Frances? What’s all this?”

“Found a man on the beach,” Mert replied.

“Well, why have you brought him—”

“Ahem!” A man’s voice spoke from across the room. It was very familiar to everyone, inspiring sensations of anticipatory dread. His approaching footsteps were accompanied by the clomp of a heavy cane on the floorboards. The curtain of curious patrons parted before the owner of that voice. “I will ask the questions here, if you don’t mind.”

Horace Halderman looked like a boar standing on its hind legs. A portly gentleman, he wore a dark jacket and trousers, and walked with a cane simply because he liked the way it felt. His eyes were small and close together, his nose round and upturned, his cheeks jowly and plump. Further, his four front teeth on the bottom were missing, which made the neighboring canines look a bit like tusks. Horace was the shortest person in the pub, yet he still managed to look down on everyone. His voice was similarly lofty, the voice of a man used to getting his way, because he always did get his way. He couldn’t imagine it otherwise.

Horace strode forward to regard the interminable interlopers. “Now then,” he said, clearing his throat and folding his hands atop his cane. “Mert? Frances? What’s all this?”

“Found a man on the beach.”

“I can see that,” said Horace, his tone turning the final word into a knife. “Why have you brought him here?”

“Pub was closest,” said Mert. “He’s heavy.”

“I see. And did it never occur to you that other people might be at this establishment? That perhaps those other people might be enjoying a perfectly adequate lunch?” Walden’s heart beamed with pride. The phrase “perfectly adequate” was the highest compliment a Seasider could give.

“Knew there would be people,” Mert muttered.

“Is it possible,” Horace continued, “that two kelp farmers such as yourselves have had your nostrils so completely and utterly ravaged

 by the vileness of your occupation that you failed to account for your putrid, fetid, positively noxious scent? Hm?”

“Alright, Horace, I think he’s had enough,” said Walden. “Mert, where did he come from?”

“Dunno. Saw that in the kelp,” said Mert, pointing at the dangling medallion. “It’s shiny.”

“I told him not to go over there,” said Frances. “But oh no, he just had to follow in Great-Great-Granduncle Ferd’s footsteps and investigate!”

“Thought we should help him.” 

“Well there’s your problem,” said Horace. “You thought.”

“What’s done is done,” said Walden, seeking to put an end to Mert’s verbal thrashing.

“Quite.” Horace fixed Mert with one final, sharp glare. “Right then, let’s have a look at this fellow.” He proceeded to circumnavigate the stranger, poking and prodding, each new discovery leaving him more unsettled than the last.

He frowned gravely as he traced the patterns of golden silk embroidery…

…eyed with suspicion the shock of white hair… 

…audibly huffed at the man’s tattoos!

The murmuring crowd leaned in closer with each repulsed reaction. Slowly, carefully, Horace lifted the lacing of one frilled cuff, turning his head away as one expecting to see something nasty beneath. The offensive marks extended further up the man’s arm! Horace grimaced. The crowd gasped.

And then Horace reached the medallion.

“Hello there,” he said with an odd, gentle purr. He knelt to watch the talisman gently twist and turn as it hung in space.

“Wouldn’t touch that,” said Mert. “Lose your lunch if you do.”

“Nonsense!” said Horace. “It’s meant to be touched. Just look at it.” Horace understood very little about the world beyond Seaside, but he was a positive scholar when it came to matters of wealth. Not even the dim light of the pub could dull the medallion’s golden shine. Full of ignorant confidence, he lovingly reached for it. White-hot electricity surged through the air and knocked Horace flat on his back. He sat up, dumbfounded, a black circle of charred flesh smoking steadily betwixt his brows.

“Told you,” said Mert, with a touch of satisfaction.

Walden took the opportunity to reassert himself. “Mert, you can’t leave him here. It’s not good for business, you see. You should take him to Doctor Murphy’s.”

“That’s all the way up the hill,” Mert protested. “He’s heavy.”

“Alright then, your cottage is nearby. Why not take him there?”

“Oh no, not in my house!” said Frances. “He’s distracted us from our kelp for too long already. I’ll not have him filling my Mert’s head with any more ideas. Nope, not happening, not ever.”

“Well he has to go somewhere,” said Walden, meaning somewhere else. The assembled crowd clearly agreed. They began muttering suggestions as to just where that somewhere else should be.

“You should drag him out by the Queen’s Road.”

“Lay ‘im out to dry with your kelp, Mert.”

“Or leave him behind One Tree Hill!”

Horace’s imperious voice cut through the babble. “We should give him back to the waves.” 

The room went silent.

“Back to the waves?” said Mert. “You mean to the beach?”

“I meant what I said.” Horace climbed to his feet, resettling his jacket and mustering his dignity. “To the waves.”

“Surely you can’t be serious,” said Walden.

“Surely I am. Look at what he’s done to us already! Me burnt, Mert without his breakfast, and the whole lot of us arguing. I say he’s a nuisance. An ugly, stinking, dangerous, Unnecessary nuisance.”

This was a very serious injunction. Visitors to Seaside came in two categories: Necessary and Unnecessary. Necessaries either delivered things to the village or took them away to be delivered elsewhere. These folk were

grudgingly tolerated because they performed a vital function for the village. Unnecessaries, on the other hand, were those who arrived unannounced and with no purpose. They tended not to hang around very long.

Horace’s pronouncement was met with murmurs from the crowd.

“Tell me, if he causes this much trouble while asleep, how much worse when he wakes?”

The murmurs grew.

“It is too risky to let him stay any longer than he already has, much too risky. Mert, Frances, take him to the dock. We’ll stick him in a boat, row him out to sea, and return him from whence he came.” Walden opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by the spectators’ chorus of approval. The smug satisfaction on Horace’s face convinced him to keep quiet. After all, he had a business to run. “To the waves!” Horace said again, and this time the crowd took up the chant.

“To the waves! To the waves! To the waves!”

 

AN UNLIKELY HERO

Throughout all of this, one person had remained seated by the window, calmly sipping his pint and enjoying the view. As a rule, he kept out of village affairs. He was a young man, not yet twenty years old, but close, with ruffled and unkempt brown hair that was almost black. His clothes and demeanor exuded an air of near-poverty. Grievous sorrow never left his eyes.

As the chanting grew louder and more insistent, it became clear that he, along with everyone else in the room, was about to become a murderer. He had no interest in being a murderer. This act of contemptible cowardice had to be stopped. Damon Farrier drained his drink, got to his feet…

…and then he began to applaud.

This was not normal applause, the rapid, excited kind that follows a good show. No, this was slow and loud and brimming with derision. Heads turned. The chant faded as Damon approached. “Well done,” he said to them, raising his voice to be heard. “Bravo. What an impressive act of imagination. You’ve all taken this unconscious stranger and turned him into a rabid, slavering beast. I wouldn’t have thought you lot capable of such a feat, but here we are.”

“This does not concern you, boy,” said Horace. “Go on back to your window and your seascapes and your drink. How many pints have you had this morning, eh?”

Damon ignored the jab. “You’re wrong, Horace. I find this very concerning, all of you should! This man may be a stranger, but he is still a man. He needs our help. Yet you would have us throw his life away for the imagined crime of being an inconvenience. No, I won’t let you do it. I won’t allow it.”

The crowd fell silent. Horace’s face burned red. “Inconvenience… won’t allow…"

“Every single one of you has been in need at one time or another,” Damon continued, letting Horace flounder. “Mert, Frances, you had some difficult years during the Great Kelp Drought, didn’t you? But rather than let you starve, you were extended a generous line of credit down at Codwallader’s. Isn’t that right?”

“Yup,” Mert agreed.

“I’ll have you know we paid back every bit that was owed,” said Frances, looking indignant.

“I’m certain you did,” said Damon. “What about you, Walden? Remember when that storm ripped half the roof off of this place? Terribly inconvenient. But

we didn’t just sit back and watch you struggle. No, the whole village came out to help clean up and rebuild.”

“And to help empty every surviving cask of ale,” Walden put in, drawing hesitant chuckles from the crowd.

“That we did. We all know I’ve had my own troubles over the years—”

“Yes, you certainly have,” said Horace, composing himself. “And you’ve received your fair share of this village’s generosity, as well. More than your share, some might say, given how that generosity has been repaid.” He arched his eyebrow and fixed his haughty glare on the young man, a move that had wilted many an upstart. Damon met his gaze, unmoved. “My boy, if anyone in this room should be on my side of this, it should be you. Or have you forgotten what happened the last time an Unnecessary was allowed to remain in Seaside?”

A shocked gasp went up from the room. Heads were hung in embarrassed silence, feet restlessly shuffled. A few stout souls had the strength of character to shoot disapproving looks at Horace, but he was too busy looking simultaneously up and down at the young man, waiting for some response.

“I remember,” he said quietly. “I also remember you losing a number of teeth.”

Horace pointed his cane menacingly. “Why you insolent, impudent—”

But Damon was already on the move. He crossed the room and tucked his hands beneath the stranger’s armpits. “Mert, get his feet.”

Mert winced at the sound of his name, but did as he was told. The two of them hoisted the stranger off the table and toward the door. “Where we goin’?” he asked timidly.

“Anywhere but here.”

ONE FAMILY, TWO HOMES

Just as Damon and Mert were stepping out into the sunshine, Sophie was letting herself in to the masterpiece of calculated modesty that was her Aunt Elle’s house. As a Seasider, born and raised, Aunt Elle’s sensibilities would never allow her to admit her aspirations of wealth and status to anyone. Instead, she let her house speak on her behalf. Everything had been chosen for maximum practicality, from the plain wooden floors to the unadorned white walls, to the simple, functional furniture that was comfortable for no more than ten minutes at a stretch. ...