Sea of Charms

Sarah Beth Durst's novel is set in a fantasy archipelago called the Crescent Islands, where an emperor's hoarding and restriction of magic have fueled growing political unrest.

Marin, a solo supply runner with silvery skin, sails her enchanted sailboat Silver through the islands, making deliveries and repaying a family debt tied to the finances of a sorcerer named Yvex. Two years before the main story begins, Marin's manipulative ex-fiancé Iovar Revinok secretly tried to sabotage her family's shipping business because he did not want his wife to sail. While navigating a narrow, cliff-lined passage called the Painted Pass, Marin discovers a sea serpent trapped between jagged rocks. She leaps from her boat to free him, and the grateful creature propels Silver to safety on a swell of water before refusing to leave. She names him Perri, and he becomes her constant companion.

Two years later, Marin sails into the imperial capital of Alyssium to deliver a rare musical instrument called a mayharp to the Music Conservatory. There she reconnects with Dax, a young master composer with purple hair and crystalline horns who has never left the city since arriving as a four-year-old child prodigy. The conservatory's grandmasters have withheld news of the growing unrest from Dax, and the city feels eerily quiet. At the Great Library, the head librarian Rijes Velk reveals that a revolution has begun and the emperor was thrown from a window that morning. Rijes asks Marin to transport a wooden statue to the remote island of Belde, along with a sealed letter for the island's reclusive gardener, Yarrow Verdane. The statue is actually a librarian named Terlu Perna, who was transformed into wood as punishment for creating a sentient plant companion using unauthorized magic. Below deck, Marin opens the letter and discovers it contains a spell to reverse Terlu's transformation. She resolves to deliver the statue without further involvement.

After dropping the statue at Belde and visiting her parents on her home island of Flicker, known for its winged cats, Marin returns weeks later to find Terlu alive and well. A sentient wax myrtle shrub named Ree, created by Belde's late sorcerer Laiken, pleads to join Marin's crew. His lifelong dream is to be a sailor, and his earnest longing for the sea moves Marin to relent. She also agrees to deliver a letter from Yarrow to his family in Alyssium.

Returning to Alyssium, Marin finds the city ablaze and the Great Library burning. Perri propels the boat to the conservatory tunnel, and Marin persuades Dax and 14 musicians to board Silver and flee. Once safe, Dax's friends confess they were ordered to lie to him about the revolution to keep him focused on composing. Feeling betrayed and eager to see the world, Dax asks to join Marin's crew. She agrees, proposing a deal: He will pretend to be her fiancé at Flicker's upcoming End-of-Harvest Festival to deflect gossip about Iovar, and in return he can sail with her.

As they sail together, Marin teaches Dax and Ree to swim, and the crew takes on delivery jobs. Marin suppresses her growing attraction to Dax, having sworn off romantic entanglements after Iovar's betrayal. At the festival on Flicker, Iovar confronts Marin: Now head of the island's Merchant Bank, he has taken over management of Yvex's finances and compressed the remaining debt into a single lump payment due two weeks after the winter solstice. Dax laughs in Iovar's face, calling Marin "a symphony" and declaring that Iovar never knew how to make her happy.

Back on Belde, Terlu offers Marin a heartsinger ruby, an extraordinarily valuable gem, in exchange for finding Rijes and confirming she is safe. Marin realizes the ruby could pay off the entire accelerated debt and sets sail for Alyssium. Halfway there, a magic storm caused by years of the emperor hoarding magic sends lightning coalescing into a massive kraken shape that lifts the boat into the air. Marin loses consciousness and wakes on an unfamiliar beach, where Dax explains he untied them from the capsized boat and silverbacked turtles carried them to shore. Overwhelmed with relief, Marin kisses Dax for the first time. Perri returns carrying Ree, whom he saved by holding the shrub in his mouth while diving deep.

Dax identifies the island as Picina, far northwest of Alyssium. Days later, Perri locates Silver on Ilreka, a neighboring island home to dragons. The boat sits beached on a mountainside with a golden queen dragon named Keva coiled around it. Following Marin's advice to play something he truly loves, Dax serenades Keva with a love song, and the dragon gently places the boat on the water. The grateful village repairs Silver at no cost. Despite their growing closeness, Marin rejects a deeper relationship with Dax, telling him she cannot risk being hurt again.

Sailing from Ilreka, Dax proposes they form a traveling musical troupe to earn money performing in harbors. When they encounter a pod of sea serpents, Perri races to join them and swims away. Marin is devastated but refuses to pursue him, insisting it must be his choice. Days later, Perri reappears on the island of Caltrey, having chosen to return to his crew.

In Alyssium, Marin learns Rijes is alive but held in bureaucratic limbo by the provisional government. Dax obtains an introduction letter from Grandmaster Vorac at the conservatory that gets them into the facility where Rijes is being held. Rijes explains she scattered the library's books among fleeing librarians and refuses to recall them, believing books belong with the people. Marin sacrifices the heartsinger ruby to secure Rijes's release, knowingly giving up her means of paying the debt.

Dax tells Marin he must return to the conservatory to perform his opus at the winter solstice celebration and insists she come back to hear it. Marin sails for Belde with Rijes, Ree, Perri, and a refugee family, informing Terlu that the law against unauthorized magic has been repealed. Rijes accepts a new home on Belde.

Marin initially refuses to return to Alyssium, believing Dax belongs at the conservatory and that attending would only deepen her heartbreak. At Belde's Winter Feast, she walks into the greenhouse and hears the sentient plants singing in harmony. The simple thought "Dax would love this" breaks through her resistance, and she sails for Alyssium.

At the concert hall, Dax performs his opus, The Charms of the Sea. It opens with Ree singing his simple song about the sea, layered with choral harmony and Perri's trumpeting from a canal-side window. The wordless music tells the story of their journey together. The hall erupts in applause. Afterward, Dax meets Marin at the dock and offers her gems earned from selling performance rights, enough to cover the debt. Marin refuses to let him buy his way onto her crew. Instead, she proposes he purchase half of Silver and become her equal partner, in business and in life. She tells him she loves him. Dax says yes.

They sail to Flicker, march into the Merchant Bank, and repay the full debt in front of witnesses. Marin says a simple goodbye to Iovar and walks out. Three months later, the crew discovers the legendary singing waterfalls, sailing on together as partners across the Crescent Islands and heading for islands that float in the sky.