The Cartographer

By Samuel A Mayo

A mute girl is lost and plagued by strange visions. A soldier awakens with no memory, but must protect the girl at any cost. Together they may just survive and uncover the mystery behind the ruined city and the strange events that follow them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Tapestry Press
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393131274

Samuel A Mayo

Sam Mayo was born the day after Christmas in 1982. He currently lives in the Midwest with his family and their weird pets. He writes stories of adventure that mix science fiction and fantasy.

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Copyright © 2020 by Samuel A. Mayo.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

Dark Tapestry Press

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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com

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Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.

The Cartographer / Samuel A. Mayo.—1st ed.

This short story originally appeared in the short story anthology,

Moments in Millennia by Xchyler Publishing.

For Michelle

About the Author

Sam began creating stories at a young age. In high school, he wrote a few short pieces (they were terrible). In college, he wrote several more short pieces (also terrible). In 2008, he finished a draft of the fantasy-adventure novel, The Thief and Red Mandolin (not as terrible). He self-published it in 2009. He has written a few more books and several short stories, some of which have been published in anthologies.

Sam splits his time between writing, working in a cubicle, and Tae Kwon Do. He also occasionally contributes articles to CarboardCarnage.com.

When time allows, he enjoys playing video and tabletop games and hanging out with his awesome wife and daughter. They live in the American Midwest with their overweight cat and overly-sensitive dog.

Life is good.

FOR INFORMATION ON other works by the

author, please visit him online at samuelmayo.com.

The Cartographer

The rumble of the aether drive engaging punctuated the still air aboard the Cartographers’ Guild ship and woke me up. I should have been used the sound by then, but it always bothered me. It meant that I would have to go to work. Don’t take that for laziness; I could plow through a day with the best of them. It was the type of work it heralded that I didn’t like.

Other people came to the Guild, not the other way around. Merchants, diplomats, generals, kings. It didn’t matter who they were. Even basic supplies and materials arrived via regular trade shipments. So, if the Masters felt convinced that an incident required travel through the aether stream, something big was going down. Big did not begin to cover it. Galactic might come close.

I tossed back the blanket, swung my legs around and sat up in my bunk. My head began to swim while my stomach did a backflip. I had to swallow hard to keep from heaving. Twenty-three years aboard the ship had done nothing to help my spatial orientation. I eventually belched and felt better.

A freckled face surrounded by a mass of tangled red hair appeared from the bunk below and looked up at me with amusement.

Again? it said. Dirt lubber forever, eh?

Shut up, Burke, I said and kicked down at him. He narrowly dodged it.

He laughed and yanked