On Sails Dark as Night

Abstract

Two decades before the American Revolution, Zynora Blackrock and her adopted brothers run a privateering concern dedicated to helping slaves escape their bonds, a scheme devised by their mother, Oriah. Two years prior, Oriah disappeared, kidnapped by an unknown shadow organization. Zynora sets a trap with herself as bait. To spring the trap, Zynora provokes colonial Massachusetts with a mystical practice called obeah. To secure Zynora’s apparent powers, the cryptarchy reveal themselves. In doing so, they provide Zynora with the leverage to force her mother’s release.

On Sails Dark as Night explores what binds us as a global family. Zynora’s mother adopts two boys after destroying their parents in a fight for her own survival. Zynora and her brothers are linked by blood even as they lead vastly different lives - aristocrat, witch, slave, and pirate. Through multiple lenses, readers gain a more complete understanding of this formative period in global history.

A focus on the nature of truth and belief offers the reader a chance to experience a time without the scientific surety we have today. Zynora’s obeah is representative of the power of belief to heal or harm. She presents herself to the people of Massachusetts Bay, her own life a painted canvas of facts and fantasy. The colonials then have the same difficulty we do today, parsing truth from fiction. More importantly, the series suggests how a just society should act on this uncertainty.