The Boy and the Ruler of 72 Islands

Amra never chose to leave. One second he's standing in the stone corridor of an old fortress in the rain. The next, he's washed up on a strange dock, soaked in seawater, surrounded by people speaking a language he's never heard, staring up at twin mountains that breathe smoke into the sky. In his hand is an old wooden compass he's never owned before, its needle pointing straight at the mountain like it already knows where he needs to go. Captured by soldiers of the Sultanate of Gapi and dragged before its ruler, Amra quickly learns the compass isn't just an antique. It's the key to Goheba, a two-headed bird that watches both the past and the future, a creature feared and revered across the entire palace. But there's no time to figure any of it out. Six black armored warships breach the strait, closing in on the mountain's northern slope, and a war that's been building for generations finally breaks loose. Caught between a kingdom fighting to protect its 72 islands and a compass that seems to have plans of its own, Amra starts to realize the way home isn't behind him. It's buried somewhere inside the war he never asked to be part of.