title: Swept Up By the Sea: A Romantic Fairy Tale
author: Tracy Hickman
description: Tracy and Laura Hickman have been collaborating on fantastic works of fiction since their marriage in 1977. Together, Tracy and Laura have written role-playing games, screenplays, and works of fiction, including their first co-authored novel in 2004. Tracy is a New York Times bestselling fantasy author who has published more than forty novels, many of them co-authored with Margaret Weis. Tracy and Laura are the parents of four children and live in Utah.
zlib_text: # ALSO BY  
  SANDRINE COLLETTE
  
  
  _Nothing but Dust_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # **JUST AFTER  
  THE WAVE**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _To Anne-Marie,  
    
  Fairies do exist.  
  I know one._
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## PROLOGUE
  
  
  Louie bent down to pick up the little wet thing the sea had brought to the
  shore. It lay there motionless, scarcely touched by the water, inching forward
  onto the earth. It was a blue tit, one of those they’d been trying to protect,
  before, because they were becoming rare. He picked it up and handed it to his
  father.
  
  
  “Here, Pata. Another one.”
  
  
  His father nodded and held it close. The others looked on in silence. They
  would go and bury it later, in the place where they had put the dead birds.
  This was number one hundred and thirty-four: Louie knew the tally by heart.
  
  
  And like the others, he went back to staring at the raging sea.
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  They were like drowned kittens in the rain, clinging to each other with their
  stunned gazes, their eyes blinking in the gusting wind and the warm downpours.
  That was t