Synopsis: Dust Jacket: A tale dealing with witchcraft and elves in a way that is oddly credible and never self-consciously quaint; a story of pirates and violence and storm at sea; a legend that is also the story of a boy and his dog. Maria Hallett was a girl of fifteen when her father brought home the chest from the captured Spanish galleon. All the treasure it held was a few old, yellow-leaved books, but in them Maria found the spells that showed her how to call up strange elemental powers. When Bellamy, her sailor-lover, wanted a ship, she used her knowledge to get him one -- even though she had to pledge her soul to do it. For ten years she lived alone on a secret island, seeing only the wild creatures of the marsh. And then, at last, on the night of the great storm, came the chance to redeem her soul.