A boy sits in the dark of a cavern stolen deep beneath the earth. It is quiet except for the sound of a subterranean lake lapping the rough stone walls. He holds in his hands a porcelain mask glowing with eldritch light, and stares into the voided eye sockets. He must choose between the purity of his heart and the darkness flitting at the edges of his soul.
It’s one of my favorite scenes from In Search of Sacha, a beautifully illustrated fantasy storybook by
, an artist whose portfolio includes a handful of popular Netflix series, movies, and novels.I first connected with Guzman a few months ago while searching for someone to create original artwork for an episode of the Contra podcast that I recorded with Jonathan Maberry, the editor of Weird Tales and a prolific novelist. I asked Guzman to create something inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn character. The result was a proper homage to the saturnine Pictish king.
But Guzman is more than a supremely talented illustrator. He also weaves a good yarn. I think I mentioned to him in passing how it can sometimes be difficult to find high-quality children’s books that are fully illustrated. He recommended his own 80-page fairy tale. My kids liked it so much that they held still long enough to read it from cover to cover in one sitting.
The story of In Search of Sacha follows a mother and father, Elysia and Amar, who are on a quest to find their boy. It opens with the pair streaking across the dense canopy of a dark forest, weightlessly bounding from tree to tree, soaring over rivers and racing down mountains, like the bamboo forest scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Nature stirs and submits in their awesome wake.
Throughout their adventure, Amar and Elysia draw strength from their love. That bond allows the couple to overcome the monsters standing between them and Sacha as they flutter through the woods in robes of white and silver.
Sacha, who is named after one of Guzman’s sons, wanders brokenhearted, wounded by a girl who could not love herself and pushed him away. In one sense, this is a story about parents dealing with the heartache of a child struggling with unrequited affection. That first big letdown, when it seems like the sky is falling and feels like the sun might not rise again, or it wouldn’t matter if it did.
But Guzman is doing more here with the sinister character of Lady Ravine, a wicked enchantress and siren. “Her presence manifests when despondent souls indulge in self-sabotage.”
Lady Ravine’s song is especially alluring to the young and lost and brokenhearted, for they are the ones most vulnerable to “romantic and poetic despair.” Cupidity is like a flame that threatens to consume. Sacha’s “flame does not burn, but it purifies,” though that will change if he gives himself over to self-loathing, which does burn until there is nothing left.
It is much easier to hold on to something that hurts us than to let it go because, even though the burden of recollection inflicts suffering, that pain becomes like a companion. Find new ways to dress the wound with vice so that it won’t heal because it is better to be haunted by the shadow of love than to release it and be forgotten.
Sacha is faced in the final scenes with the choice of saving himself or surrendering to the darkness as his parents rush to rescue him from the Mistress of Death. But it is a choice he must ultimately make alone, and he draws strength from the love and example set by Elysia and Amar. It is a touching tale of how the light—or dark—in us is reflected in our children.
In Search of Sacha is available on Amazon and Guzman’s website, where you can also find a copy of his art book, showcasing a collection of fantasy and sci-fi paintings.