The Kingdom - Clare B Dunkle - Hollow Kingdom 01 - The Hollow Kingdom Страница 27

“I do hate your hair,” sniffed Kate indignantly. But then she remembered all the times she had seen him looking at her through those pale wisps or jerking out the ribbon and running his hands through the wild mane as he thought. “Oh, well,” she said with a tired giggle. “I suppose it made an impression.”

“Just look at him,” insisted her husband joyfully, setting their son down on the bed beside her. “What a stunning boy he is, every inch a goblin King! What could you possibly be crying about?”

“But, Marak,” Kate protested, “he has a paw!” She looked at it dubiously. She was somewhat calmer now that the shock was wearing off, but she still wasn’t happy about it.

“And do you remember the last goblin King who had that paw?” demanded Marak. “Lionclaw, the greatest of all the Kings. Marak Lionclaw led the goblins to this kingdom and ended the migration. He was the greatest magician the goblins have ever had. The records say that he was the one who enchanted Hollow Lake to hold up the water. Just imagine,” he exclaimed, “what magic he’ll work with that right hand!” And as his tired wife wiped her eyes on her blanket, Marak played with the little paw, pressing it gently to make the sharp claws extend.

“Look, Kate!” he hooted. “It’s just like a cat’s paw!” And Catspaw was the son’s name from that moment until the day he became Marak in his father’s place.

Publication Info

Special thanks to my editor, Reka Simonsen,

for her keen interest in developing good fantasy for children

and for all her hard work on this book.

Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Publishers since 1866

115 West 18th Street

New York, New York 10011

www.henryholt.com

Henry Holt is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Copyright © 2003 by Clare B. Dunkle

All rights reserved.

Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dunkle, Clare B.

The hollow kingdom / Clare B. Dunkle.

p.  cm.

Summary: In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and

King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two orphan girls recently

arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to be his bride and queen.

[1. Goblins—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Sisters—Fiction.

4. Orphans—Fiction. 5. Coventry (England)—History—

19th century—Fiction. 6. Great Britain—History—19th century—

Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.D92115Hol 2003  [Fic]—dc21  2002038899

ISBN 0-8050-7390-6

First Edition—2003

Book designed by Amy Manzo Toth

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. ∞

1  3  5  7  9  10  8  6  4  2

Front Flap

She had never screamed before,

not even when she overturned the

rowboat and almost drowned.

But now she screamed, long

and loud, with all her breath.

Hallow Hill has a strange and tragic

history. For thousands of years, young

women have been vanishing from the

estate, never to be seen again. Now Kate

and Emily have come to live at Hallow

Hill. Brought up in a civilized age, they

have no idea of the land’s dreadful

heritage. Until, that is, Marak decides

to tell them himself.

Intelligent, pleasant, and completely

pitiless, Marak is a powerful magician

who claims to be a King—and he has

very specific plans for the two new girls

who have trespassed into his kingdom.

Rear Flap

Clare Buckalew Dunkle

grew up in north Texas, where her

favorite activity was living inside other

people’s stories. She worked for years as

a librarian and still thinks of the library

as home. She wrote this book as a series

of letters to her two teenage daughters,

Valerie and Elena, who attend a

German boarding school. They remain

her biggest fans and harshest critics.

The author lives in Germany with her

husband Joe, a black cat who plays

fetch, and a very beautiful Dalmatian

with unmatched eyes.

Jacket art © 2003 by Megan Lightell Timmons

Jacket design by Amy Manzo Toth

Version Info

v 1.0 HTML

Scanned and proofed 2010-08-19