Freeglader (44 page)
‘He was found by banderbears, looked after – and then discovered by Varis Lodd, who brought him to old Undertown, where he grew up in the sewers … He was … is …’ the youth said hesitantly.
‘You,’ said the old Mire Pirate. ‘Rook Barkwater!’
‘And you, you are my great-uncle Tem!’ said Rook, amazed. ‘I dreamed it. I dreamed it all in the caterbird cocoon!’
The Mire Pirate nodded, his eyes full of sorrow and love, joy and loss. ‘But there's one thing you won't have dreamed, I'll be bound,’ he said.
‘And what's that?’ asked Rook.
‘This,’ said Tem Barkwater, fishing in his pocket and handing Rook a small, round object. ‘I took it from your mother's dead hand,’ he said, his eyes misting over, ‘and I've kept it all these years. It was given to her by her father, who was given it by
his
father. It's yours now.’
Rook looked at the object in his hand. It was a small disc of ancient lufwood, decorated with a miniature painting of a youth staring back at him with a gaze that seemed eerily familiar. He frowned. It was the face he'd seen in the mural on the wall of the Sunken Palace of old Undertown; the face he'd seen in the caterbird cocoon dream.
A young knight academic in old-fashioned armour, with deep indigo eyes and a smile on his face. Behind him was the painted skyline of old Sanctaphrax, the lost floating city, worn, but still recognizable, with the Loftus Observatory at one of his shoulders and the twin towers of the School of Mist at the other.
Tem Barkwater smiled. ‘It's your great-grandfather, Rook, lad,’ he said, and placed a hand on his grand-nephew's shoulder.
Rook gazed at the portrait of the youth staring back at him.
‘Your great-grandfather,’ he repeated quietly. ‘Cloud Wolf.’
A DAVID FICKLING BOOK
Published by David Fickling Books an imprint of Random House Children's Books a division of Random House, Inc. New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text and illustrations copyright © 2004 by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
All rights reserved.
Originally published in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, in 2004.
DAVID FICKLING BOOKS and colophon are trademarks of David Fickling.
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stewart, Paul
Freeglader / Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell. — 1st American ed.
p. cm. — (The edge chronicles; #7)
Orginally published: Great Britain: Doubleday, 2004.
SUMMARY: Fleeing from the ruins of New Undertown, Rook Barkwater and the librarian knights and Felix Lodd and his banderbear friends must lead the escaping population to a new life in the Free Glades.
eISBN: 978-0-307-52276-4
[1. Fantasy.] I. Riddell, Chris. II. Title.
PZ7.S84975Free 2006
[Fic]—dc22
2005018483
v3.0
