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Authors: William Alexander

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BOOK: Ghoulish Song (9781442427310)
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He waved. Kaile waved back.

“She's got a shadow,” the Snotfish pointed out. “She's got her shadow back.”

People began to steal sideways looks at Kaile, and the floor at her feet.

Luce opened her lute case and tuned up her instrument.

Bombasta cleared her throat with a scornful sound.

“This is Kaile's nameday,” the singer announced, and made it true by saying it aloud.

She sang. Luce played. The music had much the same shape and movement as a funerary song, but used here to say hello rather than good-bye.

Other voices started to pick up the song. Other patrons joined in. The four domini players sang with reedy voices. The Snotfish sang, loud and out of tune. Father stood in the kitchen doorway and sang.

Mother looked up from behind the counter. She looked at Kaile. She looked directly at Kaile with guarded hope. She let her own voice join the music—even though she almost never sang anything.

Everyone in the room gave voice to a song of hello and of welcoming home.

Kaile stood with her shadow and listened.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my childhood music teachers, for their patience (I wasn't much of a musician). Thanks to Ivan, Nathan, Melon, and Jon, for their great love of song and karaoke. Thanks to my writing group, Symbolical Head, for their surgical workshopping skills; to Joe and Barry, for all their advice; and to Karen and Emily, for their editorial wisdom. Thanks to Zoe Keating, for the music I used as my writing soundtrack.

is the author of
Goblin Secrets
, which
Kirkus Reviews
called “both gripping and tantalizing” in a starred review. He studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College and English at the University of Vermont, and currently lives, writes, and teaches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His short stories have been published in many magazines and anthologies, including
Weird Tales
,
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
,
Interfictions 2
, and
Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition
. Visit him at
willalex.net
.

THE MAGIC
CONTINUES
IN
GOBLIN
SECRETS

Jacket illustration copyright © 2013 by Erwin Madrid

Margaret K. McElderry Books

Simon & Schuster, New York

Meet the author,
watch videos, and get extras at

Also by William Alexander

Goblin Secrets

MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by William Alexander

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

M
ARGARET
K. M
C
E
LDERRY
B
ooks
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at
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.

The text for this book is set in Adobe Caslon.

0213 FFG

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Alexander, William (William Joseph), 1976–

Ghoulish song / William Alexander. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: When the music of a bone flute given to her by a goblin separates Kaile's shadow from herself, her family believes she has died and become a ghoul, and Kaile must set out to prove that she still lives.

ISBN 978-1-4424-2729-7 — ISBN 978-1-4424-2731-0 (eBook)

[1. Fantasy. 2. Shadows—Fiction. 3. Music—Fiction. 4. Magic—Fiction. 5. Goblins—Fiction. 6. Death—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.A3787Gho 2013

[Fic]—dc23

2012009887

BOOK: Ghoulish Song (9781442427310)
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