The Tree of Story Read online

  Copyright © 2013 Thomas Wharton

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.

  Doubleday Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Wharton, Thomas, 1963-, author

  The tree of story / Thomas Wharton.

  (The perilous realm)

  eISBN: 978-0-385-68083-7

  I. Title. II. Series: Wharton, Thomas, 1963-. Perilous realm series.

  PS8635.I249T74 2013 jC813′.54 C2013-903072-7

  C2013-903073-5

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Jacket illustration © 2013 Jin Jian Xu

  Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada,

  a division of Random House of Canada Limited,

  a Penguin Random House Company

  www.randomhouse.ca

  v3.1

  For Mary

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Cast of Characters

  Previously in The Perilous Realm series

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue

  Glossary of Terms

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Magic and story … they’re really the same thing.

  —Nicholas Pendrake, Loremaster

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  WILL LIGHTFOOT

  A boy from our world whom some in Fable call the Pathfinder.

  ROWEN OF BLUE HILL

  A girl from Fable, raised by her grandfather, the loremaster Nicholas Pendrake, after the death of her parents at the hands of the Nightbane. She has a powerful gift of storysight.

  SHADE

  Will’s wolf friend, given the power of speech by the Stewards. Once their loyal companion in the war against the Night King.

  MALABRON (also called the Night King, the Storyeater, the Master of Fetches, the Deliverer)

  The lord of the Shadow Realm. The great enemy of all free folk, Malabron wants to devour all stories so that only his own remains.

  FINN MADOC

  A young knight of the Errantry who has been searching for his outlawed brother, Corr.

  BALOR GRUFF

  A wildman found as a baby by knights of the Errantry and raised to become one of their greatest scouts and trackers. Over seven feet tall and immensely powerful, Balor has taken Will Lightfoot as his knight-apprentice.

  AMMON BRAX

  The archmage of the island of Kyning Rore and a former student of Nicholas Pendrake. Brax seeks the hidden power that he suspects Pendrake of concealing.

  CORR MADOC (also called the Sky Lord)

  The master of a fleet of flying ships. Outlawed by the Errantry for a murder he committed years ago, Corr leads his Stormriders in an endless battle against the Nightbane for possession of the powerful ore known as the gaal.

  FREYA RAGNARSDAUGHTER

  A young woman from the city of Skald. A friend of Nicholas Pendrake’s, she brought a warning for him from the dragon Whitewing Stonegrinder about the enemy host marching on Fable.

  DOCTOR ALAZAR

  A healer of the Errantry and the former physician to the King of the Sunlands. Alazar is a good friend of Balor Gruff’s.

  LORD CALIBURN

  Marshal of the Errantry in Fable.

  THE MARROWBONE BROTHERS

  Two vicious, overly talkative trolls of a kind known as hogmen. Driven from Skald by Pendrake, the Marrowbone brothers were brought to Fable by Freya Ragnarsdaughter as prisoners.

  MORRIGAN

  A young woman of the Tain Shee. Once enchanted to the form of a raven by Malabron’s dreaded servant, the Angel, but saved by her brother, Moth.

  THE FAIR FOLK (also known as the Tain Shee or simply the Shee)

  A wandering, elusive people driven from their home in the first war against Malabron. They are his greatest enemies.

  GRATH

  One of Corr Madoc’s lieutenants. Grath is an exile from his people, the mordog, most of whom serve Malabron and call him the Deliverer.

  CAPTAIN EMRIC THORNE

  Captain of the Guard in Fable.

  EDWETH LITTLE

  Nicholas Pendrake’s housekeeper, she has cared for Rowen since she was a small child.

  MIMLING HAMMERSONG

  A dwarf from Stonesthrow Mine. Once a fighter-for-hire on many quests, this friend of Rowen’s longs to return to his former life as a miner of precious gems.

  MAYA PENDRAKE

  Nicholas Pendrake’s wife and Rowen’s grandmother. Maya disappeared years ago into the Weaving, where Rowen recently found her.

  RIDDLE

  A shape-shifting being who most often takes feline form. Riddle is a servant of Rowen’s grandmother, Maya.

  THE STEWARDS (also known as the First Ones)

  Beings of power and wisdom who wove the Perilous Realm’s first stories in ages past. The Stewards vanished after the first war against Malabron.

  IN THE FIRST BOOK, The Shadow of Malabron …

  Will Lightfoot, a boy from our world, ran away from his family and stumbled into the Perilous Realm, the world of Story. There he was stalked by terrifying specters called fetches, but was rescued by Rowen, a girl from the city of Fable. Her grandfather, Nicholas Pendrake, a toymaker and master of lore, feared that Will was being hunted by Malabron, the Night King, who wished to destroy all stories but his own. At the library of Fable, Will accidentally awoke Shade, a talking wolf who became Will’s protector and loyal friend. Determined to find a way home before Malabron’s dread servant, the Angel, tracked him down, Will set out from Fable with Rowen, Pendrake, and Shade, as well as Finn Madoc, a young knight in training, and Moth, a mysterious archer whose companion was a raven named Morrigan. With his new friends, Will travelled far and faced many dangers before he finally found the way back to his own world. In the end, however, it was revealed that the Angel had been sent to capture not Will but Rowen, who discovered she had hidden powers of her own, and a destiny greater than she had ever imagined …

  IN THE SECOND BOOK, The Fathomless Fire …

  Fearing that Rowen is still being hunted by Malabron, the Night King, Will Lightfoot returns to the Perilous Realm, only to discover that during his absence his adventures have become legend and he is hailed as a hero. No sooner is Will back in the city of Fable when he must set off in search of Shade, his wolf friend, who has gone missing.
Will is accompanied on his search by Finn Madoc and Balor Gruff, knights of the Errantry, and the healer Doctor Alazar. They find Shade far in the north, but are taken captive by the Sky Lord and his Stormriders. The Sky Lord turns out to be Finn’s outlawed brother Corr Madoc, waging an endless war against the Nightbane for control of a vast lode of the coveted ore known as gaal. While Will and his friends are detained in Corr’s fortress, the Nightbane unleash an unstoppable army of spirits known as fetches, encased in gaal armour. Will is certain the fetch host’s purpose is to destroy Fable. Corr Madoc eventually lets Will and Shade go free to warn the Errantry of the approaching threat.

  In the meantime, Rowen has a dangerous journey of her own to make. In order to test her gifts as a loremaster, Rowen’s grandfather Nicholas Pendrake brings her to the secret “inner realm” known as the Weaving, from which she must find her way back alone. Rowen succeeds, but soon afterward she is attacked by a creature of Malabron known as a thrawl. In defending his granddaughter Pendrake is carried off to the Shadow Realm in her place. To make matters worse, his toyshop is taken over by the mage Ammon Brax who is after the Loremaster’s secrets. To elude Brax, Rowen escapes into the Weaving with the shapeshifting creature Riddle. There she meets her grandmother, Maya, who had vanished years before. Maya gives Rowen a mysterious ball of golden thread to help her in the coming struggle against Malabron.

  With the help of the ice dragon, Whitewing Stonegrinder, Rowen seeks out Will and Shade. Together they set out to free Pendrake from the Shadow Realm, while the Night King’s forces close in around Fable and its defenders prepare to fight the final battle for the freedom of the Perilous Realm …

  THE YOUNG MAN HAD been walking since sunrise. The day was cold and overcast, and he was hungry. He had met few other travellers on the road, and not for the first time he wondered where his weary steps were taking him. If anywhere at all, he thought. On days like this he felt far older than his twenty-one years.

  He came around a bend and there ahead, pulled off to the side of the road, stood an old red stake truck. All sorts of things were piled on the back of it and tied together with rope: pots and pans, cloth bundles, stacked chairs and crates. Nearby, a woman sat in front of a small fire, stirring something in a pot over the flames. A much older woman sat beside her muttering, her face as pinched and sour as a withered crabapple. A girl of fourteen or fifteen stood in the middle of the road with her arms wrapped around herself, looking off into the distance. Two young children, a boy and a girl, were perched on an overturned wooden crate, watching the woman cooking at the fire.

  The truck’s hood was up and a man was hunched under it, his face hidden.

  The young man stopped near the truck. He nodded to the woman at the fire and smiled at the little boy and girl, who stared at him without expression. He addressed the man working under the hood.

  “Can I help?” he asked.

  The man glanced up, a scowl on his grease-smeared face.

  “You carrying a spare engine?”

  “Not today,” the young man said.

  “Then no, you can’t help,” the man said, and went back to his work.

  “Do you have anything to eat?” the little boy asked.

  The young man shook his head and the boy’s gaze moved past him as if he were no longer there. The girl standing in the road gave him a brief unwelcoming glance and turned her back.

  “I do have something with me that might be useful,” the young man said.

  “What is it?” the little girl asked.

  “Stories.”

  “Stories,” the old woman grumbled, pulling her shawl tighter around her. “A story won’t fix a busted motor or fill an empty belly.”

  “No, but a good one will carry you for a while,” the young man said. “And some stories you end up chewing over for a long time.”

  “No one here needs any fairy tales,” the man said without looking up from his work. “It’s a hard world and people can’t be trusted and that’s the end of it. You might as well keep going, boy.”

  “I know a story about that,” the young man said. “About a boy who kept going when he should’ve stopped. He ran away from home and got into a lot of trouble. But since you’re sure you don’t need any stories, I should be on my way.”

  “What happened to him?” the little boy asked.

  “Tell us,” the little girl demanded.

  “Well, I would, but …”

  He glanced at the woman by the fire. She eyed the children thoughtfully, then faced the young man.

  “Go ahead,” she said. “But we’ve got nothing for you in return. Just so you know.”

  The young man nodded, then gestured to an overturned wooden bucket. The woman shrugged. The young man slipped off his heavy pack, sat down on the bucket and began.

  He told them about a boy who stole his father’s motorcycle and crashed it. When he woke up, the boy found himself in a strange world that was like no place he had ever been before and yet was somehow familiar, like a place he had read about once in a book. The boy couldn’t find how to get home, but what was worse, things were after him. Ghostly things that could take the shapes of people he knew in order to trick him.

  The young man paused.

  “This one’s a pretty long story, come to think of it,” he said. “Are you sure you want to hear the rest of it?”

  “Yes,” the little boy and girl said together.

  No one else objected, so the young man continued. He told them how the boy was rescued from the ghostly things by a brave and clever girl, and how the two of them became good friends. The girl and her grandfather agreed to help the boy find a way home.

  As the story went on, the young man saw that the older girl had moved a bit closer and was listening while pretending not to. Even the man lifted his head from time to time as he worked.

  The young man told how the boy and his friends travelled great distances and had many exciting adventures. They crossed a deep dark forest and were nearly lost forever in a treacherous bog of forgetfulness. They battled monsters, met a dragon of ice and were hunted every step of the way by a being of ancient malice.

  At last, when all seemed lost, the boy did discover the way home.

  “It seemed that he’d found a happy ending,” the young man said. “And yet …” He looked off into the distance.

  “That’s not the end,” the little boy said. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

  “There has to be,” the little girl said.

  The young man nodded. “That’s just how the boy felt after he got home,” he said. “He knew the girl was still in danger. He couldn’t forget her.” He considered the woman by the fire, still stirring whatever was in the pot. “But I’m sure I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

  “You could go on a little longer,” the old woman said, her face not quite so pinched and sour. “Since you’ve got this far.”

  “Tell us some more,” the little girl pleaded.

  “I’m at your service,” said the young man. “Though … it would be a tremendous help if I could wet my throat. That is, if you have anything you might spare.”

  The woman at the fire glanced at the man, then she ladled out some of what was in the pot into a small bowl. The young man sipped the watery but warm broth and smacked his lips.

  “That hits the spot, thank you.” He handed back the bowl, took a deep breath and began again.

  He told them how the boy returned to that other world, and how he found that much had changed for the worse in the short time he’d been gone. The boy had to make another dangerous journey to rescue his friend the talking wolf and the girl was forced to go on a journey of her own, to a place even stranger than the world she came from. After many adventures the boy, the girl and the wolf were reunited, but then a greater and more terrible task awaited them.

  While the young man was speaking, the woman had fed the fire with a bundle of sticks and now she brought out a small sack full of turnips, carrots and cabbage, which she and
the older girl began to slice up and drop into the pot. A savoury aroma soon rose with the steam. The old woman sighed, dug into the bag at her feet and produced a small round loaf of bread. She tore off a thick white chunk for the children to share. The man wiped his hands on a rag and went to the back of the truck, where he unstopped a small cask of cider and poured himself a mugful. He was about to bring it to his lips when he paused, frowned and handed the mug to the young man.

  They all watched the young man lift the mug and take a long, deep drink. Then he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and gave a satisfied sigh.

  “Well, I won’t keep you from your dinner,” he said. “Thank you for your hospitality and for listening.”

  “But you didn’t finish it,” the little girl protested. “There’s got to be more.”

  “She’s right,” the older girl said. “You have to finish it.”

  “I want to hear more about knights and dragons,” the little boy said.

  “Go on, lad,” the man said. “Finish it. There’ll be no peace until you do.”

  “Well, I’ll tell as much of the rest of it as I know. I was only there for some of it, you see.”

  “You were there,” the older girl said doubtfully.

  “Were you the hero?” the little boy asked.

  “I was there, but no, I wasn’t the hero. There were heroes. Some of them were my friends. They were very brave and did great deeds that will never be forgotten as long as tales are told. Some sacrificed everything for others, even their lives. I’ll need some time to tell the rest of it, but if you like what you hear, I would ask only to share a little of your meal and the warmth of your fire. However, before I start I should warn you—the story hasn’t quite ended yet. The truth is, you and I—all of us—are in this story, too, and it’s still going on, right here and now.”

  “Never mind that,” the old woman snapped. “Just get on with it.”

  The young man nodded but did not begin right away. His gaze went to the road that lay ahead, as if he expected to see someone there, someone he had been waiting a very long time to meet again.