Ghostlight - Softcover

Oppel, Kenneth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593487966 ISBN 13: 9780593487969

Verlag: Random House Children's Books, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

One teen's summer job scaring tourists with ghost stories takes a terrifying turn when he accidentally summons the spirit of a dead girl—and she has demands. . . .

The award-winning author of Airborn delivers a roller-coaster ride of a story about the wakeful and wicked dead.

Rebecca Strand was just sixteen when she and her father fell to their deaths from the top of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse in 1839. Just how they fell—or were they pushed?—remains a mystery. And their ghosts haunt the lighthouse to this day. . . .

Gabe tells this story every day when he gives the ghost tour on Toronto Island. He tries to make it scary enough to satisfy the tourists, but he doesn’t actually believe in ghosts—until he finds himself face to face with Rebecca Strand.

The true story of her death is far more terrifying than any ghost tale Gabe has told. Rebecca reveals that her father was a member of the Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead”—malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But the Order has disappeared, and Viker’s ghost is growing ever stronger.

Now Gabe and his friends must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls. . . .

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

KENNETH OPPEL is one of the most highly regarded authors of middle-grade fiction writing today. Some of his best-known titles are Inkling, The Nest, Airborn, a 2005 Printz Honor Book, and Silverwing. 

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1

Rebecca Strand was sixteen the first time she saw her father kill a ghost.

She was woken by a hand on her shoulder, and opened her eyes to Papa’s face, flickering in the glow of his lantern. He held out her shawl and said, “Get up. I need your help.”

Her first thought was: At last!

Immediately she leapt from the warmth of her bed and listened for the weather. No rain lashed against her window. No wind howled. She fastened the woolen shawl around her nightdress.

“Is a ship in trouble?” she asked.

“We need to hurry.”

She followed him downstairs and outside. In the calm sky glowed a full moon and stars sharp as gemstones. Not even a hint of mist hovered over the lake. It was hard to imagine a ship foundering on such a night.

Still, boats ran aground on the island’s sandy shoals all the time. Jutting from its beaches were the broken ribs of old, wrecked hulls. Many times over the years, her parents had helped drag survivors ashore and into the shelter of their home. But her mother had died of fever two years ago, and last month her older brother, Bernard, had ventured off to Kingston to apprentice as a stonemason. It was just her and her father now, so maybe, finally, she’d have a chance to prove herself.

But as her eyes swept the smooth water, she saw nothing amiss. Her father headed straight for the lighthouse. For a second she wondered if something was wrong with the lamp itself--had it gone out?--but then the beam swung around, cutting its white path through the night.

“Papa? What’s wrong?”

At the huge red door of the lighthouse, he turned the iron clasp and entered. Stepping inside, Rebecca shivered. Even though it was summer, cold radiated from the thick stone. Her father was already vaulting up the spiral stairs, and she hurried after him.

The hot, thrilling whiff of lamp oil hit her as she climbed up inside the lamp room. Atop its stout iron column, the blazing beacon turned, sending its beam through the high windows. The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was the tallest of all the lake lights, rising from the western point of the island that sheltered Toronto’s harbor. Across the water were the glimmering lights of the city, home now to almost thirty thousand souls.

Her father hung his lantern from a hook and immediately took up his spyglass. He opened the door and ducked outside onto the narrow catwalk that encircled the lamp room. Rebecca followed.

“I had a warning from the Niagara Light,” Papa said, scanning the water to the south.

Rebecca looked across the vast sweep of Lake Ontario. From this height, you might sometimes see the spray rising from the falls. And on clear nights like this, you could often catch the pale flicker of the Niagara Light on the American shore.

“What kind of warning?” She’d never known lighthouses signaled one another; but this was exactly the sort of thing she’d been hoping Papa would teach her one day. Now maybe with her brother Bernard gone--

“Something’s coming.”

Her skin prickled. The way her father said it, she knew he didn’t mean bad weather. Papa lowered his spyglass and turned to her. He was a solemn man by nature, but she had never known him to look so grave.

“Tonight must be the night you learn.”

Joy instantly overwhelmed any nervousness. “I’m ready! Papa, I want to know everything!”

She’d been born on this sandy crescent of an island, and her whole life, her father had been keeper of the Gibraltar Point Light. Even though she’d never been permitted to help--that privilege had always gone to Bernard--she was sometimes allowed to watch them tend the lamp. She knew how to replenish the whale oil and trim the wick; she understood the ingenious pulleys and gears that made the beacon revolve. The lighthouse itself felt like a vital gear in her own life. Just as the sun rose each morning, each night the lighthouse beam swept across her curtained window, every two minutes. It was as fine a lullaby and guardian as any child could want. For as long as she could remember, she’d wanted to be a keeper.

“You may not thank me,” Papa said, “for the things I’m going to tell you.”

On the catwalk, she had a powerful premonition that her life was about to change forever.

“You know that I tend the light, to warn ships away from the shoals,” her father said, “to guide them into safe harbor. But there’s more.”

Abruptly, as if he’d heard something, he turned. Following the beacon’s beam, he lifted his spyglass to his eye. He did not hold the rail to steady himself, but stood with his legs wide, like a sailor balanced on the prow of a ship, awaiting a storm--or worse.

“What do you see?” Rebecca demanded.

“Quicker than I thought,” he muttered. He held the spyglass out to Rebecca. “Look.”

Her hands shook as she brought it to her eye.

“Do you see?” he asked.

All she beheld was silvered water, glinting in the moonlight. Then the lighthouse beam picked out something bobbing on the surface. At first Rebecca thought it was a piece of timber washed out from the mill. Her stomach clenched.

“A body!”

Then the lighthouse beam had passed, and all she saw was dark water.

“Where did it go?” She shifted the spyglass to and fro, with no luck.

“Wait for the light to return,” said her father.

When the beam swept past once more, the body reappeared. It was facedown in the water. A sodden blouse; long, weed-matted hair. An arm weakly churned the water.

“She’s alive!” Rebecca cried, looking away from the spyglass. Her father had already rushed back inside the lamp room. She hurried after him. “Papa, we need to get the boat!”

She didn’t understand why he wasn’t sounding the alarm, or bolting to the beach. The poor woman had obviously been washed overboard, or her ship had foundered. “Papa?”

From around his neck, he slipped off the tarnished lighthouse pendant he always wore. He inserted it like a key into the sturdy iron column that supported the lamp. Rebecca heard the sound of metal pieces clicking into place. Suddenly the lamp stopped revolving. From the sides of the column two iron handles shot out with a clang. Gripping them, Papa swiveled the beacon, directing the beam as he wished.

“I never knew you could do that!” Rebecca exclaimed.

“Go outside, find her,” her father instructed.

Bewildered, she returned to the catwalk. Lifting the spyglass, she found the woman. Maybe Papa wanted to focus more light on her before the rescue. Both the woman’s arms were paddling feebly, though her face was still submerged.

“Is the light bright upon her?” Papa called from the lamp room.

“Yes! But she’s so weak--”

“Watch now!”

The woman lifted her head clear of the water and revealed her face. All the breath rushed out of Rebecca’s body. It was like no face she’d ever beheld, the terrible eyes filled with such malice. The light was bright on the woman’s face, and her eyes shut tight, and her tattered hands lifted as if warding off an attack. Holes began to open in her flesh.

“The light’s killing her!” Rebecca cried.

“She’s already dead,” her father replied.

As it disintegrated, the body sank. Rebecca sucked air back into her lungs, then turned to her father, who’d come outside to stand with her. “What was that?”

“A ghost.”

He...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House Children's Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593487966
• ISBN 13: 9780593487969
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 401
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland