The Silver Crown (Aladdin Fantasy) - Softcover

O'Brien, Robert C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689841116 ISBN 13: 9780689841118

Verlag: Aladdin, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

In this gripping and memorable middle grade fantasy from Newbery Medal–winning author Robert C. O’Brien, good and evil are locked in battle and the balance between the two can only be restored by one young girl’s determination to set things right.

“It lay beside her on the pillow, shinier than silver, glowing softly, with twinkling blue stones set all around....It did not occur to her to wonder from whom it had come; she was merely aware that it was hers by right.”

Ellen awakens one morning with a mysterious silver crown on the pillow beside her. What magic powers it possesses she has not yet discovered, but the sudden changes in her life are unmistakable: her house is burned down, her family has disappeared, and a man in a dark uniform is stalking her. Can Ellen ever find her family? Can she use the power of the silver crown to thwart the powers of darkness? What diabolical force hides inside the mysterious castle in the woods?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Robert C. O’Brien (1918–1973) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Williams College and graduated from the University of Rochester. He was a writer and editor for Newsweek, National Geographic, and other publications. He lived in New York City and then in Washington, DC, with his wife and four children. Z for Zachariah—which is now a major motion picture starring Margot Robbie, Chris Pine, and Chiwetel Ejiofor—was completed by his wife and daughter, with the help of his notes, after his death. He is also the author of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and The Silver Crown.

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The Silver Crown

By Robert C. O'Brien

Aladdin Paperbacks

Copyright © 2001 Robert C. O'Brien
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780689841118

Chapter One

The Dark Castle

Otto was gone all the next day. He returned just before dark, empty-handed except for berries, gloomy and rather preoccupied. He built a fire as usual, but only for warmth and whatever cheer it might bring. There was nothing more to cook. Their supper was a cold one; it consisted of the last few scraps of bread and some berries. They had reached the end of their food.

There was only one cheerful thing. Ellen's ankle continued to improve; she had, in fact, walked without her crutches all the way to the brook and bathed it, and herself, in the cool, dark water. She had barely made it back, however, and afterward the ankle ached quite a lot. Yet she was sure she had done it no harm. She did not tell Otto that it hurt. Her stomach, after the small meal, felt empty and uncomfortable; she was sure that Otto, having hunted all day, must be far hungrier than she. Yet he did not complain; at least, not exactly.

"When we get out of here," he said, "when we get to the highway, I hope we come out near a hamburger stand. I'm going to order six hamburgers with ketchup, rolls, onions, potato chips, and Cokes. And pie. Chocolate pie, and eat them all. I don't care if I can't pay. I'll eat them before they find out."

"I can pay. I still have more than a dollar."

"Yes, but you'll want some, too. A dollar isn't enough."

"They'll arrest you."

"I don't care. They have to feed you in jail. And you and Aunt Sarah can come and bail me out."

"If only I can find her. I hope she's there."

For some reason, thinking about Aunt Sarah made something in Ellen's mind roll back, and she suddenly remembered the dream of her father. She described it to Otto.

"And the strange thing about it," she said, "is that I didn't feel asleep at all, and when it ended, I didn't feel as if I were waking up."

"Maybe it wasn't a real dream. It doesn't sound like a dream. Maybe it was telepathy."

"How could it be?"

"He might be still alive. I bet he is."

"He isn't alive," Ellen said. "He couldn't be. The fireman said so. Anyway, you didn't see the house."

"Then you must have seen heaven. Maybe when you put the crown on, you can see heaven."

"Heaven wouldn't be so dark." She lay down and pulled the blanket around her. "It was only a dream." With that she was asleep.

When Ellen awoke the next morning, Otto was not there. She was not particularly surprised, since there was nothing for breakfast except a small pile of berries left over from the night before. She assumed that he had awakened earlier and gone hunting, or at least gone to gather some more berries. He had told her that early morning was the best time of day for hunting.

So she ate the berries, and then, without using her crutches, walked quite easily down to the brook to get a drink of water and to wash her face. Of course she was wobbly, and she limped, but she did not hurt. After she washed, she went back to the cave and waited for an hour or so, expecting Otto any minute - she hoped with a rabbit in each hand, but at least with more berries. But he did not come. All day she waited.

By nightfall he still had not returned, and she had begun to worry. Could he have gotten lost? She could hardly believe that, knowing how easily he found his way in the woods. Had he just hunted, hungry as he was - hungry as they both were - much farther than usual, not realizing how far he had gone? If so, he should be back soon, since he could not hunt in the dark.

Suppertime came and went. She was hideously empty, and there was not so much as a green berry left. Since Otto was not there, she built the fire herself; she kept it small, because the wood supply was low. It would be easy enough to build it bigger if he came back with some game. She felt thoroughly miserable, a little frightened, but most of all worried about Otto himself. For a dreadful suspicion had begun to work its way through her mind.

Eventually she fell asleep, and into her sleep crept a repeating nightmare that woke her up trembling each time she dreamed it. Each time she woke she looked through the dim firelight at Otto's blanket, and each time it was still empty.

In her nightmare Otto was lost, not in the woods but wandering in an endless maze of dark corridors of stone, inside the black castle. He could not get out, for all the doors were locked. At the end of each dream he turned a corner, and there before him stood a tall figure in black, wearing a green mask. And it was Otto's voice, calling for help, that woke her up.

In the morning Ellen knew that the time had come to stop worrying and start thinking. She was sure now that Otto was not coming back, and she was quite sure she knew why. She went over in her mind some of the things he had said when they talked about the castle, or prison, or whatever it was. "I could get in," he had said, and, "Wire fences are easy to climb." And then almost immediately he had talked about food. Ellen could put two and two together. She realized of course, that she might be wrong.

Assuming that she was right - then what? She could not stay here; she would starve. But could she walk well enough to leave? She tried a few steps and decided that she could. She should be able to make a few miles each day, at least. She wondered how long a person could keep walking without food - or without any food but berries.

Having thought this far, the next question was: Where should she go?

Finally, she worked out a plan; and having decided what to do, she wasted no time starting. She was terribly hungry, and at least she could eat some berries along the way.

She packed her rucksack with her own things and discovered - since there was no food to pack - that she had room for Otto's blanket, too, so she put that in just in case. She was careful to take all the matches; there were not many left, and she filled the water bottle from the brook. When everything was ready, she put the rucksack on and climbed up the first ledge, then the second, and walked toward the front door.

But just before she reached it she stopped, as if she had remembered something. She looked around her, considering. Then she walked over to one side of the cave, in the shadow, studying the ground. She dug the toe of her shoe into a gravelly part of the floor, pushing the gravel to one side, still thinking. She slipped off the rucksack, knelt down, opened it, and took out the crown. Using her fingers and then, when the hard stones tore her nails, a knife from her rucksack to help, she dug a hole six inches deep. She folded the crown into the smallest possible shape, placed it at the bottom of the hole, and buried it. She smoothed the gravel carefully over the top, so the hole became instantly invisible. Then she took the knife and on the wall directly over the crown she scratched a small "X" to mark the spot.

Outside the front door of the cave she saw the rocks where Otto had climbed in and out of the crevasse. They were not so formidable as she had feared; it was rather like climbing the steps of a pyramid - you could take them one at a time. Depending more on her knees than her feet, she scrambled to the top easily enough and found herself in the silent, birdless forest.

But the rest of the way was like a bad dream, and got steadily worse. Within a half mile she knew that her ankle was not nearly as strong as she had thought. Perhaps part of the trouble was the extra weight of the rucksack. Her limp deteriorated into a painful hobble,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Aladdin
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0689841116
• ISBN 13: 9780689841118
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 336
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV, GPSR Europäische Union; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande