Corbenic (21 page)

Authors: Catherine Fisher

BOOK: Corbenic

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No one should repeat or describe the great wonders he encountered, which gave him many fearful moments. Anyone who does so will be sorry, for they are part of the mystery of the Grail.

1st Continuation

S
hadow turned from the window and came to the edge of the bed. “When we pulled you out of the lake you weren't even breathing. Hawk and Kai worked on you for at least five minutes. We thought you were dead, Cal.” She sat on the tie-dyed coverlet, and took his raw, scuffed fingers, trying to pin down the change in his face, understand the story he'd told her.

“Maybe I was,” he said.

She smiled wryly. “What did you see when you drank? Visions? Dreams?”

“I can't tell you. Not that.”

Outside a soft drizzle was bringing the cherry blossom down in drifts in the abbey grounds. Easter bells were ringing from the church in the High Street. The Company had lit a fire; its smoke drifted through the van.

“And the Waste Land. Is it healed?”

Cal lay back and looked at her. “I think it must be,” he whispered.

And thus it is told of the Castle of Wonders
.

Acknowledgments

Epigraphs by kind permission of the translators: Nigel Bryant, “Conte du Graal,” from
Perceval: The Story of the Grail,
by Chretien de Troyes (D. S. Brewer, 1982); John Matthews, “Oianau of Merlin,” from
Merlin through the Ages
(Blandford, 1995); T. Jones and G. Jones, “Peredur Son of Efrawg” from
The Mabinogion
(Everyman Classics, 1949).

About the Author

Catherine Fisher
's acclaimed works include
Darkhenge, Snow-walker,
and
The Oracle Betrayed,
which was a finalist for the Whitbread Children's Book Award. She lives in Newport, Wales.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Credits

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

Corbenic

First published in 2002 in Great Britain by Red Fox Books,
an imprint of Random House Children's Books.

First published in 2006 in the United States by Greenwillow Books.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

The right of Catherine Fisher to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fisher, Catherine

Corbenic / by Catherine Fisher.

p. cm.

“Greenwillow Books.”

Summary: In this modern-day version of Perceval and the Holy Grail, a guilt-ridden British teenager leaves his mentally ill mother to live with his wealthy uncle and begins a journey of self-knowledge and redemption after being briefly transported to the Waste Land of Arthurian times.

ISBN-10: 0-06-072470-6 (trade bdg.) ISBN-13: 978-0-06-072470-2

ISBN-10: 0-06-072471-4 (lib. bdg.) ISBN-13: 978-0-06-072471-9

[1. Mothers and sonsâFiction. 2. GrailâFiction. 3. IdentityâFiction.

4. Space and timeâFiction. 5. Coming of ageâFiction. 6. EnglandâFiction.]

PZ7.F4995Co 2006 [Fic]âdc22 2003056866

First American Edition 10Â Â 9Â Â 8Â Â 7Â Â 6Â Â 5Â Â 4Â Â 3Â Â 2Â Â 1

Epub Edition Â© JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780062193759

About the Publisher

Australia

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25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia