The Knight at Dawn
Page 3
“Uh-oh,” said Annie. “I think Mom and Dad are up. Hurry!”
“Wait.” In a daze, Jack unzipped his backpack. He pulled out the castle book. It was quite wet. But Jack placed it back with all the other books.
“Come on! Hurry!” said Annie, scooting out of the tree house.
Jack followed her down the ladder.
They reached the ground and took off between the gray-black trees.
They left the woods and ran down their deserted street.
They got to their yard and crept across the lawn. Right up to the back door.
Jack and Annie slipped inside the house.
“They’re not downstairs yet,” whispered Annie.
“Shhh,” said Jack.
He led the way up the stairs and down the hall. No sign of his mom or dad. But he could hear water running in the bathroom.
Their house was so different from the dark, cold castle. So safe and cozy and friendly.
Annie stopped at her bedroom door. She gave Jack a smile, then disappeared inside her room.
Jack hurried into his room. He took off his damp clothes and pulled on his dry, soft pajamas.
He sat down on his bed and unzipped his backpack. He took out his wet notebook. He felt around for the pencil, but his hand touched something else.
Jack pulled the blue leather bookmark out of his pack. It must have fallen out of the castle book.
Jack held the bookmark close to his lamp and studied it. The leather was smooth and worn. It seemed ancient.
For the first time Jack noticed a letter on the bookmark. A fancy M.
Jack opened the drawer next to his bed. He took out the gold medallion.
He looked at the letter on it. It was the same M.
Now this was an amazing new fact.
Jack took a deep breath. One mystery solved.
The person who had dropped the gold medallion in the time of the dinosaurs was the same person who owned all the books in the tree house.
Who was this person?
Jack placed the bookmark next to the medallion. He closed the drawer.
He picked up his pencil. He turned to the least wet page in his notebook. And he started to write down this new fact.
But before he could draw the M, his eyes closed.
He dreamed they were with the knight again. All three of them riding the black horse through the cool, dark night. Beyond the outer wall of the castle. And up over a moonlit hill.
Into the mist.
Here’s a special preview of
Magic Tree House #3
Mummies in the Morning
Available now!
Excerpt copyright © 1993 by
Published by Random House Children’s Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
“It’s still here,” said Jack.
“It looks empty,” said Annie.
Jack and his seven-year-old sister gazed up at a very tall oak tree. At the top of the tree was a tree house.
Late-morning sunlight lit the woods. It was almost time for lunch.
“Shhh!” said Jack. “What was that noise?”
“What noise?”
“I heard a noise,” Jack said. He looked around. “It sounded like someone coughing.”
“I didn’t hear anything,” said Annie. “Come on. Let’s go up.”
She grabbed onto the rope ladder and started climbing.
Jack tiptoed over to a clump of bushes. He pushed aside a small branch.
“Hello?” he said. “Anybody there?”
There was no answer.
“Come on!” Annie called down. “The tree house looks the same as it did yesterday.”
Jack still felt that someone was nearby. Could it be the person who’d put all the books in the tree house?
“Ja-ack!”
Jack gazed over the top of the bushes.
Was the mysterious person watching him now? The person whose name began with M?
Maybe M wanted the gold medallion back. The one Jack had found on their dinosaur adventure. Maybe M wanted the leather bookmark back. The one from the castle book.
There was an M on the medallion. And an M on the bookmark. But what did M stand for?
“Tomorrow I’ll bring everything back,” Jack said loudly.
A breeze swept through the woods. The leaves rattled.
“Come on!” called Annie.
Jack went back to the big oak tree. He grabbed onto the rope ladder and climbed up.
At the top he crawled through a hole in the wooden floor. He tossed down his backpack and pushed his glasses into place.
“Hmmm. Which book is it going to be today?” said Annie.
She was looking at the books scattered around the tree house.
Annie picked up the book about castles.
“Hey, this isn’t wet anymore,” she said.
“Let me see.”
Jack took the book from her. He was amazed. It looked fine. Yesterday it had gotten soaked in a castle moat.
The castle book had taken Jack and Annie back to the time of knights.
Jack silently thanked the mysterious knight who had rescued them.
“Watch out!” warned Annie.
She waved a dinosaur book in Jack’s face.
“Put that away,” said Jack.
The day before yesterday the dinosaur book had taken them to the time of dinosaurs.
Jack silently thanked the Pteranodon who had saved him from a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Annie put the dinosaur book back with the other books. Then she gasped.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Look at this.”
She held up a book about ancient Egypt.
Jack caught his breath. He took the book from her. A green silk bookmark stuck out of it.
Jack turned to the page with the bookmark. There was a picture of a pyramid.
Going toward the pyramid was a long parade. Four huge cows with horns were pulling a sled. On the sled was a long gold box. Many Egyptians were walking behind the sled. At the end of the parade was a sleek black cat.
“Let’s go there,” whispered Annie. “Now.”
“Wait,” said Jack. He wanted to study the book a bit more.
“Pyramids, Jack,” said Annie. “You love pyramids.”
It was true. Pyramids were high on his list of favorite things. After knights. But before dinosaurs. Way before dinosaurs.
He didn’t have to worry about being eaten by a pyramid.
“Okay,” he said. “But hold the Pennsylvania book. In case we want to come right back here.”
Annie found the book with the picture of their hometown in it. Frog Creek, Pennsylvania.
Then Jack pointed to the pyramid picture in the Egypt book. He cleared his throat and said, “I wish we could go to this place.”
“Meow!”
“What was that?” Jack looked out the tree house window.
A black cat was perched on a branch. Right outside the window. The cat was staring at Jack and Annie.
It was the strangest cat Jack had ever seen. He was very sleek and dark. With bright yellow eyes. And a wide gold collar.
“It’s the cat in the Egypt book,” whispered Annie.
Just then the wind started to blow. The leaves began to shake.
“Here we go!” cried Annie.
The wind whistled louder. The leaves shook harder.
Jack closed his eyes as the tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster! And faster!
Suddenly everything was still.
Absolutely still.
Not a sound. Not a whisper.
Jack opened his eyes.
Hot bright sunlight nearly blinded him.
“Me-ow!”
Are you a fan of the Magic Tree House® series?
Visit our
Web site
at
www.MagicTreeHouse.com
Exciting sneak previews of the next book.
Games,
puzzles, and other fun activities.
Contests with super prizes.
And much more!
Guess what?
Jack and Annie have a musical CD!
For more information about
MAGIC TREE HOUSE: THE MUSICAL
(including how to order the CD!),
visit www.mthmusical.com.
Discover the facts
behind the fiction with the
Magic Tree House® Books
#1: DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK
#2: THE KNIGHT AT DAWN
#3: MUMMIES IN THE MORNING
#4: PIRATES PAST NOON
#5: NIGHT OF THE NINJAS
#6: AFTERNOON ON THE AMAZON
#7: SUNSET OF THE SABERTOOTH
#8: MIDNIGHT ON THE MOON
#9: DOLPHINS AT DAYBREAK
#10: GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN
#11: LIONS AT LUNCHTIME
#12: POLAR BEARS PAST BEDTIME
#13: VACATION UNDER THE VOLCANO
#14: DAY OF THE DRAGON KING
#15: VIKING SHIPS AT SUNRISE
#16: HOUR OF THE OLYMPICS
#17: TONIGHT ON THE TITANIC
#18: BUFFALO BEFORE BREAKFAST
#19: TIGERS AT TWILIGHT
#20: DINGOES AT DINNERTIME
#21: CIVIL WAR ON SUNDAY
#22: REVOLUTIONARY WAR ON WEDNESDAY
#23: TWISTER ON TUESDAY
#24: EARTHQUAKE IN THE EARLY MORNING
#25: STAGE FRIGHT ON A SUMMER NIGHT
#26: GOOD MORNING, GORILLAS
#27: THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY
#28: HIGH TIDE IN HAWAII
Merlin Missions
#29: CHRISTMAS IN CAMELOT
#30: HAUNTED CASTLE ON HALLOWS EVE
#31: SUMMER OF THE SEA SERPENT
#32: WINTER OF THE ICE WIZARD
#33: CARNIVAL AT CANDLELIGHT
#34: SEASON OF THE SANDSTORMS
#35: NIGHT OF THE NEW MAGICIANS
#36: BLIZZARD OF THE BLUE MOON
#37: DRAGON OF THE RED DAWN
#38: MONDAY WITH A MAD GENIUS
#39: DARK DAY IN THE DEEP SEA
#40: EVE OF THE EMPEROR PENGUIN
#41: MOONLIGHT ON THE MAGIC FLUTE
#42: A GOOD NIGHT FOR GHOSTS
#43: LEPRECHAUN IN LATE WINTER
#44: A GHOST TALE FOR CHRISTMAS TIME
Magic Tree House® Research Guides
DINOSAURS
KNIGHTS AND CASTLES
MUMMIES AND PYRAMIDS
PIRATES
RAIN FORESTS
SPACE
TITANIC
TWISTERS AND OTHER TERRIBLE STORMS
DOLPHINS AND SHARKS
ANCIENT GREECE AND THE OLYMPICS
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
SABERTOOTHS AND THE ICE AGE
PILGRIMS
ANCIENT ROME AND POMPEII
TSUNAMIS AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS
POLAR BEARS AND THE ARCTIC
SEA MONSTERS
PENGUINS AND ANTARCTICA
LEONARDO DA VINCI
GHOSTS
LEPRECHAUNS AND IRISH FOLKLORE
RAGS AND RICHES: KIDS IN THE TIME OF CHARLES DICKENS
More Magic Tree House®
GAMES AND PUZZLES FROM THE TREE HOUSE