by Tracy Deonn
No more Before. No more After. Only Now.
I surge forward, and the strength of armies sings through my muscles. Survive. Resist. Thrive. Each pound of my feet echoes in my joints like a blacksmith’s hammer, ringing loud into bones and ligament and sinew until the forest blurs past in a stream of moss greens and umber browns.
I sprint fast and faster.
And then I’m in the air, leaving the earth and trees far behind me.
RANK
BLOODLINE
SIGIL
COLOR
INHERITANCE
WEAPON(s)
1
King Arthur Pendragon
Dragon rampant
Gold
The King’s Wisdom and Strength
Longsword
2
Sir Lancelot
3
Sir Tristan
Three arrows sinister
Azure Blue
Marksmanship and speed
Bow and Arrow
4
Sir Lamorak
Griffon courant
Carmine Red
Preternatural strength (enduring)
Axe
5
Sir Kay
6
7
Sir Owain
Lion couchant
Tawny Yellow
Aether lion familiar
Quarterstaff
8
9
10
11
Sir Bors
Three-banded circle
Burnt Orange
Agility and Dexterity
Longsword
12
Sir Gawain
Two-headed Eagle
Emerald Green
Enhanced healer abilities; preternatural strength at midday and midnight
Dual Daggers
13
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In a lot of ways, Bree’s story is my story. When my own mother died, I learned that I had just become the third consecutive generation of daughters who lost their mothers at a young age. That we know of. This realization was sharp and quick and impossible—and the exact moment when Bree and Legendborn began to take shape.
Death is rife with odd ironies; growing up, I had, on occasion, seen my mother’s wound, but not understood its nature. It took losing her to recognize that wound as grief, and, of course, the event that helped me better understand her is the exact event that took her away. I wanted to compare notes, but that’s not how my story works. Instead, I wrote my own explanation.
In order to create the magic and legacy that answer Bree’s questions, I took hold of the pattern of loss in my matrilineal line, then wove that pattern into the otherworldly qualities of the women in my family. Bree’s story is, at its core, a story about someone who wants to understand the role of death in her life. It’s about Black motherhood and Black daughterhood. But it’s also a story of someone who wants very much to understand and honor her mother and ancestors.
GRIEF AND TRAUMA
Legendborn addresses several types of trauma. Bree’s grief-related trauma is directly drawn from my own experiences. In the book, she suffers from acute traumatic grief, PTSD, and early symptoms of Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD), reflecting my current nonprofessional understanding of those conditions; PCBD is a relatively recent addition to the DSM-5 amid evolving research. In my case, it took a year after my mother’s death to seek the support of a bereavement specialist and ten years before I began focused grief treatment with a trauma professional. In the interim, I’d lost my biological father and the father who raised me. Part of why I wrote Legendborn is because I hope to raise awareness of these sometimes comorbid conditions, particularly when they occur due to loss of a parent and/or when they occur in young people. Many people live with these disorders, undiagnosed, and suffer in silence due to how our society treats grief and death. Many people turn away from this type of suffering, even those who are suffering themselves. If that’s you, just know you’re not alone and that trauma is treatable.
Legendborn also addresses: intergenerational trauma experienced by descendants of enslaved people, the ways in which trauma can manifest between parents and children, and the legacies of racial trauma, oppression, and resilience.
ROOTCRAFT
In addition to drawing on my own life to create the fictional magic system of rootcraft, I took inspiration from African American history and spiritual traditions. In particular, I focused on rootwork, also known as hoodoo or conjure. Rootwork was developed by enslaved Africans and their descendants under American chattel slavery, and it can be traced from its historic origins to varied practices in present-day African American communities. Rootwork is not a centralized tradition, and practitioners from different families, regions, and times have their own gospel on what it looks like. But there are common aspects, many of which can be found in other traditions and religions, including those with roots in West Africa. “Rootcraft” in Legendborn borrows four of these common elements: ancestor reverence and communion, the ritual use of organic materials, naturopathic medicine and healing, and themes of protection.
Rootwork is a historic and living folk tradition and spiritual practice, but it is not the practice in my book. While the rootcraft magic Bree explores in the book is fictional, I chose to use the term “root” in Legendborn for four reasons:
To set this type of ancestral, organic magic apart from the magic of the Order.
Because of the power of this word in my community; imagery using roots exists across Black music, pop culture, and film.
Because, for me and many other Black people in the South, it feels as if the very soil that helped grow this country is soaked with the acknowledged and unacknowledged blood, sweat, and tears of enslaved Africans and their descendants. And, in truth, it is.
To hint at the solution to Bree’s turmoil in the book, which is to recognize the living nature of love in her life, alongside death, and to literally go underground to find the truth of her origin.
UNC-CHAPEL HILL HISTORY
When I talk about Legendborn, I often talk about King Arthur and when I first fell in love with Arthurian legends. (Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence, in 1995, by the way.) I also say that it’s about the ways grief and history walk beside us. UNC-Chapel Hill is many things: my alma mater twice over, a beloved epicenter for some of my favorite memories, the oldest public university in the country to admit and graduate students, a site of local and national history, a school casually abundant with secret societies, and, undeniably, a campus and community still reckoning with its deep connections to slavery.
Legendborn is a contemporary fantasy work of fiction whose setting is a real place with real history. I made up the Order of the Round Table and Early College. The cemetery is real, but I added mausoleums. I took some liberties with Battle Park and campus geography. The Unsung Founders Memorial exists, but I moved its location. There is no Carr statue, but the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam stood for over a hundred years on Carolina’s campus and was the subject of decades of debate and protest until it was taken down by activists in 2018.
Some of the most painful stories in the book are facts: the unmarked, disrespected, and segregated graves; the open brutality of the real Julian Carr against an unnamed woman; that Black students live and learn on a campus built by enslaved people held in bondage by celebrated men who would have wanted to enslave us, too. These facts and monuments have mirrors in other spaces and at other schools, and I hope light continues to be shined on them.
KING ARTHUR
If one must find Arthur’s beginning, I would turn to Wales. Still, I could never list all of my sources for Arthurian lore and legend. Like Nick says, fifteen hundred years is a long time! Arthuriana is absorptive and has always invited invention and reinvention. Arthur exists in a network of narratives; there is no single story, no sacred text, no definitive version, no single voice. Instead there are many versions of ma
ny legends, reimaginings, and retellings. Consider Legendborn a contribution to the collection.
To me, Arthur represents the seat of the canon of Western legend. Arthuriana is an opportunity for us to reorient ourselves to the stories we preserve… and rediscover who gets to be legendary.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This story has lived with me for a long time, and I am grateful for the many people who have supported me in transforming it into a book.
I wouldn’t be a writer, much less an author, without the support of my parents: my mother, who introduced me to science fiction and fantasy and made certain that I knew my writing mattered, and my stepfather, the man who became “Dad” and who truly believed I could do anything, and told me so. I miss you both, and I know you’re watching and cheering.
Gratitude eternal to the ancestors whose shoulders I stand on. I am because you were.
Huge thanks to Penny Moore, who helped me and Legendborn find a fantastic home.
Massive thanks in every direction to my editor, Liesa Abrams. First, for sending that one email to Amy Reed in 2017. Forever, for championing my voice and this project from the very start. I truly believe the universe helped nudge us into each other’s paths, and I am so thankful for your hard work, care, vision, and advocacy.
Enormous aether-and-eternity thanks to Sarah McCabe, who jumped into the tangled web of demons and Scions with both sleeves rolled up. Thank you for embracing the Legendborn world, helping to mold it into its best shape, and helping me become the writer who could put her ambitious vision onto the page.
Enormous thanks to Laura Eckes and Hillary Wilson for a cover that gives me life every time I see it. Enduring thanks to everyone at Simon Pulse and Simon & Schuster for believing in Legendborn and working so hard to help it come to life and get into the hands of readers: Mara Anastas, Chriscynethia Floyd, Katherine Devendorf, Rebecca Vitkus, Jen Strada, Kayley Hoffman, Mandy Veloso, Sara Berko, Lauren Hoffman, Caitlin Sweeny, Alissa Negro, Anna Jarzab, Emily Ritter, Savannah Breckenridge, Annika Voss, Christina Pecorale and the Simon & Schuster sales team, Michele Leo and the education and library team, Nicole Russo, Lauren Carr, Jessica Smith, Jenny Lu, Ian Reilly, and Nicole Sam.
To my critique partner, Julia: this book would not be what it is without your careful eye, alpha and beta reader enthusiasm, spot-on feedback, and enduring support for me during the challenging times while writing it. Thank you for everything.
Enormous gratitude to my research consultants, subject matter experts, and authenticity readers: Dr. Hilary N. Green for your work, support, and insight; Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird for medieval Welsh knowledge and modern Welsh translations and creations (Diolch yn fawr iawn!); Sarah Rogers, MA, for playing in the world while dropping medieval wisdom; and Dr. Cord J. Whitaker. To Lillie Lainoff, Brittany N. Williams, and Maya Gittelman. Thanks to UNC-Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill historians, archivists, librarians, memory-holders, and truth-unearthers, for your work and research.
An extra special thank-you to Daniel José Older. You were my first author friend, and I am so grateful for your listening ear and wisdom, humor and support. You’re a very good human.
To Amy Reed: thank you for reminding me of who I’ve always been.
There are so many authors in my life to thank for their support, advice, and love: Kwame Mbalia, Victoria Lee, Elise Bryant, Karen Strong, Justina Ireland, L. L. McKinney, Dhonielle Clayton, Bethany C. Morrow, Eden Royce, Lora Beth Johnson, Susan Dennard, E. K. Johnston, Margaret Owen, Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Graci Kim, Liselle Sambury, Annalee Newitz, Kiersten White, Ashley Poston, Jessica Bibi Cooper, Monica Byrne, Emily Suvada, Nicki Pau Preto, Akemi Dawn Bowman, Antwan Eady, Claire Legrand, Saraciea Fennell, and Patrice Caldwell.
Special thank-yous to Mark Vrionides, Katy Munger, Jamye Abram, Negar Mottahedeh, Kat Milby, Michael G. Williams, Tina Vasquez, and the ladies of Color of Fandom.
Thank you to St. Anthony Hall and my siblings. I wouldn’t be the person, the writer, or the artist I am without the bonds. I very much hope you enjoy this LD.
To Annalise Ophelian and Alyssa Bradley: thank you for the spells and projects, the cauldron, and every other magic we make together.
To Arlette Varela for always being ready to brainstorm demon names, magical abilities, and blood curses. Your early feedback gave me the boost I needed.
To Kathy Hampton: thank you for your artistic eye, abundant spirit, and glowing support. You’ve seen me and Bree from the very beginning, and I so appreciate it.
To Adele Gregory-Yao: I am immeasurably grateful for your unwavering support, brilliant brainstorming, troubleshooting, talent, dark humor, and creative vision during this journey.
To Karin McAdams: you have supported my writing (and my reading) for over twenty-five years. You helped me survive two losses, and then bolstered me in writing about them. You are my sister in arms, and I think she’d be so very proud of the both of us.
Immense gratitude to all of my family members across all of my families, for being enthusiastic about my future and this book without having read a word. Thank you.
To Walter, thank you for keeping me fed and hydrated, for reminding me to rest, and for believing in me every day. You had faith when I didn’t. You whiteboard and sketch and talk through my world until the magic and plot make sense, my partner in storytelling as much as in life. None of this would be possible without you. I love you.
More from the Author
Our Stories, Our Voices
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Kathleen Hampton
Tracy Deonn is a writer and second-generation fangirl. She grew up in central North Carolina, where she devoured fantasy books and Southern food in equal measure. After earning a master’s degree in communication studies, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy speaks on panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions, reads fanfic, arranges puppy playdates, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything. Tracy can be found on Twitter @tracydeonn and at tracydeonn.com.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Text copyright © 2020 by Tracy Deonn Walker
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Deonn, Tracy, author.
Title: Legendborn / by Tracy Deonn.
Description: First Margaret K. McElderry Books edition. | New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020. | Summary: “To discover the truth behind her mother’s mysterious death, a teen girl infiltrates a magical secret society claiming to be the descendants of King Arthur and his knights”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020000642 | ISBN 9781534441606 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534441620 (eBook)
Subjects: CYAC: Secret societies—Fiction. | Genealogy—Fiction. | Demonology—Fiction. | African Americans—Fiction. | Colleges and universities—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | North Carolina—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.D46837 Le 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/202000064