The Seeing Stone
Page 4
Mallory scowled at him. “You want to follow your friends to the bottom of the stream?”
Jared smiled. It was good to have Mallory on their side.
That made him think of something. “Since you’re feeling so generous, how about a little goblin spit for my sister?”
“It’s hob goblin spit,” Hogsqueal said loftily.
“Gee, thanks,” Mallory said, “but I’ll pass.”
“No, look—it gives you the Sight. And that even makes sense,” Jared said. “I mean, if faerie bathwater works, then this should too.”
“I can’t even begin to express how disgusting those choices are.”
“Well, if that’s how she feels about it.” Hogsqueal was apparently trying to look offended. Jared didn’t think he was succeeding at it too well, because he was licking a bone at the same time.
“Mal, come on. You can’t wear a stone strapped to your head all the time.”
“Says you,” she replied. “Do you even know how long this spit is going to last?”
Jared hadn’t really considered that. He looked at Hogsqueal.
“Until someone pokes out your eyes,” the faerie said.
“Well, then great,” Jared said, trying to get back some control of the conversation.
Mallory sighed. “Fine, fine.” She knelt down and removed the monocle. Hogsqeal spit with great relish.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
Looking up, Jared noticed that Simon had already gone over to the griffin. He was squatting down beside it and whispering.
“Hello, griffin,” Simon was saying in his most soothing voice. “I’m not going to hurt you. We’re just going to help you get better. Come on, be good.”
The griffin let out a whine like a kettle’s whistle. Simon stroked its feathers lightly.
“Go ahead and spread out the tarp,” Simon whispered.
The griffin raised itself slightly, opening its beak, but Simon’s petting seemed to relax it. It put its head back down on the asphalt.
They unrolled the tarp behind it.
Simon knelt down by its head, talking softly with cooing words. The griffin appeared to be listening, ruffling its feathers as though Simon’s whispers might tickle.
Mallory crept up to one side of it and gently took hold of its front paws, and Jared took hold of the back.
“One, two, three,” they said together softly, then rolled the griffin onto the tarp. It squawked and flailed its legs, but by that time it was on the canvas.
Then they lifted it as much as they could and began the arduous process of dragging the griffin to the carriage house. It was lighter than Jared expected. Simon suggested that it might have hollow bones like a bird.
“So long, chidderblains,” Hogsqueal called after them.
“See you around,” Jared called back. He almost wished the hobgoblin was coming with them.
Mallory rolled her eyes.
The griffin did not enjoy its trip. They couldn’t lift it up too far, so it got dragged over bumps and bushes a lot. It screeched and squawked and fluttered its good wing. They had to stop and wait for Simon to calm it down and then start dragging again. It seemed to take forever to get the griffin back home.
Once at the carriage house, they had to open the double doors in the back and haul the griffin into one of the horse stalls. It settled in some of the old straw.
Simon knelt down to clean the griffin’s wounds as well as he could by moonlight and with only water from the hose. Jared got a bucket and filled it for the griffin to drink. It gulped gratefully.
Even Mallory pitched in, finding a motheaten blanket to drape over the animal. It almost looked tame, bandaged and sleepy in the carriage house.
At the carriage house
Even though Jared thought it was crazy to bring the griffin back there, he had to admit that he was starting to have a little affection for it. More than he had for Hogsqueal, at any rate.
By the time Jared, Simon, and Mallory limped into the house, it was very late. Mallory was still damp from her fall into the stream, and Simon’s clothes were scratched nearly to tatters. Jared had grass stains on his pants and scraped elbows from his chase through the woods. But they still had the book and the eyepiece, and Simon was carrying a kitten the color of butterscotch toffee, and all of them were still alive. From where Jared stood, those things counted as huge successes.
Their mother was on the phone when they came in. Her face was blotchy with tears. “They’re here!” She hung up the phone and stared at them for a moment. “Where were you? It is one o’clock in the morning!” She pointed her finger at Mallory. “How could you be so irresponsible?”
Mallory looked over at Jared. Simon, on his other side, looked at him too and clutched the cat to his chest. It suddenly occurred to Jared that they were waiting for him to come up with an excuse.
“Um . . . there was a cat in a tree,” Jared started. Simon gave him an encouraging smile. “That cat.” Jared indicated the kitten in Simon’s arms. “And, you see, Simon climbed up the tree, but the kitten got scared. It climbed up even farther and Simon got stuck. And I ran back and got Mallory.”
“And I tried to climb after him,” Mallory offered.
“Right,” Jared said. “She climbed after him. And then the cat jumped into another tree and Simon climbed after it, but the branch broke and he fell in a stream.”
“But his clothes aren’t wet,” their mother said, scowling.
“Jared means that I fell in the stream,” Mallory said.
“And my shoe fell in the stream,” said Simon.
“Yeah,” Jared said. “Then Simon caught the cat, but then we had to get them out of the tree without him getting clawed up.”
“It took a while,” said Simon.
Their mother gave Jared a strange look, but she didn’t yell. “You three are grounded for the rest of the month. No playing outside and no more excuses.”
Jared opened his mouth to argue, but he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
As the three of them trooped up the stairs, Jared said, “I’m sorry. I guess that was a pretty pathetic excuse.”
Mallory shook her head. “There wasn’t much you could say. You couldn’t explain what really happened.”
“Where did those goblins come from?” Jared asked. “We never even found out what they wanted.”
“The Guide,” Simon said. “That’s what I started to tell you before. They thought I had it.”
“But how? How could they know that we found it?”
“You don’t think that Thimbletack would have told them, do you?” Mallory asked.
Jared shook his head. “He didn’t want us to mess with the book in the first place.”
Mallory sighed. “Then how?”
“What if someone was watching the house, waiting for us to find the book?”
“Someone or something,” Simon added worriedly.
“But why?” Jared asked a little louder than he intended. “What’s so important about the book? I mean—could those goblins even read?”
Simon shrugged. “They didn’t really say why. They just wanted it.”
“Thimbletack was right.” Jared opened the door to the room he shared with his twin.
Simon’s bed was neatly made, the sheets pulled back and the pillow plumped. But Jared’s bed was ruined. The mattress hung from the frame, strewn with feathers and stuffing. The sheets had been ripped to ribbons.
“Thimbletack!” said Jared.
“I told you,” said Mallory. “You should never have grabbed that stone.”
About TONY DiTERLIZZI . . .
New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi has been creating books with Simon and Schuster for over a decade. From fanciful picture books such as Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure, The Spider & The Fly (a Caldecott Honor book), and those in the Adventure of Meno series (with his wife, Angela) to middle-grade fiction like Kenny and the Dragon and The Sear
ch for WondLa, Tony has always imbued his stories with a rich imagination. His middle-grade series the Spiderwick Chronicles (with Holly Black) has sold millions of copies, been adapted into a feature film, and been translated in over thirty countries. You can visit him at diterlizzi.com.
and HOLLY BLACK
Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. She is the co-creator and writer of the Spiderwick Chronicles and the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series, the Good Neighbors graphic novel trilogy (with Ted Naifeh), the Curse Workers series, and her newest novel, Doll Bones. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award, a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award. She currently lives in New England with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret door. You can visit her at blackholly.com.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Tony and Holly would like to thank
Steve and Dianna for their insight,
Starr for her honesty,
Myles and Liza for sharing the journey,
Ellen and Julie for helping make this our reality,
Kevin for his tireless enthusiasm and faith in us,
and especially Angela and Theo—
there are not enough superlatives
to describe your patience
in enduring endless nights
of Spiderwick discussion.
The text type for this book is set in Cochin.
The display types are set in Nevins Hand and Rackham.
The illustrations are rendered in pen and ink.
Production editor: Dorothy Gribbin
Art director: Dan Potash
Production manager: Chava Wolin
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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www.SimonandSchuster.com
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.
Copyright © 2003 by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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Book design by Tony DiTerlizzi and Dan Potash
This Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers hardcover edition May 2013
The Library of Congress has cataloged a previous edition as follows:
Black, Holly.
The seeing stone / Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.
p. cm. — (Spiderwick chronicles ; 2)
Sequel to: The field guide.
Summary: When Mallory and Jared attempt to rescue Simon from goblins, they use a magical stone that enables them to see things that are normally invisible.
ISBN 978-0-689-85937-3 (hc)
[1. Goblins—Fiction. 2. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 3. Single-parent families—Fiction.] I. DiTerlizzi, Tony. II. Title. III. Series.
PZ7.B52878 Go 2003
[Fic ]—dc21
2002013523
ISBN 978-1-4424-8695-9 (jacketed hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-8694-2 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-9620-0 (eBook)