“Trapped!”
The tent swung wildly around Sophie as she rolled out of her hammock and her feet slammed into the ground. Her heart raced, as if she, too, had just galloped across a meadow of stars. With her hand (and they were still hands, thank the diamonds above, and not hooves that could split the earth), she pushed dark hair out of her eyes.
Sophie knew the moment before she heard the slight hiss of metal that Sena had drawn Fireblood.
“What’s happening?” Sena demanded, just as a tousled Nett sleepily asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Sophie said, feeling as though her blood had been replaced by sunlight. Though her heart raced and sweat dampened her cheeks, she felt like laughing. She felt like triumph. How weird it had been, to share a dream with the unicorn. How utterly and completely spectacular!
And for a moment, she’d even seen him: a creature of wind and radiance. Though long whiskers covered his muzzle and the once snowy flank appeared tinged with a rain-wash gray, there was still starfire in his eyes, and the tip of his glorious horn twisted to a sharp point. This was not a docile creature.
And at last, Sophie knew why the unicorn hadn’t come, when Claire (Princess Claire!) had called with her flute.
Trapped.
And the images the unicorn shared: a lock, a thimble, a basket. Metal, thread, reed. Forger, Spinner, Tiller. One of the guilds had already found the unicorn.
“Claire!” Sophie said, fumbling in the dark toward her sister’s hammock. “I know where the unicorn is! Or, at least, I have an idea. He’s—Claire?!”
The hammock in front of her swayed slightly in the night’s breeze … empty.
No, not completely empty.
There, on top of the blanket that Claire should be snuggling under, was a paper flower. Picking it up, Sophie saw faint pencil marks crawling up it like smudged ants.
S—
The queen knows what you are. Which means you need to stay safe, in Woven Root. But I’ll fix this. I promise.
Acknowledgments
Inspiration, dedication, and courage aren’t just the rules for magic—they’re also the rules of writing. And, over the course of crafting Secret in the Stone, I relied on many people to find the necessary inspiration, dedication, and courage to set my fingers to the keyboard and dive headfirst into the story.
A tremendous amount of thanks is owed to the incredible team at Glasstown Entertainment: Laura Parker, Lexa Hillyer, Emily Berge, and Lynley Bird. A special thanks to Emily, whose enthusiasm and knowledge of childhood classics makes me excited to write, and to Lexa, who knows how to spot the potential in a writer and bring forth all the possibilities. Thank you, too, to literary agent extraordinaire Stephen Barbara, who always knows which road leads to the most unicorns, and to the rest of Inkwell Management Literary Agency, especially Lyndsey Blessing and Claire Draper.
Many thanks to my Bloomsbury family, who have adopted me in more ways than one. There’s no one else I’d rather go on a quest with than my editor Sarah Shumway, whose thoughtfulness, curiosity, and willingness for adventure gives me the courage to plunge back into the pages. Claire and Sophie are lucky to have you as their guide. Thank you as well to Cindy Loh, Erica Barmash, Anna Bernard, Bethany Buck, Alexis Castellanos, John Candell, Phoebe Dyer, Beth Eller, Alona Fryman, Emily Gerbner, Cristina Gilbert, Courtney Griffin, Melissa Kavonic, Erica Loberg, Donna Mark, Elizabeth Mason, Patricia McHugh, Linda Minton, Brittany Mitchell, Oona Patrick, Annette Pollert-Morgan, Emily Ritter, Claire Stetzer, and Nick Sweeney. And across the Atlantic, a heartful thanks to the members of the UK team who have provided such a warm welcome: Elise Burns, Naomi Burt, Nicholas Church, Laura Main Ellen, Maia Fjord, Cesca Hopwood, Lena Kraemer, Fabia Ma, Lucy Mackay-Sim, Emily Marples, Emily Moran, and Emily Monckton-Milnes. And of course, thank you to Vivienne To and Matt Saunders, the illustrators of my US and UK covers, respectively, and who would each earn an A+++ in magic art school. Your beautiful covers have been one of my biggest delights in this authoring journey.
And speaking of magical learning, I am incredibly grateful to the many teachers I’ve had, and not just those who were in the school classroom. Thank you to Pat Righter, Cindy Lamberjack, Buff Whaley, Kathleen Prater, Jennie Pitman, Carolyn F., Susan Maul—all of whom have pointed me in the direction of magic in the real world, either on horseback, on ice, in music, or in thread. I am also very grateful to my North Park Avenue neighbors and friends for allowing me to spend my childhood running through their backyards and playing the make-believe games that were all a rehearsal for writing this story. Special thanks to the Blythe, Howald, Mills, Molander, Rodriguez, Reiffers, Snyder, and Williams families. Finally, a huge, massive thank you to Master Librarian Jennifer Burns and St. Luke Catholic Elementary School for your boundless enthusiasm and support—go Rams!
The learning process never really ends. I’ve learned so much about storytelling—and continue to do so through Sarah Jane Abbott, Melissa Albert, Rhoda Belleza, Kati Gyulassy, Kristina Pérez, Tara Sonin, Annie Stone, and Angela Velez. Thank you in particular to Medea Asatiani, Catherine Bates, and Matthew Richman who truly gave me the courage to persevere and whose feedback was invaluable. Often, the best teachers of all are years younger. Secret in the Stone would not be the book it is today without the sharp eyes of Liz Silva, D. J. Silva, Molly Silva, Katie Blacquier, Charlotte Blacquier, and Eliza Blacquier. I also have so much gratitude for Amelia Possanza, Mariel Freyre, and Caroline Dunphy, who all told me go write—and look! I finally did.
A most heartfelt thank you to Marguerite, Zoltán, Gabriella, and Matthias Benko who are always ready to talk about magic, quests, and unicorns at any moment. A special thank you to Papa, who knew what I was trying to say, even before I knew myself. You all continue to be my greatest source of inspiration. And finally, thank you to my husband, Andrej Ficnar, who will complain that he is mentioned last, but that is only because I would never have gotten to these final sentences without his willingness to venture into new worlds with me. You are the perfect ending for this story, and a perfect beginning for the next one.
BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN’S BOOKS
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This electronic edition first published in the United States of America in February 2019 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Text copyright © 2019 by Kamilla Benko
Map copyright © 2019 by Diana Sousa
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Benko, Kamilla, author.
Title: Secret in the stone / by Kamilla Benko.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury, 2019.
Summary: Claire and Sophie journey to Stonehaven where Claire can be trained to use her Gemmer abilities to awaken the unicorns, but Sophie discovers they are in great danger.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018026348 (print) • LCCN 2018033834 (e-book)
ISBN 978-1-68119-247-5 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-68119-248-2 (e-book)
Subjects: | CYAC: Sisters—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Unicorns—Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B4537 Sec 2019 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B4537 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018026348
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