He raised his dark hand, and the monkeys froze. They did, however, keep their weapons poised.
The Guardians and Toothiana stumbled forward, panting. Bunnymund had to hold up North with one set of arms and Ombric with the other.
“What is it you seek, Pitch?” Ombric asked, gasping.
“The flying elephant,” he said simply.
Toothiana’s eyes narrowed. “He will do only as I command,” she told Pitch.
“Oh, I know that, Your Highness. Please remind me—what is it you are queen of? Ah yes, a bunch of ruins. A handful of little fairies and a flying elephant. An elephant that no one ever sees. Not much of a kingdom.”
Queen Toothiana spread her wings and hissed at Pitch.
“Most articulate, Your Highness. Now, BRING OUT THE ELEPHANT, or I’ll take this child”—Pitch placed his hand dangerously close to Katherine’s brow—“and blacken her soul forever.”
Toothiana took a step toward Pitch, her swords still ready. Her face was set; she seemed determined to attack.
He gave her a shriveling look. “Oh, my dear girl. Your dinner knives can’t harm me.”
At that moment the Monkey King wrenched himself away from his elf captors and hobbled quickly to Pitch. “Master!” he blubbered. “You’ll make the elephant give me back my humanity?”
Pitch looked down at the pitiful creature and laughed. “No, you fool. I’ll ask him to remove all of mine.”
The monkey looked almost comically confused.
“It’s my only imperfection,” Pitch went on. “I can feel things. Human things. It’s my only weakness.” He glared at Toothiana. “You should understand that, Your Highness, being half human yourself. Think of what you might accomplish if you didn’t have that burden.”
Toothiana just stared at him.
“If the elephant can take away all of this miserable creature’s weaknesses,” he said, pointing to the monkey, “then it can surely take away mine.”
“If that is what you wish,” Toothiana said evenly.
“It’s the only way you’ll get her back,” said Pitch, motioning to Katherine.
North, his face a storm of fury, called out, “He’ll become invulnerable!”
Toothiana refused to look at North. “I cannot let harm come to any child.”
Then she lowered her weapons and closed her eyes. “Sisters of Flight, forgive me,” she whispered. The Guardians gazed up at the wooden statues that ringed the base of the temple. They were magnificent effigies. Beautiful winged women standing straight and tall, but frozen forever.
“If only they could help,” moaned Ombric. The wind calmed somewhat as the massive doors of the temple creaked slowly open.
At first they could see only darkness in the temple. Then the shuffle of heavy footsteps shook the ground.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Dark Surprise Or All Is Given for the Sake of Pity
IT WAS TIME. THE trap was sprung. Everyone knew their part. The flying elephant exploded from its temple. Wings outstretched, trunk and tusks raised, it knocked Pitch away from Katherine and pinned him to the ground. At that exact moment Toothiana leaped to Katherine and, with one slash of her blade, cut the vines that bound her to the post. Her six mini-selves flew like darts from their hiding places atop the temple and yanked Toothiana’s ruby-carved box from Pitch’s neck. The monkey army, momentarily stunned by the surprise attack, quickly recovered and fell upon the Guardians, certain that they would kill them on the spot.
They were in for another surprise.
“No more playacting!” North shouted out, brandishing his swords with characteristic fury. Bunnymund and Ombric dropped their exhausted posing and became dervishes of action, knocking out monkeys by the score. The Yetis, elves, and citizens of Santoff Claussen followed suit. It had all been an act! They weren’t beaten at all! The battle became feverish within seconds.
But there were more surprises yet.
Toothiana grabbed her ruby relic from her mini-selves, held it to her chest, and repeated the call she’d made only once before: “Mother, Father, help me.” No sooner had she spoken these words than hundreds—no, thousands—of mini-versions of herself began to stream from her like waves of light.
Nicholas St. North will do his best against the worst.
They swarmed the monkeys like an endless army of hornets, their tiny swords and arrows slicing the monkeys to ribbons.
Pitch struggled against the elephant’s weight, and from the roof of the temple, Nightlight took careful aim. The final blow would come from his staff.
Katherine knew what was coming. One of Toothiana’s mini-selves who had flown to her outside the temple had told her every detail of the Guardians’ bold plan. Now that Katherine was free from Pitch’s clutches, he would die. In a moment Nightlight’s diamond-tipped staff, sharper than any spear—and the only weapon that had ever pierced the villain’s heart—would do so once more.
All around was the crazy havoc of battle. Monkeys, Yetis, wizard, villains, and heroes were locked in a battle to the death. Everyone but Katherine. She stood still, looking down at Pitch. In that moment he knew her thoughts. He knew that his doom was an instant away. And Katherine saw fear in his eyes.
There was one thing she must know before the end. So she did something that was not in the plan.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The Winds of Change
NIGHTLIGHT BLINKED. HE COULDN’T throw his staff. Katherine was in the way!
Move! he thought as hard as he could. But Katherine did not answer.
He knew that something was terribly wrong. As fast as his considerable powers would propel him, he flew. But the disaster unfolded faster than could be reckoned with.
Katherine stared at Pitch’s hand. Its flesh color had spread up his arm, all the way to the shoulder. But that’s not what held her mesmerized. It was the locket. In his hand, Pitch still gripped the locket. In fact, the locket seemed to have fused to his fingers, become a part of him. The same locket that she had shown him at the battle of the Earth’s core. The locket that had carried a picture of Pitch’s lost daughter. But whose picture would be in it? Would Katherine’s face be there? Would her nightmare be true?
It took all her courage to look. And then she saw. The picture was almost gone; only scraps of it remained—Pitch had clearly tried to tear it away. But Katherine could see just enough to know that it was the old image of Pitch’s daughter. She felt a sort of relief, but then she looked in Pitch’s eyes again. They were so anguished, afraid, lost in pain. He doesn’t deserve to die, she thought. Even the worst villain needs pity. He was a father and a hero once. He did not chart his past or the present.
Pitch is fallen.
What Katherine felt, that strange mix of revulsion and sorrow that overwhelmed her, was instantly felt by all the Guardians.
Then Pitch’s other hand reached out and grabbed hers. Her eyes widened. Pitch’s touch was unexpectedly gentle.
Nightlight tried to break Pitch’s hold on Katherine, but before he could do so, the wind picked up again, gusts of it whipping through the clearing, bending trees in half, ripping leaves from their branches.
The sky darkened faster than any of them ever experienced before. A swirling mass of clouds broke through the treetops and descended into the clearing. In the midst of it all was a tall, cloaked woman who held herself with a regal air. Her face was long yet lovely, and years older than they remembered from the picture they had seen. Icy nuggets of hail and bolts of lightning churned around her as the cloud mass moved toward Pitch and Katherine, then engulfed them.
Mother Nature makes a dramatic and unexpected appearance.
Then, as suddenly as the cloud had arrived, it was gone.
And with it, Katherine and Pitch.
The monkey army had scrambled back to the jungle. All who remained stood there speechless. Katherine was gone! They’d failed.
North was the first gather his wits. “That woman in the clouds. Pitch’s daughter?�
��
Ombric looked at Nightlight. He did not have to ask the question out loud for Nightlight to understand.
Nightlight shimmered a response.
But his answer was one that Ombric never expected. He turned to Toothiana. She nodded. The old wizard blinked rapidly, processing what he’d just learned. North cleared his throat impatiently. “Spit it out, old man.”
Ombric tugged at his beard once, then a second time, then at last he said, “She has another name, apparently. By some she’s known as Mother Nature.”
Bunnymund’s left ear twitched, then his right one did same. “I’ve encountered this being before,” said the Pooka. “She’s not always a benevolent soul, and she is very unpredictable.”
The villagers, the children, the Yeti—all of them gathered. The Guardians looked to the coming dawn, bound by one emotion. Not fear or hate or vengeance. It was that feeling of pity Katherine had for Pitch.
Toothiana spoke what everyone was feeling. “We didn’t fail, but we did lose our way. We wanted to kill,” she said softly.
“We were no better than Pitch. Perhaps worse,” said Ombric.
“But Katherine remembered,” said North quietly.
So they stood on the peak of Punjam Hy Loo, weary but alive and certain of one thing: Katherine’s strength had been greater than theirs. And they hoped and believed that this strength would keep her safe past the dawn of this new day.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
THE NEXT CHAPTER IN OUR ONGOING SAGA
THE
SANDMAN
AND THE WAR OF DREAMS
Featuring the desperate mission to save Katherine and the appearance of a wayward lad of considerable interest named Jackson Overland Frost.
William Joyce has spent most of his life deciphering the long-lost and nearly destroyed records of the beginnings of the Man in the Moon, E. Aster Bunnymund, and all the other Guardians of Childhood. In addition to the Guardians series, he has created many picture books, including the New York Times bestselling The Man in the Moon, George Shrinks, Dinosaur Bob, and Santa Calls; won three Emmy Awards; and is currently codirecting Rise of the Guardians with DreamWorks Animation. He lives in Shreveport, Louisiana. You can visit him at moonbotstudios.com.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster • New York
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Also by William Joyce
THE GUARDIANS OF CHILDHOOD: BOOK ONE
The Man in the Moon
THE GUARDIANS OF CHILDHOOD: BOOK TWO
The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2011 by William Joyce and Laura Geringer
Illustrations copyright © 2011 by William Joyce
Rise of the Guardians TM & © 2011 Dreamworks Animation, LLC. “Pitch” character design and related elements used with permission. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
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The illustrations for this book are rendered in a combination of charcoal, graphite, and digital media.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Joyce, William, 1957–
Nicholas St. North and the battle of the Nightmare King / by William Joyce and Laura Geringer ; illumination by William Joyce. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (The Guardians ; 1)
Summary: Nicholas St. North, a daredevil swordsman seeking treasure in the fiercely guarded village of Santoff Claussen finds, instead, the great wizard Ombric Shalazar and a battle against the Nightmare King and his evil Fearlings.
ISBN 978-1-4424-3048-8
ISBN 978-1-4424-3575-9 (eBook)
[1. Good and evil—Fiction. 2. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction.
3. Nightmares—Fiction. 4. Wizards—Fiction. 5. Heroes—Fiction. 6. Moon—Fiction. 7. Santa Claus—Fiction.] I. Bass, L. G. (Laura Geringer). II. Title.
PZ7.J857Nic 2011
[Fic]—dc23 2011015074
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by William Joyce
Rise of the GuardiansTM & © 2012 DreamWorks Animation, LLC.
“Pitch” character design and related elements used with permission. All rights reserved. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Book design by Lauren Rille
The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.
The illustrations for this book are rendered in a combination of charcoal, graphite, and digital media.
CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4424-3050-1
ISBN 978-1-4424-4991-6 (eBook)
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
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 © 2012 by William Joyce
Rise of the GuardiansTM & © 2012 DreamWorks Animation, LLC.
“Pitch” character design and related elements used with permission. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Atheneum logo is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Book design by Lauren Rille
The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.
The illustrations for this book are rendered in a combination of charcoal, graphite, and digital media.
CIP data for this book is available from the Library
of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4424-3052-5
ISBN 978-1-4424-5461-3 (eBook)
The Guardians: Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King Page 27
