by Debbie Dadey
“See?” Penny said to Mr. Leery. “There’s no way we can hide them. What are we going to do?”
Luke held out his hand, a grin spreading across his face. “Maybe we don’t want to hide them,” he said. “Just think about the looks on the teachers’ faces when they see a dragon staring them down. We’d never be sent to the principal’s office again!”
“Oh, no no no no,” Mr. Leery said. “You cannot let your links be discovered. That could mean the beginning of chaos.”
“Then you’ll have to figure out a way to hide them,” Penny said.
“That’s it!” Mr. Leery said. “We’ll hide them.”
Their neighbor faced the bushes one more time and began to mutter. A faint rustling came from deep within the tangled thorns. The sound grew louder and louder. The bushes trembled and swayed until something finally emerged near Mr. Leery’s knees.
Penny gasped. Luke jumped back.
Kirin rolled her eyes. Dracula hopped up and down. “It’s Snuffles! It’s Snuffles!”
A hairy spider with legs the size of baseball bats stepped into Mr. Leery’s yard. A hundred eyes blinked at Penny and Luke before the arachnid looked back at Mr. Leery.
“I wouldn’t ask,” Mr. Leery said, “if it wasn’t important. But the safety of our world depends on it. Please. Would you?”
The spider named Snuffles rubbed her front two legs together as if she were sharpening knives, but then she heaved a giant sigh and went to work forming silver threads that glistened for the briefest of moments only to seemingly disappear into the night air.
“What is she doing?” Penny asked, still afraid to step closer.
“What all spiders do. Weaving,” Mr. Leery said. “But of course, Snuffles is no humdrum spider. She weaves webs of invisibility. They’re a tad bit sticky, but they should do the trick. At least until your links learn tricks of their own.”
The kids watched as Snuffles’ work obliterated a portion of the bushes behind her. “We’ll leave her to her work,” Mr. Leery said. “By morning there should be a web for both of you to use.”
Just then, a rat scurried through the tangle of bushes in the back of the yard.
“Out of my way, out of my way, out of my way,” the rat panted as it flitted across the yard and scurried over Mo’s paws.
Mo reached out and stopped it with a paw on the rat’s tail. The rat squirmed and wiggled, but Mo’s paw held firm.
“Let me go, you mangy cat,” the rat squealed. “Can’t you see? I’m in a hurry!”
Mo licked his chops as Mr. Leery scooped up the rat and carried it inside. “Oh dear, oh dear,” Mr. Leery said. “I was afraid of this.”
“Afraid of what?” Penny asked. Kirin clomped into the cottage after her, followed by Luke.
Dracula flew in after Luke and landed on a bookcase. Books and wood flew in all directions.
“Oops,” Dracula giggled when Mr. Leery eyed the splintered wood with a raised eyebrow.
Mr. Leery closed the door and drew the shades again before speaking. “Three links mean three new Keyholders,” Mr. Leery said as he placed the rat on a stool. “I was hoping I could wait to choose the third, but the link is ready. I am out of time.”
“You mean a common rat is a link?” Penny asked.
The rat stopped squirming long enough to twitch her whiskers at Penny. “Common? There is nothing common about me. Now, let me go. I have places to go. My link to meet. A world to save!”
Just then there was a knock at the door. Mr. Leery nodded. “That will be the third Keyholder now.” He opened the door.
Penny and Luke couldn’t believe who it was.
“Wait until I tell my father that this place is infested…infested, I say, with RATS!” Natalie said, staring at the trembling rat in Mr. Leery’s arms.
Penny and Luke stared at each other in horror.
“You have got to be kidding,” Penny said.
Luke stepped back and bumped into Dracula. “I am not going to be a Keyholder with her.”
Buttercup, the rat, waved at Natalie with one paw. “Got cheese?”
Natalie took one look at the rat and fell over backward. Her legs stuck up in the air like a dead horse. Her pencil and notebook skidded across the floor and landed on Luke’s sneaker.
“Here, in this humble cottage, lies the fate of the world as we know it,” Mr. Leery said solemnly.
Luke took one look at Natalie. “If we’re depending on her to help save the world, then we’re in big trouble. Big trouble.”
Mo snickered. “For better or worse, it is done. The Keyholders are complete.”
Turn the page for a sneak peak at
* * *
KEYHOLDERS #2
THE OTHER SIDE OF MAGIC
* * *
1
“Can she breathe? Quick! Somebody do CPR!” Buttercup the rat cried, putting her paws on her cheeks in rat panic. She gnawed on Natalie’s shoelaces.
Natalie sat in a kitchen chair in the middle of Mr. Leery’s kitchen. Her mouth opened and closed like a guppy, but no sounds came out. A pink notebook slipped from her lap and smacked onto the floor, startling the rat on her sneakers.
Penny and Luke stared at Natalie. They had never gotten along with their neighbor and fifthgrade classmate, mostly because she always bragged about everything her dad bought her. But that didn’t mean they liked seeing Natalie gasping for breath.
“Well, this is going well,” Mo said sarcastically. Mr. Leery’s black cat sat on top of the counter. He lifted a huge paw and casually cleaned the tuft of hair between his ears.
“Hush, Mo,” Mr. Leery said. “The girl has suffered a shock. Give her time to get used to the idea. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
“Natalie Lawson has never been fine,” Luke muttered. “And she’s never been speechless, either.”
Penny swatted Luke on the arm. “Well, there’s a first time for everything,” she said. “Now, be nice.”
“Why?” Luke asked. “It’s Natalie. She’s never nice to us.”
“Oh dear, oh dear,” Mr. Leery said, bending down in front of Natalie and snapping his fingers in front of her eyes. “Talk to me, child.”
Natalie’s eyes slowly focused on the old man. For as long as anyone could remember, Mr. Leery had lived in this small cottage at the dead end of the last street in Morgantown. Everyone thought he was harmless. Luke and Penny knew he was much more than that, and now Natalie was beginning to find out how deceiving looks could be.
“Rats,” Natalie mumbled as she gradually remembered where she was. “I saw rats. Here. Your house. It’s infested. With rats. Must tell. My father.”
“No, no, no,” Luke said. “Don’t you remember a word of what we told you?”
Penny and Luke had helped Mr. Leery explain everything to Natalie. But as soon as she’d seen the dragon and unicorn she’d totally blanked out.
“This isn’t a rat,” Penny said, pointing to the animal perched on Natalie’s shoe.
“Yes it is,” Mo purred. “A big, fat, juicy one.”
Buttercup squeaked and gnawed on the lace edge of Natalie’s sock.
“Shh, Mo,” Mr. Leery said. “You’re not helping.”
Penny started over. “Okay. This is a rat. But it’s not a normal everyday kind of rat. She’s your link. Just like Kirin is my link.”
At the sound of her name, a unicorn clomped into the kitchen from the living room to gaze at Natalie. “How many times do we have to go over this?” the unicorn snapped. “I’m hungry.”
“And Dracula is my link,” Luke added, ignoring Kirin’s complaint.
“That’s me! That’s me!” sang a dragon the size of a Doberman pinscher as he flapped into the kitchen. The kitchen was too small for his wings and he ruffled everyone’s hair as he searched for a place to land.
“They came from the other side of the border,” Penny explained.
Everyone in Morgantown knew about the thorny bushes at the edge of their town that had been there for as l
ong as they could remember. What they didn’t realize was that the bushes formed a magical border between what was real and what was magic. The only people who were allowed to know were the Keyholders, a force of three whose job it was to maintain the border.
“Mr. Leery chose us as the new Keyholders,” Luke said. “It’s going to be our job to make sure magic stays out of our world.”
“But to be a Keyholder you have to be chosen by a link from the other side of magic,” Mr. Leery added. “And this very special creature chose you.”
Natalie glanced down at Buttercup. The rat stopped gnawing long enough to give Natalie a small wave with her paw. The color faded from Natalie’s face and she shuddered. She looked up. Her eyes landed on the unicorn peering over Penny’s shoulder.
“Back up,” Penny told the unicorn. “Give Natalie some room to breathe.”
When Kirin took a step backward, she trampled Dracula’s tail. Dracula swooped up, knocking over a pitcher of water from the counter. Buttercup squeaked as the pitcher smashed to the floor within inches of her tail. Kirin automatically tossed her head at the high-pitched sound, her horn catching in the curtains and ripping them off the window.
“Enough!” Mr. Leery bellowed and raised his arms. The room fell silent.
Except for Natalie. Natalie whimpered.
“I would not have placed this burden on you at this time if it wasn’t an emergency,” Mr. Leery said. “But it is. Two Keyholders are gone and I can no longer protect the border by myself. I need your help, Natalie. Yours and Penny’s and Luke’s. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to have your official ceremony. For now I will give you this for…protection.” Mr. Leery took the bracelet from his wrist. It was silver like Penny and Luke’s, but this one had a purple stone. It was a perfect match to the collar dangling from Buttercup’s neck, the very one that used to hang on Mo.
“That silver will keep the boggarts and goblins away,” Kirin said with a nod of her horn. “That and bells work every time.”
Dracula flapped his wings so that he could hop up and down. “Bell! Bells! I like bells!”
“But I don’t want to be what you said,” Natalie whispered. “A Keyholder.”
“Too late,” Luke said. “You already are one. The rat picked you.”
Buttercup spit out a shoelace. “Just barely in time. I say, barely in time,” she babbled. “Because the Queen of the Boggarts is out to get us, one and all!”
Starscape Books by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones
Keyholders #1: This Side of Magic
Keyholders #2: The Other Side of Magic
Coming Soon:
Keyholders #3: Inside the Magic
Keyholders #4: The Wrong Side of Magic
About the Authors
MARCIA THORNTON JONES enjoys reading more than anything else. As a teacher, her favorite part of the school day was sharing books with her students. It was that love of reading that drew her to writing. She wanted to write the same kinds of stories that she and her students enjoyed reading. One afternoon she mentioned to the school librarian that she’d always had an interest in writing. The librarian, Debbie Dadey, shared a desire to write stories that would encourage reading skills while promoting a true joy of reading. The next afternoon, Marcia and Debbie met while their students were at lunch and began writing. That story, “Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots,” became the first book in their bestselling series The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids.
Marcia lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, Stephen, and their two cats. For more information about Marcia, her books, author visits, and for activities related to her books, check out Marcia’s Web site: www.marciatjones.com
DEBBIE DADEY taught first grade before becoming a librarian. It was while teaching that she first realized how much she wanted to write a book for reluctant readers. Her first book, coauthored with fellow teacher Marcia Thornton Jones, was about a mysterious teacher. Since then, Debbie and Marcia have collaborated on more than 125 books with sales of over forty million copies.
Debbie lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Eric, three dogs, and three children. Her Web site is www.debbiedadey.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
KEYHOLDERS #1: THIS SIDE OF MAGIC
Copyright © 2009 by Debra S. Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones
The Other Side of Magic excerpt copyright © 2009 by Debra S.
Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones
All rights reserved.
Illustrations and map copyright © 2009 by Adam Stower
A Starscape Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
ISBN: 978-1-4668-0634-4
