by Nancy Yi Fan
All this might not have been possible without Dandelion. While I brought music to the summit, I believe Dandelion taught Sword Mountain something just as important. She showed that a valley orphan could make friends with anybird on the mountaintop. I shall sing of her story to the hatchlings and fledglings in every forest, desert, and sea: how a dandelion seed can thrive happily wherever it is blown.
Now, as music fills our mountains, I feel the silence in other places. The world beyond Sword Mountain needs me, too. When my old friend Winger the woodpecker scribe asked me if I would like to spread the Old Scripture with him, I knew it was time to put on my bard’s garb again and bid good-bye to Sword Mountain. My father held my claws in his rough old talons and nodded. “Go, my son,” he said. “With a new generation of birds like Dandelion, strong and joyous, the kingdom will be in good wings.”
Farewell, Sword Mountain! I shall sing of you from the corners of the world.
Fleydur
Hope be with you as you rise.
—FROM THE OLD SCRIPTURE
EPILOGUE
RISING
Before the sun emerged to warm the crisp autumn sky, Dandelion and Cloud-wing stood on the summit of Sword Mountain.
The curved rooftop of the Vision School beckoned to them from the other end of the mountain range. Dandelion’s backpack was ready; her sword was strapped at her side. Dandelion would have a new place to flourish, but she would never forget Sword Mountain. It was the place where she was hurt and healed, where she grew up and grew strong.
“I’ve made a sky lantern,” Dandelion told Cloud-wing. She held a small bamboo cross in her claws, which was fitted inside a cylinder made of thin, waxed paper.
On the paper she had written:
Mother, Father,
I miss you. Don’t worry, I am thriving.
Your Dandelion
In the middle of the flat cross she placed the sky-born candle from long ago. Dandelion had kept it with her always but never dared to light it, for she’d been afraid that it would burn away too quickly, leaving her with emptiness. She remembered clearly how it had lit up the faces of her mother and father. Now she was finally ready to light it again.
Dandelion lit the candle. As Cloud-wing steadied the bamboo frame, she held up the waxed paper balloon. Tears spilled from her eyes, but they were not just of sadness now.
The two eagles watched the paper globe billowing with warmth, slowly expanding, trembling with life.
“Let go,” Dandelion whispered.
She and Cloud-wing stepped back. And the lantern rose by itself, illuminating their faces, then rising gently over their heads.
“It’s so beautiful, Dandelion,” Cloud-wing said.
Over the mountaintop, in the wind, it sailed. It swayed gently in the silken breeze, circled around Sword Cliff and beyond. It was a miracle that a single small birthday candle could cast so much light and propel this vessel toward the faint stars in the black dome of sky, till it seemed a star itself.
Dandelion had no doubt now. “To fly, there must be a special force inside you.” And she had given the candle her force.
As she flew toward the Vision School with Cloud-wing, she closed her eyes. In her mind she saw the little lantern, filled with hope and love, rising, rising, as night swept into day.
MAJOR CHARACTERS
Characters are golden eagles unless stated otherwise.
AMICUS—the secretary of the court.
BLAZE—a student at Rockbottom Academy.
BLITZ—a student at Rockbottom Academy.
CLOUD-WING—friend of Dandelion; four-acorn eaglet; son of the general of the Sword Mountain army.
DANDELION—a valley-born eaglet, brought to live on the mountaintop.
FLEYDUR—prince; elder son of Morgan, King of Skythunder; bard.
FORLATH—prince; younger son of Morgan, King of Skythunder; brother of Fleydur.
ISOBELLO—peregrine falcon; a student at Rockbottom Military Academy.
KAWAKA—archaeopteryx; former head knight of the archaeopteryx empire; ally of Tranglarhad.
MORGAN—King of Skythunder, whose castle is on Sword Mountain; leader of the Skythunder tribe of eagles; husband of Sigrid; father of Fleydur and Forlath.
OLGA—half-acorn eaglet.
PANDEY—osprey; a student at Rockbottom Academy.
POULDINGTON—four-acorn eaglet; son of the treasurer of Sword Mountain; nicknamed Pudding.
SIGRID—Queen of Skythunder; second wife of Morgan; mother of Forlath; stepmother of Fleydur.
SIMPLICIO—onetime tutor of the castle children; member of the Iron Nest.
TRANGLARHAD—eagle owl; High Owl of Optical Theories (H.O.O.T.), owner of the Knautyorsbut Mine under Sword Mountain; second tutor of the court children; ally of Kawaka.
URI—valet to Fleydur.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deep thanks go to Ms. Phoebe Yeh, editorial director at HarperCollins Children’s Books. It is she who has helped me all the way. Her careful eye, kind guidance, and unwavering belief in the Swordbird series have given me confidence to experiment and strive further.
I would like to thank other people at HarperCollins for their continuing support in all sorts of ways: Ms. Susan Katz, president of HarperCollins Children’s Books; Ms. Kate Jackson, senior vice president of HarperCollins Children’s Books; Ms. Jean McGinley, subsidiary rights director; Ms. Jessica MacLeish; and the rest of the Harper team. Thanks also to Mr. Mark Zug for his beautiful cover art.
Special thanks are given to Ms. Oprah Winfrey for featuring me and the Swordbird series on her show; to Ms. Leah Wilson, editor, for inviting me to write an essay about animal fantasy for the anthology Secrets of the Dragon Riders; and to Mr. Wu Xiqing, president of the Vast Plain Publishing House in Taiwan, for his enthusiasm in publishing the traditional Chinese version of the Swordbird series.
My IB program teachers are all my Fleydurs and deserve many thanks. Their marvelous teaching gave me lots of inspiration for writing Sword Mountain. And, as always, I would like to thank Mrs. Diane Goodwin, one of my earliest teachers, whose care has been unwavering.
I am profoundly grateful to my grandparents, parents, relatives, and friends for their wholehearted support, which has never failed to fill me with the glow of a hundred candles.
Of course, I want to thank my birds as well—they are the original dancers of the schwa-schwa. In the midst of my writing, Ever-sky, my blue lovebird, laid six eggs, and the first baby lovebird hatched the day I finished my first draft.
Finally, thank you, my readers. Your curiosity and anticipation always propel me on.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NANCY YI FAN is the New York Times bestselling author of SWORDBIRD and SWORD QUEST. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show as one of the World’s Smartest Kids and on The Martha Stewart Show. Nancy spent part of her childhood in China, where she was born in 1993. Birds have been a lifelong passion of hers and provided the inspiration for her novels. She began writing her first novel, SWORDBIRD, when she was eleven years old. Nancy attends Harvard University.
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CREDITS
Cover art © 2012 by Mark Zug
COPYRIGHT
Sword Mountain
Text copyright © 2012 by Nancy Yi Fan
Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Mark Zug
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fan, Nancy Yi.
Sword Mountain / Nancy Yi Fan.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(Swordbird)
Summary: When adopted by the eagle prince, a valley-born eaglet must learn to become a princess and also a heroine.
ISBN 978-0-06-165108-3
EPub Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN 9780062114587
1. Children’s writings, American. [1. Birds—Fiction. 2. Adoption—Fiction. 3. Kings, queens, rulers, etc.—Fiction. 4. Heroes—Fiction. 5. Fantasy. 6. Children’s writings.] I. Title.
PZ7.F19876Swk 2012
2011044621
[Fic]—dc23
CIP
AC
* * *
12 13 14 15 16 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
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