‘It will be a long time before you have to choose. Father won’t bring any more suitors to the palace, not when he hears what happened in Cadell. You would only send them away, like before.’
‘Do you know why I sent all those young men away, Marcel? Because I didn’t know what kind of man I wanted for a husband. Now I do. He’ll be a man like Finn.’
The horses were ready and the remaining daylight wouldn’t lengthen just for them, yet still they lingered, looking down at a kingdom they hadn’t seen with these eyes before.
‘What about you, Marcel? Are you going to let the chancellor boss you around like he’s done for the past year?’
‘Maybe he should spend some time as a fish.’
Nicola laughed, just for a moment. It would be a long time before she could laugh freely; a long time before there was no pain even in the simple act of breathing.
‘I’m serious,’ she went on. ‘You’re going to be my Master of the Books one day. I need you to be happy.’
‘Seriously then,’ Marcel muttered, putting his mind to the matter. ‘Well, since I have a choice at last, no robes. Rhys doesn’t wear them and he’s the Grand Master of Noam, and I’m not going to act like an old man when I’m not. Oh, and some friends.’
‘Like Hugh and Dominic?’
‘I suppose.’
In fact, Marcel wasn’t thinking about the two boys from Fallside, much as he’d enjoyed their company. He had someone else in mind entirely.
The thought made him suddenly eager to be home and, without realising what he was doing, he kicked Gadfly in the flanks. She snorted in disgust and stayed where she was. Riders didn’t kick a horse that could sprout wings when magic granted her heart’s desire. Marcel apologised with a pat to the side of her neck, which was enough to get Gadfly moving. Nicola’s mount fell into stride beside them. At this pace they would reach the palace well before dark.
IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT, four faceless men bring a sleeping boy to an orphanage in the remote high country of Elster. Here, an ageing wizard, Lord Alwyn, steals away the boy’s memory using the magical Book of Lies. But Lord Alwyn is secretly thwarted by a girl called Bea, who hears the boy’s name: Marcel.
Marcel learns that the mysterious Book can tell falsehood from truth. But can it tell him who he really is? When a stranger arrives, Marcel discovers he has a vital part to play if the Kingdom is to be saved from evil.
But something’s not right. Is the stranger all that he claims to be? And what should Marcel make of the ominous golden verses that suddenly appear in the Book itself? Does the Book really tell truth from lies?
About the Author
JAMES MOLONEY is one of Australia’s most respected and awarded children’s authors. He has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award twice — for Swashbuckler in 1996 and A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove in 1997. His comic novel for young adults, Black Taxi, was shortlisted for the CBCA Award for Older Readers in 2004, and The Book of Lies was a Notable Book in the 2005 Awards and was also featured in the 2006 Books Alive campaign. He lives in Brisbane with his wife and three children.
Praise for The Book of Lies
‘A rich and wonderful tale of high fantasy to be read
under the covers with a torch … and the doors
deadlocked. Twice!’
GARY CREW, FOUR TIMES WINNER, AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN’S BOOK COUNCIL
CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘Having seen this book disappear into the hands of a
young reader and then battled long and hard to get it
back, a reviewer wonders if James Moloney needs
any further endorsement.’
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
‘A classic adventure/quest story with clever twists
provided by the slippery deceptiveness of identity.’
VIEWPOINT
‘One of Moloney’s best books. Subtle in style …
Satisfyingly bittersweet.’
FANTASTIC QUEENSLAND
‘A beautifully produced book full of enough twists
and turns to give you whiplash.’
READING FOR LIFE, NEWSLETTER FROM AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR YOUTH
LITERATURE
‘The Book of Lies is one of the most exhilarating
books I’ve ever read. Each page is filled with
adventure, intrigue, and deceit. I couldn’t wait to get
to the next page to see what happened next.’
ELOVEAN — BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
Copyright
A NOTE ON THE COVER: The pictures on the cover are steel engravings, the most efficient way of printing images in the nineteenth century, which have been made into a collage using the computer technology of the twenty-first century.
Angus&Robertson
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in Australia in 2007
This edition published in 2013
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Ltd
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Buena Vista Books 2007
The right of James Moloney to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand
77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom
2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada
10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Moloney, James, 1954–.
The Master of the Books.
For children aged 8–12.
ISBN: 978 0 207 20083 0. (pbk)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 4407 7 (epub)
1. Fantasy fiction, Australian. I. Title.
A823.3
Cover by Jenny Grigg
Master of the Books Page 29
