TruthSinger
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About this ebook
Nathan loves music and is able to hear songs, songs that reveal the truth of whatever or whoever he meets. But he fears that his music and ultimately, Nathan himself, have played a very big role in his parents’ separation. To add to his worries, Nathan has moved with his mother, to his Uncle Nevill’s house, an eccentric, mysterious old man. He also has to deal with a school bully, and an unwanted, but insistent friend, Katie, who performs “magic.”
Nathan and Katie are inadvertently caught in the summoning of Uncle Nevill by Myrrd, Wyndcaller of Angliocch, and find themselves in the middle of a power struggle between a boy king and a sorceress in a kingdom on a parallel world. In Angliocch, Nathan learns to embrace his gifts for music and hearing and uses them to play an instrumental role in helping the boy king ascend the throne.
“Eventful and readable, The Truthsinger is a good fantasy...”
– Quill and Quire
“Descriptive passages come with an enviable agility of tone and there is a general economy in the writing that would be admirable in any novelist of any genre.”
– Resource Links, June 1997
“From the threads of music and magic inherent in language, Haworth-Attard skilfully weaves the cloth of a superbly literate fantasy.”
– Canadian Book Review Annual 1997
Barbara Haworth-Attard
BARBARA HAWORTH -ATTARD is an acclaimed children’s author, enjoyed by critics and readers alike. Theories of Relativity was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, among other prizes, and Irish Chain was a Red Maple Honour Book, a Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award Honour Book and a finalist for the Geoffrey Bilson Award. Her other popular titles include Forget-Me-Not, Flying Geese, Home Child, Dark of the Moon, Truth Singer and Love-Lies-Bleeding. Barbara Haworth- Attard lives with her family in London, Ontario. Visit her website at www.barbarahaworthattard.com.
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Irish Chain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flying Geese Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5WyndMagic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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TruthSinger - Barbara Haworth-Attard
TruthSinger
By
Barbara Haworth-Attard
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1996 by Barbara Haworth-Attard
Legal deposit 3'd quarter 1996 National Library of Canada
Quebec National Library
Canadian Cataloguing In Publication Data
Haworth-Attard, Barbara, 1953-
TruthSinger
ISBN 1-896184-16·2
Published by Barbara Haworth-Attard Smashwords edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
This book may not be resold or given to other people. If you would like to share this book with an additional person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
Please respect the hard work of this author.
DEDICATION
For my sons, Jason Martin Attard and
Jesse Scott Attard with much love from Mom
Chapter 1
NATHAN RESTED HIS CHIN IN HIS CUPPED HAND AND stared out the classroom window. A lone, white flake of snow struggled from a January sky so gray it drained color from everything it touched. What this place needs, Nathan thought, is a good dump of snow to cover the whole, ugly town. Might pretty it up a bit. On second thought, just bury it - deep. Nothing could make this place look better. It was too dam ugly. Dam ugly! Nathan smiled to himself. He could almost hear his mother saying, No swearing, Nathan.
Like she always did.
"I didn't say it with an N on the end, Mom, Nathan would tell her - like he always did.
It's not a swear word that way."
Besides, he only said D-A-M when he was M-A-D. Like now, sitting bored out of his brain in the seventh grade classroom in this ugly town.
U-G-L-Y; Nathan doodled the word on the lined page in front of him, stared at it a moment, then wrote it backwards. Y-L-G-U. He read it in his head. Nah! It sounded as bad as it looked. Try again. S-N-O-W he wrote, then printed the letters - backwards - W-O-N-S. His lips moved silently. WONS. That was better. It was almost a word.
He grinned, remembering last night. His mother had asked him to bring the bottle of Tums from the medicine cabinet. Here, Mom,
Nathan had said, handing the bottle to her. "Have some S-M-U-T." That was one of his better backwords as he called them.
Nathan! Nathan!
Miss Burtons's voice cut through his daydreaming. She sounded annoyed and the class, led of course by Todd, began snickering. Except for Katie, who sat in the desk opposite Nathan.
Unmoving and staring straight ahead, she resembled a stone statue; face frozen for all eternity in one expression. If she ever smiled would her statue-face crack? He didn't know, because Katie never smiled.
She was an odd-ball. She wore dresses that were too large and sagged off her skinny shoulders, the material bunching out over her chest, and gathered by string at her waist. Hadn't she ever heard of blue jeans?
Nathan stared intently at Miss Burtons, pretending he'd been listening all along. Miss Burtons raised her eyebrows and shook her head. She wasn't buying it, but she wasn't going to make a case out of it either.
She wasn't really a bad sort, Miss Burtons, or rather Miss SNOTRUB. SNOTRUB had occupied the top place on his backwords list for the past two weeks. Though S-M-U- T might bump it to the number two spot. Nathan hadn't decided yet.
As I was saying,
Miss Burtons continued. Sorcerers and magicians have been around since the beginning of time.
Nathan's hand stretched out for the yellow pencil again. He couldn't help it. Gray matter was dying here. T-I-M-E he printed, then E-M-I-T. That was a good backword. You could even make a sentence of out it. EMIT TIME.
Bits and pieces of Miss Burtons' lesson filtered through Nathan's fog. Can you tell me some names of magicians and wizards?
he heard her ask the class.
Gandalf,
came one reply. Then others spilled out. Harry Houdini! David Copperfield! Harry Potter. Merlin!
M-E-R-L-I-N. Nathan's pencil moved across the page. N-I-L-R-E-M. Good name for a heavy metal band. As he stared at them, the letters began to swell; harsh, black marks against the white paper, filling Nathan's eyes and blotting out the desk and classroom until only the printing remained: N-I-L-R-E-M.
Nathan could feel his heart pounding. Alarmed, he looked up from the paper. Air whooshed from his lungs. He could hear Miss Burtons's voice, but the face with the lips moving was that of a man; skeletal, with sharply angled cheekbones, weathered brown skin, white hair, and black eyes, looking right at...Nathan!
Nathan tore his glasses from his nose and squinted at them. Nothing wrong there, just the usual thumbprint-and-dirt glaze. He put them back on. Now, beneath the man's face, he could see the softer outline of Miss Burtons's cheeks and chin. It was so spooky! He looked wildly about at the other students who were busily waving arms and calling out answers. Stone-faced Katie sat staring straight ahead. Couldn't anyone else see?
Nathan
Miss Burtons's voice whipped his head back around. She leaned over his desk.
Nathan stared at her hands using them as an anchor to hold his mind.
This is the second time I've had to ask for your attention,
Miss Burtons said. Look at me when I'm speaking to you, please.
Nathan didn't want to look, didn't want to see
that ghost face right beside his. He fearfully raised his head, then slumped back in his chair feeling weak and dizzy. Miss Burtons had her own face back again, though red and angry looking.
Nathan, I want a written report from you on one of the magicians we've been discussing and I will expect it Monday morning,
Miss Burtons told him.
The bell rang and the class sprang to life, rushing for the door. Nathan slowly closed his notebook and stuffed it into his backpack.
That's too bad you have extra work, and on the weekend too.
Katie stood by his desk.
Nathan shrugged. Why was she talking to him? She didn't speak to anyone. Besides he didn't need some odd-ball feeling sorry for him. He dropped his pencil case into the backpack. Maybe if he ignored her, she'd go away.
Suddenly, Katie's hand darted out and in behind Nathan's ear. He jerked his head forward, but the hand sailed in front of his nose, holding a pencil.
Look what I found in your ear,
Katie said. She dropped the pencil on the desk and walked out of the room.
Nathan stared after her. He knew that pencil hadn't been behind his ear, so where did she get it? He picked up his backpack and headed out the classroom door.
Nathan!
Miss Burtons called after him.
Oh no! Nathan hunched his shoulders around his head and walked rapidly down the hall. He'd pretend he hadn't heard. He had to get away before she called him again.
He pushed open the heavy school door and let it bang shut behind him. Clusters of kids stood in the yard laughing and making plans for the weekend - plans that never included him. Nathan jogged out the school gates.
Hey, Creep!
Todd and his two friends blocked the sidewalk. Where you going so fast? Home to mommy and your weird uncle?
Nathan's stomach sank to the bottom of his feet. He had done nothing to this kid. Hadn't even known Todd existed until two weeks ago. Nathan tried hard to be average, bland, part of the background. So why was Todd out to get him?
He pushed past the other boy and turned onto the dirt path that ran along the river. He wanted to swivel his head around to see if Todd followed, but willed his eyes forward. Show any fear and Todd would be all over him. It was hard not to look back when any minute you expected your face to be mashed into the ground. All he really wanted to do was run. Run back to the city, back to his real home, back to the way it was before, when there was Mom and him - and Dad.
He knew Mom had had nowhere to go after she and Dad split up, but surely she could have done better than Uncle Nevill. The guy was so old he was dead, but had forgotten to lie down.
Nathan stomped across the