Stein & Frank, Battle of the Undead People Eaters

By Jill Marshall

There’s trouble afoot. When Prince Stein has a party for his three hundred-and-somethingth birthday, the villagers of Rustnuts figure out just what goes on up at the castle in Transnordia. They already hate the Huckenbeck dynasty for ruining the village. Now they hate them for being ... themselves.

It’s too much for Stein to manage on his own. If only he could make a friend ... a really, really new friend.

Catch Stein in his latest adventure, SWAGG. Book 1, Spook, is out now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jill Marshall
• Release date: May 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781990024764

Jill Marshall

Jill Marshall is the author of the best-selling Jane Blonde series and fiction for children, young adults and adults. Her middle-grade series about sensational girl spy, Jane Blonde,published by Macmillan Children's Books UK, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies around the world, featured as a World Book Day title and reached the UK Times Top 10 for all fiction. Jane Blonde has been optioned for film and TV and is currently undergoing some exciting Wower-ish transformations.Jill has now brought Jane together with her other series in this age group - Doghead, The Legend of Matilda Peppercorn, Stein & Frank - in a fantastic new ensemble series. Meet the SWAGG team, and their first book, SPOOK.As well as books for tweens and teens, Jill writes for young adults and adults, each with a collection of three stand-alone novels. She also writes for younger children, with a Hachette-published picture book for teenies, Kave-Tina Rox.When she's not writing books, Jill is a communications consultant and a proud mum and nana. She divides her time between the UK and New Zealand, and hopes one day to travel between the two by SatiSPI or ESPIdrilles.

Book preview

STEIN & FRANK

Battle of the Undead People Eaters

By Jill Marshall

First published by Jill Marshall Books 2020

Copyright © Jill Marshall

The right of Jill Marshall to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand

ISBN 978-1-99-002476-4

Cover Design by Katie Gannon

Illustrations by Madison Fotti-Knowles

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

For my grandparents. Now I’m one myself, I know what it truly means.

You are stars in my forever now.

xxx

Prologue: Centuries ago, in Penzance, England

The rumble of carriage wheels in the distance poured terror into the hearts of the physicians.

‘They come for us, Darius,’ whispered Lavinia, screening her sleeping son behind her full skirts. ‘We must leave immediately.’

‘But wither shall we go?’ Her husband gestured to the piles of crates and boxes, gathered in such haste that several were not even properly closed. ‘The witch-hunters will find us, wherever we hide in this country.’

His wife nodded as the vicious cries of the villagers echoed ever closer. ‘Then we must accept my uncle’s offer. His ship waits at the dock. We can be free of this forever - as long as we use our unguents effectively.’

‘But Lavinia, the price we must pay!’ Darius paled to a sickly white. ‘Your uncle is a monster. Must we become monsters too, when all we ever wanted to do was learn, and ply our trade in assisting others?’

‘It’s that or burn at the stake,’ said his wife. ‘And while you and I could withstand any torment, my love, our son is but a lad. Petroc should not have to live with this. Or die like this.’

Darius stared at their son for a long moment, his eyes filling with tears. Petroc stirred in his sleep, his feet dangling over the end of his truckle bed after his latest growth spurt, another sign of his son’s strange state, betwixt boy and man. If they stayed he’d soon reach manhood, and then Petroc, too, would suffer for what his parents did.

Resolved, Darius ran to the back of the workshop and began hurling trunks and cases onto the carriage.

‘Come, then, for there is no more time,’ he said. ‘We bid this fair land farewell. We will take your maiden name of Hawkback, and our Rocky will become … Stein.’

‘Stein Huckenbeck,’ said his wife, handing the boy up to his father to take his place in the carriage. ‘We are the Huckenbecks now. And we will prepare our unguents in safety, from this day forward.’

Beyond the carriage at the nearby harbour, the steely ocean boiled so ferociously that the Transnordian vessel ploughed up onto the horizon, illuminated by a bolt of lightning. Surely they would never survive the journey …

But the villagers were beating a path towards their front door. As the first thud of an axe fell upon their door, the family rushed forth into the night.

From this moment on, life would never be the same again.

Chapter 1 Birthday Boy

Prince Stein of the Huckenbeck dynasty dragged his feet along the shiny stone corridor of Huckenbeck Heights.

‘Hullo, Me,’ he muttered. ‘Hullo, Other Me,’ he said as his feet slid over another slab of granite.

He was saying ‘Me’ because that was what his name meant: stone. He might as well have been called ‘Floor’. He had the same name as the bricks that made up the castle ramparts. Same as a rock. Prince Dumb-as-a-rock of the Huckenbeck dynasty.

Of course, Stein wasn’t dumb. Far, very very far from it. Sometimes, he wished he actually was thick-as-a-brick. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so very aware of every little thing that was going on.

Like right now, for instance. Behind the massive oak doors that separated the corridor from the morning room, his parents were busy trying to straighten their faces so they could spring a surprise on him about his birthday party.

‘Stein!’ they’d shout in amazement as if they’d never seen him before. ‘Fancy you being here, just when Viggo was about to tell us about the plans for your birthday celebration!’

And he’d have to act shocked and pretend to be pleased and make a big show of even caring what stupid plans his stupid parents had for his stupid birthday.

It was very hard to be bothered when you’d had threehundredandhowevermany stupid, stupid birthdays.

‘I mean, what could they possibly think of that’s new and that I might even enjoy just the tiniest little bit?’ he said aloud to the moose’s head staring down at him from the wall.

‘Beats me,’ said the moose head.

They’d had this conversation over three hundred times. Moose had got used to keeping his answers short to stop him getting into trouble.

Stein stopped in front of Moose, idly toying with the hilt of one of the crossed swords mounted below him. ‘Couldn’t you be at the party, Moose?’ he said, almost but not quite whining. ‘At least then I’d have someone to talk to.’

‘Can’t,’ said Moose. ‘Nobody to go with.’ He sniggered. ‘Get it? No body to go with … Because I’ve got no body, right? You know, because I’m just a head on a—’

‘Ye-es,’ said Stein slowly with a roll of his eyes. ‘I get it. You’re not going to be any help at all, are you, Moose?’

Moose thought about it for a while. ‘Nope,’ he said. ‘But let me be frank.’

‘Go on then,’ said Stein with a sinking heart, wondering what on earth Moose had been saving up to tell him. That was what normally came after