Passager

By Jane Yolen

The legendary wizard’s early years are explored in this magical adventure by the acclaimed author of the Pit Dragon Chronicles.

A boy is abandoned in the woods of medieval England. A year passes—a year of terror and hunger, of sleeping in trees and foraging for food, of outrunning packs of wild dogs—until one day a falconer captures and tames the boy as he would any passager, a young bird caught in the wild and trained. The falconer adopts the boy and teaches him all of the things he’s forgotten, including the boy’s true name—and the legacy of magic that will be his when he comes of age.

Praise for Passager

“This first book of the Young Merlin Trilogy will have readers awaiting the sequels.” —The Horn Book

“Steeped in hawks, mews, and wood life, the trilogy evokes a romantic, dreamy time. But its unadorned language lets the story emerge in a guileless way that will captivate young readers. This is a fine read-aloud.” —San Diego Union Tribune

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780544201200

Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen is a highly acclaimed author who has written hundreds of books for children and adults and has won numerous awards. She and her husband divide their time between Massachussetts and Scotland.

Book preview

Text copyright © 1996 by Jane Yolen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

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Acknowledgment

This book is based on the short story The Wild Child from the collection Merlin’s Booke, but has been significantly expanded and refocused.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Yolen, Jane.

Passager/Jane Yolen.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: A foundling rediscovers his identity through the help of the falconer who adopts him.

ISBN 0-15-200391-6

1. Merlin (Legendary character)—Juvenile fiction. [1. Merlin (Legendary character)—Fiction. 2. Feral children—Fiction. 3. Falconry—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.Y78Pas 1996

[Fic]—dc20 94-27101

eISBN 978-0-544-20120-0

v2.0421

To Michael Stearns,

passager indeed

Passager:

A falcon caught in the wild and trained by the falconer, but not yet a mature bird.

Dark.

Night.

He is still asleep, Mother.

Three drops of the tincture will keep him still.

Must we leave him?

We must.

But he is so young.

He is old enough. And we cannot keep him with us longer. There is danger to us all if he stays.

But there is danger for him here.

That is why we are leaving him high in the tree. The wild dogs cannot climb, nor fox nor wolves. In the daytime he will be quick and bright. He knows his nuts and berries, his mushrooms and ferns. You have taught him well. He will be found soon enough by the wild men of the woods, the wodewose, those without a place, whose villages have heen erased by plague. They will hold him close as we cannot.

But he is such a little bird, my child, my owlet, my hawkling.

"If you keep him longer, be will be your death. And ours. The church forbids it. God’s law. And man’s."

I would die for him, Mother.

Let him live for you. Come. Morning will he here soon enough and it is already time for Matins. We dare not miss more than that or there will be talk.

Light.

Day.

1

Territory

THE BOY WAS SNIFFING AT THE ROOT OF A TREE, trying to decide if it was worth eating the mushrooms there, when he heard the first long baying of the pack. It was a sound that made the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He turned at the sound and tried to find its source, but this was a dark part of the woods, and tangled. He was still considering when the first dog broke through the underbrush, almost at his heels.

It was a dun-colored dog, long-snouted, longbodied. He had enough time to see that. He struck at it with the stick he always carried and it scrabbled away from him, whining.

He did not wait for the rest of the pack to find him, but jumped for the lower branch of the tree and scrambled up.

Finding its courage, the dun dog leaped for him and its teeth grazed his ankle, but it missed its hold.

The boy climbed higher, fear lending him quickness, strength. He was already high up in the tree when the rest of the pack found him. They broke through the brambles and bayed at the foot of the tree. There were seven of them, one more than the last time. The boy counted them off on his fingers—one hand’s worth and a thumb had been the number the last time. There was

Reviews for Passager

[guyalice_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first of Jane Yolen’s Young Merlin series, this children’s novel is short but Yolen’s writing is beautiful and effective, as one would expect. The book is of Merlin’s childhood as a feral boy in the woods of England, savaging for food and running from packs of wild dogs. However, as he sleeps, he dreams visions of his future, flashes of Arthur, Excalibur, and Nimue. He is eventually adopted by a kind falconer who readjusts him to the world of man. The falconry references are reminiscent of T. H. White’s own obsessive use of the sport in The Once and Future King. It also reflects that our wizard’s namesake, a “merlin,” is a small hawk, also known as a pigeon hawk (the titular term “passager” refers to a young hawk captured after living its first year wild.) Yolen’s book also tells of a lesser recounted detail of English history, as many children were abandoned in the woods to perish or fend for themselves, because their parents could not care for them. Merlin is abandoned for more complicated reasons, but it is still a glimpse of the terror that so many children must have had to ordeal. This is a quick read, but it language and imagery will be sure to stick with you, as well as a believable interpretation of Camelot’s wizard.