The Crown of Dalemark (Dalemark Quartet #4)

The Crown of Dalemark (Dalemark Quartet #4)

by Diana Wynne Jones
The Crown of Dalemark (Dalemark Quartet #4)

The Crown of Dalemark (Dalemark Quartet #4)

by Diana Wynne Jones

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Overview

When this final book of Diana Wynne Jones's quartet of novels about the mythical kingdom of Dalemark was published in 1995, it earned the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature.

The Crown of Dalemark continues the adventures of Mitt after his flight from Holand as a fugitive accused of attempted murder. Since his arrival in the North of Dalemark, Mitt has become disillusioned. The North seems no more free than the South from which he came. And now he has been given an order to kill someone he doesn't even know, or else risk the lives of his friends.

Forced once more to flee, Mitt is joined by Moril, the quietly powerful musician, and Maewen, out of her time but mysteriously fated to play a part in their quest. For the evil powers of the mage Kankredin are re-assembling, and only the Adon's gifts-the ring, sword, and cup-can reunite Dalemark.

The Countess and Lord Keril send Mitt to kill a young woman Noreth Onesdaughter, who claims to know where the lost crown is hidden.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062200785
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 01/31/2012
Series: Dalemark Quartet , #4
Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
Format: eBook
Pages: 496
Sales rank: 163,092
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 13 Years

About the Author

In a career spanning four decades, award-winning author Diana Wynne Jones (1934‒2011) wrote more than forty books of fantasy for young readers. Characterized by magic, multiple universes, witches and wizards—and a charismatic nine-lived enchanter—her books are filled with unlimited imagination, dazzling plots, and an effervescent sense of humor that earned her legendary status in the world of fantasy.

Read an Excerpt

The Earl of Hammart arrived in Aberath two days before Midsummer. He was bringing the Countess of Aberath a portrait of the Adon to put in her collection. As this was a state visit, he brought his son as well and a string of his hearthmen, and his arrival caused a rare bustle.

A tall man dressed like a shepherd watched it all from high in the hills where the green roads ran. He had an excellent view from there, not only into the seething courts of the mansion but of the whole town, the cliffs, the bay, and the boat sheds. The Earl was easy to pick out among the hurrying figures, because he was with a servant carrying the picture. The man watched them go straight to the library, where he knew the Countess was waiting to receive the Earl. Almost immediately the servant was sent away to fetch someone else. The watcher could see him pushing his way, first to the stables, then to the dining hall, and finally to the hearthmen's quarters, where he fetched out a large gangly person and pointed to the library. The gangly one set off there at a run, on long, gawky legs.

The watcher turned away. "So they did send for this Mitt," he said as if this had confirmed his worst suspicions. Then he looked up and round and over his shoulder, clearly thinking that someone else was standing nearby, watching, too. But the green road was empty. The man shrugged and set off walking swiftly inland.

About the same time as this man left, Mitt arrived at the top of the library steps, trying not to pant, and pushed open the creaky door.

"Oh, there you are," said the Countess. "We want you to kill someone."

She was never one to beat about the bush. It was almost the only thing Mittliked about her. All the same, he wondered if he had heard her right. He stared at her long, bony face, which was set slightly crooked on her high shoulders, and then looked at Earl Keril of Hannart to make sure. Mitt had been ten months now in Aberath, but the North Dalemark accent there still sometimes made him hear things wrong. Earl Keril was dark, with a long nose. Everyone said what a likable man he was, but he was looking at Mitt as grimly as the Countess.

"Didn't you hear?" Earl Keril asked. "We want someone dead."

"Yes. Is this a joke of some kind?" Mitt said. But he could tell from their faces that it was not. He felt cold and disgusted, and his knees shook. "I gave up killing--I told you!" he said to the Countess.

"Nonsense," she said. "Why else do you think I had you trained as my hearthman?"

"You would have it that way, not me!" Mitt said. "And I never kidded myself you made me learn all that out of love for me!"

Earl Keril looked questioningly at the Countess.

"I warned you he was rude," she said. She leaned toward him, and they murmured together.

Mitt was too disgusted to try to overhear. He looked beyond their two implacable faces at the painting of the Adon propped on an easel behind them. The light was across the canvas from where Mitt stood, in a bluish haze, but the painted eyes caught his, like dark holes in the haze. They looked ill and haunted. The famous Adon had been far from handsome, sickly-looking, with lank hair and crooked shoulders. Near on a cripple, like the Countess, Mitt thought. She and Earl Keril both descended from the Adon. She had the shoulders; Keril had the Adon's long nose. Earlier that day Mitt would have been thoroughly disappointed to find that the Adon looked like this. Since he came to Aberath, he had heard story after story of the Adon, the great hero who had talked with the Undying and lived as an outlaw before he became the last King of Dalemark several hundred years ago. Now he looked from the painting to the two living faces leaning together in the twilight of the library, and he thought, Fairy stories! Bet he was just as bad as they are! Well, I ran off from Holand, so I reckon I can run off from Aberath, too.

Just then he caught a murmur from Keril. "Oh, yes, I'm sure that he is!" -Sure I am what? Mitt wondered as they both looked at him again. "We've gone into your history," Keril said to him. "Attempted murder in Holand. Successful murder in the Holy Islands--"

"That's a lie!" Mitt said angrily. "Whatever you think, I never murdered a single soul! And I gave up trying long before I came here."

"Then you'll have to force yourself to try again," said the Countess. "Won't you?"

"And you came on here by boat," Keril went on, before Mitt could speak, "with Navis Haddsson and his children Hildrida and Ynen. In Aberath the Countess took you in and had you educated--"

"For my sins," the Countess said unlovingly.

"So you see the North has treated you well," Earl Keril said. "Better than most refugees from the South, in fact, both you and your friends. We found Navis a post as hearthman to Stair of Adenmouth, and we sent Hildrida to study at the Lawschool in Gardale. Have you ever wondered why this was?" As Mitt wondered about it, Keril added pleasantly, "Why the four of you were separated in this way, I mean."

It was a pleasantness that made Mitt feel like a sack with a hole in it. Everything trickled away through the hole, and his knees almost let him down. "Where's Ynen then?" he said. "Isn't he with Navis?"

"No," said the Countess. "And we are not telling you where he is."

Mitt watched her long jaw shut like a trap. "I used to think," he said, "that the earls in the North were good. But you're as bad as the ones in the South. Go to any lengths, all of you! You're telling me to kill someone for you or my friends suffer. Right?"

The Crown of Dalemark. Copyright © by Diana Jones. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

Part 1Mitt1
Part 2Maewen61
Part 3Ring and Cup129
Part 4Sword and Crown247
Part 5Kankredin381
A Guide to Dalemark409
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