Читать онлайн «The Nameless One»
Автор Пол Стюарт, Крис Риддел
About the Book
Cade Quarter is on the run – wanted for the crimes of an uncle he has never even met. With no money and nowhere else to go, he sneaks onto the
Finding himself in a remote backwater known as the Farrow Ridges, Cade must struggle to build a life amongst flesh-eating bloodoak trees, fearsome goblin tribes and monstrous lake creatures. And, perhaps most mysterious of all, a strange, half-formed giant known only as the nameless one . . .
Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
Maps
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
About the Authors
Also by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell
Copyright
· INTRODUCTION ·
FAR FAR AWAY, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge. A torrent of water pours endlessly over the lip of rock at its overhanging point; the Edgewater River.
The river’s source lies far inland at a stone pool high above Riverrise, one of the three great cities of the Edge, deep in the heart of the Nightwoods. A mere trickle at first, the river grows broader and more powerful as it makes its way on into the mighty Deepwoods.
Dark and forbidding, the Deepwoods is a dangerous and inhospitable place. Once, its denizens believed that the Deepwoods went on for ever.
Now, in this, the Third Age of Flight, none but the most primitive of tribes, cut off from civilization, believe this to be true. Yet there is no denying the vastness of the forest. It takes even the sleekest phrax-powered skyship several weeks to travel from one end to the other.By the time the Edgewater reaches the great city of Hive, it has already become a mighty river, cascading down the falls between East and West Ridge. Anglers plunder its stocks of fish. Farmers dam and divert its waters to irrigate their fields. Waterwheels tap its power.
Past Great Glade it flows, the third and greatest city of the Edge; a bustling metropolis of stilthouse factories, parklands, teeming mercantile districts, lakeside mansions and magnificent schools and academies. Then, disappearing under the ground, the river passes beneath the Twilight Woods and into the Mire. It is only at the end of this bogland, with its sinking-sands and blow-holes, that the Edgewater forms once more. Here, close to the end of its long journey, the Edgewater is at its most magnificent. It sweeps past the ancient ruins of Undertown, beneath the mysterious floating city of Sanctaphrax and on over the jutting rock.
