Read Shadow Magic Online

Authors: Joshua Khan

Shadow Magic

Text copyright © 2016 by Joshua Khan

Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Ben Hibon

Cover illustration © 2016 by Ben Hibon

Lettering by Russ Gray

Cover design by Marci Senders

All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney • Hyperion, 125 West End Avenue, New York, New York 10023.

ISBN 978-1-4847-3789-7

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www.DisneyBooks.com

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Map

Cast of Characters

Port Cutlass

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Castle Gloom

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Forty-Three

Forty-Four

Forty-Five

Forty-Six

Forty-Seven

The City of Silence

Forty-Eight

Forty-Nine

Fifty

Fifty-One

Fifty-Two

Fifty-Three

Fifty-Four

Fifty-Five

Fifty-Six

Fifty-Seven

Fifty-Eight

Fifty-Nine

Sixty

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Give me my robe, put on my crown;
I have Immortal longings in me.

—From
Antony and Cleopatra
,

by William Shakespeare

PORT CUTLASS

Thorn, a runaway boy

Merrick, a wandering minstrel

Lukas, a slave master

CASTLE GLOOM

Lilith Shadow, ruler of Gehenna

Pandemonium Shadow, her uncle

Mary, a servant

Baron Sable, a nobleman

Rose, a servant

Wade, a squire

Old Colm, the weapons master

Tyburn, the executioner

PRISM PALACE

Duke Raphael Solar, ruler of Lumina

Gabriel Solar, his son and heir apparent

K’leef Djinn, a hostage

BEASTS

Custard, a puppy

Thunder, a warhorse

Hades, a monster

“H
ow much for this boy?” asked the man, prodding Thorn hard in the chest.

Thorn grimaced, but did nothing.

The slave master, Lukas, wiggled all his fingers.

The man frowned. “Ten? Captain Pike sells his boys for five.”

Lukas, born ogre-ugly but turned hideous by the large scar across his face, laughed. “Pike sells them half-starved and diseased.” He tugged Thorn forward by his manacles. “Have a good look at him, Master Shann,” he said. “Twelve summers and already taller than many men. Straight limbs and a sound chest. And look at these.” Lukas twisted Thorn’s wrist to turn his palm up. “Good old-fashioned farmer’s hands. I swear by the Six, you put him in the fields, and you’ll get ten years out of him. Maybe fifteen.”

Thorn pulled himself free. They talked as if he was some animal.

The customer, Master Shann, prodded him again. “Open your mouth, boy.”

Thorn clamped his mouth shut.

Lukas cuffed the back of his head. “Open your mouth.”

Thorn didn’t.

“Is he simpleminded?” asked Shann. “I have no use for simpleminded boys.”

Thorn should have punched him for that. Shann needed punching. He was big and round and squashy-faced, with a bulbous nose crowded with hairy warts. But hitting a customer would only earn him another beating—the third this week—so Thorn kept his fist clenched and by his side. It wasn’t easy.

“Or is he mute? Is that it? I have no use for mute boys, either. Speak, boy. Say something.”

Speak? All right.

“Fat. Stupid. Oaf,” said Thorn.

Shann blinked.

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