Authors: Anne Nesbet

0062104292 (8UP) (34 page)

“Linny,” said Linny’s mother. “Linny, dear. They’ve been telling me I am wrong.”

“Wrong about what?” said Linny, feeling a little embarrassed.

“About keeping you here forever,” said her mother, with a flash of a smile. “Though it seems reasonable enough to me.”

“She did tell those people she would go back,” said Sayra. “Didn’t you, Linny?”

“My Girl with the Lourka,” said her mother. “Who I came all the way up here to find!”

“Tell her our plan,” said the baker. “Go ahead, spill!”

“You see,” said Linny’s father, stepping forward. “As the good baker said earlier, you’re nothing less than our door, after a fashion. And we mean to make use of that, and to stand by you, too.”

He took a deep breath.

“When your lourka’s repaired and your body rested, child, it will be high time for you to go back down to Bend, don’t you think?”

“And Angleside, too,” said someone else from the crowd.

“Yes, to the wrinkled places
and
to the Plain,” agreed her father. “Sounds like both have need of you, their Girl with a Lourka.”

“But you won’t be alone this time,” said Linny’s mother.

“Hey!” said Elias. “She wasn’t always alone the first time.”

He turned around so he could look right at Linny, and he smiled a quite nice, not very lummoxy smile.

“I know I wasn’t much help the first time,” he said. “But I’ll come with you again, if you go back down.”

“Me, too,” said Sayra. “I’d like to see what the Plain looks like.”

Linny gulped. “But your mother,” she said. Actually, she could have been speaking to any of them. What mother would let go of her child twice in a single year? None of these mothers.

“Now you’re not understanding what we mean,” said Linny’s father. “Linny, we mean
all
to go with you, since you can bring us back again, when the time comes.”

“All of us, everybody,” said her mother, and the crowd was full of nodding heads.

“Except maybe me and the sheep,” said Elias’s father. “But maybe even them!”

“And the horses and the kitties and the little flying birds!” said one of Linny’s twin brothers.

“Don’t be silly,” said the other brother. “The birds won’t come all that way.”

“There will be drums and lourkas—think how lovely the noise will be!” said Linny’s mother.

“And bright, bright banners,” said Sayra’s mother in a whisper. “No parade without banners!”

“Down from the wrinkled hills,” said Linny’s father. “To see the other places and explain how things are up here to those who don’t know.”

“A real wrinkled fair, we can show them—not their lourkas made of boxes!” said one of the oldest lourka makers.

“And to find my sister, Mina,” said her mother. “She’ll have people who’ll join us, I’m sure.”

Linny looked from face to face and couldn’t even think of a single word to say. All those years spent chafing up here, and now, when the talk was of leaving again, she found herself feeling, for the first time in her life, truly at home.

“You’ll be the Girl with Lourka then, for sure,” said her father, and he laughed. “The Girl with
the whole village
of Lourka!”

Fireflies, laughter, the Half-Cat’s purr, a thin thread of smoky tang from the fire, and someone picking out odd notes on a lourka, not so far away.

Linny breathed it all in, too happy for words. Then there was hope, after all! How lovely and how strange.

The stories will change,
she thought to herself.
The stories will change, and the world will change—

The wonderful world, both wrinkled and Plain!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T
his story took shape during a hard and happy year. The people of HarperCollins have my awe and affection, both. Rosemary Brosnan, who blends kindness and wisdom in everything she does, was this book’s first friend. Alexandra Cooper, an editor’s editor, showed me a thousand ways it could be made better. Annie Berger kept everything on track. Alexei Esikoff and Laaren Brown went through the manuscript with sharp eyes and fine-toothed combs, and Heather Daugherty and Jen Bricking made a truly magical cover. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I’m grateful also to Andrea Brown and Taryn Fagerness.

I owe more than I can say to the friends who, through thick and thin, kept me walking, talking, and plotting. Dartmoor, Tilden Park, Mount Tamalpais, and Clouds Rest know our feet well. My love and gratitude go to Roo Hooke, Sharon Inkelas, Will Waters, Bill Roberts,
and the stalwart members of the Berkeley Marina Dog-Walking Society.

Linda Williams introduced me to the glorious, cold water of Lake Tahoe. My colleagues at Berkeley were incredibly nice about the blue hair. Kristen Whissel and Mark Sandberg went many extra miles on my behalf: you guys are the best.

Jenn Reese, Christine Ashworth, Sally Felt, Yvonne Jocks, and Kristen Kittscher joined forces to make writing every day no matter what seem like a perfectly natural and possible thing to do.

Joan Balter taught me a great deal about the making of lourkas, although I think she thought I was asking about violins.

In France I benefited every single day from the positive spirit, intelligence, and general gutsiness of Hannah Konkel. Having Andrew Kahn and Nicholas Cronk as neighbors was a rare gift and a joy. Sisters, cousins, my father, siblings-in-law, nieces, godsons, and a nephew kept life lively everywhere.

My daughters—Ada Naiman, Eleanor Naiman, and Thera Naiman—are as musical as Linny and as stalwart. Bob Naiman makes the world a better place in every way. Eric Naiman is the best cook I know, and one of the world’s most generous souls. Yes, Soushka
is
a good dog.

Sheila Engh, Kate Landis, and Michelle Oakes couldn’t
stay to see this book appear, but I feel very lucky to have known them.

This book is dedicated, with love and affection, to Isa Helfgott and Jayne Williams.

BACK AD

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

P
HOTO CREDIT
G
REGORY
F
REIDIN

ANNE NESBET
teaches classes on silent films and Russian novels at UC Berkeley. The author of
The Cabinet of Earths
and
A Box of Gargoyles
, she lives near San Francisco with her husband, three daughters, and one irrepressible dog. You can visit her online at
www.annenesbet.com
.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

BOOKS BY ANNE NESBET

The Cabinet of Earths

A Box of Gargoyles

CREDITS

COVER DESIGN BY HEATHER DAUGHERTY

THE WRINKLED CROWN.
Copyright © 2015 by Anne Nesbet. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nesbet, Anne.

The wrinkled crown / Anne Nesbet. — First edition.

pages cm

Summary: Twelve-year-old Linny embarks on an epic quest to save her best friend and discovers that she is the link between the magical and logical halves of her world.

ISBN 978-0-06-210429-8 (hardcover)

EPub Edition © October 2015 9780062104328

[1. Fantasy. 2. Magic—Fiction.] I. Title.