Read The Shepherd of Weeds Online
Authors: Susannah Appelbaum
The Shepherd of Weeds
Also by Susannah Appelbaum
The Hollow Bettle
The Poisons of Caux, Book I
The Tasters Guild
The Poisons of Caux, Book II
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2011 by Susannah Appelbaum
Jacket and title page art copyright © 2011 by Jennifer Taylor
All other interior illustrations copyright © 2011 by Andrea Offermann
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Appelbaum, Susannah.
The shepherd of weeds / Susannah Appelbaum; illustrated by Andrea Offermann. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (The poisons of Caux; bk. 3)
Summary: With an army of scarecrows, a legion of birds, and her friends and uncle by her side, it is up to Ivy Manx to wage war against the evil Vidal Verjouce and the Tasters Guild, defeat her own father, and restore order to the plant world.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89897-6
[1. Poisons—Fiction. 2. Scarecrows—Fiction. 3. Uncles—Fiction. 4. Fantasy.]
I. Offermann, Andrea, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.A6445Sh 2011
[Fic]—dc22
2010051351
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
For A.M.R.,
who stayed until the Wind changed
Lo, I the man, whose Muse whilom did mask,
As time her taught, in lowly Shepherd’s weeds …
—The Faerie Queene
Spenser
THE POISONS OF CAUX
Times had changed in the ancient land of Caux. The Deadly Nightshades were no longer, and while many in the realm awaited news of the previous ruler, the beloved King Verdigris, a stubborn few hoped for the return of a more dangerous way of life … a way of poison.
The world of botany was a deadly one, but there existed an arguably worse evil—and sadly for Ivy, this was her father. Vidal Verjouce was not only the Director of the secretive Tasters’ Guild but a true specter of destruction. And he now had a masterful ally, the deadly and treacherous plant called scourge bracken, a weed so potent, so perilous, that nearly all who encountered it were annihilated. One needed to be a powerful and mighty king to handle its dark and unpredictable character.