Moon Gate

Susan Mountford

Description

Fourteen-year-old Alice's life changes forever after inheriting Briar Cottage and a magical bracelet from her great aunt. She discovers she is the daughter-heir, last of a long line of 'charmed' women in her family, stretching back to pre-history and descended from faery, who must protect humanity from the return, through the Moon Gate, of the Horned King.However, first she must rescue her friend, Rhys, from the clutches of Berethast, a powerful faery adversary, who hopes to force her to choose between saving the life of her friend or protecting humankind.Alice needs the help of other creatures of magic, some unwilling, to aid her struggle against the Lady of the Forest. Only with their help does she stand a chance to save Rhys, enter the Moon Gate to stop the Horned King's return and fulfil her destiny as the chosen daughter-heir.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528967167
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Moon Gate
Susan Mountford
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-09-30
Moon Gate About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgment Synopsis Day Five Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five Characters, Places, Objects
About the Author
Susan Mountford graduated from Warwick University in 1982 with a B Ed in History and English. She has worked as a History and English teacher in secondary and post-16 education ever since. She has three grown-up children and lives in Solihull with her husband, Mark, and two dogs, Lily and Loki.
Dedication
To my children – Matthew, Jonathan and Eleanor – who inspired me to be a teller of stories from their early childhood.
Copyright Information ©
Susan Mountford (2020)
The right of Susan Mountford to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528932677 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528932684 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528967167 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank my husband, Mark, for his support, suggestions and perseverance throughout the process of writing. Also, thank you to my friend and colleague, Heather James, for her unfailing enthusiasm and encouragement.
Synopsis
This is a contemporary fairy story for older children set against the backdrop of twenty-first century concerns over irresponsible management of the planet.
Aeons ago, faery and humanity lived together harmoniously. However, as men became more numerous, they changed the world to suit their needs. Increasingly coming into conflict with the immortal faery races who revere the natural world and seek to protect it, open hostility developed between them and caused their relationship to breakdown beyond repair.
Herla, King of Faery, together with his human wife, Ysabet, foresaw the ruin of the Earth through man’s selfish and inventive nature and resolved the dilemma by dividing the realm of man and faery. Humanity continued to live, prosper and use the Earth, often in conflict with the interests of the natural world and themselves. Herla created Fayland for his people, as a place where the natural world could exist forever unchanged, until humanity brought about its own inevitable ruin and the faery races could return and reset the Earth’s equilibrium.
Some faeries are unhappy with his solution. They desire to return to live in the human world and actively work to bring about the return of faeries before man’s time is up. They have found a leader in Berethast, sister of Herla and Lady of the Forest. Her own enchanted realm, Grisholme, is a place of sanctuary for the flora and fauna of the forest, where she and her agents can work to protect nature and interfere to bring about the downfall of man and speed the return of faeries.
Humanity does have champions, some faery through their personal connections to humans, some mortal female descendants of Herla and Ysabet. They work tirelessly to influence humanity to protect the natural world. Every year, they enter through the moon-gate into Fayland to persuade King Herla that humanity deserves more time to understand the error of their ways.
The central character, Alice, is fourteen and a direct descendant of Ysabet and Herla, but she is ignorant of her legacy until her faery protector, Kellyn Nightshade, and the dragon-mage Fiorell reveal themselves to her. Over the five days of the story, she must learn about her inheritance as daughter-heir, enter the moon-gate and convince King Herla she is a worthy successor to her eco-warrior Great Aunt Gwen.
However, Berethast uses Alice’s friendship with Rhys, a guest staying with Alice’s family, to try to prevent Alice from entering the moon-gate. Through Alice’s inexperience, Rhys is kidnapped and imprisoned in Grisholme, so she must master her newfound magic, enter Grisholme and rescue him. Alice is helped in this quest by two other characters: Lord Roth, the ghostly spirit of an ancestor, and a reluctant faery guide, the spriggan Glym. Alice gives Rhys Faery Sight, and together they battle Morgenz, a powerful ally of Berethast, before they reach the moon-gate just in time. King Herla responds to the treachery of Morgenz, and she is banished from both Fayland and Earth for a suitably long time. Berethast flees back to Grisholme.
Herla charges Alice with the task of taking up where her aunt left off, to persuade those who she can to protect the Earth. To Rhys, he offers the chance to aid Alice and gives him a gift, Hrafn, an enchanted raven, to help him. The children safely return to their world, but an unclear future awaits them, and Berethast is still the implacable enemy of humanity.
Day Five
Alice and Rhys left the wood and trudged up to the Watch. They had said very little since breakfast, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement not to talk about the frightening events of the last few days yet.
Alice was grateful. Five days ago, everything had been normal, her life normal and predictable. Now her future was unclear. So was Rhys’ and that was her fault. She was anxious to talk things through with Kellyn.
She could hear Rhys muttering to Hrafn, soothingly, as they clambered up to the highest boulder of the Watch. Once there, they sat facing east, legs dangling over the capstone. Watching and waiting. The valley lay beneath them, the sun blazing above the tall standing stones on the other side, dark against the sky.
She glanced at her bracelet. The little crystal acorns caught the light of the sun and gleamed but remained cool, no sense now of the magic that could pulse through them.
“Ouch!” yelped Rhys, making Alice jump. She turned to him. A pinprick of blood oozed on Rhys’ ear lobe. “He pecked me!”
“Hun-gry,” croaked the little raven sitting on his shoulder. It fluffed out its tatty fledgling wings and hopped down onto the stone between them. “Feed! Eat!” it rasped, cocking its head to one side and looking at them both.
“I’ve got nothing,” Alice shrugged.
Rhys grinned and brought out a package from the pocket of his jeans. It was a sausage, wrapped up in a serviette, saved from breakfast. The little raven croaked excitedly, hopping about as Rhys put the sausage down on the boulder, breaking it up for him. Hrafn fell on it, ravenously, holding it with long black claws, tearing through the meat with his razor-sharp beak, throwing his head back to gobble big chunks.
“I know Herla said he is Hrafn, but it isn’t a good name for him. It’s just ‘raven’ in old Norse—you know, the Vikings,” Rhys said, regarding the little bird as it polished off the sausage. “I looked it up on my phone.” Once the little raven had finished, it preened its scruffy feathers then hunkered down, all fluffed up, for a nap. “Scoff is a much better name, I think.”
Alice smiled and gently stroked the soft, fluffy feathers of the little raven’s head and back. The bird shuffled and made a contented sound, a bit like a cough. “What will you do with him? I mean, when you go home…and school. Rhys?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know. When Herla gave him to me, he said the bird was glamoured and he could look after himself. I think I must believe him. After all, your sister and my mum and dad didn’t see him, even though he was squawking about on my shoulder during breakfast and I was feeding him some of my egg!”
“And he nicked a croissant!” Alice giggled. It lifted her spirits, remembering the Horned King’s words to them. She should be more optimistic about the future. Rhys was right, and they had to believe him. Things would work out.
“Look!” Rhys pointed up. Alice followed his pointing finger, shielding her eyes from the sun. Their wait was over.
A large raptor swooped towards them, flying low across the valley. A big barn owl, out of place in the bright mid-morning sun. It hovered above then glided down to land on the boulder behind them.
Turning, Alice felt the warmth radiating from her bracelet, the familiar sign of magic. Then the air shimmered and the tall angular figure of Kellyn Nightshade stood before them. “Well met, younglings!” he said, his over-large green eyes sparkling in greeting.
Day One
“The internet’s down again!” Alice shouted at her sister, pushing her tablet away and banging the kitchen table in frustration.
Grace was baking bread and the kitchen smelt wonderful. “No doubt it’ll be up soon. Try later.”
“It’s always the same! Every time I try and skype, the signal is rubbish. I was trying to speak to Ava, she was just telling me they’re all going to a fair. It’s so boring here! Why can’t I go back home? I’m not a little kid, I’m fourteen. I can look after myself!”
Grace sighed and turned to face her younger sister, wiping her hands on a tea towel. “Alice, hon, we’ve had this conversation many times. You know Mum’s at the hospital with Dad. Most nights she sleeps there so he’s not alone. If you’re at home, she can’t do that. Is that what you really want?”
“No, but I’m so bored! There’s nothing to do here and no one to see. This is supposed to be my summer holiday! So far, I’ve been to the beach twice and one of those was