Read Online Castle Avamir by Kathleen Duey - Free Book Online

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

    For all the daydreamers …
    If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
    This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    First Aladdin Paperbacks edition August 2003
Castle Avamir
    Kathleen Duey
    ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
New York London Toronto Sydney
    Text copyright © 2003 by Kathleen Duey
    Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Omar Rayyan
    ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster
Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com
    All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
    Also available in an Aladdin Library edition.
    Designed by Debra Sfetsios
    The text of this book was set in Golden Cockerel ITC.
    Printed in the United States of America
    6 8 10 9 7 5
    ISBN-13: 978-0-689-85372-2 (ISBN-10: 0-689-85372-6)
eISBN-13: 978-1-439-10883-3
    The Library of Congress Control Number for the Library Edition is 2003102697

    T
he Gypsies have struggled over the wintry High Road into Lord Levin’s lands. Spring rains are finally melting the snow. Moonsilver and Heart walk apart from the Gypsies. Strangers think Moonsilver is a lord’s mount because of the fancy armor that hides his horn. In every village, every town, Heart asks about Castle Avamir. No one has ever heard of it.

CHAPTER ONE
    H eart wiped a raindrop from the tip of her nose.
    She pulled her cloak tighter and shivered.
    Davey’s wagon was stuck fast.
    Its wheels were half buried in mud.
    Davey sat on the driver’s bench.
    The reins were loose in his hands. His jacket and shirt were dark with rainwater. His trousers were mud stained.
    The horses were nervous and he was singing to them.
    Heart brushed at her own clothes, then at Moonsilver’s armor. The boots Josepha had given her were caked in mud.
Everything
was.
    â€œWe need a hand!” Binney was shouting. “Davey’s stuck.”
    Groans rose from the long line of Gypsy wagons.
    Heart made a face. Every muscle in her body was sore.
    They had been struggling against the weather since they had left Bidenfast.
    Usually, Binney said, they made it to Lord Kaybale’s sheltered valleys before the worst storms hit. Not this year.
    Winter in Lord Levin’s mountains had been long and cruel.
    They had spent months huddled in the crowded wagons.
    The cold didn’t seem to bother Moonsilver or Avamir. It was terrible for everyone else.
    Zim had been sick for weeks, sniffling and coughing. The horses shivered and stood close together. Kip slept inside Binney’s wagon, curled in a ball so tight his tail covered his ears.
    The snow storms finally stopped.
    Then the rains had begun.
    The streams had turned into deep torrents of dark, muddy water.
    There was a low, distant rumble of thunder. “Not much chance we’ll sleep dry tonight,” Talia called. She pointed at the dark clouds overhead. “Looks like another storm.”
    Heart glanced up. “It has to clear up sometime.”
    Talia grinned. “The sooner the better.”
    Heart didn’t answer. She was sick of the cold, of the wet, of the wagons being so crammed with people every evening that she couldn’t read or practice writing.
    Tibbs