The Wind Singer. William Nicholson

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      Praise for THE WIND SINGER

      Winner of the Smarties Prize Gold Award and the Blue Peter Book Award

      ‘This is a truly extraordinary book that will haunt you’

       Daily Telegraph

      ‘Positively surreal imagery, a fast-moving adventure and a cutting satire all in one. An original and striking read’

       Melvin Burgess

      ‘. . . A gripping read . . . A beautifully narrated, warm thriller of a book, full of inventiveness, action and passion’

       Guardian

      ‘A lyrical, evocative and powerful story’

       Kate Agnew

      ‘. . . A truly imaginative, fantastical and distinctive adventure story that grips from the very beginning and absolutely refuses to let go’

       Amazon

      ‘An accesible, rebellious and fast-paced adventure, and, as you would expect from the author of Shadow lands, a heart-wringing celebration of love’

       Sunday Times

      ‘. . . A potent mix of thundering adventure and purposeful fantasy’

       Guardian

      ‘A page-turning quest adventure that crackles off the page’

       Books Magazine

      ‘. . . A story that delves deeper into human nature and relationships’

       Bookseller

       Books by William Nicholson

      The Wind on Fire Trilogy

      The Wind Singer Slaves of the Mastery Firesong

      The Noble Warriors Trilogy

      SeekerJango Noman

      For older readers

      Rich and Mad

      First published in Great Britain 2000

       This edition published 2011

       by Egmont UK Limited

       239 Kensington High Street

       London W8 6SA

      Text copyright © 2000 William Nicholson

      The moral rights of the author have been asserted

      ISBN 978 1 4052 3969 1

      eBook ISBN 978 1 7803 1210 1

      www.egmont.co.uk

      www.williamnicholson.co.uk

      A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

      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 publisher and copyright owner

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      Contents

       Long ago

       1 Baby Pinpin makes her mark

       2 Kestrel makes a horrible friend

       3 Bad words said loud

       4 Practising for Maroon

       5 A warning from the Chief Examiner

       6 Special Teaching

       7 The Emperor weeps

       8 The Hath family shamed

       9 Escape from Aramanth

       10 In the salt caves

       11 The mudnut harvest

       12 A Queen remembers

       13 The Hath family punished

       14 Return of the old children

       15 Prisoners of Ombaraka

       16 The wind battle

       17 The Hath family fights back

       18 Crack-in-the-land

       19 Mumpo goes wrong

       20 Into the fire

       21 The march of the Zars

       22 The Hath family broken

       23 The Scourge of the Plains

       24 The last High Examination

Long ago

      At the time the strangers came, the Manth people were still living in the low mat-walled shelters that they had carried with them in their hunting days. The domed huts were clustered around the salt mine that was to become the source of their wealth. This was long before they had built the great city that stands above the salt caverns today. One high summer afternoon, a band of travellers came striding out of the desert plains, and made camp nearby. They wore their hair long and loose, men and women alike, and moved slowly and spoke quietly, when they spoke at all. They traded a little with the Manth, buying bread and meat and salt, paying with small silver ornaments that they themselves had made. They caused no trouble, but their near presence was somehow uncomfortable. Who were they? Where had they come from? Where were they going? Direct questions produced no answers: only a smile, a shrug, a shake of the head.

      Then the strangers were seen to be at work, building a tower. Slowly a wooden structure took shape, a platform higher than a man, on which they constructed a second narrower tower, out of timber beams and metal pipes. These pipes were all of different sizes, and bundled together, like the pipes of an organ. At their base, they opened out into a ring of metal horns. At their