Soman Chainani - A Crystal of Time

First published in the USA by HarperCollins Childrens Books in 2019

Published simultaneously in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019

Published in this ebook edition in 2019

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Text copyright © Soman Chainani 2019

Illustrations copyright © Iacopo Bruno 2019

Cover design copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

All rights reserved.

Soman Chainani and Iacopo Bruno assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Source ISBN: 9780008292201

Ebook Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008292218

Version: 2019-02-19

For Uma and Kaveen

IN THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

A SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

TWO TOWERS LIKE TWIN HEADS

ONE FOR THE PURE

ONE FOR THE WICKED

TRY TO ESCAPE YOU’LL ALWAYS FAIL

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS

THROUGH A FAIRY TALE

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

1. Agatha: The Lady and the Snake

2. The Coven: Lionsmane

3. Sophie: Bonds of Blood

4. Agatha: New Alliances

5. Tedros: Sophie’s Choice

6. Sophie: The Dinner Game

7. Agatha: Agatha’s Army

8. Hort: Someday My Weasel Will Come

9. Sophie: Empress under the Boot

10. Sophie: Blessing in Disguise

11. Agatha: Friendship Lessons

12. Tedros: Lucky Seven

13. Agatha: Sometimes the Story Leads You

14. Sophie: He Lies, She Lies

15. Agatha: One True King

16. Professor Dovey: What Makes Your Heart Beat?

17. Agatha: The Only Safe Place in the Woods

18. Tedros: The Ultimate Mission

19. Agatha: Into the Crystal World

20. Hort: The House at Number 63

21. Agatha: Blood Crystal

22. Sophie: Script of a Murder

23. Agatha: Cat in a Museum

24. Sophie: The Garden of Truth and Lies

25. Sophie: Rhian and the Real Thing

26. Agatha: A Grave Mistake

27. Tedros: The Unburied King

Keep Reading . . .

About the Author

About the Publisher

When the new King of Camelot intends to kill your true love, kidnap your best friend, and hunt you down like a dog . . . you better have a plan.

But Agatha had no plan.

She had no allies.

She had no place to hide.

So she ran.

She ran as far from Camelot as she could with no direction or destination, ripping through the Endless Woods, her black dress catching on nettles and branches as the sun rose and fell . . . She ran as the bag with a Dean’s crystal ball swung and thumped against her ribs . . . She ran as WANTED posters with her face began appearing on trees, a warning that news traveled faster than her legs could carry her and that there was nowhere safe for her anymore . . .

By the second day, her feet blistered; her muscles throbbed, fed only by berries and apples and mushrooms she snatched along the way. She seemed to be going in circles: the smoky riverbanks of Mahadeva, the borders of Gillikin, then back to Mahadeva in the pale dawn. She couldn’t think about a plan or shelter. She couldn’t think about the present at all. Her thoughts were in the past: Tedros in chains . . . sentenced to die . . . her friends imprisoned . . . Merlin dragged away unconscious . . . an Evil villain wearing Tedros’ crown . . .

She struggled through an assault of pink fog, searching for the path. Wasn’t Gillikin the kingdom with the pink fog? Hadn’t Yuba the Gnome taught them that at school? But she’d left Gillikin hours ago. How could she be there again? She needed to pay attention . . . she needed to think forward instead of backward . . . but now all she could see were clouds of pink fog taking the shape of the Snake . . . that masked, scale-covered boy who she’d been sure was dead . . . but a boy who she’d just seen alive . . .

By the time she came out of her thoughts, the fog was gone and it was nighttime. Somehow she’d ended up in the Stymph Forest, with no trace of a path. A storm swept in, slinging lightning through trees. She cowered under an overgrown toadstool.

Where should she go? Who could help her when everyone she trusted was locked in a dungeon? She’d always relied on her intuition, her ability to make a plan on the spot. But how could she think of a plan when she didn’t even know who she was fighting?

I saw the Snake dead.

But then he wasn’t . . .

And Rhian was still onstage . . .

So Rhian can’t be the Snake.

The Snake is someone else.

They’re working together.

The Lion and the Snake.

She thought of Sophie, who’d giddily accepted Rhian’s ring, thinking she was marrying Tedros’ knight. Sophie who believed she’d found love— real love that saw the Good in her—only to be taken hostage by a villain far more Evil than she.

At least Rhian wouldn’t hurt Sophie. Not yet. He needed her.

What for, Agatha didn’t know.

But Rhian would hurt Tedros.

Tedros, who’d heard Agatha tell Sophie last night that he’d been a failure as king. Tedros, who now doubted whether his own princess believed in him. Tedros, who’d lost his crown, his kingdom, his people, and was trapped in the hands of his enemy, who just yesterday he’d embraced like a brother. An enemy who now claimed to be his brother.