Praise for
‘... a vivid world of magical possibilities in which children discover they have amazing powers’ The Times ‘High fantasy, richly imagined, and refreshingly wellwritten’ Sunday Times ‘Gripping ... racy ... children have been fighting to borrow it’ The Guardian ‘A magical read ... The Doomspell never fails to enthral and captivate’ Amazon ‘... brilliant, breathless and filled with action from page one. If you want a book that you can’t stop reading this is it. Enough talk – just read!’ Kids Out ‘The Doomspell is a perfect example of a great new voice in writing for children. This is a closely written and exciting fantasy novel that has all the elements to make it a bestseller ... McNish has created an incredible world in which the reader will become totally absorbed’ The Bookseller 'A thrilling and magical read ... full of brilliant descriptions of events, characters and places.' Library and Information Service for Schools 'Places him firmly among much more well-known names such as Philip Pullman and C.S.Lewis — Ithrea is a truly complete world, and the characters are beautifully conceived to obtain an emotional response from the reader.' BookMonster
By Cliff McNish The Doomspell Trilogy The Doomspell The Scent of Magic The Wizard’s Promise The Silver Sequence The Silver Child Silver City Silver World FOR OLDER READERS The Hunting Ground Savannah Grey Breathe: A Ghost Story Angel FOR YOUNGER READERS Going Home My Friend Twigs The Winter Wolf
DmMsPELL Cliff McNish
First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Orion Children’s Books Paperback edition first published in 2001 by Dolphin Paperbacks Reissued in 2008 by Orion Children’s Books Reissued in 2012 by Hodder and Stoughton Reissued in 2017 by Doomspell Books This edition published in 2019 by Doomspell Books 9 11 13 15 16 14 12 10
Text copyright © Cliff McNish, 2000 Illustrations copyright © Geoff Taylor, 2000
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. 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, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 0 9955821 2 5
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
www.cliffmcnish.com
SBY666.indd 4
28/09/2016 13:15
For Rachel, of course
Contents 1 The Witch 1 2 The Cellar 4 3 Between the Worlds 12 4 Arrival at the Palace 23 5 Spells 29 6 Journeys in the Sky 40 7 Rachel’s Trial 52 8 The Council of Sarren 63 9 The Child Army 73 10 Awakening 81 11 Magic 94 12 The Kiss Breath 110 13 Journey in the Snow 125 14 Prapsies 135 15 Wolves 142 16 Latnap Deep 150 17 Teeth 159 18 Mawkmound 173 19 Doomspell 181 20 Manag 190 21 The Choice 199
THE DOOMSPELL TRILOGY
So far, translated into 26 languages