Praise for
A fast-paced, gripping read’
Times Educational Supplement
'McNish writes with energy and sparkling imagination in this most compelling conclusion to an extraordinary trilogy' Nought to Twelve ‘The writing is atmospheric and the plot gripping, as the children battle against awesome forces’ Good Book Guide ‘this is breathtaking, swashbuckling stuff as the story relentlessly unfolds until it finally reaches its spectacular conclusion . . . the characters are believable; it is beautifully written, with page after page of powerful imagery . . . utterly compulsive and inventive’ Birmingham Post ‘After the first two novels in the series, we have a finale that grips like a vice, and is full of the pace and all the imaginative and descriptive flair we have come to expect from this remarkable author’ Amazon
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First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Orion Children’s Books Paperback edition first published in 2003 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 2018 by Doomspell Books 7 9 11 12 10 8 6
Text copyright © Cliff McNish, 2002 Illustrations copyright © Geoff Taylor, 2002
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 an 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 4 9
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
www.cliffmcnish.com