Igraine the Brave (24 page)
Authors: Cornelia Funke
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fairy Tales & Folklore, #Fantasy & Magic, #General
Looking embarrassed, the Sorrowful Knight bowed his head. “I allowed Heartless to steal you away,” he said, without looking at the ladies. “I hope you will forgive me. I was not worthy to be your knight.”
“Oh, no, there he goes talking nonsense again!” muttered Igraine, but her mother gave her a warning look and put a finger to her lips.
“Of course you’re worthy!” cried the three ladies. “You defended us most chivalrously! What could you do against such deceitful magic?”
“Learn a little magic himself, maybe,” Albert whispered to Igraine.
However, the three ladies went up to the Sorrowful Knight, and one by one they kissed his dusty cheek.
Igraine suppressed a groan.
“Escort us back to our castle,” said one of the ladies. “Be our protector again.”
The Sorrowful Knight bowed very, very deeply to her.
“I will be happy to escort you back,” he replied. “But I won’t stay, for my skill in arms is not enough to protect you from magic and treachery. So I have decided to learn some new arts, and to study, if they will allow me,” he said, turning around, “with the noble Sir Lamorak and the Fair Melisande, and not least with their extremely clever son, Albert. In return, I offer to instruct your noble and very brave daughter, Igraine, in all the skills that a chivalrous knight must learn.”
All at once Igraine’s heart felt so light that she almost floated up to the top of the tent.
“An excellent idea, er, Sorrowful Knight,” said Sir Lamorak. “And we offer you our services with the greatest pleasure, don’t we, my love?”
“Oh, yes.” The Fair Melisande nodded. “But on one condition. Now that you are no longer a Sorrowful but, I hope, a Happy Knight, you must tell us your real name.”
“I was once known as Sir Urban of Wintergreen,” said the Sorrowful Knight, “and I will go by that name again.” And with these words he turned to Igraine. “What do you say, squire?” he asked. “Will you come with me when I escort these three noble ladies back to their castle? After all, I am a knight with honor again, so I need a squire now.”
Igraine looked at her parents. “Of course. I’d love to!” she said, and the Fair Melisande and Sir Lamorak the Wily sighed — and nodded.
“Well, it would be a bit boring for you with just those three ladies, wouldn’t it?” Igraine whispered to the Sorrowful Knight.
“What did your noble squire say?” asked one of the ladies.
Luckily, Sisyphus came in at that moment, with a half-eaten fish in his mouth.
“Sisyphus!” cried Albert, astonished. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be guarding the prisoners!”
“Flown away,” purred Sisyphus, settling down comfortably on the carpet with his fish.
“What do you mean?” asked Albert in alarm, as the cat greedily smacked his lips.
“The wind blew them away,” replied Sisyphus. “What did you expect me to do? Fly after them?”
Igraine’s parents looked at each other in dismay.
“The wind — my word,” murmured Sir Lamorak. “Never thought of that, did we?”
“Who flew away?” asked the Baroness, who was just reviving herself by sampling the Spiky Knight’s provisions of spicy mead.
“Your nephew,” replied Melisande, “and his castellan.”
“Oh, were those two turned into birds as well?” asked the Baroness.
“No, no,” said Igraine, taking her hand. “You see, it’s rather a complicated story.”
So they all went back to Pimpernel Castle. Albert ordered the drawbridge to lower itself, which after some hesitation it did, and the Fair Melisande broke the spell on the moat. No sooner had she lowered her hands than twenty-five dazed men emerged from the water lilies. The snakes carried them to the bank, where Sir Lamorak and the Sorrowful Knight pulled them out of the water.
“The wind has blown your masters away,” said Melisande as they stood before her, dripping wet. “The tents you see still standing there are empty. The siege is over. You can go home.”
Most of the men didn’t wait to be told twice. They made off on their unsteady legs. But five men still stood there.
“What are you waiting for?” asked Albert impatiently. “You can go.”
But the five just looked gloomily at the feet they had got back. “We liked it down there,” one of them muttered.
“What?” said Sir Lamorak.
“We want to be fish again,” said a second man. “It’s a better life. Enough to eat, no one ordering you around …”
He looked longingly into the moat.
“I have a cat who eats fish,” said Igraine.
But that didn’t seem to bother the men.
So Sir Lamorak granted their wish. He turned the five of them back into fish, and then, with the help of the Books of Magic, he and the Fair Melisande conjured up such a banquet as Pimpernel Castle had never seen before, with not a crumb of biscuit or a blue egg in sight. Albert entertained the three ladies until late into the night, getting his mice to do tricks for them, and Igraine finally had her chance to tell the Baroness all that had happened since her twelfth birthday.
The only part of the story she wasn’t telling yet was how she had stolen the Baroness’s favorite horse….
Dragon Rider
The Thief Lord
Inkheart
Inkspell
When Santa Fell to Earth
CORNELIA FUNKE is the author of the bestselling, internationally acclaimed novels
The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, Inkheart
, and
Inkspell
, the Ghosthunters series, and several popular picture books. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her family.
First published in Germany as
Igraine Ohnefurcht
Original text copyright © 1998 by Cecilie Dressler Verlag, Hamburg, Germany
English translation by Anthea Bell copyright © 2007 by Cornelia Funke
Inside illustrations copyright © 1998 by Cornelia Funke
www.CorneliaFunkeFans.com
Published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Chicken House,
2 Palmer Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1DS.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Funke, Cornelia Caroline. [Igraine Ohnefurcht. English]
Igraine the brave / by Cornelia Funke; with illustrations by the author; translated from the German by Anthea Bell. – 1st American ed. p. cm.
Summary: The daughter of two magicians, twelve-year-old Igraine wants nothing more than to be a knight, and when their castle is attacked by a treacherous neighbor bent on stealing their singing magic books, Igraine has an opportunity to demonstrate her bravery.
[1. Knights and knighthood–Fiction. 2. Magic–Fiction. 3. Fantasy.] I. Bell, Anthea. II. Title.
PZ7.F96624Ig 2007 [Fic]–dc22 2006032672
First American edition, October 2007
Cover art © 2007 by Greg Call
Cover design by Leyah Jensen
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-40618-5
Table of Contents
Who’s Who in Igraine the Brave
The Sorrowful Knight’s Rules of Chivalry
2 Water Snakes and Fencing Practice
6 Birthday Breakfast on the Carpet
10 A Friend in the Dungeon of Despair
17 The Mouth of the Stone Lion