The Fork-Tongue Charmers (31 page)

Authors: Paul Durham

BOOK: The Fork-Tongue Charmers

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A Seafarer's Guide to Mumbley-Speak and Other High Isle Chatter

Belonger
: If you or your kin were born on Pest, be it High or Lower Isles, you'll always be welcomed back to Wick with a pair of dry boots and a good-natured cuff. Of course, most Belongers never leave at all. Belonger children are taught early on that there's no finer life than one built on a hard day's work and a generous helping of herring by the fire. Besides, everyone knows that a big, frightening world lies beyond the sea.

Brannigan:
Worse than a brouhaha but not quite as violent as a donnybrook. At best, this type of loud disagreement might leave you with a headache. At worst, well, a cudgel to the head is not out of the question.

Climbing Boy:
Climbing boys scale the cliffs of Pest to harvest eggs from the seabirds' nests. It's dangerous workâa pecked hand being the least of a climbing boy's problems. But who doesn't enjoy fresh eggs with their morning stout?

Freebooters:
Not to be confused with sea rovers, pirates, or corsairs, freebooters don't plunder the loot of others, they simply help move it. These smugglers are as guileful as they are swift, and for the right price, there's no cargo they can't see safely from one port to another.

Goomurnin-fi-seas:
The traditional Pest greeting exchanged between Belongers. Regardless of whether or not you're having a good morning or if the seas are truly fine, the appropriate response is “
I-fairwins-t'ya.
” Because, really, we're just trying to be niceânobody wants to hear about your troubles.

High Isle:
The Isle of Pest is actually a chain of windswept islands off the coast of the Shale. High Isle, the largest and most populated, is home to the more sophisticated and worldly of the Belongers. Popular High Isle leisure activities include sheep races, the boulder toss, and rope pulls.

Intuitives:
The Low Islanders whisper that once every several generations, an Intuitive may be born into a Lower Isle family where Longsight runs in the blood. Intuitives are almost always women because, let's face it, men's idea of intuition amounts to guessing what's for supper. Of course, Low Islanders have also been known to tinkle in their own boots to keep their feet warm, so most folks take what they say with a grain of salt.

Jack-in-Irons:
The most famous of all legendary giants, Jack-in-Irons was said to inhabit Pest long before the arrival of mankind. Guilty of offending a powerful hag, he was bound in shackles and cursed to stack rocks on High Isle for the remainder of his days. Either that or he was just bored. An island can seem like a small place for curious children, never mind a giant.

Longsight or Sight:
When used properly, this giftâor some would say curseâcan help you become a wise guide, leader, and sage. Use it improperly and you'll just sound like a great big know-it-all. The prideful Belongers don't like being told what to do under the best of circumstances, and have been known to react poorly when told what they
will
do. For that reason, most Intuitives have learned to keep their big mouths shut.

Lower Isles:
The hundreds of tiny islands east of High Isle are wild and weather-beaten, much like their isolated pockets of inhabitants. Old superstitions are prevalent among the Low Islanders, and their populations are rumored to include descendants of shipwrecked sea rovers, witches, and even giants. The worst punishment in Pest is to be marooned on the most remote of the Lower Isles, where if the winds and wild boars don't get you, the hag Black Annis will.

Luck Uglies and Other Fork-Tongue Charmers:
Again with these questions? Told you beforeâno idea who you're talking about.

The Pull:
The Belongers are masters of democracy. The last clan pulled into the harbor each spring governs Pest for the following year. What, your political system is so much better?

The Salt:
A bookish Uninvited once tried to explain that the Salt was the result of condensed water droplets suspended in the air. The Belongers recognized his crazy ramblings for what they really wereâthe wicked wordsmithery of a sorcererâand promptly marooned him on the Lower Isles.

Shellycoats:
If a favorite wool sock goes missing from the wash, or your rowboat springs a leak, you can bet one of these mischievous spirits is to blame. When kept appeased by small tokens of affection, these should be the worst of the little imps' tricks. However, a Belonger who scorns the Shellycoats can find himself hopelessly lost in the mires at dusk or, worse, bring the full rage of the sea upon his village.

Uninvited:
History has proven to the Belongers that the Uninvited traveler packs his satchel with nothing but trouble. The Belongers may knock heads like rams among themselves, but they all agree that any Uninvited should swim right back to whatever dry-footed hollow he came from.

About the Author

PAUL DURHAM
wrote this book and
The Luck Uglies
in an abandoned chicken coop at the edge of a swamp. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife, two daughters, and an enormous, bushy creature the local animal shelter identified as a cat.

You can find him online at
www.pauldurhambooks.com
.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

Credits

Cover design by Joel Tippie

Copyright

THE LUCK UGLIES: FORK-TONGUE CHARMERS
. Text copyright Â© 2015 by Paul Durham. Illustrations copyright Â© 2015 by PÃ©tur Antonsson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Durham, Paul (Paul Joseph), author.

Fork-tongue charmers / Paul Durham ; illustrations by PÃ©tur Antonsson. â First edition.

Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
pages
Â Â Â Â Â
cm â The Luck Uglies; #2

Summary: “When Rye O'Chanter is declared an outlaw from her own village, she finds herself stuck on a strange remote island. But the island comes to feel much less remote when the battle over the future of the Luck Uglies moves to its shores”â Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-06-227153-2

EPub Edition Â© February 2015 ISBN 9780062271556

[1. MonstersâFiction. 2. Secret societiesâFiction. 3. Adventure and adventurersâFiction. 4. Fantasy.] I. PÃ©tur Antonsson, illustrator. II. Title.