Bone

Fone dreams of Moby Dick, in which he is Ishmael and Phoney is Captain Ahab. They’re aboard the Pequod. Smiley appears in the ocean as Moby Dick.

Phoney harpoons Smiley, in spite of Fone’s protests. Fone falls overboard and floats through the ocean on a coffin. He begs not to be abandoned, but the ship sails away. The Red Dragon suddenly surfaces, 10 times his usual size. Fone startles awake to find that he’s overslept.

Thorn returns from fetching water. She asks Fone if he remembers his dream from last night. He recalls it to her, and she tells him about seeing his face in hers: “It looked like you, but it didn’t feel like you. I don’t think our two dreams are a coincidence!” (300). Fone is too delighted to have appeared in her dreams to be concerned.

Thorn leaves while Fone turns around to pick her some violets. When he turns back, the Red Dragon is standing there instead. The dragon knows the content of Fone’s dreams without being told.

At dinnertime, Grandma tells Fone and Phoney to catch and behead four chickens. They faint at the notion of such a grisly activity, and Grandma leaves to do it herself. 

The next morning, Lucius wakes Smiley and Phoney to travel back to Barrelhaven to work at the tavern. A running joke is established wherein Smiley is particularly fond of “hard little stuffed bread thingies” (311), a snack Grandma makes as road rations.

Fone finds a pile of carved rocks in the garden. Thorn tells him that they’re good-luck charms that supposedly ward off ghost circles:

Have you ever walked in the woods at night and come across a cold spot? And suddenly a chill runs up your spine? […] That’s a ghost circle! They’re supposed to be openings to the spirit world. I guess in the old days, they were pretty dangerous (317).

A downpour begins, so Fone and Thorn run into the barn, where they discuss their strange dreams.

Lucius, Phoney, and Smiley narrowly avoid a rat creature attack by driving the wagon into a ravine.

Thorn tells Fone that, according to her ancestors, dreams are “windows to the spirit world” (330), but she isn’t sure she believes this herself. Fone suggests that Grandma Ben must know the truth about Thorn’s childhood and her past with the dragons: “How come she’s never told you? Instead, she told you that dragons weren’t real---” (331). Grandma enters the barn.

Grandma looms in the doorway and glares. Fone and Thorn ask her what’s going on; she turns and leaves without a word. Fone and Thorn follow her into the woods.

Grandma orders Thorn to return home. Fone demands to know how much of their conversation she overheard. She replies: “Everything… I heard everything. Now, you take my granddaughter back to th’ farmhouse where it’s safe, an’ start mindin’ your own business, Bone!” (340). The three of them continue to argue until Grandma spots rat creatures in the dark.

As they walk to Barrelhaven, Lucius and Phoney argue about who would be better at running Lucius’s tavern. They settle on a wager: They’ll split the bar down the middle and see whose customers are happier by the end of the month. The stakes are high: If Phoney wins, he doesn’t have to work off his debts; if he loses, he has to work at the Barrel Haven Pub for the rest of his life. When they arrive at the tavern, the patrons see Phoney and rally to attack him. Lucius is barely able to settle them down.

Grandma Ben leads Fone and Thorn through the woods, off the path. Grandma blames Fone for waking the Red Dragon with his presence, and Thorn defends him: “You know more about the dragon than he does!” (357). Their debate is interrupted when Grandma spots a rat creature approaching. She leaves to investigate and tells the others to stay put. When she returns, she reports that the forest is swarming with them. Fone is disturbed to learn that Grandma killed the rat creature that approached them.

They travel in silence. Fone sees a group of rat creatures pursuing them. Grandma grabs Fone and Thorn and runs. Fone calls out to the Red Dragon for help, and Grandma covers his mouth. They crouch behind a tree, and the dragon appears, chasing the rats away. Grandma stands to confront him, but he disappears. They head for home, and Thorn tells Fone they ought to show Grandma the map.

Grandma apologizes to Fone for her behavior. While they talk, two rat creatures spy on them. Fone gives Grandma the map and tells her about the locust swarm. Thorn recalls drawing the map as a child. They go inside. Thorn demands to know why Grandma told her that dragons weren’t real. Grandma explains that leaving her with the dragons and lying about them were attempts to protect Thorn and the Valley.

The Big War started when the rat creatures challenged the villagers for ownership of the Valley, which had been part of the kingdom of Atheia. As she explains this, Grandma clutches a pendant that bears the image of a crown and a star. During the war, the rats suddenly withdrew from combat. When they returned, their attacks were so vicious that they became known as “the Nights of Lightning” (384). Atheia fell, and the royal family was slain. The hooded figures from Thorn’s dream were the king and queen of Atheia (Thorn’s parents), Grandma Ben (the queen’s mother), and a treasonous nursemaid (we will later learn that this was not a nursemaid; it was Briar).

We see Grandma Ben in her youth: a warrior queen with a sword and shield. Grandma says that she had hoped to keep Thorn safe by living a farmer’s life, but the locusts’ return means that war is imminent.

Kingdok tells the Hooded One that the princess has been located. The Hooded One privately reports to an entity (later revealed to be the Lord of the Locusts) that Thorn is too strong to be reached through her dreams.

Lucius reintroduces Phoney and Smiley to his patrons. They move to beat up the Bones for making fools of them, but Lucius defends them on the grounds that they must work off their debts. Furthermore, he castigates the patrons and bans violence against the Bones. He informs the customers of his bet with Phoney; they flock to Lucius’s side of the bar.

At the farm, Thorn, Fone, and Grandma Ben sit in silence. Fone asks Thorn what happens in her dreams after she gets to the dragon’s cave. She recalls a long journey underground, where she’s led to a chamber filled with dragons looking at something. She can’t tell what they’re looking at because the light is too bright.

Grandma tells Fone and Thorn about the Lord of the Locusts, “an enemy more dangerous than a legion of rat creatures […] an ancient spirit buried deep in the earth” (406). Thorn storms out of the house.

All of the customers are on Lucius’s side of the bar, but they suddenly flock to Smiley, who has started passing out free beer. Phoney snatches the beers away. Enraged, the villagers lunge towards the cousins, but they stop in their tracks when Phoney wishes for the dragon’s help.

The bar’s patrons interrogate Phoney about the dragon. Lucius attempts to dissuade them, but Phoney insists that the strange phenomena in the Valley—including the “big lazy orange” dragon (417)—existed before the Bones’ arrival.

The villagers gasp. Jonathan reported seeing a large, orange creature that smelled of brimstone in the woods. He recounts his story to Lucius, who can’t refute it. Phoney suggests that there is a dragon infestation in the Valley and claims to be a dragon exterminator. The villagers start buying beer and cheering for Phoney. Lucius is about to intervene, but a hooded man wearing a royal pendant enters and tells Lucius he brings news from the South.

On the farm, Fone tells Ted that Thorn and Grandma are unhappy, but he keeps the details vague. Ted responds: “Oboy, Grandma told her, huh? So I suppose she knows her real last name is Harvestar… tha’s a royal name y’know” (425). When Fone asks how he knows this, he says that bugs know all kinds of unexpected things. Ted leaves to give Grandma a message. Upon hearing it, Grandma tells Fone and Thorn that they have to leave immediately. She tells Thorn and Fone about a trap door in the barn and leaves to fetch some necessities. When they open the hatch, they discover a large trunk with her royal sword and shield inside.