Bone

Thorn leads Phoney’s dragon-slaying party back from the Dragon’s Stair. She has just rescued the Tanner Family. Thorn sends the Tanners to a nearby camp. Wendell becomes furious with Phoney and insists on “string[ing] the little runt up right now!” (734), but Thorn forbids it.

Thorn leads the party to Barrelhaven’s ruins. The villagers blame Phoney for the destruction. They believe their neighbors are dead. Thorn picks through the wreckage and recovers Kingdok’s club. Euclid seizes Phoney, but Thorn stops him from attacking. Jon slips away from the group. Euclid squeezes Phoney’s neck. Phoney announces that Thorn is the princess so Euclid will release him. Thorn admits that the rat creatures and her grandmother believe she is a princess.

Thorn believes that there are survivors from the attack. Thorn and Wendell argue about the right course of action. Wendell wants to return to the people back at camp in need of their help, but Thorn wants to search for her missing friends.

Jon returns with the note Thorn left for Fone. He says he found it in a hollow tree that he and Lucius use to pass notes. They surmise that Lucius found the note and left it for Jon to find. Because Thorn wrote the note to inform Fone that she was returning to the farmhouse, Jon believes that Lucius is heading there, too.

Four Ven-Yan monks appear. They deliver a message that Grandma Ben is at Old Man’s Cave and wants Thorn to meet her there immediately. Thorn wants to search for Fone, but the messengers tell her that he’s far east of the Valley and leave.

That night, Thorn dreams of young Briar beckoning her and mistakes her for Grandma Ben. Young Lucius stands behind Briar and warns Thorn that Briar is evil. Young Rose appears and tells Thorn not to give Briar her sword. Briar’s face ages, and Thorn jolts awake. While the others sleep, Thorn leaves.

The next day, Jon, Euclid, Wendell, and Phoney are trudging to Old Man’s Cave in the pouring rain. Everyone is uncomfortable and exhausted, but Phoney in particular is in a bad way. He keeps wandering in front of Euclid and causing him to trip, which infuriates him. Wendell, Jon, and Euclid discuss their situation: They’re hopelessly lost without Thorn, whose sense of direction has been uncannily accurate.

Phoney swoons in the road. Euclid moves to beat up Phoney for tripping him, but Wendell defends him, citing Thorn’s orders. As they wrestle and argue, Grandma Ben and Lucius appear. Lucius leaves to find Thorn. Grandma ushers everyone else to Old Man’s Cave.

Fone, Smiley, and Ted are still making their way through the woods when they are ambushed by a group of rat creatures. Thorn appears to defend them, brandishing Kingdok’s club. She tosses it to Fone, thus confirming in the rats’ minds their suspicion that he slew Kingdok. Thorn tells the boys that Grandma wants to meet her at Old Man’s Cave, and she begins to lead them in the opposite direction. When they ask why, Thorn says, “There’s nobody there we can trust” (760).

Elsewhere, the Hooded One holds council with the Lord of the Locusts. She reports that Kingdok is alive and the Bones are “powerful magicians.” The Lord of the Locusts berates her for her obsession with capturing Phoney. He is impatient with her jealousy towards Thorn and believes that using anyone other than the princess for their ritual is pointless. The Hooded One insists that Phoney is a Ven-Yan-Cari. The Locust agrees to use him instead of Thorn and threatens: “…If you are wrong… …then be prepared for your end to be… very… very… painful…” (764).

Thorn, Smiley, and Fone continue traveling. Thorn plans to attack the Hooded One in the next few days. She still won’t consider going to Old Man’s Cave, and she still doesn’t trust Grandma Ben. Thorn tells Fone and Smiley that the story her grandmother recounted—wherein the royal family was betrayed by Thorn’s childhood nursemaid—couldn’t be true. Her childhood memories are returning, and she is certain she never had a nursemaid.

The Hooded One and Roque Ja negotiate a deal: In exchange for land and treasure, Roque Ja will deliver the Bone Cousins and Thorn’s corpse before the Harvest Moon.

Phoney wakes up in Old Man’s Cave. Jon informs him that he’s been delirious with fever for days. The cave is full of Ven-Yan Warriors. Jon catches Phoney up:

Phoney: I thought you didn’t like these guys. The townspeople called ’em stickeaters.

Jon: Oh, that. We thought they were wandering holy men. Monks. Beggars. We didn’t know they were the elite royal guardians of the Dreaming! Everybody thought the Ven-Yan disappeared along with the kingdom! (779).

Grandma tells Phoney the Valley creation myth. In her version, Mim the Dragon Queen maintained and monitored the Dreaming. The Lord of the Locusts entered her mind in an attempt to escape the spirit world, which drove her insane. When Mim was turned to stone, he was trapped alive inside her. The dragons installed Ven Harvestar as the first queen of the humans to help maintain the Dreaming. If the Lord of the Locusts is freed, the world will end.

At the farmhouse, Thorn tells Fone and Smiley that she intends to assassinate the Hooded One alone. Fone insists on being part of Thorn’s plan. Thorn expresses feelings of isolation: She doesn’t trust her grandmother, and she never knew her parents. Smiley tells her that he, Fone, and Phoney are all orphans, too, and they know how she feels. Thorn softens and agrees to let them come with her.

That night, Lucius, Wendell, Jon, and a Ven-Yan warrior named Captain Knott lead a party to defend against the rat creature armies. “We must not let the rat creatures cross this river. If we do, Old Man’s Cave will be surrounded” (795). While he’s keeping watch, Lucius is beckoned by the Hooded One. She removes her hood to expose a vision of herself in her youth.

Lucius is awestruck; he was in love with her once, and he knows she was killed 15 years prior. From his post, Jonathan sees Lucius in the Hooded One’s arms, and moments later, the rat creatures attack. Briar disappears, and Lucius joins the fight.

Grandma experiences a gitchy omen. Lucius returns to the cave, leading his men in retreat and carrying a wounded Jon. The rats are in pursuit. Grandma announces that they must make their last stand tonight.

Lucius tells Grandma Ben what he saw the night of the attack, and she is devastated by the news that her older sister is the Hooded One. Lucius wishes for the Red Dragon’s help, but Grandma says the dragons have gone “underground for good” (808).

Grandma says that the Hooded One believes Phoney can free the Lord of the Locusts. Upon hearing this, Phoney removes his shirt and runs away. Grandma catches him running up a mountain, where Roque Ja attacks them. Lucius and Grandma fight Roque Ja. Phoney runs into Thorn and his cousins. Roque Ja follows, swats Thorn into a rock face, and carries her and Phoney away. Fone is knocked out in the scuffle; he dreams of the Red Dragon, who tells him Thorn is alive but mortally wounded. Fone wakes. He and Smiley race after Roque Ja. Grandma patches Lucius’s wounds and follows.

That night, the Hooded One begins the ritual to free the Locust on top of a smoldering mountain. Phoney won’t participate in the ritual willingly, so Briar must sacrifice him. She presents the “omen” that foretold his status as a Ven-Yan-Cari: the gigantic campaign balloon of him from his mayoral bid.

Grandma demands to know where Thorn is. Briar reveals Thorn’s body and says she’s dead. Grandma tells her that killing Thorn was a grave error: Phoney isn’t a Ven-Yan-Cari. Without a living Ven-Yan-Cari, the ritual cannot be completed. A cloud of locusts bursts out of Briar’s skin, which deflates on the ground in two pieces. The locusts surround Thorn, and Fone repels them with the royal pendant. Thorn wakes; she, Grandma, and the Bones escape.