{"product_id":"reckless-iii-the-golden-yarn-isbn-9781782691419","title":"Reckless III: The Golden Yarn","description":"\u003cb\u003eFirst paperback publication of the third book in Cornelia Funke's internationally bestselling \u003ci\u003eReckless\u003c\/i\u003e series.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe worlds on either side of the mirror are about to collide. And there's nothing Jacob can do to stop them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter a perilous encounter with an Alder Elf - an immortal, trick-­turning creature to whom he owes a great debt - Jacob must journey back into the enchanted Mirrorworld once again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTogether with Fox, his beautiful shape­shifting friend, Jacob has no choice but to follow his brother on the trail of the Dark Fairy, who has fled deep into the East: to a land of folklore, Cossacks, spies, time­-eating witches and flying carpets. But what exactly is the Dark One running from? Could it be the same danger that threatens Jacob and Fox?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe third book in the \u003ci\u003eReckless\u003c\/i\u003e series, \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Yarn\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrilling tale of courage and fear, jealousy and forbidden desire; in which love has the power both to save a life - and to destroy it.\"A nostalgic fantasy, playing with the conventions of Russian fairy tale\" \u003ci\u003eTelegraph, Books of the Year\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A wonderful storyteller\" \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003eCornelia Funke is the highly acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author of the \u003ci\u003eReckless\u003c\/i\u003e series, the \u003ci\u003eInkheart\u003c\/i\u003e trilogy, \u003ci\u003eDragon Rider\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Thief Lord\u003c\/i\u003e and numerous other children's novels and picture books. Born in 1958 in the German town of Dorsten, she worked as a social worker for a few years before turning first to illustration and then to writing. Her books have now sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 37 languages.1\u003cbr\u003e The Moonstone Prince\u003cbr\u003e The doll-princess was not having an easy labor. Not even\u003cbr\u003e the palace garden offered a refuge from her screams, and\u003cbr\u003e the Dark Fairy listened, and she hated how those groans\u003cbr\u003e and whimpers made her feel. She hoped Amalie would\u003cbr\u003e die. Of course. She’d been hoping ever since Kami’en had\u003cbr\u003e said yes to the other one in her bloody wedding gown. Yet\u003cbr\u003e there was more: an unreasonable longing for the infant who\u003cbr\u003e was pushing those screams from Amalie’s vapid, pretty\u003cbr\u003e mouth.\u003cbr\u003e Through all these months, only her magic had kept the\u003cbr\u003e unborn child alive. The child that could not be. “You will\u003cbr\u003e save it. Promise me!” The same whispered plea, every time\u003cbr\u003e after he’d made love to her. Only that had made Kami’en\u003cbr\u003e return to her bed at night. The desire to meld his flesh with\u003cbr\u003e human flesh—it made him so helpless.\u003cbr\u003e Oh, how the Doll screamed. As though the infant were\u003cbr\u003e being carved with a knife from her body, the body that only\u003cbr\u003e a Fairy lily could make desirable.\u003cbr\u003e Kill her already, Skinless Prince. What gives her the right\u003cbr\u003e to call herself your mother?\u003cbr\u003e He would have rotted inside her, like a forbidden fruit, if\u003cbr\u003e it hadn’t been for the magic the Dark One had spun around\u003cbr\u003e Amalie. Yes, the infant was a boy. A son. The Dark Fairy\u003cbr\u003e had seen him in her dreams.\u003cbr\u003e Kami’en did not come for her help himself. Not this night.\u003cbr\u003e He sent his bloodhound to find her instead. His milky-eyed\u003cbr\u003e jasper shadow. Hentzau stopped in front of her, and as usual\u003cbr\u003e he avoided looking in her eyes.\u003cbr\u003e “The midwife says she’s losing the child.”\u003cbr\u003e Why did she go with him?\u003cbr\u003e For the child.\u003cbr\u003e It filled the Fairy with quiet satisfaction that Kami’en’s\u003cbr\u003e son chose the night to come into the world. Amalie feared\u003cbr\u003e the darkness so much, she always kept a dozen gaslights\u003cbr\u003e burning in her bedchamber, even though their pale light\u003cbr\u003e hurt her husband’s eyes.\u003cbr\u003e Kami’en was standing next to Amalie’s bed. He turned as\u003cbr\u003e the servants opened the door for his mistress. For an instant,\u003cbr\u003e the Fairy thought she could see in his eyes a shadow of the\u003cbr\u003e love she used to find there. Love. Hope. Fear. Dangerous\u003cbr\u003e emotions for a King, though Kami’en’s stone skin helped\u003cbr\u003e him hide them. More and more, he was starting to resemble\u003cbr\u003e one of the statues his human enemies erected for their\u003cbr\u003e Kings.\u003cbr\u003e The startled midwife toppled a basin with bloody water\u003cbr\u003e as the Fairy approached Amalie’s bed. Even the doctors\u003cbr\u003e backed away from her. Goyl doctors, human doctors, Dwarf\u003cbr\u003e doctors. Their black frocks made them look like a murder of\u003cbr\u003e crows drawn in by the scent of death rather than anticipation\u003cbr\u003e of a new life.\u003cbr\u003e Amalie’s doll face was swollen with fear and pain. The\u003cbr\u003e lashes around her violet-blue eyes were congealed with tears.\u003cbr\u003e Fairy-lily eyes… The Dark Fairy thought she could see in\u003cbr\u003e those eyes the water of the lake that had once delivered her.\u003cbr\u003e “Go away!” Amalie’s voice was hoarse from screaming.\u003cbr\u003e “What do you want? Who called you?”\u003cbr\u003e The Dark One pictured those violet eyes being snuffed\u003cbr\u003e out and that soft skin Kami’en so loved to touch turning cold\u003cbr\u003e and flaccid. The temptation to make her dead was so sweet.\u003cbr\u003e Too bad the Fairy couldn’t indulge it, for a dead Doll would\u003cbr\u003e take Kami’en’s son with her.\u003cbr\u003e “I know why you’re not letting the child out!” the Dark\u003cbr\u003e One whispered in Amalie’s ear. “You’re afraid to look at\u003cbr\u003e him. But I won’t allow you to kill him with your dying flesh.\u003cbr\u003e Deliver him, or I will have him cut out of you.”\u003cbr\u003e How the Doll stared at her. The Fairy wasn’t sure whether\u003cbr\u003e the hatred in Amalie’s eyes revealed more fear or jealousy.\u003cbr\u003e Maybe love bore fruit even more poisonous than fear.\u003cbr\u003e Amalie squeezed the infant out. The midwife’s face turned\u003cbr\u003e into a contorted mask of horror and disgust. On the streets,\u003cbr\u003e they already called him the Skinless Prince. But he did have\u003cbr\u003e a skin. The Fairy’s magic had given him one, as hard and\u003cbr\u003e as smooth as moonstone, and just as transparent. His skin\u003cbr\u003e revealed everything it covered: every sinew, every vein, the\u003cbr\u003e small skull, the eyeballs. Kami’en’s son looked like Death—or\u003cbr\u003e at least like his youngest spawn.\u003cbr\u003e Amalie groaned and pressed her hands over her eyes.\u003cbr\u003e Kami’en was the only one who looked at the baby without\u003cbr\u003e dread. The Dark Fairy took the slithery body and stroked\u003cbr\u003e the transparent skin with her six-fingered hand until it turned\u003cbr\u003e as red as his father’s, giving such beauty to the small face\u003cbr\u003e that now all the averted eyes turned back in enchantment\u003cbr\u003e to admire the newborn prince. Amalie reached out for her\u003cbr\u003e son, but the Fairy placed the baby in Kami’en’s arms. She\u003cbr\u003e did so without looking at the King, and when she stepped\u003cbr\u003e out into the dark hallway, he didn’t stop her.\u003cbr\u003e The Dark Fairy had to pause halfway and struggle for\u003cbr\u003e breath on a balcony. Her hands trembled as she wiped her\u003cbr\u003e fingers on her dress, again and again, until she could no\u003cbr\u003e longer feel the warm body they’d touched.\u003cbr\u003e There was no word for child in her language. There hadn’t\u003cbr\u003e been in a long time.","brand":"Pushkin Children's Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301935108325,"sku":"NP9781782691419","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781782691419.jpg?v=1767735520","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/reckless-iii-the-golden-yarn-isbn-9781782691419","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}