Dark Angels

Dark Angels
Katherine Langrish

A gripping and wonderfully spooky standalone adventure from critically acclaimed author Katherine Langrish.When Wolf runs away from the monastery where he grew up, he finds himself lost on Devil’s Edge – a hill riddled with old mine shafts, said to be infested with ghosts, boggarts, elves, and perhaps even the Devil himself. Wolf meets a local knight out hunting, who offers him work and shelter in his castle – a place inhabited by a host of unexpected characters – a hearth hob, a ghostly white lady and a mysterious wandering juggler…Together Wolf and Nest, the knight’s daughter, become embroiled in a mystery which leads Wolf into the very darkest depths of Devil’s Edge…

KATHERINE LANGRISH

DARK ANGELS

HarperCollins Children’s Books

FOR DAVID

*

Warm thanks to: My daughters for reading it and telling me it was all right really

Sally Martin for insightful and tactful editing Michele Topham for level-headed calm and Huw Tegid from Menter Môn for advising on Welsh phrases

Table of Contents

Cover (#u47884357-7fe6-5f66-bdd9-86375ca02f21)

Title Page (#u4db7520b-5702-510b-9975-f2dd665d0490)

The Beginning of the Elves (#u68025566-6e22-503f-b2a9-19566ceb719e)

CHAPTER 1 (#ucd386f38-d972-582b-adf7-8062d0608bc9)

CHAPTER 2 (#ufb8303e4-63b2-57b2-ab16-40ee7e2fc179)

CHAPTER 3 (#u7733e851-2e76-525a-a384-bd24bb688604)

CHAPTER 4 (#u823e4250-b5ad-541f-b093-1fb006006553)

CHAPTER 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise for Troll Fell (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Katherine Langrish (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

The Beginning of the Elves (#ulink_0d16b065-04bb-5346-8ae7-1918d7937824)

One day, some years after Adam and Eve had been cast out of Paradise, the Lord God came to visit them in the cool of the evening.

By now, Adam and Eve had lots of children, too many to look after properly. Some of them hadn’t been washed, and Eve was ashamed of them. “Hide,” she told the dirty ones. “You aren’t fit to be seen by God. Keep out of His sight.”

“Are these all the children you have?” asked God, looking at the scuffling parade of clean children lined up before Him.

“Yes,” said Eve.

“Then what you have hidden from Me shall be hidden from everyone,” said God.

The dirty children became invisible to human eyes, and from then on they were outcasts, forced to hide in hills, caves and rocks.

This was the beginning of the elves.

C H A P T E R 1 (#ulink_f89a933d-2600-5d94-82d7-8a28dfab8d7c)

The first time the horn sounded on the hill, Wolf mistook it for a sheep bleating or a bird crying, and thought no more of it. He had other things to worry about.

There were no proper paths up here. He hadn’t known it would take so long to climb out of the valley. He’d expected to be miles away by now, dropping into the shelter of the woods — not still forcing his way up through waist-high heather towards the long, saw-blade ridge of Devil’s Edge. But there were no proper paths up here. Wolf cursed the boggy sheep tracks that never lasted more than a few yards before twisting the wrong way.

He was picking his way across a brook when he heard it: a faint, mournful wailing, more like a stain on the wind than a real sound. He checked mid-stream to listen, teetered on a wobbly stone, whirled his arms, jumped for the next and missed, and landed on his hands and knees in the brawling water.

“Hell’s bones!”