Briar's Book Read online

  “Briar!” she called.

  “It ain’t running away without us!” he yelled in reply, and climbed back into the house.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks are due to my sister Kim, paramedic and nurse-to-be, for crash medical talks—any errors here in the descriptions of disease and treatment are strictly my own. Thanks also to my husband, Tim, for the encouragement and advice that saw me through a most worrisome first draft; and to Rick Robinson once again for all his help. Emelan and Summersea would not have their present shape, defenses, and currency without him.

  I also owe a debt of research to books like William H. McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples, Frederick F. Cartwright and Michael D. Biddiss’s Disease as History, and Laurie Garrett’s The Coming Plague, about the role that disease plays in human history and culture.

  As I close this quartet, I would like to thank again the publishers who helped to see me through this bold new creative venture of mine, the editors and assistants at Scholastic Press here in the U.S. and at Scholastic Children’s Books in the U.K. Between all of us, we have created books we can be quite proud of. Thanks also to my literary agents at Harold Ober Associates, always a safe port in any storm. My parents, Wayne and Mary Lou Pierce, supplied me with research as well as emotional support. To them and to Thomas Gansevoort, this series’s creative godfather, I give my heartfelt gratitude.

  The Circle of Magic Books

  Circle of Magic quartet:

  Book One: Sandry’s Book

  Book Two: Tris’s Book

  Book Three: Daja’s Book

  Book Four: Briar’s Book

  The Circle Opens quartet:

  Book One: Magic Steps

  Book Two: Street Magic

  Book Three: Cold Fire

  Book Four: Shatterglass

  The Will of the Empress

  Melting Stones

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  TAMORA PIERCE says she first got the idea for the Circle of Magic books by watching her mother and sister do needlework. “Seeing them knit, quilt, and crochet in the evenings, I often thought—as I eyed my two left hands—that what I witnessed was magic in our real world, the magic of turning thread and cloth into beautiful, useful things with little fuss or ceremony. That notion lodged in my brain. For years I fiddled with the concept of crafts magic, including a play, a short story, and mentions in a book that all dealt with thread magic.

  “At the same time I was conducting those experiments, I became friends with an artist jeweler who, over the course of his long career, had turned his hand not only to weaving, sewing, and embroidery, but also to architecture, woodworking, pottery, glassblowing, and the smithing of all kinds of metals. Our friendship broadened my conception of magic expressed in crafts, while my initial fascination with magic worked in thread gave me a place to start. Offered the chance by Scholastic to create a new magical universe, I decided to get serious about crafts and their power, both real and imagined.”

  Tamora Pierce was born in western Pennsylvania, has lived in various states across the country, and currently resides in New York City. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she has studied social work, film, and psychology. She has worked as head writer for a radio production company, martial arts movie reviewer, housemother in a group home, literary agent’s assistant, and investment banking secretary. Today she is a full-time writer.

  Ms. Pierce began to write at the age of eleven. Her first two fantasy cycles, The Song of the Lioness and The Immortals, are very popular with young readers and have won many honors. The Circle of Magic quartet—including Sandry’s Book, Tris’s Book, Daja’s Book, and Briar’s Book—has been hailed by reviewers as “gripping adventure” (School Library Journal) and “a rich and satisfying read” (Kirkus Reviews). Upcoming are four more books, called The Circle Opens, which will feature some characters familiar from The Circle of Magic as well as many new ones.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 1999 by Tamora Pierce

  Cover art by Jonathan Barkat

  Cover design by Steve Scott

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  First Scholastic paperback printing, March 2000

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  e-ISBN 978-0-545-40593-5