A great big greeting to everyone in Halla.
The flume beckons. It’s time to jump in for another trip. For those of you new to the story, welcome. For everyone who has followed Bobby’s adventure from the beginning, the next pieces of the puzzle are here for you. Many questions will be answered in these pages. Of course, just as many will be raised. That’s the way it works in Halla when you’re trying to keep pace with a demon who loves to confound and torment. I’m not talking about Saint Dane, I’m talking about me. Muhahahahahaha!
As always I want to send out a great big thanks to all you readers who have been loyally following the story. From Canada to China to Australia and all points in between, more and more people are stepping into the flume. I especially have to thank all readers who have been sending me mail to discuss the story. One of the favorite parts of my day is sitting down to read about your thoughts and answer your questions. Or should I say, answer some of your questions. Everybody knows I don’t like to be a spoiler and give away secrets. That would be cheating.
As with all my books, I’d like to thank some of the many people who help bring them to you. The wonderful folks at Simon & Schuster have been great supporters from the beginning. Rick Richter, Ellen Krieger, Jenn Zatorski, Kelly Stidham, and so many others are hugely responsible for keeping the Pendragon story rolling. My editor, Julia Richardson, has once again been a great help in getting the best possible story out of my sometimes muddled brain. If you think these stories have lots of twists and turns that are sometimes tricky to follow, try writing them! Thank you, Julia. Victor Lee has created one of my favorite covers with this book. It’s great to see each of his individual covers, but also to see them all together. It’s visual proof of how far we’ve all come. Heidi Hellmich did an amazing job of copyediting this book. When you jump around through time and space, it’s tough keeping all those tenses straight, but Heidi has managed to do it yet again. Amazing. Of course I have to thank my continuing band of acolytes: Richard Curtis, Peter Nelson and his team, and Danny Baror. They are all responsible for worrying about the many details of the book business that make my head hurt. Thank you, guys. My wife, Evangeline, is my constant source of support and encouragement. Without her calming assurances, I’d probably be throwing out more work than I keep and these books would take years to write! Finally, my daughter, Keaton, has provided me with one of the most satisfying experiences I think a writer can have. She wasn’t even born when the adventure began and the first few books were published. Now, at two and a half years old, when we walk through a bookstore she’ll point to the Pendragon shelf and exclaim: “Daddy’s book!” It does my heart proud. Of course she then blows right past them and heads straight for the Dr. Seuss section, but that’s another story. These are only a few of the people who have helped bring Bobby Pendragon’s story to you, and I sincerely thank all of them.
Okay. Are we done here? Are we ready? When last we were with Bobby, he had received a mysterious invitation that brought him to the territory of Quillan; Mark had saved Courtney’s life, though she lay near death in a hospital on Second Earth; and Andy Mitchell had performed a most curious and impossible deed. With all that has happened and all that is still to come, there’s one question that must now be asked:
Do you like to play games?
Hobey ho, let’s go.
—D. J. MacHale