Sword Mountain (35 page)

SIMPLICIO
—onetime tutor of the castle children; member of the Iron Nest.

TRANGLARHAD
—eagle owl; High Owl of Optical Theories (H.O.O.T.), owner of the Knautyorsbut Mine under Sword Mountain; second tutor of the court children; ally of Kawaka.

URI
—valet to Fleydur.

My deep thanks go to Ms. Phoebe Yeh, editorial director at HarperCollins Children's Books. It is she who has helped me all the way. Her careful eye, kind guidance, and unwavering belief in the Swordbird series have given me confidence to experiment and strive further.

I would like to thank other people at HarperCollins for their continuing support in all sorts of ways: Ms. Susan Katz, president of HarperCollins Children's Books; Ms. Kate Jackson, senior vice president of HarperCollins Children's Books; Ms. Jean McGinley, subsidiary rights director; Ms. Jessica MacLeish; and the rest of the Harper team. Thanks also to Mr. Mark Zug for his beautiful cover art.

Special thanks are given to Ms. Oprah Winfrey for featuring me and the Swordbird series on her show; to Ms. Leah Wilson, editor, for inviting me to write an essay about animal fantasy for the anthology
Secrets of the Dragon Riders;
and to Mr. Wu Xiqing, president of the Vast Plain Publishing House in Taiwan, for his enthusiasm in publishing the traditional Chinese version of the Swordbird series.

My IB program teachers are all my Fleydurs and deserve many thanks. Their marvelous teaching gave me lots of inspiration for writing
Sword Mountain.
And, as always, I would like to thank Mrs. Diane Goodwin, one of my earliest teachers, whose care has been unwavering.

I am profoundly grateful to my grandparents, parents, relatives, and friends for their wholehearted support, which has never failed to fill me with the glow of a hundred candles.

Of course, I want to thank my birds as well—they are the original dancers of the schwa-schwa. In the midst of my writing, Ever-sky, my blue lovebird, laid six eggs, and the first baby lovebird hatched the day I finished my first draft.

Finally, thank you, my readers. Your curiosity and anticipation always propel me on.

NANCY YI FAN is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
SWORDBIRD
and
SWORD QUEST
. She appeared on
The Oprah Winfrey Show as
one of the World's Smartest Kids and on
The Martha Stewart Show
. Nancy spent part of her childhood in China, where she was born in 1993. Birds have been a lifelong passion of hers and provided the inspiration for her novels. She began writing her first novel,
SWORDBIRD
, when she was eleven years old. Nancy attends Harvard University.

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Cover art © 2012 by Mark Zug

Sword Mountain

Text copyright © 2012 by Nancy Yi Fan

Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Mark Zug

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fan, Nancy Yi.

Sword Mountain / Nancy Yi Fan.—1st ed.

p. cm.—(Swordbird)

Summary: When adopted by the eagle prince, a valley-born eaglet must learn to become a princess and also a heroine.

ISBN 978-0-06-165108-3

EPub Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN 9780062114587

1. Children's writings, American. [1. Birds—Fiction. 2. Adoption—Fiction. 3. Kings, queens, rulers, etc.—Fiction. 4. Heroes—Fiction. 5. Fantasy. 6. Children's writings.] I. Title.

12    13    14    15    16        LP/RRDH         10    9    8    7    6    5    4    3    2    1

First Edition

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