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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO NICHOLAS SAYRE AND THE CREATURE IN THE CASE
NICHOLAS SAYRE AND THE CREATURE IN THE CASE
OTHER BOOKS BY GARTH NIX
INTRODUCTION TO
NICHOLAS SAYRE AND
THE CREATURE IN THE CASE
I HAVE EXPLORED ANCELSTIERRE AND the Old Kingdom a little in my novels Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen, and in the process I have found out (that’s often what it feels like, even though I’ it up) quite a lot about these lands, the people and creatures that inhabit them, and their stories
But there is much, much more that I don’t know about, and will never know about unless I need it for a story Unlikeout and recording tons of background detail about the worlds that Ievery now and then to puzzle out the details or information that I need to know to round ht be veiled, ential Much hly jotted down in my notebooks, until I need it next ti else
Every tidoether leftover bits and pieces that I already knew about, as well as inventing soo hat is already there
Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case was particularly interesting for me to write, because in it I connect various bits and pieces of infordo to liy, and landscape of Ancelstierre
Like nearly everything I write, this is a fantasy adventure story, this time with a dash of country-house e, and a hunored by those who don’t like it (or don’t get it) Some readers may detect the influence of soenre (as it is usually defined today) who Dorothy Sayers and P G Wodehouse
Planned to be a longish short story, Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case grew and grew till it beca many more months to write than I had anticipated It started with these notes:
Nicholas and Uncle to country house
Full of debs and stupid young men
Thing in the Case, eyes follow Nick
Autu
thing gets some of Nick’s blood?
refuge in river, thing closes sluice
hay fires in a circle
it is powerful, but poisoned
how far are we from the Wall?
That was the kernel, frorew over about tenelse It wasn’t sold to a publisher, I didn’t have a deadline for it, and I had plenty of other things to do But only a week or so after writing those notes, I sat down and wrote the first three or four pages in one sitting I kept coht up (as I often am as both writer and reader) simply by the desire to see what happened next
NICHOLAS SAYRE
AND THE CREATURE
IN THE CASE
‘I AM GOING BACK TO THE OLD KINGDOM, Uncle,’ said Nicholas Sayre, ‘whatever Fatherto fix e I a with you to ill undoubtedly be a horrendous house party only because it will get me a few hundred miles closer to the Wall’
Nicholas’s uncle Edward, enerally known as The Most Honorable Edward Sayre, Chief Minister of Ancelstierre, shut the red-bound letter book he was reading with more emphasis than he intended, as their heavily armored car lurched over a huuard in front look around, but the driver kept his eyes on the narrow country lane
‘Have I said anything about a job or a , patrician nose at his nineteen-year-old nephew ‘Besides, you won’t even get within a ned by me, let alone across the Wall’
‘I could get a pass fro to the newly anointed Hereditary Arbiter The previous Arbiter, Lewis’s grandfather, had died of a heart attack during Corolini’s attempted coup d’état half a year before
‘No, you couldn’t, and you know it,’ said Edward ‘Lewis has overnment other than the ceremonial’
‘Then I’ll have to cross over without a pass,’ declared Nicholas angrily, not even trying to hide the frustration that had built up in hi which he’d been forced to stay in Ancelstierre Most of that ti he’d left with Lirael and Sam in the immediate after to recuperate in Ancelstierre It had been weakness and fear that had driven his decision, combined with a desire to put the terrible past behind hinore the legacy of his involvee and the Destroyer, nor his return to Life at the hands—or paws—of the Disreputable Dog He had become someone else, and he could only find out who that was in the Old Kingdom
‘You would alally,’ said Edward ‘A fate you would richly deserve Particularly since you are not giving me the opportunity to help you I do not knohy you or anyone else would want to go to the Old Kingdom—ht me the place is best avoided Nor do I wish to annoy your father and hurt your rant you permission to cross the Perimeter’
‘What! Really?’
‘Yes, really Have I ever taken you or any other of my nephews or nieces to a house party before?’
‘Not that I know—’
‘Do I usually iven by someone like Alastor Dorrance in the middle of nowhere?’
‘I suppose not …’
‘Then you ence to wonder why you ar
e here with me now’
‘Gatehouse ahead, sir,’ interrupted the bodyguard as the car rounded a sweeping corner and slowed down ‘Recognition signal is correct’
Edward and Nicholas leaned forward to look through the open partition and the windscreen beyond A few hundred yards in front, a squat stone gatehouse lurked just off the road, with its tooden gates swung back Two slate-gray Heddon-Hare roadsters were parked, one on either side of the gate, with severalaround the in a series of complicated movements that Edward clearly understood and Nicholas presumed meant all ell
‘Proceed!’ snapped the Chief Minister Their car slowed ears with practiced double-declutching Theoff the road and through the gate, dropping their salute as the rest of the motorcade followed Six motorcycle policemen were immediately behind, then another two cars identical to the one that carried Nicholas and his uncle, then another half-dozen policea company of fully armed soldiery Corolini’s attely been no further trouble froovernment continued to be nervous about the safety of the nation’s Chief Minister