Hunting of the Last Dragon Read online

  I was walking in the cloisters the next morning, admiring the porches with their carven columns and vaulted ceilings, and looking out at the herb garden in the courtyard, thinking how peaceful it was, when I first met your Abbot. We got talking, and he asked me where I was from and where I was bound, and why. And for some reason—the kindliness of him, mayhap—I told him all. And the rest you know.

  Tomorrow I’ll be leaving here, to take up my work at the Abbot’s goose farm. ’Tis not far from here, so I hope you’ll be able to come and visit us often. I would like to see you again, Benedict, for you are as a brother to me and I hold you in much affection. I thank you with all my heart, for writing out so well this tale of mine.

  And it is good to think that I shall have a hand in making more books, even if I do just keep you copiers in quills. Mayhap I’ll go to the Abbot’s school in my spare time, and Jing-wei can teach me to read and write. Then I won’t have to bother you again if I do anything heroic on the goose farm, that needs to be made into a book. Don’t smile, Benedict; we never know what the fates have in store for us, and even goose farming may have its dangerous moments.

  Talking of fate, I’d like to see Old Lan again sometime, and kiss her wise old cheek. I hope one day to find Tybalt again, too, and tell him what happened to his son and where he lies. I’d like Tybalt to see Jing-wei as she is now, free and praiseworthy and strong. But I suppose she always was those things, and what is changed in her is but the size of her shoes, and the measure of her strength.

  As for myself . . .

  I am put in mind of that last night at home in Doran, when I was sorely disgruntled, and thought that fate was against me. I said, if I remember aright, that mayhap some saint in heaven looked down that night, and decided to stir up my pot. Well, doubtless he did, and stirred with all his might; but the mixture’s fine to me.

  And so my tale is done.

  author’s note

  In Jude’s time, in 1356, monks were still copying out books by hand. These manuscripts were priceless, some beautifully illustrated, the first letters of chapters and paragraphs wonderfully designed. The books were made of vellum or parchment, created from the skins of sheep or calves. The skins were cleaned, scraped on both sides, then rubbed smooth with powdered pumice. Because books were so valuable, reading was taught only to the wealthy, and teachers were usually monks. Any knowledge not taught by the Church—such as Lan’s—was looked upon with suspicion.

  At that time paper was rare in England, though in China paper had already been widely used for centuries, along with wooden blocks and moveable clay type for printing. In the eighth century Chinese methods of making paper had spread to Arab countries, and by the twelfth century the craft of papermaking was established also in Spain and Italy. However, in England paper was seen as a product of Moslem culture and was therefore disapproved of.

  But the way of making books was to change: in Germany, in about 1450, a printing press was invented. Soon afterwards a wealthy English merchant visited Germany, and, being interested in literature, he learned the new way of producing books. His name was William Caxton. In 1476, one hundred and twenty years after Jude went to work on the Abbot’s goose farm, William Caxton set up the first printing press in England. Paper, the ideal material to print on, was at first imported; but this new art, too, was learned, and soon paper was manufactured all over England.

  With the invention of the printing press, history was forever changed. The painstaking work of monks slowly copying books by hand, using animal skins, feather quills, and ink, was rendered unnecessary. Books were printed in English instead of in Latin, the old language of the Church. For the first time even ordinary people, like Jude, had access to books—and to knowledge.

  Printing presses were not the only invention slow to come to England. About Jude’s time gunpowder was only beginning to be used, though, as Lan had predicted, the time would come when it would be a major weapon on every battlefield. And in England kites, as flying machines, were still unknown. Both kites and gunpowder had already been used in China for centuries. Only someone like Jing-wei, who had experience of both, would have been able to help Jude kill the dragon the way it was slain in this story.

  Jing-wei’s story of her childhood spent in the great and prosperous city of Hangchow, in China, is based on historical fact. The famous medieval traveller and author Marco Polo told of the Chinese city of Hangchow, describing it as one of the finest and noblest cities in the world. Also from history is the Chinese custom of foot binding. This custom lasted from the tenth century until 1911, when foot binding was abolished. There are still some elderly Chinese women today whose feet are bound.

  Many of the medieval terms and sayings in this book—for example, “Godspeed,” “plight my word,” “God’s nails and blood”—I gleaned from the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, a writer from Jude’s time. While Jude’s English would have been very different from our own, he would have used these expressions.

  As for dragons: There are dragons recorded in the legends, stories, and artwork of many nations, throughout many centuries. Were all those dragons merely figments of the imaginations of storytellers and artists? Or did such animals really exist?

  I like to think they did.

  Sherryl Jordan

  May 2000—The Chinese Year of the Dragon

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  about the author

  Photo credit Tulloch Photography, Tauranga, New Zealand

  SHERRYL JORDAN is the author of several critically acclaimed and award-winning books, including THE HUNTING OF THE LAST DRAGON, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; THE RAGING QUIET, a School Library Journal Best Book and an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults; WOLF-WOMAN, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; WINTER OF FIRE, an ALA/YALSA Recommended Book for the Reluctant Reader and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and THE JUNIPER GAME, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. She is also the author of SECRET SACRAMENT, the prequel to TIME OF THE EAGLE and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. She lives in Tauranga, New Zealand.

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  books by sherryl jordan

  Secret Sacrament

  Time of the Eagle

  The Hunting of the Last Dragon

  credits

  Jacket art © 2002 by Mark Harrison

  Jacket design by Amy Ryan

  Jacket © 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers

  copyright

  THE HUNTING OF THE LAST DRAGON. Copyright © 2002 by Sherryl Jordan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Jordan, Sherryl.

  The hunting of the last dragon / Sherryl Jordan.

  p.cm.

  Summary: In England in 1356, as a monk records his every word, a young peasant tells of his journey with a young Chinese noblewoman to St. Alfric’s Cove and the lair of a dragon.

  ISBN 0-06-028902-3 — ISBN 0-06-028903-1 (lib. bdg.)

  ISBN 0-06-447231-0 (pbk.)

  EPub Edition © July 2016 ISBN 9780062459770

  [1. Dragons—Fiction. 2. Chinese—England—Fic
tion. 3. Footbinding—Fiction. 4. Middle Ages—Fiction. 5. Monks—Fiction. 6. Great Britain—History—Edward III, 1327–1377—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.J7684 Hu 2002 2001039375

  [Fic]—dc21 CIP

  AC

  * * *

  Maps and interior drawings by Sherryl Jordan

  First Harper edition, 2003

  www.epicreads.com

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