The Knight at Dawn Read online

  Here’s what kids have to say to

  Mary Pope Osborne, author of

  the Magic Tree House series:

  WOW! You have an imagination like no other.—Adam W.

  I love your books. If you stop writing books, it will be like losing a best friend.—Ben M.

  I think you are the real Morgan le Fay. There is always magic in your books.—Erica Y.

  One day I was really bored and I didn’t want to read … I looked in your book. I read a sentence, and it was interesting. So I read some more, until the book was done. It was so good I read more and more. Then I had read all of your books, and now I hope you write lots more.—Danai K.

  I always read [your books] over and over … 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 4 times … —Yuan C.

  You are my best author in the world. I love your books. I read all the time. I read everywhere. My mom is like freaking out.—Ellen C.

  I hope you make these books for all yours and mine’s life.—Riki H.

  Teachers and librarians love

  Magic Tree House® books, too!

  Thank you for opening faraway places and times to my class through your books. They have given me the chance to bring in additional books, materials, and videos to share with the class.—J. Cameron

  It excites me to see how involved [my fourth-grade reading class] is in your books … I would do anything to get my students more involved, and this has done it.—C. Rutz

  I discovered your books last year … WOW! Our students have gone crazy over them. I can’t order enough copies! … Thanks for contributing so much to children’s literature!—C. Kendziora

  I first came across your Magic Tree House series when my son brought one home … I have since introduced this great series to my class. They have absolutely fallen in love with these books! … My students are now asking me for more independent reading time to read them. Your stories have inspired even my most struggling readers.—M. Payne

  I love how I can go beyond the [Magic Tree House] books and use them as springboards for other learning.—R. Gale

  We have enjoyed your books all year long. We check your Web site to find new information. We pull our map down to find the areas where the adventures take place. My class always chimes in at key parts of the story. It feels good to hear my students ask for a book and cheer when a new book comes out.—J. Korinek

  Our students have “Magic Tree House fever.” I can’t keep your books on the library shelf.—J. Rafferty

  Your books truly invite children into the pleasure of reading. Thanks for such terrific work.—S. Smith

  The children in the fourth grade even hide the [Magic Tree House] books in the library so that they will be able to find them when they are ready to check them out.—K. Mortensen

  My Magic Tree House books are never on the bookshelf because they are always being read by my students. Thank you for creating such a wonderful series.—K. Mahoney

  Text copyright © 1993 by Mary Pope Osborne.

  Illustrations copyright © 1993 by Sal Murdocca.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Osborne, Mary Pope. The knight at dawn /

  by Mary Pope Osborne; illustrated by Sal Murdocca. p. cm. — (The Magic tree house series; #2) “A First stepping stone book.”

  SUMMARY: Eight-year-old Jack and his younger sister Annie use the magic tree house to travel back to the Middle Ages, where they explore a castle and are helped by a mysterious knight.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89419-0

  [1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Castles—Fiction.

  3. Middle Ages—Fiction. 4. Knights and knighthood—Fiction.

  5. Magic—Fiction. 6. Tree houses—Fiction.]

  I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title. III. Series:

  Osborne, Mary Pope. Magic tree house series; #2.

  PZ7.O81167Kn 1993 [Fic]—dc20 92-13705

  v3.0

  For Nathaniel Pope

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1. The Dark Woods

  2. Leaving Again

  3. Across the Bridge

  4. Into the Castle

  5. Trapped

  6. Ta-da!

  7. A Secret Passage

  8. The Knight

  9. Under the Moon

  10. One Mystery Solved

  Special Preview of Magic Tree House #3: Mummies in the Morning

  Jack couldn’t sleep.

  He put his glasses on. He looked at the clock. 5:30.

  Too early to get up.

  Yesterday so many strange things had happened. Now he was trying to figure them out.

  He turned on the light. He picked up his notebook. He looked at the list he’d made before going to bed.

  Jack pushed his glasses into place. Who was going to believe any of this?

  Not his mom. Or his dad. Or his third-grade teacher, Ms. Watkins. Only his seven-year-old sister, Annie. She’d gone with him to the time of the dinosaurs.

  “Can’t you sleep?”

  It was Annie, standing in his doorway.

  “Nope,” said Jack.

  “Me neither,” said Annie. “What are you doing?”

  She walked over to Jack and looked at his notebook. She read the list.

  “Aren’t you going to write about the gold medal?” she asked.

  “You mean the gold medallion,” said Jack.

  He picked up his pencil and wrote:

  “Aren’t you going to put the letter M on the medal?” said Annie.

  “Medallion,” said Jack. “Not medal.”

  He added an M:

  “Aren’t you going to write about the magic person?” said Annie.

  “We don’t know for sure if there is a magic person,” said Jack.

  “Well, someone built the tree house in the woods. Someone put the books in it. Someone lost a gold medal in dinosaur time.”

  “Medallion!” said Jack for the third time. “And I’m just writing the facts. The stuff we know for sure.”

  “Let’s go back to the tree house right now,” said Annie. “And find out if the magic person is a fact.”

  “Are you nuts?” said Jack. “The sun’s not even up yet.”

  “Come on,” said Annie. “Maybe we can catch them sleeping.”

  “I don’t think we should,” said Jack. He was worried. What if the “magic person” was mean? What if he or she didn’t want kids to know about the tree house?

  “Well, I’m going,” said Annie.

  Jack looked out his window at the dark-gray sky. It was almost dawn.

  He sighed. “Okay. Let’s get dressed. I’ll meet you at the back door. Be quiet.”

  “Yay!” whispered Annie. She tiptoed away as quietly as a mouse.

  Jack put on jeans, a warm sweatshirt, and sneakers. He tossed his notebook and pencil in his backpack.

  He crept downstairs.

  Annie was waiting by the back door. She shined a flashlight in Jack’s face. “Ta-da! A magic wand!” she said.

  “Shhh! Don’t wake up Mom and Dad,” whispered Jack. “And turn that flashlight off. We don’t want anyone to see us.”

  Annie nodded and turned it off. Then she clipped it onto her belt.

  They slipped out the door into the cool early-morning air. Crickets were chirping. The dog next door barked.

  “Quiet, Henry!” whispered Annie.

  Henry stopped barking. Animals always seemed to do what Annie said.

  “Let’s run!” said Jack.

 
They dashed across the dark, wet lawn and didn’t stop until they reached the woods.

  “We need the flashlight now,” said Jack.

  Annie took it off her belt and switched it on.

  Step by step, she and Jack walked between the trees. Jack held his breath. The dark woods were scary.

  “Gotcha!” said Annie, shining the flashlight in Jack’s face.

  Jack jumped back. Then he frowned.

  “Cut it out!” he said.

  “I scared you,” said Annie.

  Jack glared at her.

  “Stop pretending!” he whispered. “This is serious.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  Annie shined her flashlight over the tops of the trees.

  “Now what are you doing?” said Jack.

  “Looking for the tree house!”

  The light stopped moving.

  There it was. The mysterious tree house. At the top of the tallest tree in the woods.

  Annie shined her light at the tree house, and then down the tall ladder. All the way to the ground.

  “I’m going up,” she said. She gripped the flashlight and began to climb.

  “Wait!” Jack called.

  What if someone was in the tree house?

  “Annie! Come back!”

  But she was gone. The light disappeared. Jack was alone in the dark.

  “No one’s here!” Annie shouted down.

  Jack thought about going home. Then he thought about all the books in the tree house.

  He started up the ladder. When he was nearly to the tree house, he saw light in the distant sky. Dawn was starting to break.

  He crawled through a hole in the floor and took off his backpack.

  It was dark inside the tree house.

  Annie was shining her flashlight on the books scattered about.

  “They’re still here,” she said.

  She stopped the light on a dinosaur book. It was the book that had taken them to the time of the dinosaurs.

  “Remember the Tyrannosaurus?” asked Annie.

  Jack shuddered. Of course he remembered! How could anyone forget seeing a real live Tyrannosaurus rex?

  The light fell on a book about Pennsylvania. A red silk bookmark stuck out of it.

  “Remember the picture of Frog Creek?” said Annie.

  “Of course,” said Jack. That was the picture that had brought them home.

  “There’s my favorite,” said Annie.

  The light was shining on a book about knights and castles. There was a blue leather bookmark in it.

  Annie turned to the page with the bookmark. There was a picture of a knight on a black horse. He was riding toward a castle.

  “Annie, close that book,” said Jack. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  Annie pointed at the knight.

  “Don’t, Annie!”

  “We wish we could see this guy for real,” Annie said.

  “No, we don’t!” shouted Jack.

  They heard a strange sound.

  “Neeee-hhhh!”

  It sounded like a horse neighing.

  They both went to the window.

  Annie shined the flashlight down on the ground.

  “Oh no,” whispered Jack.

  “A knight!” said Annie.

  A knight in shining armor! Riding a black horse! Through the Frog Creek woods!

  Then the wind began to moan. The leaves began to tremble.

  It was happening again.

  “We’re leaving!” cried Annie. “Get down!”

  The wind moaned louder. The leaves shook harder.

  And the tree house started to spin. It spun faster and faster!

  Jack squeezed his eyes shut.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  Jack opened his eyes. He shivered. The air was damp and cool.

  The sound of a horse’s whinny came again from below.

  “Neeee-hhhh!”

  “I think we’re here,” whispered Annie. She was still holding the castle book.

  Jack peeked out the window.

  A huge castle loomed out of the fog.

  He looked around. The tree house was in a different oak tree. And down below, the knight on the black horse was riding by.

  “We can’t stay here,” said Jack. “We have to go home and make a plan first.” He picked up the book about Pennsylvania. He opened it to the page with the red silk bookmark. He pointed to the photograph of the Frog Creek woods. “I wish—”

  “No!” said Annie. She yanked the book away from him. “Let’s stay! I want to visit the castle!”

  “You’re nuts. We have to examine the situation,” said Jack. “From home.”

  “Let’s examine it here!” said Annie.

  “Come on.” He held out his hand. “Give it.”

  Annie gave Jack the book. “Okay. You can go home. I’m staying,” she said. She clipped the flashlight to her belt.

  “Wait!” said Jack.

  “I’m going to take a peek. A teeny peek,” she said. And she scooted down the ladder.

  Jack groaned. Okay, she had won. He couldn’t leave without her. Besides, he sort of wanted to take a peek himself.

  He put down the book about Pennsylvania.

  He dropped the castle book into his pack. He stepped onto the ladder. And headed down into the cool, misty air.

  Annie was under the tree, looking across the foggy ground.

  “The knight’s riding toward that bridge, I think,” said Annie. “The bridge goes to the castle.”

  “Wait. I’ll look it up,” said Jack. “Give me the flashlight!”

  He took the flashlight from her and pulled the castle book out of his pack. He opened it to the page with the leather bookmark.

  He read the words under the picture of the knight:

  This is a knight arriving for a castle feast. Knights wore armor when they traveled long and dangerous distances. The armor was very heavy. A helmet alone could weigh up to forty pounds.

  Wow. Jack had weighed forty pounds when he was five years old. So it’d be like riding a horse with a five-year-old on your head.

  Jack pulled out his notebook. He wanted to take notes, as he’d done on their dinosaur trip.

  He wrote:

  What else?

  He turned the pages of the castle book. He found a picture that showed the whole castle and the buildings around it.

  “The knight’s crossing the bridge,” said Annie. “He’s going through the gate .… He’s gone.”

  Jack studied the bridge in the picture.

  He read:

  A drawbridge crossed the moat. The moat was filled with water, to help protect the castle from enemies. Some people believe crocodiles were kept in the moat.

  Jack wrote in his notebook:

  “Look!” said Annie, peering through the mist. “A windmill! Right over there!”

  “Yeah, there’s a windmill in here, too,” said Jack, pointing at the picture.

  “Look at the real one, Jack,” said Annie. “Not the one in the book.”

  A piercing shriek split the air.

  “Yikes,” said Annie. “It sounded like it came from that little house over there!” She pointed through the fog.

  “There’s a little house here,” said Jack, studying the picture. He turned the page and read:

  The hawk house was in the inner ward of the castle. Hawks were trained to hunt other birds and small animals.

  Jack wrote in his notebook:

  “We must be in the inner ward,” said Jack.

  “Listen!” whispered Annie. “You hear that? Drums! Horns! They’re coming from the castle. Let’s go see.”

  “Wait,” said Jack. He turned more pages of the book.

  “I want to see what’s really going on, Jack. Not what’s in the book,” said Annie.

  “But look at this!” said Jack.

  He pointed to a picture of a big party. Men were standing by the door, playing drums and horns.
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br />   He read:

  Fanfares were played to announce different dishes in a feast. Feasts were held in the Great Hall.

  “You can look at the book. I’m going to the real feast,” said Annie.

  “Wait,” said Jack, studying the picture. It showed boys his age carrying trays of food. Whole pigs. Pies. Peacocks with all their feathers. Peacocks?

  Jack wrote:

  He held up the book to show Annie. “Look, I think they eat—”

  Where was she? Gone. Again.

  Jack looked through the fog.

  He heard the real drums and the real horns. He saw the real hawk house, the real windmill, the real moat.

  He saw Annie dashing across the real drawbridge. Then she vanished through the gate leading to the castle.

  “I’m going to kill her,” muttered Jack.

  He threw his stuff into his pack and moved toward the drawbridge. He hoped no one would see him.

  It was getting darker. It must be night.

  When he got to the bridge, he started across. The wooden planks creaked under his feet.

  He peered over the edge of the bridge. Were there any crocodiles in the moat? He couldn’t tell.

  “Halt!” someone shouted. A guard on top of the castle wall was looking down.

  Jack dashed across the bridge. He ran through the castle gate and into the courtyard.

  From inside the castle came the sounds of music, shouting, and laughter.

  Jack hurried to a dark corner and crouched down. He shivered as he looked around for Annie.

  Torches lit the high wall around the courtyard. The courtyard was nearly empty.

  Two boys led horses that clopped over the gray cobblestones.

  “Neeee-hhhh!”

  Jack turned. It was the knight’s black horse!

  “Psssst!”

  He peered into the darkness.

  There was Annie.

  She was hiding behind a well in the center of the courtyard. She waved at him.

  Jack waved back. He waited till the boys and horses disappeared inside the stable. Then he dashed to the well.

  “I’m going to find the music!” whispered Annie. “Are you coming?”