By Clare B. Dunkle. New York: Henry
Holt, 2003-5. 3 v.
The Trilogy Treasure Hunt
The prize of this treasure hunt is the chance to read two Hollow
Kingdom short stories hidden on my website.
Each clue below leads you to a page number in the English-language edition of my Hollow Kingdom books. The hardcover and paperback books use the same page numbering. Nowadays, readers of my books are likely to be reading them on a Kindle, with no page numbers at all, and a number of computers now forbid the running of JavaScript and block popup messages, which this treasure hunt uses to let you know you've solved a clue correctly.
So, if you have read my trilogy in ebook format, or in Danish, or if your computer does not allow this treasure hunt to run properly, please follow this link.
If you wish to try this treasure hunt, you will need all three physical copies of the trilogy
books in front of you, in the English-language editions put out by Henry Holt. Enter the page number mentioned in each clue. Each question is worth ten points.
Follow the directions in the popup boxes to see whether you
should advance to the next clue. Or, if popups won't work
on your browser, click the Total My Treasure button at the
bottom of the page to check your score. When it reaches 120, the
page containing the hidden stories will launch.
Treasure
means different things to different people. Right before Marak passes
out under the sorcerer’s control, he names what matters most
to him: “My wife and son.” On what page does he do this?
When the sorcerer’s
control breaks, Marak shouts this phrase again. On what page does
he do this?
In Book III, Marak’s
wife and son come to say good-bye to him. This means that his treasure
is the last thing he sees before he dies. On what page does he close
his eyes for the last time?
On that same page,
one of the most treasured enchantments of the goblins turns back
into a golden sword. On what page do we first see Charm turn from
golden sword into snake?
Gold doesn’t
matter to elves. They don’t usually like metal. But Sable’s
impoverished band has one item that the women consider treasure:
a fragment of looking glass. On what page do we see Sable looking
into this triangle of glass for the first time?
Thorn throws it away
after this incident, and the elves don’t have another mirror
until Thorn brings home a new one. He uses it to insult Sable by
showing her how she looks. On what page does he do this?
Sable is horrified
by the sight of herself in the mirror. Nir, the handsome elf lord,
wouldn’t be shocked by his face in the mirror. But he’s
learned from his parents’ unhappy marriage that looks don’t
count for much, so he tells the new King’s Wife that he’d
rather see her face than his. On what page does he do this?
Miranda’s treasure
has been a promise from Marak, her magical guardian. When she finds
out that she won’t receive it, she accidentally destroys an
enchanted gift that Marak gave her in childhood. On what page does
she watch the blue butterfly flutter to the ground?
Belinda, the last elf
King’s wife, also had a treasure given to her by a loved one:
the locket with her lover’s picture in it. Even though she
had amnesia, she knew that the man in the picture was her true treasure,
and when she realized he was gone forever, she killed herself. On
what page of Book II do we learn of her last sight of him?
At Nir’s magical
touch, Kate realizes that she, too, has lost the person who was
her treasure. Even though she saw Marak die, she didn’t fully
comprehend his loss, but when Nir awakens her elf nature in the
truce circle, she understands at last that she will never see Marak
again. Her reaction almost causes a diplomatic crisis. On what page
does this take place?
The greatest treasures
within the trilogy are not mirrors or jewelry, or even beloved people.
They are books: the chronicles that record for later generations
the triumphs and struggles of the past. Marak studies two sets of
these chronicles in Book I, and he and Kate read each other stories
from them. In Book II, Sable and Ruby bring back to the kingdom
two priceless books that tell about lost chapters in their races’
history. In Book III, Marak Catspaw sends his rival Nir a special
kind of treasure: an empty book in which to record the elves’
new Kings’ Chronicles. On what page does he do this?
Inspired by her friendship
with other King’s Wives, Kate decides to write a chronicle
of her own: for the first time in the history of the races, a King’s
Wife will tell her own story. The chronicle that Kate writes is,
of course, The Hollow Kingdom. On what page does she send
Miranda news of this?
