Welcome to the magical land of Mezzarthys
A
dark cloud has been gathering over her old house for some time now, but
the little girl who lives there with her rather strange grandma has no
idea. It’s been only a short while since her mother’s fatal accident,
and the girl is still trying to recover from shock.
Little
does she suspect what is to come when she lets her best friend Laura
into the house with a stray black kitten. As soon as they enter, the
kitten begins transforming into a fearsome demon. Grandma, who was in
the jungle looking for lost Uncle Otto, an archaeologist, returns just
in time to save them.
A
few odd things have been happening, and now Grandma must reveal her
secret. She is more than seven hundred years old and is a witch from a
mysterious land called Mezzarthys. She came to the Lands of Dragons,
which was the name given to the continents of our world, when she was
just a little girl. Now, because she’s found out that the powerful
Great Witch Hissatam is hunting her down, she has decided to place her
granddaughter under the protection of her two sisters, back in
Mezzarthys. Surely the Great Witch will never seek her there. The girl
has no choice. She leaves through a secret gateway in a deep cave pool,
and at the same moment that a strong current draws her down, her
grandmother drives off a cliff in her car. Both disappear from our
world at the same time…
“A Fugitive
from the Land of the Dragons” / Dievčatko z Krajiny Drakov /– the
fantasy book series for children takes the reader on a journey to the
magical land of Mezzarthys, which remained hidden from us, the
inhabitants of the “Lands of Dragons” for more then ten thousand years.
The
hero of the story is an ordinary girl who goes to live with her strange
grandmother in a small town in the mountains after her mother dies in a
fatal accident. As the girl struggles to rebuild her life, things get a
lot more bizarre when a demon attacks unexpectedly. An unprecedented
spiral of extraordinary events pulls her away into an unknown land,
abundant with mysterious forces and magical creatures. The girl has to
face dangers and adventures she never would have thought possible. The
powerful, evil witch responsible for her mother’s death is at her heels
and, for her own safety, the girl can own nothing, no shoes, no
clothes; she cannot even use her own name
Fortunately,
Grandma’s two sisters are witches and they take her into their care.
The lively, relentlessly curious girl quickly finds her way into their
hearts. The witches are old and powerful, yet they consider themselves
to be artists; their art of choice is cooking, or “haute cuisine,” as
they say. The little girl has no magical powers of her own, but her wit
and unconventional thinking often prove more powerful than any spell…
This series has already been published in Slovakia by Ikar—the largest publishing house in the country, a member of Direct Group Bertelsmann.
The first book “Mezzarthys ” was published in June 2005, the second, “The Secret of Legelyn Castle ”/ Tajomstvo Legelynu / in October 2005 and the third instalment “The Temple of Ghosts ” / Chrám duchov / was released in August 2006. The
first two books have sold out and been reprinted. Additional
information can be found (in Slovak language only, however) on our
publisher’s website, www.Ikar.sk, where you can also find readers’ comments. The title of the series in Slovak is “Dievčatko z Krajiny Drakov.”
In November 2006, during the Biblioteka international book festival in Bratislava, the first book in the series, “Mezzarthys,” was awarded the Istron 2006 prize
for the best original Slovak fantasy book. Of the seven nominated
books, two were ours; our second nominated book, “The Secret of Legelyn
Castle,” took third place.
