The Valley of the Masters
()
About this ebook
His sin was curiosity—his crime was
witchcraft—but Henry's real offense
against his strange world was that it
was dying—and he wanted it to live!
Related to The Valley of the Masters
Related ebooks
The Green Memory of Fear: Jaguar Addams #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMan about the House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls In The Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Into the Evermore Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Darling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHang On Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Standing on the Wings of Eagles: Leaving a Legacy from Generation to Generations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Forgotten Cottage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Corviglia: A Murder in the Alps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Navarre Brotherhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngel Eyes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chasing Still Water Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSister World: The Arrival: Sister World, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHere Be Dragons: A Firelighter's Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Amish Roots Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When She Was Bad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCruel Mate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A White, Hot Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoves Me Not Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRejected Mate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Requiem in E Sharp Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRequiem in E Sharp: A Serial Killer Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOver the Hills and Far Away: Irascible Immortals, #7 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Death Drug: The Cull Stories, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTangled in Thorns: Thornwood Fae, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLike a Fox to a Swallow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Involuntary Immortals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Menu: The Alcrest Mysteries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmokey Mountain Horror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaper Bag Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
YA Science Fiction For You
The Giver: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scarlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Renegades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thunderhead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Do-Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Toll Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uglies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Giver Quartet Omnibus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Magician Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girls with Sharp Sticks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Number Four Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Restore Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defy Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Motel of the Mysteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UnWholly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monster: A Printz Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UnSouled Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Firstlife Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Wee Free Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shadow Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diabolic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Valley of the Masters
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Valley of the Masters - Charles Minor Blackford
Project Gutenberg's The Valley of the Masters, by Charles Minor Blackford
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license
Title: The Valley of the Masters
Author: Charles Minor Blackford
Release Date: December 30, 2019 [EBook #61055]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF THE MASTERS ***
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
THE VALLEY OF THE MASTERS
By CHARLES MINOR BLACKFORD
His sin was curiosity—his crime was
witchcraft—but Henry's real offense
against his strange world was that it
was dying—and he wanted it to live!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Henry stopped and squatted in the underbrush, well hidden from the path but close enough to see the coming group. Within a minute they became visible. There were twenty-five to thirty boys, girls and youths walking slowly in ragged groups, talking and laughing. The youngest were ahead, a group just entering their teens, dressed like the rest in jackets and shorts, with sandals of plast on their feet. The dark, synthetic cloth made them a uniformed body.
Henry's nose wrinkled in distaste. Again his hideaway would be invaded and he would have to move on. But where to?
They were opposite him now, a bare twenty feet away. Most of them looked as alike as brothers and sisters, logically enough; there was not one who wasn't a cousin in some degree to the others. Plump, round-faced and dull-eyed, they lived from cradle to grave according to custom. It was the custom, when they were old enough to feel the urge, to join a group like this. Together they tramped the valley from spring to fall, gathering fruit and nuts as they came in season. When a couple felt like settling down they awaited a vacant Mastership—a plot of orchard and the house that went with it—and moved in. They took over the responsibilities of the place and bred or adopted the three children necessary to hold it. They remained there until they became Elders. Then they moved into Town, where they worked in the factories, idled and gossiped until death overtook them.
They were ignorant, superstitious, living out their dull routine as generations before them had. Only a few questioned it. Almost none made any active challenge.
The youngsters sighted the tavern and made for it at a dead run, wanting to claim favorable bunks before the others arrived.
Henry was impatient. Ants were crawling over his foot, but it would never do for him to be seen, especially in the woods. One didn't go into them. They were inhabited by goblins, ghosts and fearsome animals.