The Isle of Blood

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Also by Rick Yancey

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST

THE CURSE OF THE WENDIGO

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2011 by Rick Yancey

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Book design by Lucy Ruth Cummins

The text for this book is set in Adobe Jenson Pro.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yancey, Richard.

The Isle of Blood / William James Henry; edited by Rick Yancey.

p. cm.—(Monstrumologist; 3)

Summary: When Dr. Warthrop goes hunting for the “Holy Grail of Monstrumology” in 1888, twelve-year-old orphan Will Henry follows him to Socotra, plunging into depths of horror worse than anything he has experienced so far.

ISBN 978-1-4169-8452-8 (hardcover: alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4169-8974-5 (eBook)

[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Monsters—Fiction. 3. Apprentices—Fiction. 4. Orphans—Fiction. 5. Horror stories.] I. Title.

PZ7.Y19197Isl 2011

[Fic]—dc23

2011019949

For Sandy

Fig. 36

“There was red rain in the Mediterranean region, March 6, 1888. Twelve days later it fell again. Whatever this substance may have been, when burned, the odor of animal matter was strong and persistent.”

—(L’Astronomie, 1888)

“[The object that fell from the sky] was a circular form resembling a sauce or salad dish bottom upward, about eight inches in diameter and one inch in thickness, of a bright buff color, with a fine nap upon it similar to that of milled cloth.… Upon removing the villous coat, a buff-colored pulpy substance of the consistency of good soft soap, an offensive, suffocating smell appeared; and on near approach to it… the smell became almost insupportable, producing nausea and dizziness. A few minutes’ exposure to the atmosphere changed the buff into a livid color resembling venous blood.”

—Professor Rufus Graves,

The American Journal of Science, 1819

“Seek a fallen star,” said the hermit, “and thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearance of splendour.”

—Sir Walter Scott, The Talisman, 1825

Contents

Prologue: September 2010: “Contact”

Folio VII: Objet Trouvé

Chapter One: “A Very Dangerous Poison”

Chapter Two: “I Have All That I Need”

Chapter Three: “The Answer to a Prayer Unspoken”

Chapter Four: “It Is Human to Turn Round”

Chapter Five: “The Singular Cure”

Chapter Six: “An Interesting Phenomenon”

Chapter Seven: “Would You Live?”

Chapter Eight: “The One Thing That Keeps Me Human”

Chapter Nine: “The Final Disposition”

Chapter Ten: “I Am the One”

Chapter Eleven: “What Do You Know of My Business?”

Chapter Twelve: “The Most Terrifying Monster of All”

Folio VIII: Exile

Chapter Thirteen: “The Space Between Us”

Chapter Fourteen: “The Thing That Cannot Be Seen”

Chapter Fifteen: “What You See, My God Sees”

Chapter Sixteen: “Be Still and Listen”

Chapter Seventeen: “Too Late”

Chapter Eighteen: “The Best of Us”

Chapter Nineteen: “Little Good Can Come of This”

Chapter Twenty: “I Choose to Serve the Light”

Chapter Twenty-One: “A Pleasure to Meet You”

Chapter Twenty-Two: “I Would Gladly Die”

Folio IX: Das Ungeheuer

Chapter Twenty-Three: “My Name Is Pellinore Xavier Warthrop”

Chapter Twenty-Four: “The Blindest of Faiths”

Chapter Twenty-Five: “Dvipa Sukhadhara”

Chapter Twenty-Six: “It Is Part and Parcel of the Business”

Chapter Twenty-Seven: “An Interesting Dilemma”

Chapter Twenty-Eight: “The Trouble with Venice”

Chapter Twenty-Nine: “Before You Were, I Was”

Chapter Thirty: “I Will Come for You”

Chapter Thirty-One: “Have You Been Abandoned?”

Chapter Thirty-Two: “Give It to Will Henry”

Folio X: Tυφωεύς

Chapter Thirty-Three: “Our Only Hope for Success”

Chapter Thirty-Four: “The Best Stories Are Better Left Untold”

Chapter Thirty-Five: “The Fury of a Merciful God”

Chapter Thirty-Six: “Is It Not Wondrous?”

Chapter Thirty-Seven: “We Are Not Too Late”