Miran is the only island in the Known Ocean where children are born with bloom. The colour starts as a pale shine on their baby skin, gradually darkening as they grow older. Those with purple skin are born with an ability to heal and eventually become pothecaries. Others with dead white skin covered in blue markings are destined to be teks, engineers and inventors. Rarest of all are children with green skin, like Ana. Spellbinders. The only guild with magic. Ana has exceptional ability and is fast tracked through her apprenticeship at the Academia. But it's lonely at the top. Losing her magic and sharing adventures with Gilly and Penn helps Ana realise non-magical folk are not inferior to spellbinders at all. She learns that everyone has their own strengths and abilities. Countless years ago the Var tribe was banished into the Miran swamplands. The hagwitch Drabani-of-the-bones convinces the Var King to do a deal with Karapaz, a tyrant whose metal arm contains a deadly weapon. If Karapaz promises to return the Var to their ancestral homeland they will help him invade Miran. Drabani uses her bones of prophecy to see the future. The bones foretell that four will try to stop the invasion: one who is foolish, one who is wise, one who is kind and one with royal blood. When Karapaz and his seawolves prepare to attack, Ana learns a magical curse intended for seniors only. Defying an order to stay away from the fighting, she hurls the curse into the battlefield. It injures Karapaz and saves the life of Tamin Te Mata, one of the giant meerkat warriors. Karapaz is thrown into prison and the war ends. Nevertheless, Academia seniors decide Ana should be punished for disobedience. Stung by what she sees as a gross injustice, Ana gallops out of the Academia on her contrapony, vowing never to return. Drabani uses her pet birds to track Ana. She reads Ana's mind and finds that her deepest desire is to be admired and celebrated by other spellbinders. The hagwitch casts a thrawl enchantment which seems to promise Ana what she wants. Instead, it removes the green girl's memory and her magic. Ana becomes a mindless slave in the underground world of the Var. A miraculous flask restores Ana's memory, but not her magic, and the bloom children work together to escape. Now numbering four, the adventurers sail through the dangerous Mix and battle terrifying river monsters. Eventually they arrive at the site of the prisoner exchange, a valley between giant sand dunes. At one end of the valley are the Var. At the other, Academia seniors and Karapaz in chains. Drabani has created three fake 'trades'. When the friends realise this, and see the exchange is about to take place, they toboggan down the sand dunes. When Ana knocks Karapaz over her toboggan doesn't stop. It travels on across the valley carrying Ana and Karapaz into the midst of the Var. After delirious celebrations, Karapaz and Drabani begin to argue. He plans to leave Miran as soon as possible. Drabani drags Ana forward, hoping to demonstrate her thrawl power and force the tyrant to change his mind. However, this time the thrawl fails because Ana has realised what truly is her deepest desire. Pothecaries heal, teks invent, spellbinders protect. Ana is a spellbinder. The whole adventure has been an attempt to protect her family, her friends and her island. When Ana understands this, her magic returns, even more powerful than before. She destroys Drabani's thrawl and shatters Karapaz's metal arm. A weakened Drabani bitterly remembers the prophecy of the bones. She identifies Tamin as the one with royal blood. Each of the bloom children have shown wise, foolish and kind qualities at different times. The hagwitch refuses to return to the swamplands. She calls her birds and they carry her away from Miran out across the Known Ocean. Penn and Gilly return to the Academia as heroes. Ana joins them, agreeing to resume her apprenticeship...on her own terms.
Hosking, Pauline: - Pauline has worked as a teacher, teacher librarian, journalist, theatre publicist, TV script assistant, theatre director and theatre producer. For five years she ran a theatre company that toured Victoria and South Australia. A number of her plays for adults and teenagers have been performed professionally and are available from Australian Plays Transform www.apt.org.au.Pauline has written two previous books for readers aged 9-12 featuring Cinnamon Stevens, a twelve-year-old super sleuth. For more information on her books and plays go to www.paulinehosking.com.
