Matt hasn’t had the best life. His parents died when he was eight, on their way to a wedding. His mother’s half-sister showed up afterwards to claim him (for the money), and had little use for him (once she blew through the cash). He had no friends at school, and so sought out the company of a boy down the way, who was himself a troublemaker, and led Matt nowhere but down the wrong path. When their latest scheme goes awry, Matt is given two options. Imprisonment, or LEAF. Though he doesn’t like the look of the woman who’s agreed to look after him under the LEAF project, he figures it has to be better than prison, because hey, he can just run away, right?
Wrong.
It doesn’t take long for Matt to figure out there’s something very wrong with Lesser Malling. And when he’s had enough and tries to run away, every road out of the tiny town leads him back to where he began. He meets a man who says he can help, only to find him dead the next morning upon his arrival for their visit. When he returns with the police, the scene has been cleaned up, making it look like just one more troublemaker’s stunt.
Everywhere Matt turns, he finds help, followed swiftly by trouble. One by one, anyone who seeks to aid him ends up dead.
After finding a picture of himself at his parents’ funeral in his guardian’s closet, he knows something sinister is going on, and none of it accidental. Somehow, he manages to escape with a local reporter, only to end up once again back where he began. Wherever he goes, the darkness of Lesser Malling finds him. Because they need him.
The town of Lesser Malling and all its inhabitants live a life of old ways, worshipping dark powers long since run aground. With Matt’s “help,” they hope to set them free. Long ago, 5 children saved the world. The time has come for them to do so again. With Matt’s story, it begins.
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This is the story of a very unlikely family, and what happens when best intentions aren’t quite enough.
Returning home one day, a witch finds a boy left in a basket with a note. Though it is against her nature, she decides to take it home, and once she gets him there, she decides to keep him, despite the advice from her familiar Falance not to do so. She calls the bear Ysul to be his nurse, and the afreet Bagordax to build his nursery and be his teacher. And so Lump grows up with the ability to speak to animals, with imaginary friends in far off lands he can see through his windows, and without any real human contact. When settlements start encroaching into the forest, disaster strikes.
Lump thinks to make friends with the children he has spied on his walks. He sneaks off to watch them, and eventually works up the courage to approach one. Believing himself normal, and these other children not, he doesn’t understand when they scream and run and attack. When he is caught and chained and put on show, only then does he realize his understanding of the world is flawed. Rescued by Ysul, he demands vengeance from his mother, who will not grant it. Instead, he turns to Bagordax, who convinces Lump to free him, which he does, and then rains down death and destruction on the family who held Lump prisoner. Combined with the destrcution of a large part of their own house, Lump and the witch have no choice but to flee.
With some quick magic, Falance is turned from cat to man, and carriage much like Cinderella’s is conjured. The trio rides hard and non-stop until they reach a clearing. Beyond it lies the realm of magic. Within, the witch is stripped of her powers, Lump watches the Faeries dance, and both are forever changed.
Back in the world of men, the new family takes up the life of Mountebanks, with Falance and the witch turning tricks. With the assisstance of a retired artiste, they learn how to make their show prosper, and head for the Cold Fair in a nearby Kingdom. Things go well for a time. But when the father of the girl Lump has fallen in love with is stricked down in a fencing practice, and he runs for his mother to save him, the man’s son, who had plotted his demise, turns Mrs. Forest in for a witch for saving him. She and Falance must run, and Lump is meant to find them through a message to be sent through friends. Only the friends also have been captured, by the time he returns, and he himself must flee as he is recognized as being the Witch’s Boy.
Eventually he makes a life for himself with the help of an honest jeweler, who pays Lump fairly for all of the “stones” he found in his underground travels. After a couple of years spent brewing a story of himself, Lump returns to the Kingdom under the name Lum-po, claiming to be a Prince of Cathay. He hopes to win the hand of Aude, with all his riches and jewels. But while she revels in his gifts, she cares naught for him, and her father plans for her to wed the King, which she does. Lump then appears to her as himself, coming through the wall upon spying her crying, and helps her through her predicament in trade for her first born child. He then spends a year preparing for this child, only to make a new deal when the year comes, and end up losing the child instead.
Lost, uncovered, and no longer wealthy, Lump doesn’t know what to do. His magic betrays him, and he spends 10 years buried undear the earth, neither alive nor dead. Only when he comes to grips with who he is and what has happened to him, and allows himself to feel, is he set free.
Unsure where he is, Lump follows the sounds of singing and finds himself in a garden, admiring a beautiful girl. And here his true path begins.
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