Doombringer (book)

Doombringer is the second book in the Cade Saga, the twelfth chronologically and was published in 2015. It continues the life of Cade Quarter.

Plot summary

The Webfoot Goblins

Cade Quarter was fishing in the Farrow Lake when suddenly a snagtooth almost killed him. It is revealed that the fish was put there by a webfoot goblin, Phineal Glyfphith, who came to Farrow Ridges to look for and to investigate the Great Blueshell Clam that had appeared at the bottom of the lake. Phineal told Cade of how their old home had been ruined by the Mire-pearlers, who killed all of the Clams, including the Great Blueshell Clam, for their pearls. The next morning Phineal took Cade diving in the Lake to see the clam for himself, and Cade was amazed as he got to see one of the three Ancient Ones for himself. Phineal makes him swear not to tell anyone of the clam.

The next morning, Celestia decided that Rumblix was large enough for Cade to ride him, and they quickly discovered that as a pedigree grey, he lived up to his name. After this first ride, Thorne showed them how he has interpreted Thadeus Quarter's barkscrolls and tells the, about the enourmous potention of the invention: The so-called "phrax force" could be enough to power up to four hundred factories with a large enough chamber.

In a run in with a logworm Phineal was injured and tasked Cade with putting up lanterns which will later tell the other water goblins where to land their Skycraft. When the arrived, the inhabitants of the Farrow Ridges threw a party to welcome the new goblins, who are here to tend to the blueshell clam.

Phineal took Cade for a ride in his skycraft and told him about his plans to build Fifth Lake Village, named after the four lakes where Phineal came from.

The arrival of the mirepearlers

When gathering some wood in the forest, Cade met a strange bearded man wearing a large coat and carrying a phrax pistol who introduced himself as Merton Hoist. Shortly after, Cade realised that Tug had gone missing, suspecting that Merton Hoist had a role in his disappearance. With the help of Phineal, Cade was able to find Tug and bring him back, although wounded. Cade and his friends try to recruit other inhabitants of the Farrow Ridges to help them get rid of the Mirepearlers.

Cade and Celestia later found a clearing full of logworms, and were captured by a clan of Hammerhead Goblins called the Shadow Clan. Only after discoverng the ring on Cades hand, given to him after rescuing a member of the Clan from a Bloodoak, the clan agree to help them in case of an invasion by the Mire Pearlers. The White Trogs, however, refused, as as long as the Mire Pearlers stay out of their caves, they will not fight them.

A first run-in with the mirepearlers happened when Cade and Gart went up Gart's sky-platform, where they also spot an approaching, heavily armed ship, the Doombringer. Together, Cade and his friends came up with a plan to fly to Hive to sell Celestia's necklace and using the price it brings to enter the High-jumping competition, where they would then use the rest of the money to bet on Cade winning the race, thus multiplying the original sum.

Hive

Thorne Lammergyre, Cade and Gart Ironside flew to Hive in the Hoverworm, encountering a group of believed-extinctShrykes on the way. Upon arrival in Hive, they met with an old friend of Thorne, Rampton Gleep in the Winesap Inn, who recommended to sell to Landris Bellwether, who would give a 'hero of the Glorious Revolution'[1] a good price.

Their prowlgrin Rumblix recognised the smell of his siblings and leads the friends to the stables of Tillman Spoke. Spoke forgave Cade, and they also learn that Tillman would be entering the high-jump as well, as without it, he would not be able to keep his stables open.

At the high-jump the next day, Cade and Rumblix unexepectedly made it into the last round, but narrowly lose to Tillman Spoke's team, Whisp and Dominix. Luckily, Gart had split the money and bet on both Whisp and Cade, enabling them to buy a thousand phrax muskets and twenty-five cases of ammunition from Tove Gripply.

As they made their way to the Farrow Ridges, they lost all the weapons and ammunition in a storm and had to return empty-handed. Had the storm not happened, however, they would have arrived to late at the Farrow Ridges.

Battle of the Farrow Ridges

Main article: Battle of the Farrow Ridges

While the Cade, Thorne and Gart have been away, the Doombringer had moored at Gart's sky platform. The inhabitants of the Farrow Ridges under the command of Blatch Helmstoft engaged in multiple skirmishes with the mirepearlers, but suffered heavy losses. Merton Hoist's plan is to dam the Five Falls and drain the lake to get to the clam beds at the bottom of the lake.

As Cade, Thorne and Gart had failed to bring back phraxmuskets, another council of war came together in the Helmstoft tree-cabin to discuss what to do. While they were deciding, the mire-pearlers attacked the tree-cabin in phraxsloops, taking Blatch, Thorne, Gart, Phineal Glyfphith and the two other surviving webfoots, Baahl, and Celestia captive and destroying the cabin. After this, the only defenders left free were Cade, Tug, and Chert and the hammerhead goblins. Each had to do a different task as part of their final, desperate plan to defeat the mire-pearlers.

The Hammerheads, using 'the old ways', covered themselves in mud and trailed tilder blood out on the Ledges, so that a cascade of logworms would follow them, and the logworms devoured the mirepearlers. Cade all the while had scaled the Five Falls to sabotage the phraxmines. He failed, and was about to be shot when the white trogs intervened and killed the mire-pearler he had been fighting. The last remaining mirepearler, Hoist, attacked Cade aboard the Doombringer, but Tug saved him, ending the war.

Aftermath

The captives of the mirepearlers were freed and many decided to settle in Fifth Lake village. Thorne shared with Cade another breakthrough on the Phrax-Chamber, and a strange woman from New Sanctaphrax arrived at the Farrow Ridges to speak to Cade.

Cade's enemy, Drax Adereth from the Xanth Filatine who had been arrested upon Tillman Spoke's request, had become a free man again and was planning to take revenge on him.

Editions

Doombringer was the second book that is only available with a cover illustration by Jeff Nentrup. It was also only published in paperback.

References

  1. Doombringer, Chapter 28


Books in the Edge Chronicles series, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Quint Trilogy: The Curse of the GloamglozerThe Winter KnightsClash of the Sky Galleons


Twig Trilogy: Beyond the DeepwoodsStormchaserMidnight Over Sanctaphrax


Rook Trilogy: The Last of the Sky PiratesVoxFreeglader


The Lost Barkscrolls: Cloud WolfThe Stone PilotThe Slaughterer's QuestThe Blooding of Rufus Filatine


Nate Book: The Immortals


Cade Trilogy: The Nameless OneDoombringerThe Descenders


Other Books: The Edge Chronicles MapsThe Sky Chart


Blogs: Weird New Worlds

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