The Door Beneath the Lighthouse

The Door Beneath the Lighthouse

Where Our World Ends and the Old Myths Begin

Series "Kaleidoscope"

Expanded edition of "Segue"

Vita Harwood

On Morven, an island where life runs by the ferry timetable, fourteen-year-old Mathew Hardy has never had a reason to believe the old stories. Then, on a stormy Saturday, a dragon lands on the family balcony, leaves an egg beneath his mothers ficus and vanishes into the clouds.

By nightfall the egg has hatched, strangers are at the door and black birds are battering the windows. Mathew learns that his mother has kept a secret for twenty years: as a girl she lived among dragons. The creature now asleep on a bed of granite pebbles is an old friend who has found his way back to her.

The family takes refuge in Grandfathers lighthouse. For fifty-two years he has kept its light and guarded what lies beneath it: a door between our world and the worlds that legends only half remember. When the Guardians of the borders lay siege to the tower, Mathew and his parents take the dragon down the old stairs and through that door.

Beyond it, the myths are alive. Fauns and fairies, mermaids at a lakeside fair, sky pirates in patched balloons, a monster kinder than most people, and the Book of Delusions, which offers you every life you have ever dreamed of and would rather you never left. To find his way home, Mathew must learn the three rules of the road, tell delusion from truth and discover who he is when no one is there to decide for him.

Back at the lighthouse, his younger sister Zoya keeps watch and keeps a diary. Her pages run between the chapters, a quiet counterpoint to the journey.

An epic tale of a world where myth and reality stand closer than we think, about family, fear and the courage it takes to become yourself. The book closes with a glossary of mythical beings drawn from the folklore of many lands.