Hello everyone!
Like I said last Thursday, this November we're travelling through the adventures of two teenagers that basically did a roundabout tour around the world across three different continents, found adventure and danger along the way, and eventually ended up becoming the very best versions of themselves!
And the best part?
As far as I know, there's absolutely no sequel to this trilogy, as in, Isabel Allende didn't go and write about Alex and Nadia in their adult years, rather keeping the magic alive by wrapping it all up in a neat bow when they're just on the cusp of adulthood.
That's what I like. I'm not a huge fan of suddenly reading 'oh, you know that thing you loved when you were younger? Welp, it's all gone now because real life and realism got a hold of it and ruined it'.
Anyway. Enough with me yapping.
It's time for another trip, and this time it won't be into any warm climate whatsoever.
This time, we're scaling mountains in Kingdom of the Golden Dragon.
Kingdom of the Golden Dragon picks up right after City of the Beasts left off, telling us what happened to the three diamonds Nadia found, how Alex's mom pushed her cancer into remission, and then goes on to Alex basically inviting himself along to his grandmother's next adventure in the Himalayas.
What he doesn't know is that Kate also invited Nadia to tag with them, and the two friends are VERY happy to see each other again. Their destination is a small independent kingdom on the border of Tibet, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon, that seems to still be hundreds of years in the past, doesn't accept Western influences, and only approves a certain number of visitors/tourists each year.
Their kings go to a sculpture of a golden dragon for advice, said to have mythical properties in that it actually foretells and can help a man shape the future of the nation.
We know, through the introduction of this book, that its current heir to the throne, Dil Bahadur, is finishing his training with monk teacher Temzing, but we're also immediately thrown into the magical side of things when these two head into a valley filled with Yetis!
Like, woah there, slow down, Betsy!
Meanwhile, Alex, Nadia and the rest, including but not limited to an American called Tex, and a woman named Judith who's apparently here to arrange tulip gardens for the king, all arrive to their destination, and initially have lots of fun acclimatizing to the new environment and whatnot.
Trouble starts during the celebrations in honour of the king's birthday, when a sect from India, simply called the Blue Men by locals, kidnaps a group of local girls. This group, to the later lasting chagrin of their kidnappers, also includes Nadia and her new friend Pema, and of course Alex starts a right riot when he realizes his friend's missing.
Saddling a horse and taking his climbing gear, he leaves the official search to authorities and instead follows Nadia's monkey, Boroba, to where the group was ACTUALLY taken.
Nadia, meanwhile, saves herself and escapes higher into the mountains, where she gets badly injured and mentally projects her spirit animal, the eagle, high into the sky, where Dil Bahadur and his teacher see her. They find the injured girl at the same time as Alex, who defends her in the form of his own spirit animal, the jaguar, until they can find common ground and decide to work together to rescue her out of the gorge she tumbled into.
Once freed and more or less healed, thanks to Temzing's skills, Nadia tells of what she heard in captivity, and Alex makes the connection that kidnapping the girls here was used for a distraction so the Blue Men could actually kidnap the king.
Which is exactly what happens, because Tex is after the golden dragon sculpture for his boss, the Specialist, who was hired to get it for this dude called simply the Collector (an overgrown manchild who's annoyed he's the second richest man in the world, aka not Elon Musk). The group also takes Judith along with them, and while Alex and Co go rescue the girls from their kidnappers, the kind and Judith are taken to an abandoned mountain monastery location.
There, the king refuses to give up the code for understanding what the sculpture says, until Tex threatens Judith, at which point the gentle heart of the benevolent ruler is moved enough to reveal that only the kings of the kingdom and the heirs chosen to succeed them ever learn the language they need to understand the statue: the lost language of the Yetis, the code for which is kept in four separate monasteries (where Dil Bahadur studied), as well as apparently on a parchment that China stole from Tibet when it invaded.
Think on that for a second, that there would be more than one copy, while we head back to Alex & Co who manage to rescue the girls and lower them down into the valley so Pema can warn the leading general of what's happening and lead them to the monastery. Alex himself, Temzing and Dil Bahadur collect some Yetis along the way to try and rescue the king themselves, and they do in fact arrive before the army does to start the fight.
See, things have turned slightly bad since the whole, language bit revelation, because Tex is like SYKE MAN, Judith is the Specialist! She's played you like a fiddle.
When chaos erupts, between the fighting monk, the Yetis, and the shrieking Blue Men running for their lives, Tex tries to take the statue for himself, shoots at Judith but the king takes the bullet, and drags Nadia along for protection, but she yeets out of the chopper he commandeers the second she's able.
As he's not really that skilled for the Himalayas, the chopper goes down - the statue with it.
The king, dying, tells Dil Bahadur to go to the chamber from where the statue was taken, and to take Nadia and Alex with him. Normally, a father would guide his son through all the safety measures, but since he's unable to, Alex will use the GPS device Tex and his men previously utilized, and the trio make it through all the different chambers set up to prevent anyone unworthy - or unknowing - from reaching the inner sanctum.
Once there, Dil Bahadur reveals the final secret: the statue, while priceless because of its gold and precious stones, is actually useless. The real 'golden dragon' is a tiny piece of quartz left behind on the concrete slab, and THAT is actually the thing that helps rulers along.
With every mystery now solved - Judith in a hospital after getting lost in the mountains, and a new statue commissioned through some arm-twisting by Kate, while Temzing returns to the Yetis to teach them for six years - our friends take their leave of King Dil Bahadur, who is set to marry Pema, and the two remind Alex and Nadia they're both always welcome.
Kate, meanwhile, swears she's NEVER taking the kids with her again, she's too old for all this trouble they keep dredging up!
But we all know she does it at least one more time, in Forest of the Pygmies, which is the book we'll be covering next week.
So make sure to tune in to this fascinating finale, because Allende masterfully weaves the mysticism of religion into the adolescent time of two youngsters just coming of age, and it's beautiful to see how Alex and Nadia are growing with each book, as well as their obvious feelings for one another, which they've yet to admit to!
Next Thursday will give us all the final answers.
xx
*image not mine
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