Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve

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H aunted Castle on Hallows Eve is the second in a special group of Magic Tree House books called “The Merlin Missions.” In these books, it is Merlin the magician who sends Jack and Annie on their tree house adventures, often to mythical and legendary lands.
    In the first Merlin Mission, Christmas in Camelot , Jack and Annie journeyed into a world of magic and fantasy to find a secret cauldron that held the Water of Memory and Imagination.
    Now, nearly a year later, Jack and Annie are about to set out on a new Merlin Mission. They invite you to come with them to an outlying realm of Camelot where strange and eerie things are happening at a duke’s castle.
    Enjoy your journey! But beware—in the world of Merlin the magician, anything can happen….

Text copyright © 2003 by Mary Pope Osborne.
Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Sal Murdocca.
    www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.randomhouse.com/magictreehouse
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Osborne, Mary Pope.
Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve / by Mary Pope Osborne;
illustrated by Sal Murdocca. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Magic tree house; #30)
“A Stepping Stone book.”
eISBN: 978-0-307-53064-6
[1. Haunted Houses—Fiction. 2. Castles—Fiction. 3. Ravens—Fiction.
4. Halloween—Fiction. 5. Time travel—Fiction. 6. Magic—Fiction.
7. Tree houses—Fiction.] I. Murdocca, Sal, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.081167Hat 2003 [Fic]—dc21 2002156313
    v3.0

For Will, the real magician
in the heart of the oak

The hearth is cold in the lonely hall,
No banquet decks the board;
No page stands ready at the call,
To ’tend his wearied lord.
    From “Earl Desmond and the Banshee”
—Anonymous            

“M aybe I should be a vampire instead of a princess,” said Annie.
    Â She and Jack were sitting on their front porch. A cool breeze rustled the trees. Autumn
leaves twirled to the ground.
    â€œBut you already have your princess costume,” said Jack. “Besides, you were a vampire last Halloween.”
    â€œI know, but I want to wear my big teeth again,” said Annie.
    â€œSo wear your big teeth and be a vampire-princess,” said Jack. He stood up. “I’m going to go put on my ghoul makeup now.”
    KRAW!
    â€œOh, man!”