Conrad's Fate is a children's fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones published by Collins in 2005.
[3] Conrad is the protagonist, a twelve-year-old boy sent to work at the local castle ("Stallery"), with a magical mission to kill someone who is neither named nor described.
Conrad's Fate is set perhaps three decades ago in a world quite different from ours, during the adolescence of Christopher Chant, who is Chrestomanci in five of the other books in the series.
Conrad Tesdinic lives in Stallchester, a small town in the English Alps, a mountain range present in Series Seven worlds where the British Isles are still connected to the European mainland.
Conrad's father is dead; his sister Anthea has left home to go to university; and his mother, Franconia, is an eccentric feminist author whose books are sold exclusively in her brother's bookshop.
In the town, only small details change – the colour of the postboxes, the titles of books – but Uncle Alfred is certain that someone at Stallery is reaping far greater benefits from the shifts.
Uncle Alfred and his Magician's Circle tell Conrad that he is going to die within the year unless he kills the person pulling the possibilities.
To kill this person and set things right, Conrad will need to infiltrate Stallery Mansion in the guise of a domestic servant, and then summon a Walker.
Gabriel De Witt, the current Chrestomanci and guardian of Millie and Christopher, arrives at the castle at the request of this England's king, hoping to figure out what is causing all the probability shifts.
In the final part of the book, Conrad reveals that he became Christopher's best man at his wedding to Millie and continued living at Chrestomanci Castle for several years.
Uncle Alfred runs the bookshop in town, and Conrad has grown up as an unpaid assistant in the bookstore.