The Secret Throne

by Peter F. Hamilton

  ‘What’s it like?’ a fascinated Jemima asked. ‘The Second Realm, I mean?’

  ‘Hot and dry,’ Felix said curtly.

  ‘Do the Karraks appear often in this realm?’ Taggie asked.

  ‘No, thank Heavens,’ Princess Elizabeth said. ‘But see what happens when they do. The Karraks are the true power behind the Nazis, and now they’re sweeping through Europe, expanding their dominion in this Realm. Didn’t you think it was strange that a whole country would suddenly embrace such an evil? There are dark enchantments at work at the heart of Europe, let me tell you.’

  ‘I see,’ Taggie said. ‘I didn’t know. But then I only found out that I’m going to inherit the First Realm’s shell throne a day ago.’

  Princess Elizabeth gave her a sympathetic look. ‘Poor you.’

  The drive up to Melham took hours. Taggie, who had driven up the A1 countless times in the back of her mother’s big comfortable car, watching a film on the seatback screens while they raced along way above the speed limit, was appalled by how narrow and potholed the road was. They didn’t have dual carriageways in the 1940s, or safety barriers. Wartime also meant that their headlights were reduced to thin beams that really didn’t reveal very much, and it was a dark night.

  Taggie suspected Princess Elizabeth was using some kind of charm to see ahead – Felix certainly didn’t seem bothered by the journey – so she spent a lot of the time trying to get used to the charmsward and all the knowledge it remembered for her. Somewhere around Stevenage she thought she finally managed to weave a wardveil around herself, which should make her invisible to whatever Karrak Lady seers were tracking her. By the time they were passing through Stamford she’d sorted out the various shield invocations, which could defend her against Karrak death spells. It wasn’t much, but it made her feel a little more confident about the task ahead.

  Midnight had long passed by the time the truck rolled into Melham. Taggie and Jemima weren’t entirely surprised to see the village was almost the same in the 1940s as it was in the twenty-first century.

  ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Taggie said as the truck stopped just down the road from Orchard Cottage.

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Princess Elizabeth said kindly. ‘And jolly good luck on your quest.’

  ‘I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you why we’re here,’ Taggie said. ‘But the Queen of Dreams said fate and destiny cannot be altered.’

  ‘She’s quite right,’ Princess Elizabeth said.

  ‘Goodbye,’ Jemima said with a huge smile. ‘Please don’t forget us. Please!’

  ‘Crikey, I’m not going to do that, not after all tonight’s excitement. If you can, do come and visit me at Buckingham Palace when everything gets back to normal.’

  ‘Oh yes!’ Jemima gushed enthusiastically. ‘We’d love to.’

  ‘Be firm with the Great Gateway,’ Princess Elizabeth told Taggie with a twinkle in her eye. ‘Let it jolly well know who’s in charge.’

  ‘I will. I promise.’

  ‘See you soon.’

  And with that, Princess Elizabeth revved the truck’s big engine, and drove off into the night.

  Taggie and Jemima and Felix crept through the gardens towards the orchard. There were no lights on in Orchard Cottage. Taggie wasn’t sure which distant relatives lived in the place during the war, and didn’t particularly want to find out. Whoever they were, they kept the gardens a lot smarter than Dad ever did.

  There was an ordinary gate in the fuchsia hedge between the garden and the orchard. They went through to find perfectly pruned trees in neat rows.

  ‘Can you see any gnomes?’ an anxious Jemima asked Felix.

  The squirrel was perched on top of the gate, searching the orchard with his purple glasses. ‘No, it’s clear.’

  ‘When this is all over and we get back, I’m going to sort out the garden and orchard,’ Taggie decided. ‘It looks much nicer like this.’

  ‘A pleasing thought, Princess,’ Felix said, he raced along the grass, no more than a small grey shadow.

  ‘Dad likes it all shaggy,’ Jemima said.

  ‘Dad needs to change.’

  ‘Taggie!’

  ‘Well he does.’ Taggie stopped in the middle of the mown strip of grass, and put her hands on her hips. ‘He should have told us about the Realms.’

  Felix shot up an apple tree and gripped one of the lower branches to look down at the sisters. ‘He was being a good father,’ he said. ‘He wanted you to enjoy your childhood.’

  ‘Ha!’ Taggie waved her arms exuberantly. ‘Do I look like I’m enjoying myself?’

  ‘Stop being so cross with Daddy,’ Jemima said. ‘It’s horrible. He’s in trouble.’

  Taggie gave her sister a glare – which was completely wasted in the darkness. ‘Well, he wouldn’t be in trouble if he’d stayed in the First Realm like he was supposed to, and sat on the shell throne when Grandma died.’

  ‘If he hadn’t travelled to this Realm he would never have met your mother,’ Felix said quietly. ‘You would not have been born.’

  The darkness didn’t hide Jemima’s expression of satisfaction.

  ‘I know,’ Taggie whispered, and all her anger withered away like roses in winter. But there was something else bothering her about Dad. ‘This is the nineteen forties, isn’t it?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Felix said.

  ‘And right now Dad is a boy?’

  ‘Yes,’ Felix agreed from his apple tree.

  ‘But in our time he’s only forty-seven. Remember, Jem, we got him a birthday cake and everything last year. That’s in about seventy years’ time. So how can that be?’

  ‘Your family ages slowly,’ Felix said solemnly. ‘All those descended from mages grow to a great age. Providing they don’t go and get themselves killed doing stupid things. I suspect your father was speaking falsely about his age so he could appear more normal to the people of this Realm.’

  ‘How old do squirrels get?’ Jemima asked brightly.

  ‘I couldn’t say.’

  ‘Lord Golzoth said your family were cursed,’ Taggie said.

  ‘He is correct.’

  ‘What curse?’ Jemima asked.

  The squirrel gave her a very surprised look. His forepaw swept down his front. ‘We were not always like this, ma’am.’

  ‘Oh,’ an embarrassed Jemima muttered. ‘What did you look like, then? Before, I mean?’

  ‘Jem!’

  ‘Nothing you need concern yourself with.’ Felix said quietly. ‘Now we must concentrate on helping your father.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘We need to get to Arasath,’ Felix announced firmly.

  The sisters headed towards the far end of the orchard, with Felix running along branches overhead and jumping between trees.

  When they found the dark stone circle set in the ground, Taggie looked down into the hole feeling a strange sense of eagerness. Arasath was at the bottom, and she was confident enough now to know that this time she’d be getting some answers.

  ‘I’ll do this,’ she said, because she remembered exactly what charm opened the roundadown. There were a lot of tiny periwinkles growing amid the thick grass at the top. She plucked one of the tiny blue and white flowers, dropping it into the hole. ‘Zarek fol,’ she said calmly.

  The first stone rumbled as it slid out of the side of the roundadown. Then the second stone emerged just below it.

  ‘Crikey, Taggie,’ an impressed Jemima gasped. ‘You’re getting good at magic.’

  Taggie smiled a little smugly and took the torch out of her pocket. She started to walk down the emerging stone steps.

  As before, the bottom of the roundadown was dry and warm, with a springy layer of leaves. Taggie stood straight-backed, facing the door that had no handle, with Felix on one side and Jemima on the other. ‘I am Taggie, Princess of the First Realm, and its future Queen. You will open to the time where I belong and take me home.’

  ‘You have grown, Majesty,’ Arasath’s solemn voice
said behind her.

  Taggie didn’t flinch or try to look over her shoulder; instead she narrowed her eyes and focused on the iron-bound planks of the door ahead. ‘Why did you do that? Why did you deceive me?’

  ‘I opened to a First Realm you needed to understand, a First Realm you needed to connect to. And love. I did it for love. For love is important above all things. Love is how you will triumph, Princess Taggie.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, slightly flustered. ‘That’s all very well, but we’ve been chased by Ethanu, and nearly killed by Lord Golzoth. Why did you let him follow us?’

  ‘I did not,’ Arasath said.

  ‘You did!’ Jemima blurted.

  Taggie squeezed her sister’s hand. ‘Then how did he wind up in the middle of the Second World War with us?’ she asked Arasath.

  ‘Some other Gateway opened here for him.’

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘So you can’t help, then?’

  ‘I am but an opening. I have some choice over who or what passes through me, but apart from that I play no part in the lives of those who live in the Realms.’

  ‘But you chose to show me that moment in history,’ Taggie said shrewdly. ‘Why?’

  ‘It could have been any moment,’ Arasath replied.

  Taggie grinned. That was an evasive answer. It could have been any moment but it wasn’t; she’d seen her father, her grandmother and Princess Elizabeth. That wasn’t chance, a random day. Just by understanding that, she felt as if she’d won an argument. ‘You do take part,’ she told the devious Great Gateway. ‘And one day, I’ll find out why, and what it is you’re doing.’

  ‘Whatever will be will be.’

  ‘Then let me go back to the First Realm, the one of my own time.’

  ‘Majesty,’ Arasath said respectfully. The door in front of Taggie swung open silently. ‘Welcome home. Though sadly you may find your home is not welcoming.’

  ‘It will be,’ Taggie told the Great Gateway.

  Determination carried her along the long curving brick tunnel. Determination kept her legs steady and her confidence high. Then they rounded the last curve and came to the entrance.

  Taggie, Jemima and Felix looked out into the First Realm. All Taggie wanted was to see the reassuring sight of the lush green curving land, with sparkling seas above her, the bright little sun shining warmly in the midst of it all.

  ‘Oh no!’ Taggie gasped in dismay. She thought she might cry at the awful sight before her.

  THE REALM OF THE KING OF NIGHT

  At first Taggie thought she was looking at a gigantic grey wall encircling the Great Gateway’s entrance. Then, as her eyes got used to the miserable light, she saw that the First Realm was besieged by snowstorms. Thick swirls of ugly grey cloud crawled across the land in every direction. The beautiful quilt of green fields and forests she’d seen on her last visit were locked in a hard frost, with flurries of snow swirling between deep drifts.

  When she lifted her head to see the sun that hung in the centre of the First Realm it was hidden behind a veil of mooncloud from which the cheerful colours had drained away. The clouds too were now sickly grey, and thickening. Vast night shadows smothered the ground below them, their edges growing even as she watched. It wouldn’t be long, Taggie realized, before all the nights merged together, leaving the Realm in permanent darkness.

  ‘What has happened here?’ she wailed.

  ‘The Karraks have brought darkness and despair to this realm,’ Felix said sadly. ‘This is fast becoming a realm where their own kind can laugh at our misery and flourish.’

  ‘This is dreadful,’ she said, aghast. ‘I never imagined anything so bad. What can I ever do to put it right?’

  Felix’s paw took her hand. The white squirrel was almost her height again, and his black eyes held a warm glimmer of kindness. ‘Your own question shows your character. You ask what you can do: who but a selfless person would ask that when confronted with such wickedness? Take courage – no one is asking you to fight this alone. Knowing you live and have come home will bring hope to the whole First Realm. With hope, anything can be achieved.’

  Jemima flung her arms round her sister. ‘It’s OK, Taggie, it’s OK. Really it is. We’ll find Daddy and he’ll know what to do.’

  Taggie wiped her hand across her eyes. ‘Thanks, Jem. You’re right, we came here to rescue Dad, and that’s what we’ll do.’ She looked at the forlorn winter landscape and shuddered at the damage that had befallen such a sweet realm. ‘But we’ll need help. Where can we find help, Felix?’

  ‘There will be people, ma’am; the old palace guard, the sheriffs and rangers, ordinary folk with a stout heart. Many took to the woods and caves when the sky grew cold and the moonclouds turned against us. They harass the minions of the Karrak Lords and Ladies as best they can. I’m sure we can find them.’

  ‘All right then,’ Taggie said and rose to her feet. ‘You know, Jem, I can feel them, all our ancestors, they’re happy we’re here. And we will find a way to deal with Jothran. We will. I swear it.’

  Taggie, Jemima and Felix walked down the path towards the canal station building. With the snow already over half a metre deep, they only knew where the path lay from the tracks of others, whose boots and shoes had tramped it down.

  ‘Rannalal knights,’ Felix said after he’d examined the tracks. ‘Among others.’

  ‘The ones who captured Dad?’ Taggie asked.

  ‘Very likely, Princess.’

  ‘Who else has come this way?’

  ‘I don’t know. Several men. Definitely a horse, I expect that was Lord Golzoth: the hoofprints are deep.’

  ‘I’m scared of him,’ Jemima said. ‘I’m sorry, I know princesses are supposed to be brave and noble and stuff, but he’s just so horrible, and he wants to kill us.’

  ‘You are wise to be so cautious, ma’am,’ Felix said. ‘Only a fool underestimates their enemies, especially one as powerful as Lord Golzoth.’

  ‘Felix,’ Jemima said in a tired voice. ‘I know I’m a princess now and everything, but please will you stop calling me ma’am?’

  Felix dipped his head. ‘As you wish, er . . .’

  ‘My friends call me Jem.’

  ‘Jem.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  The canal was frozen over. Big icicles hung from the edge of the station’s platform canopy. And there was someone sitting on one of the benches underneath.

  At first they thought it was just a big bundle of rags. Then Taggie noticed the gold threads peeping out from under the frost which had settled in all the fabric’s creases.

  ‘Mr Anatole?’ she asked in surprise.

  The figure didn’t move. Taggie bent down and slowly pushed the fur-lined hood away from his red face. He was breathing very slowly. Little flakes of snow had settled on his nose and eyelashes.

  ‘Mr Anatole, it’s me, Taggie. Taggie Paganuzzi. We met at Orchard Cottage, remember?’

  The eyes slowly opened. ‘You see me again, my lady,’ he said forlornly, so very different to the tall man she’d met in the lounge of Orchard Cottage. Then, dressed in his splendid robes, he’d possessed a confidence and determination which were sorely lacking now. Even sitting down he seemed stooped and weakened, while his fine cloth robes under the dusting of snow had become dull and poor.

  ‘Yes, I see you,’ Taggie assured him.

  ‘I thought nobody saw me. I sat here and cast a shade when they dragged Prince Dino away. There was nothing I could do. Not against a company of Rannalal and Ethanu and a Karrak Lord. I am a scholar not a soldier. So I watched them go on their way and wept for our lost realm. And I waited.’

  ‘Waited for what?’ Jemima asked.

  ‘A miracle. This seemed as good a place as any. And now here you are. The princesses we never knew. A rightful heir to the shell throne. A miracle indeed.’

  Taggie smiled gently at the old man. ‘I’m not a miracle, Mr Anatole. I’m here to get my father back. After
that we’ll see what can be done for the First Realm. Can you help? I know you helped my grandmother, Felix said you were her adviser.’

  Mr Anatole gave her a small admiring smile, his white teeth bright in his dark red face. ‘Something like that, yes. I will always serve the Queen of Dreams if she asks, no matter who she is. And now it would seem you are our Queen-to-be. Without you, my lady, we are nothing.’

  ‘Come on then,’ Taggie said, and held out her hand. ‘Let’s find people who’ll help. There have to be some, somewhere.’

  Mr Anatole took her hand and rose slowly, his stiff joints causing him great difficulty.

  ‘Aren’t you cold?’ Jemima asked. She’d pulled her colourful bobble hat down tight over her ears, and jammed her gloved hands into her pockets – and she still felt cold.

  ‘No,’ Mr Anatole said. ‘We Shadarain do not suffer from cold nor heat as your kind do.’

  ‘Lucky you,’ Jemima grumbled.

  ‘We’d better move,’ Felix said, watching the snowy landscape alertly. ‘The Karraks have patrols out. I don’t want to be caught on open ground, not in snow. We can’t run through snow.’

  Mr Anatole peered round into grey gloom. ‘The town of Charavik lies that way along the canal. It was home to the Dolvoki Rangers, who are tough people, loyal to the Queen of Dreams. I expect they’ve taken to the Farndorn Forest that covers these hills. Not even an army of Karraks could find them in the Farndorn.’

  ‘Then how will we?’ Jemima asked.

  Mr Anatole smiled, which dislodged the last of the snow clinging to his face. ‘We don’t have to. They will find us.’

  It was a long arduous trek over the snow-covered meadows and streams to the dense woodland beyond. As it dragged on, Taggie became conscious of how bright her orange coat was. How easy to see in a world gone grey.