The Crown Prophecy Read online

  M.D. LAIRD

  THE CROWN PROPHECY

  Copyright © 2017 M.D. Laird.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any other information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction, all names, characters, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  First published 2016. This edition 2017.

  1530957761/978-1530957767

  For my daddy, who is my number one fan.

  I had a strange feeling Fate had in store for me exquisite joys and exquisite sorrows.

  Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray,

  Part the First

  In Heaven, everything is good; in Hell, everything is bad.

  In the world, since it lies between the two, you will find both.

  Baltasar Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom.

  February 2003

  “Where are we going?” asked Eve as she followed Will through the front door. The gravel on the driveway crunched under his heavy footfalls as Will made his way quickly to his father’s car.

  “It’s hard to explain,” he replied as he climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the key into the ignition. “Just get in.”

  Eve climbed into the passenger seat. She had barely closed the door before she was pinned in her seat as Will accelerated away from the house. She quickly pulled on her seatbelt. “Are we going after that thing? That man?” she asked.

  Will sucked in breath impatiently. “We’re going to ask for help from some people called the Procnatus.”

  “Who?”

  “It’s complicated. You won’t understand.”

  “Why?” asked Eve, feeling thoroughly confused with the turn the morning had taken and Will, who was clearly under pressure, lacked the patience for explaining anything. She pushed him nonetheless. “Tell me.”

  “They’re like another species. They’re called thorian,” replied Will in almost a growl, a surge of irritation had struck him as he narrowly escaped a head-on collision with a truck while overtaking another car. “They look like us, but they’re not human. They’re stronger and faster, and they’re immortal.”

  “You’re right, I don’t understand.” Eve felt her breath quicken, and she wished that she had brakes in her foot well as Will, who had passed his driving test only days before, almost hit another oncoming vehicle. “What are they?”

  “I told you; they’re another species.”

  “That makes no sense. How can there be another species of people?”

  Will drove the car into a multi-storey carpark; he pulled the ticket from the machine to raise the barrier and sped up the levels to find an available space. After parking, they ran down four flights of foul-smelling stairs, entered the street and tore towards the train station. Will purchased two open returns for the next train to Milton Keynes, and they headed for the platform.

  “It’s delayed,” he said, eying the departure board. “We have twenty minutes.”

  “Good,” said Eve. “You can tell me about these magical beings.”

  “Hush,” hissed Will, motioning for her to enter the empty waiting area. “Keep your voice down. Look, I will tell you, but you need to keep it to yourself.”

  “Sure, whatever. It doesn’t sound like something anyone would believe anyway.”

  “No, you’re probably right.” He gave her a thin smile before continuing. “There is a world located above our world, and it is home to the thorian who I mentioned and some others. The world has continents like our world; the one we are going to is called Arkazatinia. It is split up into wards, each controlled by a different group of thorian who have a ruler. We’re going to see the Procnatus thorian ruler.”

  “So why are we going to Milton Keynes?”

  “We’re going to use an entrance to their world in Milton Keynes, there are others, but that’s the only one I know will take us right where we need to be on the other side. I haven’t been many times, and I don’t want to struggle to find my way around.”

  “Okay,” Eve slowly replied as she tried to sift through the mass of questions filling up her consciousness. “So, they look human? And they can pass to our world? So, I could know one?”

  “It’s possible—they are really good-looking.”

  “Really?”

  “I haven’t met many, but they were stunning… This is our train.”

  The two left the waiting area and joined the small crowd gathering on the platform to board the train. The train was relatively quiet, and they managed to find an empty table. A couple and a small child, who was busily colouring a fairy princess, occupied the table next to them. Eve and Will sat opposite each other.

  “What is the world like?” she asked.

  Will glared at her to keep her voice down and looked at the family next to them who, amidst colouring and chatting amongst themselves, seemed not to have noticed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sleek pocket watch that appeared to be coated with some fluid-like substance. Will opened the reverse of the watch to reveal a small control panel, which housed a screen displaying the words ‘NORMAL MODE’, and pressed a red button on the touch screen panel and the screen now displayed ‘SECURE MODE’.

  “We can talk now,” he announced. “I have cloaked us, so we’ll look like we’re not speaking.”

  “Okay,” said Eve slowly. “I’m so confused, what is your part in all of this?”

  “My family and I are guardians; we help to make sure Arkazatinia is kept secret—hence the speakeasy.”

  “Speakeasy?”

  “Yeah.” Will smiled. “My great grandad was American and was a young man during prohibition; he called the watch the speakeasy because it was easier to say than vox dissimulatrix.”

  “You mean to tell me that this space age cloaking device has been around since the twenties?” exclaimed Eve.

  “Well, not this model but others like it. My grandad had an actual Victorian style pocket watch; it is quite cool—very steampunky—my dad still has it. There have been many devices modified to conceal speech; that’s more or less what vox dissimulatrix means… Oh, hang on.” Will switched the watch back to normal mode as the conductor approached them to check their tickets before turning back to secure mode and continuing. “I was given a speakeasy when I turned sixteen. When every member of my family reaches sixteen, they become a guardian, and we’re given the task of keeping the supernatural world a secret.”

  “How? Do you turn up when something strange happens and cover it up like some secret government agent?”

  Will smirked. “More or less. At least, the adults do, I’m only seventeen, so I’m still in training.”

  “Why doesn’t the supernatural world just be more careful and then you wouldn’t have to cover stuff up?”

  “Most want their world to be kept secret, but there are a few who cause trouble in Lycea—that’s what they call our world. It is the role of the guardians to seek out the rogue Arkazatines and deal with them.”

  “Deal with them?” asked Eve. “You mean you kill them?”

  “Or send them back and have them arrested under Arkazatine law,” replied Will coolly. “Whatever it takes. To be honest, it sounds more exciting than it is; it is actually quite rare that we have
to deal with anyone.”

  “Right.” Eve shook her head in disbelief.

  How had she known Will all her life and never known any of this until today?

  “So, this supernatural world,” she said. “What is it called again?”

  “The world is called Anaxagoras, the continent we cover is Arkazatinia, well, we cover part of it anyway.”

  “Ok, Arkazatinia, why hasn’t it been found by our world? How can a whole world exist on Earth and we don’t know about it.”

  “It exists on Earth but on another level. It’s invisible to humans. I don’t really know how to explain it—I’m not sure if anyone does. Have you heard that sub-atomic particles behave differently at a quantum level and that some scientists have even suggested that it is evidence for an alternate dimension? That is perhaps the smallest hint of that world.”

  “Wow! So one day scientists could just stumble across it?”

  “They might do. Some humans can detect the supernatural world; some people have gifts. Humans just write them off as being eccentric, but there have been some people who have managed to pass over. They are usually sent back home after their memory has been erased.”

  Eve pressed her hands to her head as she imagined plausible explanations for every UFO disappearance she had heard of—did she just think this was plausible?

  “This is hurting my brain,” she said. “I need coffee.”

  Will switched the watch to normal mode while they made their way to the buffet car to order coffee. On returning to their seats and with secure mode safely on, Eve took a sip of her coffee before continuing her interrogation. “These people we’re going to see? What are they called again?”

  “The Procnatus.”

  “Yes, why are we seeing them? Are they in charge?”

  “No, their government, the Imperium, is in charge of Arkazatinia, but my dad always told me to speak to the Procnatus first in an emergency as they’re the most rational.”

  Will had spoken calmly though Eve could see that his eyes were betraying a hint of anxiety and she stopped her questioning.

  They continued the rest of the journey in silence. Will gazed out of the window, the anxiety, which had settled on him briefly, had left his eyes and his expression gave nothing away. Eve felt a surge of anger rising in her stomach as she imagined all the lies he had told her and all the secrets he had kept from her. She swallowed the feeling and thought instead of everything that he had told her and everything she had seen that day. The world was so different from yesterday. Yesterday supernatural beings were the subjects of fantasy: books, movies and TV dramas, but now they were real. She squeezed her temples to push a sharp pain that had formed behind her eyes into a dull ache.

  Will shook Eve gently as the train arrived at Milton Keynes Central Station. She rubbed at her neck which was now sore from dozing off with her head on the window. Her headache, at least, had subsided.

  “It’s not far,” Will said, leading Eve out of the train station and into the streets.

  They walked for around ten minutes with Will using a map feature on his pocket watch to guide them.

  “We’re here,” he announced as they approached a large glass fronted building.

  “They live in a theatre?”

  “Their guild occupies the same level as the theatre; they’re not in it.”

  Will opened the reverse of the watch to reveal the control panel. He selected a new menu, and a lock replaced the speech display. Concealing the watch from view, he entered a password and instead of the theatre, they saw a beautiful neo-classical building fronted with massive stone columns.

  “That's incredible!” exclaimed Eve. “It looks just like the British Museum and it doesn’t… What? What is it made from?”

  Eve stared at the material used to construct the building. It looked like stone, but it moved. Only slightly but it definitely moved!

  “I was shocked the first time I saw it. All of the buildings in Anaxagoras are built from this. It’s like an organic material, and it can move and change shape. It’s because rocks and metals in this world are alive.”

  “Are you serious?” Eve spluttered. “So, the building could just decide to change shape if it feels like it?”

  “It’s alive in the same sense that a tree or a plant is alive,” chuckled Will. “They don’t just have rocks wandering around. They can manipulate the material to join with other materials to form and hold the shapes they want. It doesn’t grow like a tree or a plant or erode like a rock, so it has zero maintenance.”

  “Your watch thingy…that fluid isn’t just some weird case, it’s actually the metal?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s amazing! What is it called?”

  “All the materials have different names, and I don’t remember any of them. Apparently, the guild has a great library.”

  “With real books or are they alive too?”

  Will laughed as he rang a bell at the door of the Guild of Procnatus. “No, the organic matter used to make books dies just as it does in our world.”

  An incredibly handsome man answered the door; Eve felt her mouth fall open at the sight of him.

  Will straightened and said formally, “Good afternoon. I’m William Farley, I’m a Guardian of Arkazatinia, and I request an urgent audience with Lord Thalia.”

  The man glanced towards Eve who blushed heavily. He did not react and looked back towards Will. “Who is this? Another guardian?”

  “No,” replied Will, maintaining his cool. “I shall explain all to Her Lordship.”

  The man invited them into an elegant waiting area. Despite the grand exterior, the building did not have a vast entrance hall or high ceilings and instead showed a practical use of the great space. Both Eve and Will, expecting a breathtaking scene, found it a little disappointing. They were invited to sit in the waiting area chairs which had the same living properties as the building. Feeling a little creeped out, Eve preferred to stand.

  “Did you say Her Lordship?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Will said, “they have male and female lords.”

  “Weird.”

  “Why don’t you sit down? The chairs won’t hurt you.”

  “You said it forms new shapes with other material,” replied Eve, jumping away from the wall she had leant on without thinking. “I don’t want to become part of a chair or a wall.”

  Will laughed. “They wouldn’t use it if it was that easy. They need a skilled alchemist to change them.”

  “I’ll stand all the same. It would be like sitting on a chair made from bugs.” Her eyes ventured towards the organic floor, and she began to shuffle uncomfortably.

  Will started to laugh but quickly silenced himself as the door opened and a young woman entered. She appeared to be around nineteen or twenty and was incredibly beautiful.

  “This way,” she said, indicating for them to follow her through the door.

  She led them down a corridor rather grander than the entrance hall. The walls of the corridor were filled with portraits and news clippings of scientists and scientific feats through the ages. The walls were lined with display cabinets containing a trove of apparatus, gadgets and what looked like random junk. It should have looked cluttered, but its beautiful arrangement could easily pass for an exhibition.

  The girl led them into a large office and motioned for them to sit on two chairs in front of a solid oak desk. The office was like a library/laboratory hybrid. The walls were lined with thousands of leather-bound volumes, and more cabinets displayed everything from crude tools to microscopes, and many planetarium and orrery models. Eve and Will sat. Eve was relieved to find that the wooden seats did not appear to move. They were surprised when the girl took a seat opposite them.

  “You’re Lord Thalia?” stuttered Will, blushing furiously.

  The girl smiled. “Pleased to meet you, Guardian,” she said.

  Eve studied her face. She was as fresh-faced as a skinca
re model, but her eyes appeared to be as old and wise as an ancient scholar.

  Will started to speak, but something about her gaze hushed him.

  “I am not accustomed to visits from guardians, Mr Farley,” she said gently. “Nor am I accustomed to visits from humans who should be unacquainted with our world. I assume you have a good reason for this interruption?”

  Will stammered, “I did not know where else to turn, my father has been taken…by…by a demon.”

  Thalia raised an eyebrow and betrayed a mix of alarm and confusion before quickly regaining her composure. “I sympathise, Mr Farley, really I do, but we have a protocol and channels to follow. Surely you’re aware that Arkazatinia is controlled by the Imperium?”

  “Yes,” said Will, lowering his eyes, “but my father always told me to go to the Procnatus in matters of urgency as you are the most rational.”

  She smiled, it was a warm smile. “It’s kind of your father to say so. I may be able to be of some assistance in this matter. Have you eaten?”

  Will relaxed a little. Eve had not noticed how tense he was until he did. “We had coffee on the train.”

  Thalia pressed a button on a panel on the desk.

  “Yes, my lord?” came the crackled reply.

  “Mark, could you arrange for some refreshments to be brought to my office, and ask Mikæl to attend?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “So,” said Thalia, leaning back into her seat, “tell me about this demon.”

  Will and Eve glanced at each other before Will regaled Thalia with the events of the day. “My father, Andrew Farley, had been working in the garden before I got up around ten this morning when Eve phoned and said she was on her way.” His cheeks reddened, but Thalia listened patiently, and he continued. “Anyway, Eve and I went into the garden; I’d made my father a coffee and was taking it out to him when—”