The Princelings and the Lost City

The Princelings and the Lost City

By Jemima Pett

Book 3 of The Princelings trilogy

Smashwords Edition 1.1

Princelings Publications copyright 2012 J M Pett

Cover illustration by Danielle English http://www.kanizo.co.uk

Chapter illustrations by the author

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The right of Jemima Pett to be identified as the author and co-illustrator of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Missed the first in the series? Get The Princelings of the East at Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/112021

Book 2 in the trilogy, The Princelings and the Pirates, is available at Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/157450

This book is dedicated to my friend Julie, hoping her recovery is as swift as my George’s.

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I would like to thank Dawn Cavalieri for her help, advice and support during the production of The Princelings of the East trilogy.

Prologue

Chapter 1: A New Machine

Chapter 2: Return to Castle Marsh

Chapter 3: The Forest

Chapter 4: Tree and Marsh

Chapter 5: A Small Expedition

Chapter 6: Theory and Practice

Chapter 7: Animus Arborum

Chapter 8: Missing You

Chapter 9: Black and White

Chapter 10: Evidence and Conjecture

Chapter 11: All Roads Lead to Rome

Chapter 12: A Nice Day for a Picnic

Chapter 13: A Problem Shared

Chapter 14: One Day at Buckmore

Chapter 15: Into the Woods

Chapter 16: De Profundis

Chapter 17: Epilogue

Prologue

In which we discover the darker side of a castle

Next!

HM moved forward, shivering as he went into the unaccustomed light of the basement room. His tutor pointed at a spot in front of a row of females, all wearing very smart attire and disdainful expressions. This was his last chance.

His tutor had saved him at the last screening when he suggested the panel ask him a different set of questions. He had discovered HM’s amazing powers of reading and recall by chance. HM had been flipping through the pages of books abandoned in a corner of the schoolroom. Irritated by the youngster’s apparent lack of interest as he had picked up a fifth book the tutor had asked HM what they said. He was amazed as HM summarised each chapter of each book. He picked them up, and after a couple of random speed-reads, decided HM was right. He took him aside for further training.

HM stood passively in front of the panel. Nobody asked him what he thought, and he didn’t offer any opinions of his own. Young males didn’t. It wasn’t their place. His tutor had explained that unless he could show the Talent Council that he had special skills that were needed in the city, he would be abandoned to the Outside like the rest of H cohort. When all the Hs had disappeared, his tutor had worked with him on advanced mathematics and astronomy. He had been angry when HM wasted time, reading books that dealt with other subjects and especially those thrown out by the Library personnel as ‘unsuitable’. HM liked those best. They had stories of the world Outside, a world where male persons did things just like females. HM wondered whether they were right though.

Now HM answered all the questions fired at him by the Talent Council. He knew he’d got them right. Then came more difficult questions. Sometimes he recalled what one book had said and applied it to what another said to come up with an answer. He could see his tutor standing to one side, nodding slightly as if he was happy with an answer.

The questions stopped. He stood showing no emotion, but his face rested in a pose that a stranger might think was mournful. The females of the Talent Council conferred among themselves. They reached their decision and one stood up.

Had you any thought as to what position this candidate might occupy? she sneered at the tutor.

Your Highness, I wondered if he might be suitable as a scientist, or if not as an instructor. His manner indicated how low in the pecking order he was himself.

We have enough excellent scientists. What sort of instructor could he possibly be?

Maybe, if you please, he could be my apprentice. I am getting old...

I think not! was the sharp retort. Take him away.

The tutor stepped forward and ushered HM from the clammy basement room down some rough-hewn steps to the dripping dungeons below.

I’m sorry, HM, he said as he led him back into his cage. I don’t think they are going to keep you here. You’ll go up to the medical wing tomorrow then leave a few days later. I expect the bandits will find you and take care of you.

HM looked at him mournfully and wondered why he had to go to the medical wing but said nothing. He sat down and heard the cage clang as the door swung shut and then click as it locked.

Good bye then, his tutor said, reluctant to leave this prodigy that no one wanted. Getting no answer, he made his way back along the corridor to his own quarters, still far underground.

***

Hum!

Hum, my dear!

A soft voice woke HM, or at least roused him from a dream in which he was walking with some people like himself, yet not like himself, through a garden following the sound of some pipes.

Hum, come to the side here!

He moved to the edge of the cage and leant against the bars. He always remembered this comforting smell, the softness and warmth of her body. They hadn’t touched since he was tiny though.

"I’m sorry they aren’t keeping you here. You would have been so good. I know that.

Listen. They’ll be putting you Outside in a couple of days. I won’t see you again. Don’t stay with the bandits. They are vile. You’ll leave on your own so you can go a long way if you move fast, before they catch you. Go west. You know the sun rises in the east then travels to the west. Well, you’ve never seen the sun but you’ve seen pictures haven’t you?

Hum nodded. Hum was a nicer name than HM he thought. He’d seen a name in a book called Humphrey and he thought that was even nicer. He wondered what Outside was like, whether it would be like the pictures.

And if it’s dark, the soft voice continued, you follow the direction the stars are turning. You know astronomy, you know the stars, don’t you?

He nodded again.

Be lucky my sweet. I won’t forget you.

Hum lifted his head, alert as he heard noises in the distance. It was his special hearing, though; the voices were two or three floors away from them. He knew a lot of useful things because of his special hearing.

Is someone coming? I must go. Be lucky, my angel, but be careful! She slipped away as soundlessly as she had arrived.

Hum watched her go and thought about Outside. He also thought about the medical wing. He was not going to the medical wing, he decided.

What I need to do now, he said out loud, is to escape from the castle.

The cage door swung open as if inviting him to escape. He stepped out, looking and listening for any signs of danger. He crept along the tunnels, following his instinct if one branched off that seemed to be more appealing. It might be a draft of air, a pleasant scent, or just a feeling. A very narrow tunnel ended in a wall of stone. He laid a hand on it, certain his way could not be blocked, and stepped back as it slid aside. Cold night air flooded in as he stepped out. He clambered down the rock face to the ground a few metres below. He could hear no sound of patrols or bandits. He crossed an open space with loose dirt on the hard ground and found himself among crisp, flappy things growing in rows. He wondered if these were things called vegetables. He went along the lines, over the bank at the end, then along more rows till they ended. He climbed up a bank and tumbled over the top, rolling down, down, down the other side. Looking up at the stars, he found the constellations he had seen in books. He found the Plough, got up, shook himself, faced the North Star, and then turned left and headed west.

Chapter 1: A New Machine

In which George finds an exciting new project and Lupin gets married

Fred gazed out of the window along the road to Powell. It wasn’t his normal window and it wasn’t his normal gaze: instead of Thinking, he was Watching, and watching impatiently too. Beside him, also watching, but in a state of contained excitement, was his brother George.

Princess Kira was arriving shortly. She had told them that her brother would be driving a new type of carriage, and that they would arrive on the straight stretch of road approaching the castle, and would they please warn everyone that they might need to stand aside if the carriage wasn’t completely under control. Fred hadn’t the faintest idea what she meant by that, and was worried for her safety. George had a very slight inkling about it, as he had been reading his engineering newspapers, and was worried that the new carriage might not be in sufficiently good condition afterwards for him to take a really good look at it.

Where are they? said Fred craning his neck to see further down the road, then pulling back to look at George, then looking out again. They should be here by now.

It’sh er-bnot .. threeyet. George was speaking very slowly and trying hard to enunciate clearly. A head injury the previous year meant he had to learn how to speak again. Some sounds got mixed up, and some were easier to say if you ran them together, but most people understood him these days as long as they had the patience to wait and listen to him.

I know, said Fred, as if it was George’s fault time was dragging, and he got up and paced the room for a bit. It wasn’t a big room, so that involved a lot of turning, unlike their apartment on the northwest side of the castle. That had both space and a great view of the mountains and the vale stretching away into the distance.

Princess Kira was arriving in advance of the wedding party. On Midsummer’s Day, Prince Lupin (King of Buckmore) was to wed Princess Nerys of Dimerie, Kira’s elder sister. The rest of the wedding party, guests, and hangers-on would arrive starting the day after tomorrow, in waves of about six carriages a day for three days. In order to give their guests appropriate honour and comfort, a number of Buckmore residents had given up their normal apartments. Fred and George had offered theirs to the princesses, so they were now standing in the small room they had been allocated, but they also had George’s laboratory if they needed more space. No one would dream of venturing into George’s laboratory. It was a regular source of unnatural smells, noises, and small explosions.

A strange noise crept into their consciousness, a sort of buzzing. It changed tone, skipped a beat and sometimes stopped altogether. The princelings looked out, straining to see what was making the noise. Fred stared down the road as far as the bridge; George gazed up into the sky as if he was dreaming.

There ….there..they..ther…. he stuttered and pointed for Fred to locate.

What? said Fred, following the direction and wondering why he was pointing into the sky. There was some sort of bird flying towards them.

I w-wond-ered … a ffly-ing ma-ma-sheen. In his excitement, George was having trouble getting any words out at all. He slipped off the window seat and went over to a pile of papers beside his bed. He selected one near the top of the pile and brought it back to Fred.

M. Bleriot demonstrates flying machine at Fortune, read the headline. Underneath was a picture of a very dashing French person with a helmet and goggles standing next to a funny tube with two boards sticking out of it on either side.

Fred glanced at it, held it close to look at the machine in more detail and dropped the paper to look at the sky. A very similar machine was now approaching the last stretch of road before it turned to come into the castle itself.

Oh my goodness, said Fred, his eyes wide in panic. She’ll be killed!

Mn I ddon’ thing so. George said. The m-macheenstoo val-u-able.

But who’s driving it?

Brother… M-Miles I th-ink.

The flying machine was losing height and heading straight for the road. People scattered into the fields on each side, shading their eyes and screaming in fear and wonder at the new invention.

Suddenly the sound stopped. The machine floated forward a few feet above the ground. The wheels underneath it touched the ground. It bounced once, twice, then on the third time it settled and ran along the road, rocking from side to side as it hit ruts and stony bits. It rolled to a standstill as the road widened and became a nice large paved square in front of the castle gateway.

The people who had scrambled to get away from the monster now scrambled back to get close. Admirers and the simply curious surrounded the machine. Many willing hands, each wanting to touch a hero, helped the pilot from his seat, and he took off his helmet and goggles to reveal himself as Prince Miles of Dimerie. The people remembered their manners and stood back to give him space, and then stood back again as Prince Lupin and the official welcoming party arrived. Miles turned to help his sister descend from her lofty seat.

Fred and George had rushed from their room to get to the entrance among the official party. Despite his impatience, Fred hung back during the formal welcome before stepping forward at Lupin’s request to show Kira to her temporary quarters. He grinned at her, bowed low, and gave her his arm, which she took, smothering a smirk at the ceremony of it. He escorted her upstairs to the quarters he normally occupied with George. They had put a few touches to the room that they thought she would like, but hadn’t made as much effort to clear their own things as the Lady Nimrod had advised, because they knew Kira was interested in their work.

She had visited in the depths of winter, when she and her sister had been invited to the castle for the first time when Lupin was in search of a bride. Both had been back twice as soon as Lupin had done his duty by seeing the remaining princesses on the list of those eligible for his consideration. Much to Fred’s relief, Lupin had seen how Fred felt about Kira, and had moved his own interest purely towards Nerys. Lupin discussed the matter with Fred after the second visit, so that there could be no unfortunate misunderstanding. So when Kira visited a third time, now purely as escort and company for Princess Nerys, Fred presented his own credentials as crown prince of Castle Marsh, and asked Kira if these were sufficient for her to consider accepting him as her husband. He travelled back with her to present himself to her father, King Helier, and repeat the request. It was a most uncomfortable experience, and whilst King Helier had not given his outright consent, he had also not turned Fred down. He was concerned that Fred was not actively engaged in improving the situation at Marsh, but accepted that care of his brother and promoting his full return to health were good reasons for remaining at Buckmore. So there was an understanding, but not an engagement, between Kira and Fred, and Fred knew that in these twelve months he needed to take steps to rectify that.

They arrived in their rooms. Kira looked around and exclaimed with delight over some of the objects left around, including Fred’s wind map, a partially drawn map of the land, and a scale model of George’s energy plant, which was now undergoing trials in the castle.

Exactly what sort of trials are these, George? Kira asked.

Mm – mbig plant one – powers f-f-ull timmme upper ca-castle. Nnot ffai-l’d y-y-yet. Pplant two – lower ca-castle – s-same. Pplant th-three – stron’ bmix, b-blows f-f-fuses, nnnot good. Pplan’ f-four, w-weak mix, p-powers p-plaza, some drop-off nn-night –time. It took a long time and much effort for him to say all this and he often shut his eyes to concentrate, but