The amber crown, p.1
The Amber Crown, page 1
‘A great tale, which builds in intensity as the story unfolds.
For children who have not been introduced to fantasy, this would definitely be a great book to begin with’ School Librarian
‘A charming, inventive children’s fantasy, which reminds me of early Diana Wynne Jones’
Katherine Langrish, author of Troll Fell
‘Deep Amber has pace, humour and inventiveness … There’s a crackle of magic in the atmosphere and a rapidly thickening plot’ Julia Jones, author of The Salt-Stained Book
‘Delightful … A cross between the early Harry Potter books
and The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis’
Catherine on Goodreads
‘Fantasy, with lots of humour … and a very exciting finale,’
Emma Barnes, author of Wolfie and Wild Thing
‘Exciting and hilarious’ Catherine Butler,
author of Twisted Winter
For Laura
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Books by C. J. Busby
Copyright
Lord Ravenglass stood by the arched window of his chamber, looking out over the roofs of the city. The pale towers of the palace gleamed in the sunset, but dusk was gently settling on the rest of the city below. He watched the shadows deepen, thinking about the piece of deep amber he’d so nearly had in his grasp. He could see it in his mind’s eye – the glowing, orange-brown teardrop with its ornate clasp of bronze leaves.
Maybe he should just have killed the girl, he thought, absently fingering his lace cuffs. Once she’d given him the earth amber, he could have blasted her and her brother to little heaps of dust on the floor of the palace cellars. Then they wouldn’t have had a chance to steal it back and disappear.
He sighed. He would have done it, left to himself. He would happily have reduced the two meddling children to nothingness. But Lukos had turned out to be right, as usual. Letting them live, even letting them escape, was going to reap a much larger reward than killing them.
Ravenglass thought about the first time he’d met Lukos. He’d been a mere boy, exploring the palace cellars. Deep in a forgotten corner he’d found an invisible barrier and a man imprisoned behind it in silver chains. Locked up, his very name erased from memory, for being too adventurous, too ambitious. I can see you’re the same, boy, he’d said. We’re alike, you and me. You’ve got power and the will to use it. You’re not like most of the useless milk-sops who find me.
Lord Ravenglass stroked his chin and smiled, remembering. He’d felt special, Lukos’s favourite; the boy who wasn’t afraid to question, to experiment. And Lukos had taught him so much. The dark magic of the crow karls. The truth about the forest and the Great Tree and the so-called worlds of light. The way the forest folk had tricked and stolen the worlds from the creatures of darkness. Ravenglass knew now that Lukos was the half-brother of the ancient king, Bruni. The king had betrayed Lukos, imprisoned him in a world of ice and snow, and destroyed his followers. Now Ravenglass would be the one to release him, overthrow the forest and destroy all the current worlds of light. Then he would rule over a new realm, with Lukos to advise him and guide him. And to teach him the magic of immortality…
There was a noise near the door and Ravenglass turned, his eyebrows raised. Two tall, thin men in black suits stood at the entrance to the chambers.
“My lord,” said the first, in a dry, rasping voice.
“Mr Jones,” said Lord Ravenglass coldly. “Mr Smith.”
“We have located the ship that carries the sea amber, and we are making ready to set sail. Preparations will be completed tomorrow.”
“Good,” said Lord Ravenglass. “This almost makes up for your incompetence in Ur-Akkad. And a portal key for Wemworthy?”
Mr Jones held out a small chip of dark metal. “From a lamp-post,” he said. “At the end of the road.”
Lord Ravenglass took the metal and slipped it into his pocket, waving Smith and Jones away with his other hand. He turned back to the window, peering at the fading light. The spell Lukos had told him to put on the boy Simon would be starting to work just about now. It would be creeping into Simon’s mind, rearranging his thoughts, persuading him that the man Simon had seen trapped in the ice cave was not Lukos, Lord of Wolves, but Gwyn Arnold, his own father. Making him think that the best way to help his father was to return to the kingdom, to Lord Ravenglass, and that above all he had to bring the pieces of deep amber – the earth amber his sister Catrin possessed, and the fire amber that the forest agents had snatched before Smith and Jones could get to it.
Lord Ravenglass rested his forehead against the cool glass of the window and smiled. Soon, he thought. Soon.
Simon woke in darkness, the after-images of fragmented dreams starting to fade from his mind. He tried to reach for them, but they were disappearing into shadow. Only two images remained: the thin figure of his father – blue eyes burning in his pale face, the ice and snow of his solitary prison stretching out all around – and the dark, curly ringlets of Lord Ravenglass falling forward as he bent towards Simon, rings sparkling on the elegant fingers of his outstretched hand.
Lord Ravenglass. And Dad. Except… Was it his dad? Simon started to wake up properly. He felt hot, feverish, and his head was pounding. Hadn’t he been told the man in the ice cave wasn’t Gwyn Arnold – wasn’t the father he’d thought was dead? Simon strained after the memory, but it was just a wisp. All that remained was a sense that he’d been lied to, that someone had tried to prevent him from helping his dad escape that prison, and that he had to do something, now, before it was too late.
Simon sat up. The house was silent. He tried to gather his thoughts, but they were like cobwebs, breaking every time he tried to grasp them. He was at home, he knew that. He could just make out a hunched-up figure lying on his floor, entirely wrapped in a duvet, like a large, cocooned slug. Jem. It was Jem – the castle kitchen boy from the kingdom. Simon rubbed his face, trying to remember. Jem had been here yesterday with the apprentice witch Dora. And there had been someone else with them… a girl with deep brown skin and jewelled braids. Inanna! That was it. Princess Inanna, from the Akkadian Empire.
Suddenly Simon’s mind cleared. He knew exactly what he needed to do. Inanna had a piece of deep amber – she’d brought it with her from Ur-Akkad. She had the fire amber, and his sister, Cat, had the earth amber, the very first piece of deep amber they’d found – the one that had opened the rift to the kingdom and brought Lord Ravenglass and his henchmen to their world. If Simon was going to save his dad, he needed both pieces of deep amber. He had to take them back to the kingdom and hand them over to Lord Ravenglass.
Simon eased himself off the bed and started to pull on his clothes. Jem stirred slightly under his duvet, and Simon paused, holding his breath. It wasn’t long before Jem’s breathing became regular again, and Simon reached out for his hoody. As he pulled it on, there was a faint chirruping sound. Frizzle! Simon put his hand in the pocket and felt the warm, furry body of the little creature. He was a bit like a hamster, if you didn’t peer too closely –a hamster with fluffy grey feathers and two stubby wings. But he’d flown into Simon’s bedroom through a portal from another world. As Simon stroked Frizzle’s ears, he felt a momentary confusion. What was he doing? Should he be sneaking out like this? Maybe he’d better wake Cat and talk to her about it.
But then a stabbing pain lanced through his head and he almost doubled over, holding his knees and gasping. As it passed, so did his momentary doubt. He couldn’t wake Cat. She wouldn’t let him leave. She had been tricked by the forest agent Albert Jemmet, and by Uncle Lou – she didn’t believe the man in the ice was truly their dad.
Calmer now, Simon reached out for his sword. It was lying at the foot of his bed, the faint light from the window picking out the engraved patterns on the blade. It had belonged to his father, but long before that it had been forged by the one-eyed king, Bruni, out of metal from every world. Simon pushed it into the makeshift strap he’d secured to his belt, then crept across the room and let himself out.
Cat’s bedroom door was ajar, and in the faint moonlight from her window he could see three sleeping figures. Inanna’s dark braids were spread out on the pillow of Cat’s bed, and Cat and Dora were huddled under blankets on the floor. Simon stood in the doorway, his eyes gradually adjusting to the light, and then he stepped softly inside the room.
On the dressing table next to the bed was a faintl y glowing pool of light. Inanna’s amber pendant sat on a golden chain, flickering with a bright, fiery orange light. Sitting next to it, in the middle of the dressing table, was an open wooden box. It had three strange symbols carved into the lid, and it, too, glowed slightly. Simon scooped the pendant into the box, and then looked down at Cat. She was huddled up sideways, her head resting in the crook of one arm, the other flung out across the blanket. Her short blonde hair was sticking up, and around her neck Simon could see a bronze chain, intertwined with a silver one. Delicately, he unclasped the bronze chain, and drew it out from under her sleeping body. As the last few links unwound themselves from the silver chain, Cat opened her eyes and Simon froze.
“Simon?” she said fuzzily, barely focusing.
“It’s all right,” he murmured. “Go back to sleep.”
“Mmm – s’not morning yet?” she said, her eyelids fluttering.
“No – not morning. It’s nothing. Go to sleep.”
She subsided, tucking her arm back under the blanket. Simon, who’d been holding his breath, let it out slowly, and held up the pendant he’d taken from her. The dark amber teardrop gleamed, whorls of orange and brown glinting and moving in its depths. He dropped it into the wooden box with the other pendant and shut the lid firmly.
Simon slipped out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The door to the living room was half open. He paused, looking in. Uncle Lou was sprawled on the sofa, one arm flung out across the maps and almanacs scattered on the nearby coffee table. His face was pale, his black hair damp with sweat and his breathing shallow. His wrist was bandaged and a faint stain of blood was visible on his shirt from the wound Smith and Jones had given him. On the floor nearby, Sir Bedwyr was on his back, snoring loudly.
Simon watched Lou for a moment. He had been Dad’s best friend, one of the agents of the Great Forest. In the kingdom, he was known as the Druid. He’d helped bring Cat and Simon for a while in this world after Dad had died… Simon blinked. No, not after he’d died. After he’d been betrayed and chained in that ice cave. By the forest agents. By the Druid.
Simon’s grip tightened on the box with the ambers, and he tiptoed along the hallway, easing open the front door and then closing it again with just the faintest click. Outside, it was still dark. The night air was cool and sharp. Simon inhaled and felt suddenly giddy. Half of him was triumphant, excited, glad that he’d soon be at the palace and one step nearer to rescuing his dad. The other half felt strangely subdued, and there was a small knot of tension in his stomach that he couldn’t explain. Nerves, he thought. Just nerves.
He set off down the street to where a shadowy figure was waiting. A tall man with dark ringlets and an elegant ruffled coat, standing in the pool of yellow light cast by a nearby street lamp.
Princess Inanna was the first to realise that something was wrong. Waking in a strange bed, in peculiar clothes, she’d taken a moment to remember that she was no longer in Ur-Akkad, first city of the Akkadian Empire. She was no longer a priestess in the Temple of Ishtar. She was in another world, one with a kind of magic they called ‘electricity’. She had escaped, with Dora and Jem, as the civilisation she’d known all her life collapsed around her, its technology no longer powered by the piece of amber they’d taken with them when they fled. The fire amber.
Inanna sat up and reached out for the amber necklace, but it wasn’t where she’d left it the night before. She frowned, and hung her head over the edge of the bed, feeling around on the floor to see if it had slipped off the cupboard.
“Cat!” she said, poking the lump of blankets next to the bed. “Cat! Where’s my amber? Did you put it somewhere?”
“Mmmph…” came a muffled response from under the covers. “Nanna. Go b’ sleep. S’twirly.”
“What?’ said Inanna. “Cat! Dora! Wake up!” She shoved the sleeping figure next to her with one hand, and then reached out a foot to nudge the other pile of blankets. “One of you’s asleep on my amber. I want it – now!”
Dora’s pale face and neat dark plaits emerged from the other side of Cat and she blinked owlishly at Inanna.
“Your amber?” said Dora. “Isn’t it round your neck?”
“No,” said Inanna impatiently. “I took it off. I didn’t want to strangle myself in the night. It was here – on this cupboard. But it’s fallen off. Or –” her eyes grew round – “it’s been stolen!”
Dora suddenly felt very wide awake. Stolen? But did that mean…? Could Smith and Jones have worked out where they’d gone? Could they have followed them to the house – broken the wards they’d set the night before? She shook Cat’s shoulder.
“Cat! Wake up! Inanna thinks her amber’s gone. Have you got yours?”
For a moment Cat didn’t respond and Dora wasn’t sure she’d heard. But then she sat up in a rush, her hand clutching at her throat. Dora could see that the pendant, with its deep orange-brown stone, was no longer round her neck. Only her silver locket remained, gleaming in the faint morning light.
Dora pulled back the blankets from where they had spilled over the floor, and lifted the edge of the mattress. She felt under the bed and then under the cupboard, while Inanna and Cat watched her, the two of them seemingly stunned. After a few moments, she looked up and shook her head.
“They’ve gone. Both pieces.”
Cat’s mum Florence was in the kitchen, cooking up a large pan of scrambled eggs while Albert Jemmet buttered endless rounds of toast. The portly forest agent glanced up as Dora ran into the room.
“Morning, Dora! Ready for some breakfast?”
“The pieces of amber – they’ve gone!” cried Dora, as Cat and Inanna tumbled into the room behind her. “Inanna left hers on the bedside cupboard – but Cat’s was round her neck. And they’ve both disappeared!”
Albert frowned, putting down the knife he was holding. He wiped his hands deliberately on his blue overalls and then extracted a small box from one of his many pockets. Twiddling a few knobs, he scanned the dials on the box quickly and then looked up.
“No one’s broken the wards,” he said. “But neither of the amber jewels are here. Readings are way down.”
He glanced across at Florence. “You’d better wake Lou. And you –” he pointed at Dora and the others – “go and get Jem and Simon. Something’s not right here.”
“I’ll get them,” said Cat, her face white. She set off up the stairs, taking them two at a time, as Florence headed for the living room. Inanna sat down at the kitchen table and burst into tears.
“It was my amber!” she wailed. “I’d only just got it! I’d managed to do magic with it. And now it’s gone!” She put her head on her arms and sobbed.
Dora patted her on the back sympathetically, but she felt more like shaking her. If the amber had gone, there was more to worry about than Inanna not being able to do magic with it. If it was in the hands of Lord Ravenglass, then he was a whole lot closer to remaking the amber crown. And if he managed that, then they’d have to deal with Lukos, the Lord of Wolves, and all the powers of the dark from before the worlds were made. Dora felt sick. She’d faced the dark-suited crow men, Smith and Jones, and she’d do it again if she had to. But everything she’d heard about Lukos made her want to turn herself into a tiny mouse and hide in a hole somewhere far away.
There was a clattering on the stairs, and Cat came running into the kitchen. Jem was behind her, his red hair falling over his freckled face, his expression bewildered.
“Simon’s not here!” said Cat. “He’s gone! He must have been kidnapped. And he –” she turned to Jem and thumped him rather hard on the shoulder – “he was fast asleep! Didn’t hear a thing!”
“Ow!” Jem rubbed his shoulder and looked at Cat resentfully. “I can’t help it if I didn’t wake up. They must have put a spell on me or something. Normally I’m a very light sleeper.”
Dora, worried as she was, couldn’t help snorting with laughter. Jem wouldn’t wake up if an earthquake happened right underneath him. In fact, she wasn’t sure he was totally awake even now. Something in his blurry expression made her suspect he was only using half his brain while he waited for the other half to wake up.
