Prince Melchior bowed.
‘I am here today in repayment of a debt to your daughter, your Majesty,’ said Prince Melchior. ‘Where is the princess?’
‘Beatrice is with the apothecary, Prospero, and the nuns, seeing to the wounded, human and gargoyle,’ said the king.
‘Of course,’ said Prince Melchior.
‘Will you join me, prince? There is much to discuss,’ said the king.
‘The sun is about to rise, your Majesty. I must see to my own people,’ said Prince Melchior.
‘Ah, the dawn of a new day,’ said the king. ‘Until night falls then, prince. Give my thanks to your people, their rest has been valiantly won. We will speak anon.’
When the sun set again over the kingdom, the gargoyles descended from their stone perches and alighted in the great hall to meet King Theobald and the assembled royal court.
As the king had promised, matters of grave import to the kingdoms of Trasimene and the Black Mountain were discussed and decided.
It was a productive assembly and soon the king invited his guests to adjourn and join him for supper. The king’s invitation was cordially accepted.
‘Will the princess be joining us?’ asked Prince Melchior.
‘Beatrice sends her apologies. She is kept busy in the infirmary and will be leaving on the morrow with the nuns on another mission of mercy,’ said the king.
‘The kingdom must be proud of its princess,’ said Prince Melchior.
‘Yes,’ said the king. ‘She holds its heart more tenderly than her own.’
When Darkness Falls
In the aftermath of the battle, there were many matters for King Theobald and his subjects to attend to in the administration of justice, the commemoration of the fallen, and the repair and rebuilding of the kingdom. To celebrate the victory and to thank the kingdom and its friends and allies, the king announced a great banquet and issued an invitation to all in the land.
There was great enjoyment of the festivities at the royal banquet by humans and gargoyles alike. Any lingering mutual suspicion which had not been allayed by the fellowship forged on the battlefield faded and melted away in the genial close contact, goodwill and shared revelry of the evening. The merriment and feasting spilled out from the castle and into the capital’s streets, and lasted from dusk till dawn.
Prince Melchior had been the royal banquet’s guest of honour at the invitation of the king. He sat at the king’s table and conducted himself with respectful and unassuming dignity among his host and fellow guests.
Princess Beatrice made a brief appearance at the royal banquet just before the king’s toast. She had been travelling across the land as an emissary from the king to his people to help heal the woes and damage wrecked by Prince Xavier’s reign. The princess’ appearance was the first occasion in what seemed like a long while since the kingdom had last seen its princess, and she was met with warmth and cheer across the great hall and castle grounds. She graciously greeted friends and guests, conscientious in ensuring that she had shaken everyone by the hand. She kissed her father, exchanging a few whispered words with the king, and courteously greeted and welcomed his guest of honour. Then she begged to take her leave.
‘So soon, Beatrice!’ exclaimed the king.
‘I have done my duty, father, and I have stolen enough cakes to last me for the night,’ said the princess.
‘Beatrice, you will be queen one day. It is your duty to stay,’ said the king.
‘Not for a long time yet, I hope, father,’ said the princess. ‘I set out again on the morrow at first light for the western villages.’
‘Beatrice,’ sighed the king.
‘Good night, father,’ said the princess. ‘Good night, Prince Melchior. Once again, thank you.’
Prince Melchior bowed.
IN THE DEEPEST HOUR of the night, in the darkness before the coming of the dawn, a cloaked figure slipped out from the castle and headed down the cover of the cloisters towards the abbey of Ermengard. At the yew avenue on the southern approach to the abbey, the figure suddenly stopped and listened. In the stillness of the night, she heard the crack of stone.
There was a gargoyle looking down at her from the ledge of the chapel windows, crouched on his stone pedestal in the mottled shadows of the flying buttresses. His left eye glowed dark in the night.
‘Princess,’ said the gargoyle.
‘You should still be at the banquet, Prince Melchior,’ said the princess. ‘You are missing the continuing festivities.’
‘As are you,’ said the gargoyle.
‘You are the king’s guest of honour,’ said the princess.
‘You are the kingdom’s future queen,’ said the gargoyle.
‘I have come to visit my sisters’ tombs,’ said the princess.
‘Do you prefer the company of the dead to the living?’ said the gargoyle.
The princess did not respond.
‘Why do you shun the company of your friends and subjects and, most particularly, that of your father?’ asked the gargoyle.
‘I cannot become queen,’ said the princess. ‘I cannot be entrusted with the governance of the kingdom. I cannot.’
‘You doubt yourself,’ said the gargoyle.
‘You were there when I put my father and the kingdom at risk. You bore witness. I am ashamed,’ said the princess.
‘If that is what I bore witness to on the night of the battle, then yes, Beatrice, you are covered with shame,’ said the gargoyle.
‘I cannot become queen,’ repeated the princess. ‘I am not fit to rule.’
‘It is not the only reason you are running away,’ said the gargoyle.
‘I am not running away,’ said the princess.
‘These diplomatic journeys,’ said the gargoyle. ‘The missions of mercy.’
‘They began as penance for the shame of endangering my father’s life,’ said the princess. ‘But then it was no longer penance. I feel ashamed but also a strange exhilaration. I am seeing the world, Melchior.’
‘In all your wanderings, there is a place you have neglected,’ said the gargoyle.
‘Where is that?’ asked the princess.
‘The Black Mountain,’ said the gargoyle.
‘I go where I am needed,’ said the princess.
‘Trasimene will one day need a good queen who serves its people as well as its princess has,’ said the gargoyle.
‘My sisters would have made good queens,’ said the princess. ‘I am the recalcitrant one.’
‘You certainly are,’ said the gargoyle.
‘I do not need to rule to be of service,’ said the princess.
‘I think when the day comes you will do what is best for the kingdom,’ said the gargoyle. ‘You will do your duty.’
‘Yes,’ sighed the princess.
‘Will you ever return to visit the Black Mountain?’ asked Prince Melchior.
‘Perhaps. If there is a need for it,’ said the princess.
‘You will need a guide,’ said the gargoyle. ‘You will not know the way.
‘I can find my way back into the kingdom of Black Mountain,’ said the princess. ‘I remember the way.’
‘This time, when you enter the Black Mountain kingdom, you will be welcomed in through the front gates,’ said the gargoyle.
‘Oh,’ said the princess. ‘I am certain that it would be a wondrous sight, restored to the beloved home it was before evil came into it.’
‘I hope so. I will strive to make it so,’ said the gargoyle. ‘I never appreciated it until I came to realise that it could be lost.’
‘Yes, there are a great many precious things beneath the sun,’ said the princess.
‘One day, you will find yourself tired of your journeys and wanderings and long for the life and the things you left behind,’ said the gargoyle.
‘What do you know of the yearnings of a human heart—for unseen things—for a life beyond one’s allotment?’ said the princess. ‘You have seen far more of the world than
any human will ever see. You have wings. You sit high up above on the rooftops and towers and soar across the skies, looking down upon the plodding human creatures below.’
‘No sky is as high, no ocean as deep, no plain as wide, no night as dark or day as bright, as the human heart,’ said the gargoyle.
‘Not even a gargoyle’s heart?’ asked the princess.
‘Gargoyles are immortal. We watch the world fade. We do not fear time nor cherish it in the way humans do. My late cousin Balthazar used to envy the splendour of humans and their mortal lives. Humans manage to cram so much into a brief, frail existence, a few finite heartbeats,’ said the gargoyle.
‘Some, perhaps, do. Most are quite ordinary and sorrowful, especially at the end,’ said the princess. ‘I wish I had wings.’
‘Will a friend’s do?’ said the gargoyle.
Princess Beatrice stared at Prince Melchior.
‘You wore the jewel of the Black Mountain for three years against your heart. It heard your heart’s murmurings. It knows you,’ said the gargoyle.
He shifted and flexed his wings and, with a half beat, he launched himself into the air. He circled the night sky above the princess’ head thrice and glided back down to stand before her.
‘Oh,’ said the princess finally.
‘Do you wish to fly, Beatrice?’ said Prince Melchior, extending his hand.
A NIGHT WATCHMAN HURRIED down the abbey cloisters, holding out a lantern in one hand to light his way and pulling on his coat against the chill night air with his other hand. He had stayed too long at the royal banquet, enjoying the revelries, and was late to his shift.
As he turned a corner into the garth, he thought he saw something flickering in the moonlight. The night watchman raised his lantern to shine the light about the quadrangle and into all its dim corners, but all was still. Then, once again, he felt a flickering shadow pass over him. The night watchman looked up into the darkness. For a moment there was nothing, only the soft constant gleam of the moon and the expanse of night without stars. The night watchman sighed. He had drunk too much good ale this night.
Then came another flicker. He looked up again.
A shadow flew across the face of the moon.
The night watchman blinked. He had witnessed many wonders these recent days to be much surprised anymore, but he thought he had just seen the silhouette of a two headed gargoyle flying across a starless night sky.
The night watchman blinked several times more and rubbed his eyes. He had certainly drunk far too much good ale. He lowered his lantern and returned to his watch.
‘DID PRINCESS BEATRICE become queen?’ asked the dairy maid.
‘Did Princess Beatrice marry Prince Melchior?’ asked the washerwoman’s niece.
‘What happened to Prince Xavier?’ asked the candlestick maker’s young assistant.
WHEN KING THEOBALD’S knights and soldiers entered the kingdom of Ossaia and were clearing out its stronghold and freeing all the captives forced into slavery by Ossaia, they discovered that King Arnulf had been dead for a very long time. The old king’s body had been buried in an unmarked grave. King Arnulf’s death had been kept hidden by Prince Xavier to maintain his royal authority and the secrecy of his conspiring with Prince Caspar for the thrones of the kingdoms of Trasimene and the Black Mountain, and, more importantly, to hide his hand in his father’s murder which had come of his impatience for King Arnulf’s crown.
Prince Xavier was stripped of all his titles, lands and possessions. He was tried and found guilty of a long list of charges. In deference to the manifold grievances suffered by the gargoyles at Prince Xavier’s behest, and for the help and friendship extended by the gargoyles to the kingdom of Trasimene in its hour of need, King Theobald offered the prisoner to the Black Mountain kingdom for the passing of his sentence.
The erstwhile Prince Xavier of Ossaia was spared the executioner’s block. He spent the remainder of his days upright in an sparse field as a stone scarecrow, scowling fixedly at the sun and the taunts of disrespectful young children and the curious birds that came to rest on his stone crown and shoulders. His transformation to stone was irreversible. Unlike the gargoyles, he could never return to human form. His henchmen were sentenced to banishment from all the lands surrounding the Black Mountain and given the warning that they would share his fate upon the moment they chose to abandon their exile.
As for the princess and the gargoyle...
Princess Beatrice and Prince Melchior remained friends for the rest of their days, and the lands and kingdoms which came under their protection enjoyed friendship and contentment and peace from dawn until dusk until dawn again for ever after.
‘BUT,’ SAID THE WEAVER’S grandchild.
‘The rest is up to your imagination,’ said the school mistress.
‘But,’ said the butcher’s boy.
‘Or you could go down to the village library and look up the story in the history books,’ said the school mistress.
‘But,’ said the cowherd’s niece.
‘Or you could visit the abbey of Ermengard,’ said the school mistress. ‘And wait until dusk to watch for the skies.’
The End
Thank You for Reading
Thank you for reading.
A discussion guide for reading groups and book clubs has been included to help make sharing this book with friends and family and other children a fun, interactive reading experience.
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Discussion Guide for Reading Groups and Book Clubs
Here are some suggested questions to help guide discussion for reading groups and book clubs:
1) WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE character in the story? Why do you like this character?
2) WHO IS YOUR LEAST favourite character in the story? Why do you dislike the character?
3) WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE scene in the story? Why?
4) FROM A YOUNG AGE, Beatrice has been considered naughty, wayward, reckless, troublesome, and chaos-ridden. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?
5) BEATRICE IS THE youngest of the three princesses and has been given the appellation of the Recalcitrant One. How does she develop throughout the story? (Hint: has her character changed or merely the impressions of her held by others?)
6) CRISTABEL NOTES that ‘Nothing has ever stopped Beatrice from doing what she thought was right’. How has Beatrice demonstrated this independent, conscientious sense of personal responsibility in contrast to other characters in the story?
7) Beatrice meets the royal cousins, Caspar and Melchior, in quick succession and forms a different impression of each. Why do you think Beatrice trusts Melchior and considers him ‘good’ despite his fearsome appearance, in contrast to Caspar?
8) THE THREE PRINCESSES and Melchior and Prince Xavier all mention doing their ‘duty’ and doing what is ‘right’. Do they mean the same thing? How have they each demonstrated this in the story?
9) BEATRICE MAKES MANY friends in the story. What qualities do you think Beatrice embodies that earns her their friendship?
10) BEATRICE STATES that ‘Many things have been said about me, but that does not mean that they are true’. Similarly, Melchior asks ‘Do you believe all the tales told about me—especially the ones spread by Ossaia?’ Have you ever faced a similar situation? How did you deal with it?
11) WHAT THEMES AND motifs do you recognise in the story? (Hint: fire, animals, the number three, certain colours, fairness of trials, the composition of the royal guard and various members of the royal household of Trasimene.)
12) WHAT ROLE DO ANIMALS play in the story? (Hint: compare and contrast Midnight, Thunderbolt and Lemondrop to the ortolans and the red fox and field mouse.)
13) THE ABBESS TELLS Beatrice: ‘Honour is purchased by the deeds we do.’ How has Beatrice and the other chara
cters in the story demonstrated this? (Note: can you find the identity of the English playwright who originally wrote the words spoken by the abbess?)
14) DO YOU THINK THAT the jewel of the Black Mountain saved the kingdom of Trasimene? Why or why not?
15) MELCHIOR TELLS BEATRICE that the jewel of the Black Mountain recognises good qualities such as kindness, valour, and purity of heart. What other qualities does Beatrice possess? What qualities do the other possessors of the jewel (such as Melchior, his cousin Balthazar, and his uncle King Eldred) possess? Do you think these qualities are good or bad?
16) SEVERAL BATTLES feature in the story. How many can you list and how do you think they were won? (Hint: not all of the battles involved bloodshed.)
17) CONSIDER THE SUBPLOT involving Liam and Lord Peregrine’s son, Edmund, and Lord Mowbray’s son: compare and contrast the development of their characters.
18) DARKNESS, NIGHT, and the colour black feature prominently in the story. What do you think they represent?
19) WHAT DO YOU THINK the story says about appearances and the nature of evil? (Hint: refer to the speech that Beatrice gives just before the final battle between Trasimene and Ossaia in which she unveils the true character of Prince Xavier to the kingdom.)
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