Читать книгу Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf - Jenny Nimmo - Страница 8

Prologue

Charlie Bone lives in a city that holds many secrets. They are hidden in the walls and buried under centuries of dust.

The city began nine hundred years ago, with a castle. It was built by Charlie’s ancestor, the Red King, so-called because of his red cloak and the burning sun emblazoned on his shield. The Red King was an African; he was also a magician.

When the king’s beloved queen, Berenice, died, he went to grieve in the forest. He believed that his ten children were safe in the hands of wise councillors and kindly nurses. Besides, each child had been endowed with an extraordinary power.

At that time, the country was a violent and lawless place; murder and robbery were rife. On his way home, the king found that his considerable powers were needed to help the poor and oppressed. He donned a suit of chainmail and a helmet with a plume of red feathers. Then, conjuring up an invincible sword, he rode out to defend the troubled and helpless people.

For five years the Red King fought tyrants, murderers and plundering nobles. When he finally returned to his castle, he found that five of his children were gone and the other five were using their endowments to wreak havoc on the surrounding countryside. It was these children and their heirs who began the city’s history of dreadful magic and wickedness. Unable to fight his own children, the broken-hearted king left his castle forever.

Charlie’s grandmother and her three sisters all have a part in the evil. While his father was spellbound they sent him to Bloor’s Academy, a school run by a family with an especially violent past. Charlie is often afraid of the Bloors and their allies, but, so far, he has resisted all their attempts to crush him, for he has friends among the descendants of the Red King, friends who use their unusual endowments to help him.

With his own talent for travelling into the past, Charlie is beginning to learn the city’s secrets. It is a dangerous pursuit, but Charlie has his friends to support him and a firm trust in the enduring power of the Red King.