Prologue
“Once upon a time, when your grandfather was young, monsters were our sworn enemies.”
Her voice was pitched low and intended to create suspense, but the sing-song melody of her naturally fluid accent still carried loudly enough to be heard across the hallway of the house.
“Many of them roamed the islands on which we live and humans were their favourite food.
“As you know, the kings of old appointed the strongest and bravest men to travel out and slay any monster which stood in their path. These men were brave, yes, but they were not wise. The peoples’ fear of monsters meant that slayers did not seek to understand or negotiate with them… Death was the penalty for their very existence.
“Then came a young man who thought differently. He was of noble birth, but at that time he was richer in ideas and intentions than he was in gold. This young man’s name was Simon.
“Simon joined the first ship carrying settlers to the distant and great land of Pointauwen – yes, I see you remember this part, Lola. You see, Simon was seeking his fortune and this land was new and unexplored. He hoped to find ruins and treasure or even civilisations within the rainforest because if there were people, there could be trade.”
Ajax leant against the open frame of his bedroom door and listened to his mother telling his younger sisters the story which every person of the Arch knew by heart since the time when they were young. There were many paintings and statues around Kingston town depicting parts of the tale. His sisters were settled in their twin beds in the room beside his own, and yet his mother’s voice carried clearly to his ears. She had been a singer, once.
“They landed on a golden beach near the mouth of a river, but their expedition halted here because beyond the beach was a thick, tangled forest. For some days the people looked up and down the shore for a way through the forest, and by chance it was Simon who spotted a path beside a small bubbling stream that joined the river. But the path had strange footprints in the sand, and all of the people knew that it must be a path used by monsters rather than by people. So they were afraid to take it.
“The only one who was unafraid, Simon convinced three other men to go with him and these four explorers set off into the dark jungle with only food and blankets and chopping knives for getting firewood. The rest of the people were sorrowful because they thought the men would never come back.”
Ajax could hear his littlest sister Marie burbling some question in her loudest voice and his mother quietened to listen; although very often these questions did not make sense. His mother was probably tucking the blankets around Marie, because shortly the story continued.
“For five days and nights the men followed the path in the jungle up and down hills and across many turnings until at some point they realised they were lost. The three men begged Simon to turn back, but he refused because the path had to lead somewhere. And what do you think happened then? Well, he was right! He saw before him a ruin made of great stone blocks carved in patterns but with plants growing all over it. There were several archways and a garden of sculptures that somehow had no plants on them… Something had looked after these sculptures and cleaned them because they were very shiny and beautiful to behold. Simon thought that humans must have been here once. And then the Oracle came.
“The Oracle looked something like a bird and something like a person, but different than either. It appeared in this sculpture garden as if it was made from light, for it seemed to glow with what Simon knew was magic. He pulled out his little woodcutting knife to defend himself as all the other people were made silent by amazement but it spoke to him in the tongue of Men, saying ‘do no harm to me for I can be of great help to you alive. I see the futures and what can be. Trust me, for I can help you bring a peace to the World.’” This, his mother Galina almost sang.
“The Oracle wanted to make this peace between humans and monsters because he believed that all things deserved to live their lives in respect of the Oneness. They spoke of his prophecies for a long time until eventually the Oracle told Simon how the men could find their way back. Then, it disappeared as softly as it came and the garden was dark because night had come. To his surprise, Simon found that the other men had not heard any of his conversation with the Oracle! Imagine that! …He knew that the Oracle had a strong magic then. Although he recounted his conversation to the men, they laughed and did not believe a word of it.
“It took only two more days for the men to return to the other settlers. But again, when Simon tried to tell his amazing story to the settlers, they did not believe him. However, he knew of one thing the Oracle said would soon happen. The Oracle had told him that the river they had set the camp up close to would flood their camp. But the weather was pleasant and all the people observed that the river was getting calmer and shallower, not likely at all to flood. But on the third day of his return, the day of the so-called flood, Simon convinced most of the people to leave camp and go foraging for food along the beach. He sat on a hill to wait and so he was the first one to see the wall of water come rushing down to fall upon the camp!
“Some people who had stayed in camp got sick after this and everyone’s belongings were washed away or soaking wet. They moved back to the ship and made plans to return to the Arch, thinking their attempt to settle was a failure. But Simon had been told that he could calm the senders of the flood by bringing a gift to the place where his path went into the jungle. He staked out three hoppers and left them there. The second day, the hoppers were gone without a trace. So he staked out three more hoppers. The people were very angry at this because they had only brought two dozen hoppers and they had to breed them for food!
“The third day, he found something had been left behind where the hoppers had been. It was a basket of leaves with fruit inside. He took the basket back to the settlers and left behind three final hoppers. The fruit turned out to be sweet and delicious.
“The fourth day, Simon went back and what was waiting there but two big, wet, scary looking Ogres? Simon didn’t even have his woodcutting knife to protect himself this time! But he was lucky because the Oracle’s advice was good. The Ogres only wanted to give him a gift of more fruit. They tried to talk to him and Simon tried to talk to them, but none could understand the other. They seemed shy and would not come to the settlement to meet other humans, but they gave Simon another gift. It was an amulet and it had magical powers…. Yes, the powers were to protect him.
“The settlers were split because some of them wanted to go back home and some wanted to stay. When a second ship came, bringing more people, Simon went back home with it and showed everybody his amulet and told them his stories of the Oracle who wanted to bring a friendship between humans and monsters. People thought he had gone crazy. But he managed to go and tell his tale to the old king, and showed the king his amulet. When it was in the king’s hands then old king Agustin said it made him feel carefree and young again. What’s more, the crown princess Stephanie even smiled at Simon. The king asked him to go back to Pointauwen and find out what else he could about the Oracle and the creatures he called Ogres. He gave Simon presents to give to them both.
“Now, the story becomes sad because in Simon’s absence people had decided they did not like Ogres at all! These settlers had been cutting down trees to make permanent homes from and clearing land to grow crops and raise hoppers. But this angered the Ogres and so there was a great hatred between the two peoples which caused them to fight. The problem was that humans were scared because the Ogres had magic, and no doubt the Ogres were scared too.
“Simon was the one person who knew that Ogres weren’t evil. Nobody else wanted to make peace so he alone went out into the forest a second time to see the Oracle. He gave the Oracle the gifts from the king and said that his human king, too, would be interested in finding a way to be peaceful if it meant his people would be safe from monster attacks.
“Together Simon and the Oracle worked out a peace agreement on paper called the Treaty. The Oracle told Simon a bit about how people could live near monsters and yet be safe from them, particularly how they could share the land with Ogres without either side feeling that they were being attacked. I think that he told Simon a great many things, because when he came back from the jungle he seemed older and much wiser than he had before. He talked to people about these ideas and showed them the Treaty. With it, he earned the respect of the old king and the king agreed that there were some very good ideas there. The king decreed that the guild of Monster Slayers should be disbanded and a new, peaceful, guild created instead that would talk and listen to monsters and try to understand them. That’s how your daddy came to be a Monster Speaker.” Ajax’s mother’s voice had gone quite quiet. She would be bringing an end to the happy tale.
“Because this was all working out so well for the people, Princess Stephanie fell in love with that smart and kind Simon. Her father gave his blessing for them to be married, even though she was his only daughter and Simon was not wealthy. In time they married and Simon became the next king after Agustin. You know how the story goes from there, my babies. People of the Arch learned to live mindful of the Oneness and to respect other people who may not look so human. Monster Speakers do a good job of keeping us safe and one day your brother Ajax will be one of them too. Isn’t that nice? It’s time to go to sleep now.”
…
A moment of panic vibrated in Ajax’s head. His mother would kiss his sisters goodnight, then come to his room to survey the homework his tutor or his father had set him. If it was finished and put tidily away ready for the morning’s studies, she would be pleased. However, his essay on the Oracle treaty currently lay only half-complete upon his wooden desk. The facts of the treaty were less exciting to him than the adventurous tales which charmed his sisters; there was entirely too much talk of land boundaries and gifts for the Bufoids negotiated, while the style of writing was very long and dull. At thirteen he was considered old enough to read and understand it and so his father had set him the task of analysing it, point by tedious point.
Nonetheless, Ajax closed his door and returned to the work with quill in hand and ink pot open. It was not a moment too soon.
Mrs Court, as she was known to the neighbours and servants (or ‘your Mother’ to his ever-appropriate father), barely rapped on his door before she sailed through it with equal poise and determination as her long dress billowed out behind like the tails of a charging Hippocampus. Her voluminous blonde hair was wound up and sat atop her head, her skin was fairer than native Archians without the use of creams, and she had very few wrinkles for her age. There were very few times when his mama went out into the sun without a wide brimmed hat upon her head; nor would she wear her arms bare as they were now when she was shopping at the upper market with her friends. In fact it was rare that his mama walked anywhere. As a boy of six, when Ajax had begun his apprenticeship at the Guild, it had been his nurse who had escorted him down High Kingston’s busy roads. He had inherited his mother’s blonde hair but his skin was tan and freckles rioted on his face and arms.
As Galina Court cast her gaze across his room, her expression gave no sign of satisfaction or displeasure. It did not take long for her gaze to soften and she glided over to rest her hand on her son’s shoulder as she looked at his work. Ajax took the cue and looked back at it.
“I had to write a page essay about the features of the Treaty, mama. It was very hard to read because some of the language is very old. But I did and mostly it says about what respectful things we will do as people and as monster speakers. It talks about the people of Pointauwen as being Archians. I don’t think that’s true any more, is it?”
“The royal family of the Arch still holds sovereignty over the people of Pointauwen. That means they share our beliefs and our custom of paying fealty to the King. But they are self-governed and they see themselves as a separate city, so you are not wrong.”
There were many questions Ajax could take to his mother, particularly those of history and culture. Questions about trade business and monsters, however, were more his father’s domain and scope of interest.
“Thank you, mama,” he responded politely. “I just have to finish writing about that and what it says about the Oneness. Then I can go to bed.”
The treaty had a large section at the end which covered the principle of Oneness, which had become the guiding belief system of the Arch’s royal family. It was a simple idea, it did not demand worship or sacrifice, and it had been accepted in time by the common people – perhaps because it did not often need to be acted upon.
It went as follows:
Every being deserves to live. Life is lived to its fullest when humanity is in balance with the other beings of the natural world. When humanity oversteps its boundaries, then nature finds a way to restore the balance using monsters. Monsters are living beings with powers that look unnatural to humans, but they too are living beings. To better understand monsters is to live in harmony with them. When you understand monsters then you understand yourself.
In past lessons about the Oneness at the Guild, Ajax and his other pupils had been tasked to explain their own opinions about what this meant for people in their daily lives. Ajax’s opinion was that it was all well and good until a monster was trying to chomp on you, and the tutor had not told him he was wrong, but he was not going to be rude about it because his parents felt quite strongly that it was something that could be achieved.
His mother leant over to give Ajax a kiss on the cheek, which he accepted. She said she would trust he finished his work promptly before sleep and then she bade him farewell.