The Beast of Buckingham Palace. David Walliams
Читать онлайн книгу.
These are the characters in the story…
PRINCE ALFRED is a sickly boy of twelve, who has never known life outside Buckingham Palace.
THE KING was once a great ruler and a kind father. Now he is as lost as his kingdom.
THE QUEEN is an impossibly posh lady, who is much loved by her son. She and Alfred have an unbreakable bond.
THE LORD PROTECTOR is a learned man who began his royal career forty years ago in the palace library. He has risen to become the King’s closest adviser, but yearns for more power.
MITE is a homeless orphan from the outside. She is so called because of her small size. Her parents were killed when she was a toddler, and since then she has had to fend for herself.
NANNY is a lady in her eighties who in her job has looked after two generations of royal children. She cared for the King when he was a boy and is now the nanny to Prince Alfred.
THE OLD QUEEN is an elderly lady who was Queen when her husband was King. Now she is deemed to be a traitor, and is living somewhere in exile, though no one knows where. Except her, of course.
LADY AGATHA and LADY ENID are two of the Old Queen’s ladies-in-waiting. As ladies-in-waiting, they performed various duties for the Old Queen, such as tending to her dresses, carrying bouquets of flowers and typing letters. Now they too live in exile with four other ladies-in-waiting: Lady Beatrix, Lady Virginia, Lady Daphne and Lady Judith.
ENID
AGATHA
BEATRIX
VIRGINIA
DAPHNE
JUDITH
THE ROYAL GUARDS are elite soldiers in gold skull masks and flowing red robes. They are armed with laser guns, and their mission is to protect the palace at all costs.
THE EXECUTIONER is a giant of a man whose face is covered by a black hood. He is in charge of all the torture and executions at the Tower of London.
THE OCTOBUT is an eight-armed robot that is meant to perform the same tasks as a human butler.
THE ALL-SEEING EYE is a flying robot that resembles a giant eye. It is under the control of the Lord Protector, so he can monitor everyone and everything in Buckingham Palace.
It is half eagle (the King of the Birds) and half lion (the King of the Animals). The head and wings are those of an eagle, while the body and back legs are those of a lion.
For centuries, the beast has been thought of as the stuff of legend.
Early civilisations worshipped the griffin – it can be found in stories from both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.
In medieval times, this half eagle, half lion became a symbol of godlike power.
The power over life and death.
The power to create or destroy the universe.
Infinite power for all eternity.
The sight of a griffin would inspire terror in the hearts of all men. That is why the beasts were used as symbols through the centuries by kings and queens. Griffins can be seen on coats of arms, flags and shields. The message was simple: kneel or you will suffer a terrible fate at the claws of this beast.
It looks a little like a dinosaur, those terrifying creatures that stalked the Earth millions of years ago. However, unlike dinosaurs, no one has ever found the skeleton of one.
But that doesn’t mean that a griffin never lived.
Or one day might not live again…
It was noon, and the sky was black.
There had been darkness over the kingdom for half a century. For, many years before, the people of the Earth had not taken care of their home.
They had burned down all the forests, reducing every last tree to ash.
They had pumped the rivers, lakes and seas full of waste, killing all the fish.
They had dug deeper and deeper under the ground for oil, until the planet was hollow to its core.
Eventually,