CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 22 – THE LITTLE PRINCES

20:54 (London Time)

Tuesday, September 2, 1483 ‘A’

White Tower, The Tower of London

London, England

‘’I’m still hungry, Edward.’’ cried out nine-

year-old Richard after finishing to eat his meager

ration of bread. His twelve-year-old brother, equally

famished, looked sadly at the little of what was left of his own ration and ripped in two his remaining bread, giving one piece to Richard. The boy, gaunt and weak from weeks of starvation diet, quickly grabbed and ate the piece of bread while Edward ate slowly his own piece. The latter then looked through the window of their third floor room while still sitting in bed. Both he and Richard were partially covered by their bed sheets, in order to keep warm in the cold, damp room. The fireplace of their room had no burning wood for it, this on orders from Sir James Tyrrell, the right-hand man of the usurper, Richard of Gloucester, who now called himself King Richard III of England. Rain was falling outside in the night, adding to the gloom of their situation. Edward thought with bitterness about the fate of both himself and his young brother. He should have been King of England by now, as the eldest son of the late King Edward IV. However, both he and Richard had been declared illegitimate by an act of parliament and their uncle had then grabbed the crown for himself while having them confined to the Tower of London, where they had been wasting away for months under tight guard. Nobody knew about their fate, while they didn’t know what to expect next. Edward was however afraid that he and Richard would never come out of the White Tower alive, as they constituted a threat to Richard III’s reign as long as they lived. Unfortunately, all their supporters seemed either to have gone away or to have forgotten about them.

His head still full of gloomy thoughts, Edward tried to go to sleep, urging Richard to do the same in order to save the little strength left into them. There was anyway nothing to do in their room, bare except for their bed, a chamber pot and a pitcher of water with two cups. With hunger pains knotting their stomachs, it took them a long time

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to go to sleep, with little Richard whimpering and crying until he fell asleep from sheer physical weakness.

It was well past midnight, with the boys having been asleep for a few hours, when two men silently entered their room, tiptoeing to their bed while each holding a thick pillow in their hands. Once in position on each side of the bed, one of the men made a sign with his head to his companion, then jumped on the bed, kneeling astride Edward and smothering the boy with his pillow. The other man did the same with Richard, putting all his weight and strength in pushing down his pillow. The two boys, awakened brutally and finding it impossible to breathe, tried in vain to break free, but their famished bodies were no match to two strong grown men. The leading assassin felt cruel satisfaction as his victim started becoming limp, being on the verge of passing out. Someone then touched the back of his neck and he briefly felt a tremendous shock through his brain before he fell off the bed, unconscious. His accomplice was also stunned and fell off the bed, then the pillows smothering the two boys were hurriedly removed. Edward gasped, avidly gulping air in a few quick breaths before looking up at his savior. He however could only see a dark shape in the unlit room, but he could have swore that it was a woman’s shape. Looking sideways at his brother, Edward saw that another shape stood over Richard, who was also gulping air. A female voice then spoke softly, confirming his first impression.

‘’Please be quiet, my prince: we don’t want to alert your other guards. We came to save you from those jackals.’’

‘’Thank you, milady! Have my supporters finally decided to unseat our uncle from the throne he so unjustly took from me?’’

The woman bent over him was silent for a second before answering him.

‘’Unfortunately, the throne is lost for good for you, my prince. The best we can do now is to save your life and that of your brother. Now, please dress quietly, so that we can take you out of this tower.’’

Too happy just to be still alive, Edward obeyed his savior and, stepping out of bed, found his clothes in the dark and started getting dressed. With his eyes gradually getting accustomed to the dark, he could see as he finished putting on his clothes that his attacker lay unconscious on the floor, near the bed. What however truly attracted his eyes was the fact that the two women who had saved him and Richard were dressed in a most strange manner, with dark clothes which tightly molded their bodies in a most

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immodest way. They also appeared to wear wide belts with pouches and possibly sheeted knives.

‘’Who are you exactly, milady? Why did my supporters send women rather than men to save us?’’

‘’Please stop asking questions now, my prince. We have little time to make you disappear from the Tower of London and to bring you to safety. Then you will be able to ask all the questions you want. Are you ready now?’’

‘’Just let me put on my shoes, milady.’’ replied Edward as he slipped one foot in one of his soft sole leather shoes, then laced it. Another minute and he got up, fully ready. One look told him that Richard had also finished getting dressed.

‘’We are ready, milady. How do we get out of here?’’

His savior didn’t answer then, instead gluing herself to him and wrapping her arms around him, surprising Edward. A brief flash of white light then made him close his eyes. A very brief fall by a few centimeters made his knees bend slightly on hitting the ground, then he opened his eyes, only to close them at once at finding himself in a well-lit place. Blinking repeatedly, it took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the light and before he could look around him. His jaw fell wide open and he felt a mix of awe and dread on seeing that he was now somehow in a room totally different to that he had just been in. The room was big, with walls apparently made of metal, and strange fixtures lined the walls on two sides, while some kind of very bright lamps were fixed to the ceiling. He next detailed his savior, who had taken one step back. She was a beautiful young woman in her late twenties and with dark blond hair and blue eyes. Their other savior was an even more beautiful young woman with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes. Both women appeared very fit, while their body-hugging grey uniforms made evident their feminine curves. Edward’s savior gently took his left hand and spoke softly to him.

‘’Don’t panic, Your Highness: this may appear like witchcraft for you, but it only involves highly advanced science and knowledge. What truly counts is that you and Richard are now safe.’’

‘’Where are we, and who are you exactly, milady? You are not part of my supporters, are you?’’

‘’Not of the ones you knew, Your Highness, but I do believe in the legitimacy of your claim to the throne. Unfortunately, as I said before, the throne is now out of your reach. We are now on my ship, the BRITANNIA, and my name is Elizabeth Windsor.

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My friend over there is Ingrid Weiss. Before you may ask more questions, let me bring you and your brother to the ship’s mess, where you will be able to eat a good meal.’’

The promise of a meal seemed to wake back up his hunger pains and Edward then followed eagerly Elizabeth, his numerous questions temporarily forgotten. With Ingrid Weiss following with Richard, Edward was led out of their present hall and into a staircase also apparently made of metal. Touching one wall as he went up the stairs confirmed to Edward that this ship was indeed made of steel. That such a quantity of steel be possible in one place truly bemused him: he was not certain that the whole treasury of England could pay for that much steel. They then followed a steel corridor before entering in a fairly large and luxuriously furnished room, at least according to the standards Edward knew. Elizabeth invited him and Richard to sit at a long table in one corner of the room, then went to search inside a kind of big metal box along a wall, taking out two flat boxes and two square bottles. In the meantime, Ingrid Weiss fetched two food trays and sets of utensils, putting them in front of the two boys and smiling to them.

‘’We are accustomed to use different utensils than you do to eat. Let me explain to you how to use a fork.’’

That took her a minute, by which time Elizabeth put down in front of the boys the square bottles, which she had opened for them.

‘’These are milk quarts. They are made of waxed cardboard, so don’t squeeze them too strongly or you will splash milk all over you. Your food will be warm in three minutes. You may start drinking some milk now but don’t gulp it all at once: your stomachs have shrunk because of your starvation diet and filling them too quickly would make you sick.’’

‘’So, you know that we were being starved, Lady Elizabeth?’’ asked Edward just before drinking some milk, which proved cold and fresh. Elizabeth nodded her head, a pained look on her face.

‘’Yes, we did, Your Highness. In fact, the cruelty of your treatment decided us into acting and coming to your rescue.’’

‘’And who is ‘we’ exactly, Lady Elizabeth? Are your friends powerful enough to unseat our usurper of an uncle and put me on the throne?’’ Elizabeth then sat across from Edward before answering in a sober voice.

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‘’Your Highness, while we could save you and Richard, we were not permitted to put you back on the throne of England. Let’s just say that the situation is a lot more complicated than it would appear to you. However, I will wait until you were able to eat before speaking further. In fact, I will go check on your menus: they should be warm by now.’’

Getting back up, Elizabeth went to a series of metal boxes set on top of a counter and, after a short wait, opened two of them, extracting two flat plates. She brought the plates to the table, putting one each down in front of Edward and Richard.

‘’Be careful: the food is quite hot. Again, eat slowly and in small bites at first.’’ With the smell of the hot food making him nearly crazy, Edward did his best to obey her, grabbing a chicken leg with both hands and biting in it with delight. Elizabeth and Ingrid watched in silence as the two boys ate their meals with gusto while gulping milk from time to time.

The boys were close to finishing their meals when another woman and two men wearing the same kind of grey uniforms as Elizabeth and Ingrid entered the mess and came to their table. The woman was very tall and appeared quite strong and sported long black hair and sparkling green eyes. The two men following her were tall, muscular and looked like they could be very dangerous if they wished so. Elizabeth smiled and presented the newcomers to the boys.

‘’Prince Edward, Duke Richard, let me present you our leader, Nancy Laplante. With her are two of our agents, George Townsend and Otto Skorzeni.’’ Using a custom the boys would soon get accustomed to, Nancy shook hands with them, showing perfect white teeth as she smiled to them.

‘’Your Highnesses! We just finished setting up things in the White Tower, so that Sir Tyrrell will actually believe that you are indeed dead. That way, nobody will further try to hurt you. Besides, we would not let anyone hurt you from now on.’’

‘’And, as I asked Lady Elizabeth before, who is precisely the ‘we’, Lady Nancy?’’ Asked Edward, his curiosity back now that his stomach had stopped growling. Nancy and the two men sat at the table before the former answered while looking gravely at Edward.

‘’Your Highness, please do not think of what I will tell you as a proof of witchcraft. We come from the far future and are time travelers dedicated to studying and documenting history. Your disappearance from the Tower of London is, or rather was,

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one of the enduring mysteries of history. Now we know who ordered your deaths and how it was done. The circumstances were such that we were able to prepare a setup which will respect what was known to history while being able to save you. Why did we save you? Because of simple humanity. You and Richard are innocents who deserved better than this. If this may make you feel better, know that your uncle Richard will be killed in two years at the battle of Bosworth Field. A Tudor will then take the throne of England after marrying your older sister Elizabeth in order to unite the houses of York and of Lancaster.’’

Edward and Richard were left stunned speechless for a moment, with Edward finally managing to ask a question in a hesitant voice.

‘’Time travelers? How could such magic be possible?’’

‘’Not magic, Your Highness: science of a very high level. There is nothing magic in what we do, even if it would appear like witchcraft to you and others from your century. Know that our science originates from the end of the 34th Century, nearly two millenniums into your future.’’

This time, Edward was unable to speak for a long moment, a rush of blood to his head making him wobbly. Nancy then extended an arm and gently covered his left hand.

‘’What is important now is that you and Richard are alive and safe, Your Highness. We will now bring you to the future, where you will be able to find kind, new parents to care for you.’’

08:17 (London Time)

Wednesday, September 3, 1483 ‘A’

Room of the two princes, White Tower

Tower of London

Miles Forrest was awakened by progressively more brutal kicks, to see through blurred eyes and a pounding headache that his master, Sir James Tyrrell, was looking down severely at him. Tyrrell nearly screamed at him, making Forrest’s head resonate painfully.

‘’I sent you and Dighton to do one of the most delicate missions possible and I find you two drunk instead, in the princes’ room? Where are the boys?’’

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Looking sideways and seeing that John Dighton was slumped near him, a cup in his hand and a spilled pitcher of wine by his side, Forrest tried to concentrate, managing to have a few mental images come back to his mind before speaking in a slurred voice.

‘’They’re dead, Sire…I think!’’

‘’YOU THINK? YOU BETTER FIND A BETTER ANSWER THAN THAT, OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!’’ shouted Tyrrell, furious. With his head hurting like hell, the henchman did his best to remember what he could.

‘’We…we smothered the boys as they slept, then buried them under the staircase leading to the chapel, Sire.’’

‘’Then, show me! And wake up that idiot as well!’’

Only then did Forrest realize that he was also holding an empty cup and that wine had splashed over his shirt and tights. He managed with difficulty to shake Dighton awake, then got up and led his master and his accomplice out of the bedroom, with his head pounding painfully all the while. Going down towards the chapel, the trio arrived at a large heap of stone rubble under the foot of a staircase. Under the watchful eyes of their master, the two henchmen started digging with their bare hands through the rubble, to finally uncover a large jute bag with its top tied close. Undoing the rope closing the bag, Forrest opened it and showed to Tyrrell the top of the heads of two blond boys.

‘’Here they are, Sire.’’

Taking a quick look at the boys’ heads, Tyrrell then grunted his satisfaction.

‘’Very well! Close the bag and rebury it. Nobody is to learn about this, or you will pay for it. Understood?’’

‘’Yes Sire!’’ answered at once the two henchmen, knowing what their master was capable of. They then hurried to cover again the jute bag containing the two small bodies, piling up even more stone rubble on top of it.

19:11 (London Time)

Tuesday, August 21, 1951 ‘B’

Ballroom of the Palace of Buckingham

London, Great Britain

‘’LORD HENRY STOKE, DSO, OBE, MC, AND LADY SARAH STOKE, EARLS OF WEIMOUTH!’’

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Princess Margaret Windsor, who was officiating at the reception to celebrate her 21st birthday and her coming of age, gracefully greeted the graying couple just announced by the master of ceremony. She then looked to see who would be the next guest to arrive for her birthday party and felt her heart accelerate when she saw a group of bald giants who had just arrived at the entrance to the ballroom, in which over fifty guests already mingled. One of the giants, Prince Len ‘B’ of Cardiff, had become more than a good friend to her during the last few years. Apart from being very handsome, the young man from the defunct Imperium ‘B’ had proved to be kind, compassionate and highly intelligent. In turn, Len had seemingly been conquered by her graceful beauty, her intelligence and her wit. They had started to date each other a year ago, but had to be cautious about it, in order not to give hints to the horde of tabloid reporters hunting down the members of the royal family everywhere they went.

‘’KING STAN ‘B’ THE SIXTH, LORD OF CARDIFF, WITH LADY MIRI GOSHENK ‘B’, PRINCE STEN ‘B’, PRINCE LEN ‘B’, PRINCESS DRUUNA ‘B’ AND PRINCESS XINIA ‘B’!’’

Margaret did a graceful curtsy when Stan ‘B’ stopped in front of her, holding the arm of his first mistress Miri and followed by his two sons and two daughters, who were only a small part of his household. After all, even if she would soon be crowned as Queen of England now that she had attained the age of majority, she was still only a princess, while Stan ‘B’ had been a powerful monarch in his time.

‘’Your Majesty, Lady Miri, it is a true pleasure to be able to greet you to this little party tonight.’’

‘’And it is even more of a pleasure for me to be able to see you again, Princess Margaret.’’ replied Stan, sincere. He still remembered too well the time nine years ago when he had risked his crown and his life by defying the powerful Ministry of Security of his Imperium ‘B’ and had gone to deliver a then young teenage Margaret from a torture chamber and given her asylum in his palace. He didn’t miss the complicit look Margaret and his son Len exchanged as greetings were exchanged, but simply smiled at it, as he approved of their relationship. In fact, if his Imperium ‘B’ would still exist and would have had peaceful relations with the Great Britain of Timeline ‘B’, he would have been the first to push for such a relationship, as a marriage between one of his sons and the heiress to the throne of England would have been politically most desirable. However, even with

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the Imperium ‘B’ now vanished, replaced in the 34th Century by the World Council, such a marriage would make him happy.

As the members of the Imperium ‘B’s royal family went to the service tables to get cups of Champagne, yet another group of guests showed at the door, to be announced out loud by the master of ceremony.

‘’HER MAJESTY NANCY LAPLANTE, VC AND BAR, GBE, DSO AND BAR, DFC, MC, QUEEN OF JERUSALEM AND OVERSEER OF THE HOLY LAND OF PALESTINE…’’

There was then a distinct pause in the announcement, with the voice of the master of ceremony next coming out a bit shaky.

‘’HIS HIGHNESS EDWARD OF ENGLAND, PRINCE OF WALES, AND HIS HIGHNESS RICHARD OF YORK, DUKE OF YORK.’’

A stunned silence then descended on the ballroom, with all present turning their heads to look at the two young boys accompanying Nancy Laplante as the Overseer of Palestine made her way towards Margaret. Both boys wore royal clothes typical of the 15th Century and had gold neck chains supporting the blazon of the defunct Royal House of York. The trio finally stopped in front of Margaret, who had eyes only for the boys. Looking up with difficulty, Margaret asked hesitantly a question to a smiling Nancy.

‘’Nancy, are they…’’

‘’Yes, they are, Margaret. May I present you Edward the Fifth and his brother, Richard of York, which were recently saved from assassins in 1483 by the Time Patrol.’’

‘’Your Highness…’’ said politely young Edward while saluting Margaret with his hat, imitated by Richard. ‘’Nancy told us that you were a beautiful princess but, in truth, I do not believe that so great a beauty as yours have sat or will ever sit on the throne of England.’’

Margaret smiled at the compliment and bowed her head.

‘’Your Highness is too kind. May I ask what are your projects for your future and that of your brother, Edward?’’

‘’You may, Your Highness.’’ answered Edward, now most sober. He had to learn quickly to adapt to a brand new world full of wonders and weird, disconcerting concepts. He had been particularly struck by the fact that the sovereigns of England were now no more than figureheads with very little real power left to them.

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‘’Nancy, through her great kindness, had us meet prospective parents for us. Those prospective parents in turn proved to be nice and caring, apart from being of high blood themselves, and we accepted to go live with them in Cardiff.’’ Stan ‘B’, who had quietly approached with Miri Goshenk, grinned with amusement on hearing that, a cup of Champagne in his left hand.

‘’I have to say that I don’t get to be called ‘nice’ too often.’’ A stunned Margaret looked in turn at Stan ‘B’, the boys and then Nancy.

‘’Well, I’ll be! A king from the future who lost his empire will be caring for another king who was usurped out of his throne in the past. So, Edward and Richard will be living in your family castle in Cardiff, Stan?’’

‘’Correct! Me and Miri have much time on our hands, while poor Nancy has to handle simultaneously three lives, a family and a kingdom. I will be most happy to be able to teach them what I know about power and its management.’’ Looking back at the little princes with gravity, Margaret then took a quick decision.

‘’Edward and Richard of York, you truly represent part of the history of England. As a soon to be Queen of England, I promise you that you will both have a part to play in my kingdom. You are of course invited to attend my coronation, scheduled to be held next month, along with your new parents and with Nancy.’’ Edward and Richard saluted her again then, with Edward next looking gravely at Margaret.

‘’Then, I have one wish concerning your coronation, Princess Margaret: that I be the one to put the crown on your head.’’

Even Nancy, who did not expect this, was surprised by that request. While also surprised, Margaret quickly understood how powerful the symbolism of such a gesture would be in the eyes of her subjects. She thus smiled to Edward, who was a half head shorter than her.

‘’Since I wanted someone else than the head of the Church of England to put the crown on my head, I will be most happy to have you take his place, Edward.’’ A bit confused by that, Edward looked at Nancy, then at Margaret.

‘’What about the head of the Church of England, Princess Margaret? Has he fallen into disgrace in the kingdom?’’

‘’Public contempt would be a better word in this case, my dear Edward. You can ask Nancy later about the sordid details. Let’s forget him for the moment and let’s have

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some good time at this birthday party. The one six years ago was spoiled through and through by the Church and I don’t intend to have a repeat of that now.’’

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