The King and the Machine

A poetic saga of lost love, intrigue and outrage, concealed malice and revealed courage, unexpected endings and new beginnings.

Perfect for winter nights in the Northern Hemisphere, and for those that remember them in the Southern. Indulge yourself with a new tale of ancient things ...

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The Royal Commission

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In the town there was a crown

And the man who wore it

Decreed that all should scrape and bow

When e'er they saw it

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Around his neck a golden chain

Upon it hung the Stone of State

His regal power absolute

His the right to dominate

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In the town there was a throne

And he that sat thereon

Reserved the right to rule despite

The weight of the unknown

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The weight of the unknown

Bore most heavily upon

The one that sat upon the throne

That most awful regal one

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The king decreed discovery

Of the hid foundation

The arcane philosophy

That underpins creation

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That never may there come to be

In that or any nation

One more erudite than he

In comprehension of causation

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The king commissioned a machine

Styled the Grand Chronologer

That the future may be seen

By the Court Technologer

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The Grand Chronologer

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Behold the Court Technologer

His books machines and tools

His calipers and quadrants

His scribers and his rules

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All contrived most cunningly

None more fastidious than he

He laboured with precision

With scarce an intermission

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'Behold the Grand Chronologer

Wheel and gear and Golden Winder

Orbits tangents radians sines

Cogs and hands, keys and splines

The quintessentiality

Defining all reality ...

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Behold my lord the ease with which

The future now may be discerned'

With a sniff and bow and twitch

To the great machine he turned?

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As it gravely whirred and spun

The disk of the moon covered the sun

Comets appeared and seasons and years

We're predicted and counted by elegant gears

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Arcane the prestidigitation

Algebraic the application

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At the Gates

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Grim tidings spread throughout the town

Invaders from the farthest shore

Cast a shadow 'cross the land

The evil threat of war

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A herald barked the proclamation

A silent crowd, broad and great

With a morbid fascination

Gathered for to learn their fate

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'Our enemy is at the gates

A curse on those who will not fight'

The King addressed the restless crowd

Gathered in the night

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'I declare these terms for peace

Nothing less than slavery'

The crowd let out an angry shout

And the King had won the day

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The King now sat in conference

With the Court Technologer

Configuring the Panel Stops

On the Great Chronologer

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Initiation initiated

The King's frustration soon frustrated

The Propitious Date was dated

Fate of the Kingdom now was fated

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The Enemy Ambassador

Narrowly escaping murder

Dishonoured in despite of law

With word of almost certain war

Hurries from the angry town

As sudden rain comes teeming down

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In his hand The Letter

Terms, a rendezvous

A date on which to parley

'Neath the Ancient Yew

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The Parley

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The King at the head of his forces

Draws near to the Parley Place

In the centre of The Forest

A knowing smile upon his face

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Waiting in The Clearing

Beneath the Ancient Yew

(At the time determined

The time to die or do

That the Grand Chronologer

Selected as it marked the card)

He spies his foe the Crystal Queen

Surrounded by her Bodyguard

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The King and Queen are eye to eye

He turns and glances to the sky

A shadow passes 'cross the sun

Foretold Eclipse has now begun

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He signals to his Hidden Men

Hidden days before, and then

Swords in hand - their edges keen

They fall upon the Crystal Queen

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Shocked by darkness unforeseen

Her Bodyguard forsakes the Queen

They turn to run and do not fight

Throw down their swords and take to flight

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The King allows them on their way

He hunts now for a different prey

The object of his Covert Scheme

The capture of the Crystal Queen

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Treason

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The Crystal Queen is fallen

Imprisoned in despair

An iron cage affords no rest

No comfort for the fair

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The King would have her dead and gone

And yet he has a care

To discover what he may

Before she dance on air

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The Court Technologer is sent

To take the Queen's interrogation

The King on other work is bent

Best left to imagination

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Morning noon and night they meet

The Queen and her Inquisitor

Days pass by and he becomes

More than just a visitor

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Of all his fears the greatest one

That it might be known and seen

That his heart is lost and gone

And he loves the Queen

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Meantime the King sought for himself

Another source of information

And taught himself the secrets of

Mechanical Prognostication

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He set the Panel Stops and then

Waited for the Great Machine

To tell him where and tell him when

He might destroy the force of the Queen

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The King called the Technologer

They met at the Chronologer

It displayed a time and date

As if it read the Book of Fate

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As though it heard from Fate's own mouth

It displayed the West and South

It knew when to strike the blow

It told the King where he must go

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The Technologer turned white

The King discerned his sorry plight

'Guards, arrest this Vile Traitor'

Shouts the King, and moments later

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Technologer in iron cage

The King before him spitting rage

'You dare to choose to serve another

Rot and die then with your lover'

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The King stormed out of the stony cell

Two cages sat in the dark and grime

The Queen and Technologer as well

Wept, held hands and bided their time

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The Campaign

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The King rode forth to Conquest

Ever close at hand

Prediction of The Chronologer

As he passed to a foreign land

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The King and his weary band of men

Driven by obsessive wrath

Long now since they ventured forth

Strange the land and long the path

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The Compass was consulted

The Date and Day drew nigh at last

The King pitched tent and waited

And the die was cast

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A misty mass of warriors

Within the gloom without The Glen

Draws near the King and followers

Draws ever near and then

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They part and ope' a corridor

For their Youthful Laird

He throws a Gauntlet to the ground

In hand a weapon bared

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Laird and King now locked within

Trial by Lethal Combat

Their soldiers - speechless witnessing

Challenger & Autocrat

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They thrust and parried

Lunged and harried

Ever circulating

Weapons flashed

Sparked and crashed

Shreiking grinding grating

On the King's Ignoble Sword

Hidden poison waiting

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First Blood to the Challenger!

A Strike not deep nor broad

Yet see the King reaching in

To parry with his sword

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It barely nicks the flawless cheek

Of the Youthful Laird

But blood drains from his face and heart

A heavy gasp is heard

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The Youthful Laird sinks to his knees

And raises Lamentation

The King retires a pace or two

Awaiting life's cessation

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'Hear my story stars above

Hear my tale you earth

Hear a tale of evil deeds

Hear a tale of Noble Birth

Hear how I was dispossessed

Mark this tragic scene

The murder of the noblest

The Prince of the Crystal Queen

Were my Father here to fight

Would but that he had not been killed

Then would there be an end to night

And evil would be stilled

Should any doubt my Royal Right

Should any doubt my fate

Let them look but once upon

The One True Stone of State'

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The Youthful Laird fell back upon

The heather, holding fastly on

To a stone strung from a cord

The soldiers of the gathered horde

Stepped closer and the King's most trusted

Chieftan, with an air disgusted

Took stone and made examination

Then raised excited Proclamation

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'The Stone of State this is this is

I saw it in my far-off youth

I see it once again and I

Give my testament of truth ...

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The stone worn by our Upstart King

Worn ever 'neath his stinking vest

Never have I seen that thing

Hidden next' his coward chest ...

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Yet I do swear and aver

That what I say is true

The Stone of State is what I hold

I show it now to all of you'

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The Aged Chief held up the stone

The King's own troop were restive grown

They turned to challenge him alone

To no avail - the King had flown

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Vendetta

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Destroy the Machine

Dispose of the Queen

Galloping hoofbeats

Commanded the King

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Technologer too

Must be made to pay

The hoofbeats insisted

As night turned to day

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Propitious the Day

Picked by The Machine

Propitious for someone

Just not for him

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His rage so intense

It would not depart

Thirst for revenge

Had swallowed his heart

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Revelation

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'When a task is vital

One does not delegate'

Spat The King most darkly

Arranging the fate

Of Queen and Technologer

At the end of a rope

Anticipating naught but doom

The two of them bereft of hope

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But suddenly a rush of men

Assails the execution hall

At their head the Youthful Laird

Who did not die at all

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(The Ancient Grizzled Warrior

Who identified the stone

Administered an antidote

That none but he had known

Ever kept to hand

In case of Royal Accident

Now applied it saves us from

Embarrasing predicament)

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The Laird bows low before his Queen

Before his Mother too

She graciously bids him to stand

Invites him now to view

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The face of the Technologer

The boy turns white once more

And kneels before his father

On the stony floor

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He bows his head and offers

The One True Stone of State

The Crystal King takes it from him

And, standing next' his mate

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Lifts up his son the Crystal Prince

And all there - bar the Upstart King

Affirm their humble loyalty

With oaths and tears and rejoicing

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Thus the rule of the Upstart King

Ended many years ago

If you doubt my true account

Then I bid you go

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See the ruined building

Chronologer disused within

Abandoned now its job is done

The Conquest of the Upstart King

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The Derelict

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I visited the broken shell

Chronolger hid deep within

And thought I heard a stirring

Of something softly spinning

An air of unquiet slumbering

Of something fell beginning

As though the episodes of yore

Upon dark winds were winging ...