Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Mercia Books
ISBN-10: 0956483550
Type: Fiction
Pages: 308
Copyright: 29 December 2009
ISBN-13: 9780956483553
Gunpowder, demons and sorcery in London 1666.
A powerful demon has been trapped under the city of London for over 300 years. However, malevolent forces are at work in the 17th century, planning to unleash terror and chaos on the world.
Two rival secret societies – the Liberati and the Praesidum - are caught in a battle that threatens to destroy the city and its unknowing inhabitants.
When a truant schoolboy, Ben, finds a scroll revealing the location of magical seals that bind the demon, this throws him into the centre of a dangerous plot that leads to the Great Fire of London.
Ben must overcome his own problems - fear of failure, desire for revenge, guilt over his parents’ deaths - if he is to protect the city, and confront the evil demon.
As the plot unfolds, a little more of the mystery about Ben’s own past and his parents’ deaths is made known. Ultimately, Ben and his friends must combat sorcery, defeat the evil Liberati and destroy the demon if they are to save their city and themselves.
Excerpt
The warlock Stephen Blake released the demon Dantalion from the Abyss on the fifth day of July in the year of our Lord 1380.
Hours before dawn, the short figure stole down Ludgate Hill to a small church that lay beneath the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral. With his cloak wrapped tightly around him to keep out the early morning chill, he slipped unnoticed between the gravestones and stopped at the side door of the church. Blake paused now to glance behind, dark eyes probing the shadows that lay along the road and around the indistinct bulk of nearby houses beyond.
Somewhere in the city was the one man who might prevent him doing what he planned. This night had been long in the preparation and he did not want it spoilt by those interfering Praesidium, or their leader Cornelius Silver. He took one last look and then, satisfied he was alone, the door was opened with a judder and a creak as rusty hinges complained about unexpected use. He entered the gloomy interior, shutting the door behind him.
Once inside, he glanced around at the altar, the font and then towards the main doors and contemplated the scene. This was a place of worship: a hallowed sanctuary to the parishioners who came here to find peace, comfort and protection from evil.
“Nam et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis, non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es,” Blake recited and then stood in silence pondering the words for a moment. ‘For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me.’
He laughed and a sneer snaked across his face, as he thought about what he now planned to do. The faithful who trusted in this holy place would soon run from the shadow of death and Blake himself would be the one to bring them fear. No - much more than fear, in a few hours he would bring them terror.
Six hours later Blake had prepared everything. Nearby lay the crumpled body of the old priest, who each day rose before dawn and entered the church alone to recite the morning liturgy. When he opened the doors today he had been cut down by Blake. His blood, the blood of a holy man slain on consecrated ground, joined dried herbs in a bronze bowl laid upon the altar. A candle heated the mixture releasing noxious fumes, filling the church with smoke. Blake stood in one of two chalk circles he had drawn on the flagstones. Holding a parchment in his right hand, he recited incantations that would summon the demon into the other.
With each word he uttered, the air seemed to burn and crackle about him. The intense heat singed his hair, turning its usual silver grey colour to a charred black, his skin first becoming scorched and then blistered - but he read on. The words he spoke were contrary to the laws of the universe and he felt as if the world was shuddering and shaking in protest as reality twisted, distorted and buckled around him - but he read on. His eardrums threatened to burst as they were assaulted by a cacophony of screeching - but even now he did not stop. Just when he felt he could stand it no longer, he shouted the last few words and, with a suddenness that shocked him, there was utter silence as the spell tore a hole from our world into the Abyss: into the world of the demons.
Blake had been raised since birth for this moment. He and his fathers had worshiped and studied the demons for one reason, one purpose: to rule alongside them, just as his distant ancestors had done when demons walked this earth beside man millennia before. Blake had longed for this day. He had imagined the pride he would feel at mastering the Words of Power. He had dreamt of the wealth he would earn as well as the domination he would gain over other men and had revelled in the thought. However, none of his dreams or longings had prepared him for the intensity of the fear he now felt.
Professional Reviews
Leigh Ferrani, author, Oxford Literary Consultancy
“The historical elements really shine and kept me interested, as did the atmosphere of a burning London and all the darkness and bleakness surrounding the terrifying Dantalion… The tension and suspense in the latter part of the book were terrific… at several points I had butterflies in my stomach.”
Nan Hawthorne, That's All She Read
Take the biblical terrors of a Dan Brown novel, add a little Harry Potter, then set it in the time of the Great London Fire of 1666, and you have a snapshot of Richard Denning's suspenseful and exciting novel, The Last Seal.
My memory of Elias is intimate but brief; I asked him, "what happened, where are you taking me, who are you? Tell me!"
In a calm voice; "Sara hush, you died.
The sequel to Goalden Girl. Gemma's school football team is well-established. Her young step-sister Portia is also becoming a promising player, until an accident changes her life forever
