In the Court of the Crimson King
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The Unruly Brood A story featuring the Unruly Brood by Erbie Murat 1 © Erbie Murat March 2007 PUBLISHED BY Fenland Writers Co-operative Fenland Volunteer Bureau operating as Volunteer Centre Fenland Charity no. 803237 148 Elm High Road, Wisbech Norfolk PE14 0DW [email protected] First imprint - April 2007 2 Other Books by Erbie Murat Published by Fenland Writers Co-operative Terrorist Wars 2204 - Is a Science Fiction Novel - The action is fast and furious; the passion intense and fulfilling; and the undertones dark and compelling. To underlay the story and give it direction, Erbie shuffled the Major Arcana from a pack of Tarot cards, and allowed the outline meanings of those cards to dictate the development of the story as it evolved - a kind of Kismet novel. The story is set at the tail end of the 200 year Terrorist Wars. We first meet the hero in deadly conflict, as a cadet, in the deserts of the Singot Valley in the year 2190, in his first action against Hasheshen (terrorist) supporters. He is Major Christos Arcana of the Paranauts, (nicknamed Colonel Christ). Christos Arcana enjoys great popularity among the masses, thanks to reporter Melanie Most and a fertile media, and the clandestine machinations of World Council Member, Maggie Matchless, who uses and abuses him. She, however, is not the only Council Member to take an interest in the Major, or his nubile young wife Tuolin. Reginald „Tory‟ Archer devises a diabolical scheme that throws the world off balance. At the height of his popularity, and in the middle of his honeymoon, Major Arcana is thrown into prison for a horrendous crime, and the intrigue unfolds rapidly and dramatically culminating in an off world war of fantastic proportions. The Adolescent in Me - Is a book of Poetry and Stuff. This is not for the faint hearted. It is the unexpurgated version of one person‟s reactions to the late sixties and early seventies in a London that was raw and fresh and exciting and dangerous. It is Romance in the Raw, but more so - it is riotous. It explores everything that went on in the mind and emotions of an adolescent boy/man, including poetry, short stories, dreams (nightmares) and illustrations. Some were published in those heady days, most were not. They do provide an amazing insight into the psychology, emotions and passions of those times. This compilation flies us to the heights of pleasure before dashing all our hopes and aspirations to take us to the depths of despair, only to rise again like a phoenix with a singed tail. Erbie like many others survived - some, however, became damaged - some badly - some just did not survive. Those who survived fairly intact owe it to the others not to forget. This collection of experiences is exciting in its range and depth, and it is even inspirational in the most unlikely places. “Be Glad or be Sad, the Song has no Ending”, the words of a very old song, inspires Erbie even today. 3 CONTENTS Other books published by Erbie Murat …………………………………………..…… 3 Touching on the Author ………………………………………………………………. 5 Dedication …………………………………………………………………………………. 7 Pre-amble …………………………………………………………………………………. 9 Chapter One : Survival in Action ……..………..…………………………………... 23 Chapter Two : A Change of Mood ………………………………………………….. 34 Chapter Three : The Unruly Brood ………….……………………………………. 60 Chapter Four : The Nightmare Begins …………………………………………….. 71 Chapter Five : Kismet ………………………………………………………………… 91 Chapter Six : From One Extreme to Another .…………………………………….. 101 Chapter Seven : One Step Beyond ………………………………………………… 124 Chapter Eight : The Forest Beckons ..……….……………………………………. 140 Chapter Nine : Under the Shadow of Tagoviste ………………………………… 160 Chapter Ten : The Wolf is at the Door …………………………………………….. 180 Chapter Eleven : Destiny’s Last Card ……………………………………………… 209 ILLUSTRATIONS Tarum Afatsum Libre …………………………………………………………………. 2 Stuart Leslie William Murat ………………………………………………………….. 7 Murat Coat of Arms ……………………………………………………………………. 18 Map ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 23 Tarum and the Wolf ……………………………………………………………………. 35 Kara Tilki - The Black Fox …………………………………………………………… 53 Emir Pasha’s Palace at Varna ……………………………………………………….. 67 The Princesses - Tamsin and Yildirim …………………………………………….... 109 Voivoide Vlad Dracoul’s Castle at Tagoviste ……………………………………… 139 Ambush in the Mountains …………………………………………………………….. 157 Wolves on the Battlements …………………………………………………………… 179 Wolves on the Slippery Slope ……………………………………………………….. 193 Adsiz Adam - The Man with No Name ……………………………………………… 209 4 Touching on the Author The front cover design is Erbie‟s Turkish coffee cup reading at the time that this book was written. Born on the island of Cyprus (Kibris), on 25 October 1951 to Turkish parents, Fetine and Mustafa, Erbie Murat‟s development was perhaps fine for the first five years. He was outgoing, happy, and bright (all of which memories are lost to him). His first memories start with the confusion that is the nature of all five year old immigrants being airlifted out of a tiny village on an island in the Mediterranean and moving to a smog ridden London full of a trillion diverse and interesting experiences exploding into a hitherto uncluttered mind. Erbie‟s first memory is of walking along platform two at Kings Cross station, pulling a bit of string with a sardine can with cotton reels as wheels attached to it - his prize possession, made by his grandfather as a going away present. Erbie was five years old. He did not know his parents, though they walked beside him. He did not know his brother, though he scampered around him. Erbie knew no-one in this vast land. The only people he had known he never saw, ever again. He was in a sudden sea of strangers. At least his parents and his brother spoke his language which was a bit of a comfort to the suddenly, badly withdrawn boy. Erdinc, his brother, now six years old and just a year older than Erbie had already been in London for nearly four years. He already went to school, and already spoke fluent English. And he was evidently just a little resentful of Erbie for suddenly existing in his life and taking up his parents‟ precious time. Erbie spent all his time trying not to be a nuisance, but basically felt he failed, so he gave up trying around the age of fourteen, and went on an adventure, at the expense of school, the Turkish Community, his parents and everything. Erbie‟s parents, Mustafa and Fetine, had come to London in the spring of 1952 with a ten shilling note (50p), and a suitcase half full of potatoes because grandma Fatma did not believe that they would be able to buy potatoes in London. They left both their sons in the care of their maternal grandparents. Erbie was six months and his brother, Erdinc, was eighteen months old. Erbie‟s mother did not stop crying, until they were able to bring Erdinc to London in the spring of 1953. In their first year in London, unhampered by children, both parents worked all the hours they could in the most difficult jobs, but they saved and they scraped and bought their first house just over the road from the Angel Islington. When Erdinc joined them, the family lived in the basement of the four storey property and the rest was rented out flat by flat and room by room, and the Murat‟s continued to work all the hours they could. Fetine, a seamstress by trade, took in commercial belt making and garment stitching at home. By the time Erbie had joined them, their savings were already extensive and Mustafa Murat‟s second ambition was realised two years later when he bought a small shop on Caledonian Road, just over the road from Pentonville Prison, and opened one of the first continental shops in London. Erbie, the Turk, remembers next to nothing about Kibris, and has never returned there, nor actually been to Turkey, although he came close once when he was hitchhiking around Greece with an English girl, but that‟s another story. Erbie always felt different. He determined very quickly that his only weapon against being bullied and beaten up for being a „bubble‟ (bubble and squeak - Greek) was to learn the English language better than the English who took so much delight in stamping on him periodically, literally. 5 Consequently he did very well at school, and was one of only three at Robert Blair Primary School, in his year, to pass the eleven plus. He got a place at Highbury Grammar School, and was very proud. Sadly, though, Erbie continued to see himself as a bit of an outsider, both within the Turkish community and within the English one. His need to find sanctuary in the English language and culture became obsessive to the point that he felt the need to leave the Turkish community at the earliest opportunity. He broke his parents‟ hearts. Although it is fair to say that the Turkish community in London liked the shy, quiet boy growing up in their midst, he just couldn‟t settle in himself. He was actually a bit of an extrovert waiting to get out, and very easily led. He got into all sorts of life-threatening scrapes, and japes. His books „Adolescent‟ and „The Adolescent in Me‟ give some insight into the rebel at heart that he really was. That rebel, however, is one which still promotes the rights of individuals to do whatever they want as long as they don‟t hurt anyone else, and promotes the deeply held conviction that everyone deserves an equality of access to life chances that is extremely rare in our world. He is not an exponent of religion per se but will fight for the right of anyone to practice whatever religion they choose. Having said that, however, the one thing that he abhors is the hypocrisy fundamentally contained in any interpretation of any religion that purports to know how everyone should behave, and devotes its energy, whether with the creation of martyrs or by the promotion of intolerance, to decrying others and denouncing anyone who does not accede to their particular flavour of acceptable worship.