Gather round the fire, curl up with the book, pull your screen closer to you, turn the volume up on your device—however it is that you are hearing or reading this tale. I have much to tell you: of four children just like you, or like you were once; of a world far away and yet closer than you think; of two warring Kingdoms battling for the hearts and minds of the land caught between them; of a Prince, of Twins, and a Dragon.

*

Jake was bored out of his mind.

His class had gone on a trip today away from their school in London. It had been quite fun on the coach up with his mates, swapping sweets and playing games on their phones, but now they were being forced to listen to a tour guide telling them about the Historic Town of Oxford while they followed her around in a big group. And it was so boring. At the moment they were in the middle of somewhere called the ‘Botanical Gardens’, which was basically, as far as Jake could see, just a park full of plants. He couldn’t have cared less about plants. The tour guide had already told them about lots of the different plants, and about this one big tree that was the favourite of some famous author he had never heard of. Now she was telling them about some bench or other that appeared in a book by another famous author he had never heard of. Jake could not have been less interested if he had tried. His mind wandered around, looking for something to entertain him.

Quite nearby there was a fence, which marked off the perimeter of the gardens. Beyond that, there was a path and a river. On this sunny day, people were out on little boats on the river, pushing themselves along with poles, eating strawberries, laughing and generally enjoying the weather. It looked a lot more fun than listening to the tour guide.

“Hey, Aaron,” said Jake in a whisper, nudging his nearby friend but taking care not to be seen.

“What?” said Aaron.

“Look over there. Reckon we could jump that fence?”

Aaron only smiled. Jake was what some people might describe as ‘a naughty boy’ and at the moment Aaron was his main partner in crime.

“Let’s make a break for it next time the group moves on,” said Jake.

They waited until the lady had finished talking about the bench and started to lead the group off to go and look at something else. Then they ran. They made it to the fence in just a few seconds and at once Jake was atop it, scrambling over the spikes by putting his feet onto the flat bits in between them. He loved to climb.

“Jake Longley! What on earth do you think you’re doing?!”

Oh no. Mrs Fink, their English teacher, had spotted them.

Without wasting time turning around to check what was going on, Jake jumped clear of the fence, landing on the path beyond. Aaron was not so lucky. He had not had time yet to properly mount the fence and Mrs Fink had caught up with him. She grabbed Aaron and yanked him back down into the garden.

“Not so fast, young man! And you come right back here too, Jake!”

Jake took all of this in with a quick twist of his head as he hit the ground. He knew he had to run now. He was already going to be in an enormous amount of trouble, so why not make the most of the situation? He was free of the horrendously dull tour. He wasn’t going to let Mrs Fink punish him now. He would put that off for as long as possible.

His whole class were watching him by this moment, so he better make it look good. He leapt to his feet and made to dash off down the path, away from them all. Only, before he had even run a few steps, his foot snagged on a from one of the trees in the gardens which extended out beyond the fence. Jake tripped, then stumbled, then fell headlong. He hit the ground again, tumbled over onto his side, and ended up in the nearby river.

You may or may not know that the river Isis, which is what the Thames is called when it flows through Oxford, is not particularly clean. In fact, that is what we in Britain call an ‘understatement’. It is filthy. Murky, grimy, and probably full of all sorts of diseases and rat wee, on the surface it looks just about acceptable, but if you ever find yourself under the surface…well, God help you.

Jake’s body tensed with cold and his vision filled with dark liquid. He could no longer see a centimetre in front of his face. He shut his mouth to stop himself tasting any more of the disgusting water and tried to get his bearings as he sank down quickly, a muffled rushing noise filling his ears. He kicked out, trying to push himself upwards, but at the same time he felt his legs get caught in something. Weeds on the river floor. He kicked harder, but this only got him more tangled up in the weeds. He was stuck. He thrashed about wildly, trying to wrench himself free of them, but only sank down further, deeper, into the river.

Back on dry land, Mrs Fink shouted after him. Some of his classmates screamed. The tour guide, who had a bit of sense, called out to the people on the boats to get them to try to help the boy who had just fallen into the water. One of them stuck his boat pole into it towards where the splash had been in an attempt to offer it to Jake. Another brave soul jumped into the river and swam around looking for him. But it was no use. When the would-be rescuer resurfaced, the boy did not.

Jake had failed to reappear above the water.

Worse than that, he had disappeared altogether.