Isle of the Crown Beach
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| The Isle of the Crown Beach | |
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Description
Isle of the Crown Beach is a setting in King's Quest 6. This is the game's starting location. In the distance you can see the wreck of the Johannes Bey, the ship that Prince Alexander used to travel to the Land of the Green Isles in the intro cut scene. This is a place that Prince Alexander can use his Magic Map.
About
It was my great joy to be able to be of greater aid than perhaps Alexander had anticipated, though little could I do save relate my own impressions of that strange and wonderful land, for in my youth I had been tossed by waves to the shores of the Land of the Green Isles, and had produced a small atlas (a guidebook, really) distilling my experiences in that odd, lovely, and unknown corner of our world. A small edition had been printed, but out of respect for the wishes of the King and Queen of the Isle of the Crown the book had never been offered for sale or perusal. I felt a small glow of pride that at last my words would at last be read—and indeed, the very next time I was to see Alexander he told me the little book saved his life on more than one occasion. Armed with the guidebook and sundry gifts for Cassima and her family, Alexander boarded his sloop, the Johannes Bey, and set sail for the Land of the Green Isles.
That was the last any of us in Daventry saw or heard of him for some months. The waiting preyed upon us all, though of course it was worst for King Graham and Queen Valanice, and for Alexander's twin sister, Rosella. But through all that long wait, no matter the dire sayings of doomsayers who were certain our Prince was lost forever, those of us who knew Alexander best never despaired that someone as resourceful and clever as he would win through in the end. At last our faith was rewarded. One momentous day we were gathered together in Castle Daventry—for what cause I now remember not—when the news came that not only was Alexander alive and well, but he had survived as strange an adventure a~ had ever befallen any of his family.
It began with a shipwreck. The waters about the Green Isles are treacherous in the extreme, and it is those reefs and currents and eternal fogs which keep the realm secure from the intrusions of the rest of Daventry—these, and the great storms which local legend claims to be the artifact of a great protective spell once cast to defeat all intruders.
The Johannes Bey had been following the stars, sailing by a pattern which Alexander had seen but briefly in Merlin's Mirror, one which sparkled in the skies beyond Cassima's beckoning image. One moment Alexander was standing in the forecastle of the Johannes Bey, the sloop that had been his home for the last three months, straining his eyes for sight of the land. The next, he was fighting for his life against the maddened elements of wind and water. I think, from Alexander's description, that the ship must have been much closer to land than any realized, and was blown onto the treacherous reefs that dot the shallow ocean of that island country. Alexander remembers little of his battle for survival, until at last he came to himself lying in the small sand beach of a rocky cove.
The sun beating down on him was what finally awoke Alexander of Daventry—that, and the inevitable rasp of sand everywhere upon his tender skin. Slowly he opened his salt—sticky eyes and squinted into the blinding sun. Everywhere around him were the hot bright colors of the tropics. He wondered where he was—could this be the Land of the Green Isles?
Groaning, he got to his feet. The beach where he lay was covered with sea—wrack—the remains of his ship. Of the captain and crew there was no sign, and Alexander spared a moment to hope that they, too, had reached safety.
This is not the way I meant to arrive, Alexander thought ruefully. Everything he had brought with him was gone. Even his princely signet was missing from his finger.
As he stared about him, Alexander saw a glinting at the edge of the water. Walking over it, he looked down and saw his lost ring, half—buried in the sand. He took it and looked at it fondly. Alexander's signet bore a yellow topaz, and carved upon its surface were the royal arms of Daventry: a lion and a unicorn. His name and birthdate were carved into the yellow gold that held the stone, and ·upon the inside of the band was a very special memorial: the date Alexander—then known as Gwydion— returned to Daventry at last.
Alexander slipped the ring on his finger. The small recovery of some tiny part of his lost property cheered him.
Perhaps other things will have washed ashore, he thought hopefully, but though he looked everywhere around the beach where he had found himself, all that he found was a chest that lay buried beneath a large timber. He moved the timber and opened the chest. Inside the chest was one small copper coin of Daventry, the profile of his mother—Queen Valanice—etched proud despite the coin's low denomination.
Better than nothing, Alexander told himself philosophically. Pocketing it, he started up the trail to the island's inland.[1]
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References
- ↑ From The King's Quest Companion Third Edition, pp. 240-241
