The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles written by the Author to show some of the reasoning behind his books. Today is probably one of the most contentious issues within the early books, as he explains:

When you look at this series of books and how the readers view it, nothing has created more turmoil within the readership than this one particular person.

Billy aka William Knox has tested the emotions of most of the readership, with the resulting conclusion that just about everyone hates him. (Laughs) The mere mention of his name will draw a scowl from my wife, followed by a description of him that I am afraid I could not possibly write here.

Love him or loathe him, I have to confess that for myself as the author, he is one of my favourite characters to write. I can almost feel your gasps of horror as I write this, but the truth is, that he is one of my most complex characters, and as a result, one of the most intriguing to write. In order to really understand Billy, you do have to leave any prejudice behind and simply look at his circumstances.

In the first book Billy appears at the side of Robbie and is besotted with Alice. He has been adopted by the Lox household and is living with Robbie and his family and is in every sense of the word a brother to Robbie. I have absolutely no doubt, that being in their home and being subjected to the love the family shows for each other has a profound influence on Billy, and he enjoys his life on the farm and running free in the woodlands around Loxley.

Later in book one we find that he is simply playing role, as he was placed there by his father many years previous. At first it is hard to comprehend, and yes the hatred that most of the readers showed towards him was indeed very real if you consider the comments I got at the time.

But really, is he as bad as is first made out? That I am afraid is for the reader to decide, but from my own perspective… Well I always knew what was to come, and so yes, I must admit I painted him black deliberately to throw all of you off the sent.

The way I see it is actually very simple. Firstly Billy did not have any say in this, he was told to what to say and what to do by his father, and let’s be clear here, at the time he was just a young boy, not the 18 year old you read in the book. So this scared little boy was placed into the care of Samuel Jack Moores, who we find out is a brutal and sadistic trusted friend of Mason Knox. Moores takes Billy and beats the living hell out of him, almost to the point of death, and then dumps him in the snow knowing Jessica Loxley will pass by and discover him.

From my point of view, doing that to a very small and young boy can only be very intimidating and at that time enough to ensure that billy does as he is told. Billy is beaten and bandaged and is also in a strange household miles away from his mother, brother and sister. I can only imagine something like that must have been immensely difficult to deal with, just think of the fear he must have felt being so young and then seeing Samuel Moores actually walking round Loxley Village. Personally I think that alone would be enough to convince any young boy to stay in line.

Billy’s Grandfather (Oscar Hargreaves) is already planted in the Village as the owner of the bookshop, but he is an old and frail man, so he is no protection to Billy, and I think it’s clear from the flash back in book five that Oscar is equally as afraid of Moores. Billy lives in the family and slowly over time he becomes more and more a part of a family that treat him with care and love, and he grows to love them all deeply, even to the point where he starts to consider Jessica as the only mother he remembers.

I always considered his life when writing his parts in the early books, and in my mind he was happy and contented living the life of a woodsman and isolated from the world his father was building. The problems only really began when Samuel Moores started to visit Loxley more often, and it soon became clear to Billy who was now 18 years old, that a time was drawing closer when his father would expect him to give him all the information he required to bring down Loxley.

Suddenly he is caught in a trap, which in many ways was partly his own making, after all he had lived the lie and not confided in any one, not even Alice in whom he was now very much in love with. Behind the scenes we find out in book five, he is actually being awkward with Moores. By now he is very strong and has grown bitter towards his father. In my mind I always felt he was not giving his father the whole story, which is why when a band of Cutters do find their way into Loxley Woods, their plan to take out Old Joe fails. I felt that Billy deliberately planned their attack on Joe’s cabin to coincide with Robbie’s visit on purpose, after all, he knew Robbie well enough to know how he would react, and he knows Robbie who is a superior Woodsman to most, would go to his uncle’s aid.

In a way even though a little misguided, Billy assumed if the raid failed because the Cutters were not good enough, (Which he knew they were not) Samuel Moores could not blame Billy. Moores we discover has found out about Alice, and uses it as leverage to keep Billy in line, which creates a whole other problem, as Billy has to try and keep her safe. The answer was always simple, go to Robert Lox and tell him the truth, or was it? The clue was delivered in book five during the flash back, where Billy mistaken calls Jessica Lox “Mum.”

Billy was happy within the Lox household, he was loved and cared for, he also had a position of privilege at Robbie’s side as the Lox family were the most powerful family in the area, in my mind Billy had grown to feel happy and home here, how could he even take the risk of losing it all? As Oscar puts it in the flash back, “you will be off soon, after our task will be over, little Alice will be safe and you will be free to do as you please.” In essence just do the job and get it over with, then you can leave the service of your father and live here forever. Billy trusts his grandfather and so continues to play his part, which ensures that Alice is kept safe.

It’s not the best of situations to be in, but I think any 18 year old boy would see it as the only option, as it avoids hurting anyone, I mean so far no one has been hurt, so all is technically fine, why cause undue stress and strain? In my mind that would be his plan, and he lived up to it until suddenly the dynamic changed. Out of the blue Robbie was made Lord and brought into the Fellowship of the Bowman. Billy was side-lined, not by Robbie, but by the family that had protected him and I felt he resented it a little, which is why he decided to go on the journey to find the secrets of Leenard and finish the job set by his father. That plan was foiled by Jade who caught him dealing with Samuel in the back grounds of Caerleon, where she kills Samuel with her daggers, and Billy who has been revealed has to flee.

At this point he no longer has any options of remaining with the Woodland fighters, the only place he has left is his father. I feel this was not an easy adjustment, after all his brother and sister were older and he hardly knew them. I think he tried to treat them as he would those of the woodland, which we can see by Judith’s comments was caring, and she bonded quickly with him. Lance I feel was difficult, Lance was actually quite a weak and frightened boy, but never the less deep inside he wanted the power and glory of his father, so the arrival of an older brother was not something he would have accepted easily as it demoted him in his father’s eyes. I show a little of this in book two where Mason shows the wall and the cities he has built to Lance, and I really think that was the turning point where Lance decided he would find a way to remove Billy from the scene at a future point.

The change is very stark for Billy who has to become William Knox, I thought a great deal about this at the time of writing. In my thoughts, Billy was jealous of Robbie and this showed on the journey, but in many ways he resented his father and own family more, because they abandoned him at a young age and placed the brutal Samuel Moores to watch over him. This really for me was the deciding point where Billy understood he was isolated from both sides, and would have to find a way out that freed him of all ties. His first act was when he discovered Alice had become pregnant was to try and save her from his evil grandmother. Using all his skills and cunning he exploits his father’s position to acquire the use of the castle at Craigeavar, then convinces his father she will provide his heir, and arranges for Alice to be kidnapped and brought to the castle. Ok so it’s not the best plan, but he is operating alone within his father’s army, and desperately wants to protect Alice from them and this appears to be the only way. I think in Billy’s head there is a lot of wishful thinking going on, but I do think his motives are honourable, if not a little misguided.

At the time of writing book two, I think Billy felt with time and care he could win Alice back, possibly not the smartest idea, but all the same a true motive, sadly Alice saw it differently, and she does go out of her way to vent her anger on him. Billy is called to his grandmother’s castle, and while he is there Robbie and team swoop in and rescue Alice. During the visit to Dunnottar Castle where his dislike of Morgan is made very clear, she tricks him and he is presented with the sword that contains Mordred who possess him, and for a while Billy is pushed into the darker corners of his own soul.

It’s a complicated and difficult situation as his will his forced back by the reanimated spirit of his long dead Great Uncle, and thus begins a battle out of sight between the two of them, which as those of you who have read book three, surfaces when confronted with the Sword of Destiny.

I ask you all, imagine just how that would feel and how you would react? I would say pure hatred would just about suffice, but that is what gives Mordred his power, he feeds off Billy’s hated and uses it to suppress him, up until Robbie reappears, and then Robbie does something no one expects, he orders Billy on the oath he swore to Loxley to fight his way back into control. At this point my mind set was that Robbie actually by this point had the time to understand Billy far more than anyone had realised. The one thing Robbie knew was how much Billy loved his life in Loxley, and even though it was a gamble, I think it is clear that by evoking all those memories inside Billy, it gave him the one thing he needed to defeat the darkness, he realised his love of Jessica as a mother and Alice and the Loxley life was his heart’s desire, and that gave him the hope to fight his way back.

I always thought it was that moment and that moment alone in book three, where Robbie decided the fate of Billy, and so when the final confrontation arises in book four, it is that one moment in time that rules Robbie heart and results in Billy being spared, although in many ways it is by far a cruel fate for Billy. Just as Robbie should make the final blow to kill Billy and end his suffering, he stays his hand and gives Billy his life back. The cruelty of the gift is that as he gives Billy life, he takes the only life of real meaning Billy knows, and Robbie bans him from Loxley for life, it is indeed a cruel act, and Billy knows it.

A lot of people have suggested that at that point Robbie should have killed Billy, and I can understand why a lot of the readers felt that way, but never forget, everything is written for a reason. At the time of publication book four had been written for about two years and I had moved on and was writing the rest of the series, so I knew what was to come.

THE SAGE

When the Sage first appeared everyone liked him. Let’s be honest he was kind and considerate and he went out of his way to save the life of Ben, and as we find out later Slip, who he gets a good job on the boats. Martin meets with him and the three of them embark on a task set by the Green Lord, where they meet up with Markus and plan a daring raid on Tintagel to free the old wizard. I must admit my wife (Total Billy hater) really took to the Sage, she thought he was a true example of what a woodsman should be. (Well he was he was Loxley trained)

Melin is trapped and so by this point are Runestone and Robbie. Now this is an important point, you see Robbie and Runestone are stuck in the Hidden Realm, which is also referred to as the Hidden Realm of Sleep. This is the place where Merlin and Opal were imprisoned for the age of sleep. Ok so Runestone has the powers and even though she is trapped, she will survive, Robbie however is mortal which means for him the clock is ticking, he needs to escape or his life will end. The one person who can save them is Merlin, because he knows of a way, but he is also imprisoned at Tintagel with the Sage heading his way.

The only way to get to Robbie without being detected is to use the Bridge of Intention (Bridge of Sequana). Ok so there is a problem here, because Sapphire needs to open it, and at the moment she has not discovered her own powers. I think it is a wonderful little twist, and putting it all together was indeed a task that took a great deal of working out. The way it had to go was: Merlin had to escape, he then had to get to Sapphire and manipulate her into opening the bridge before she was ready. In order to do that he needed a powerful Queen of Fae, but he could not reveal to her that this particular secret of her line was known outside the Realm of the Moon. He had to open the bridge and connect it to the hidden realm without alerting the Dark One, because if she had realised, she would have swooped in and killed Robbie and Runestone. So the plan was simple, without Merlin, Robbie would die, because Runestone would never leave him alone in the hidden realm the lives of all the woodland would be thrown into chaos and Mason would seize full power and kill all those loyal to Loxley.

See where this goes? Everything is written for a reason. The Sage frees Merlin, and as you see in the books the plan goes into action. It was at this point , The Sage talks to Merlin, but the old wizard does not use the name Sage, he calls him William. I still laugh as I remember watching my wife suddenly stop and flick back through the pages just to check she read it right. As I now know a great many of you did the same, all of you were fooled by a wooden mask and a green bandana, what about the white stubble on his chin, and the blues eyes behind the mask? I honestly thought someone would twig, but they didn’t and all of them got the surprise of their life.

When Opal reveals the truth to Sapphire later on, you can see the wisdom of her father the Green Lord. He saw the truth of Billy all along, and yet allowed him to play out his part as a way of giving him an example to learn from, and so the story continues as the Sage makes his way to the south in a bid to do his bit in aiding the Woodland Realm.

As for hating Billy, I never have, I love writing his complex and at times crazy way of living. His hidden depths and confusing thoughts have all added to the enrichment of what I see as a wonderful character, and one I think you will find you may meet or hear about in real life. There is an old saying of never judge a person until you know their true story, and I feel in this particular case it is very true. Billy is a conflict for all the readers, because they hate him, but like the Sage, and that causes a lot of heart ache for some, but the fact of the matter is, he is a very real person and you have probably met someone like him in real life. I suppose it’s Ok to hate him still, but remember if it was not for his action in saving Merlin, Robbie would be dead and Runestone would be trapped in the Hidden Realm forever, and Loxley at this point would no longer exist, because Mason would have burned it to the floor.

It’s a confusing and twisting tale of a very complex person, and the future of this character will prove in the later books to be just as complex. He is a fascinating figure within HTTK and I really do enjoy the time I spend threading him and out of the pages, I hope most of you will just take a few moments to digest his story and then maybe think a little more kindly of him… Or maybe not (Smiles)

I shall leave you all to ponder those thoughts for now.