“You know you will not leave the castle…”
Our narrator Sue and her younger brother Eddie (who is both a pickpocket and a scaredy cat) are on vacation in London. They are part of a historical tour group for the day while their parents are attending a conference. One of the last stops with the tour group for the day (led by Mr. Starkes) is the “terror tower” (presumably a stand-in for the Tower of London). It is a large, shadowy, looming stone tower where beheadings and torture once took place hundreds of years ago. Sue wonders if the tower might be haunted.
While on the tour, they learn about a prince and princess in the 15th century, Edward and Susannah of York, who were locked in the tower and smothered to death. Meanwhile, they start noticing a large dark figure with a black cape and eyes like burning coals lurking behind them during the tour of the tower. He seems menacing while he is holding three smooth white stones in his black-gloved hands. He tries to grab Sue and Eddie when they get separated from the group and he starts chanting some strange words. But in fear, Sue and Eddie go running through the tower, desperately trying to escape, dodging rats in the sewer, and escaping through the streets, trying to get back to their hotel.
But strange things start happening. The world seems unfamiliar. Their money is unrecognizable. An old man on the street says the tower is closed and there is surely no dark figure roaming around inside. And they can no longer remember their parents or their last name. They start feeling dizzy. Their hotel room is empty and their parents are nowhere to be found. The man in the black cape finds them and he demands they return the three white stones. As it turns out, Eddie stole them. Once returned, the dark man mutters some sort of strange spell and everything turns to black.
When Sue and Eddie awaken and step outside, the world looks completely different. There are people in robes, speaking a strange form of English, lugging carts through the market, and in a long dining hall, the people all appear to be in theatrical costumes and when they spot Sue and Eddie, they shout “It’s them!” Sue and Eddie run away until Sue pays off a woman to help her, however the woman immediately betrays Sue by handing her over to the lord high executioner. She is taken to the tower and then reunited with Eddie.
In their cell, they are greeted by an old man with purple eyes and a white beard. He calls himself Morgred, the king’s sorcerer. He informs Sue and Eddie that they are actually (spoiler alert) Susannah and Edward, the princess and prince, whose uncle has usurped the throne and ordered them executed in the tower. Morgred says he tried to help them by sending them forward in time, but the lord high executioner managed to steal the stones (after overhearing Morgred’s spell) and track them down. Now, there is nothing Morgred can do for the children, they are doomed to be killed. He then leaves the kids in their cell with tears in his eye.
However, Eddie has secretly stolen back the three stones from the lord high executioner again. He tries to recite the exact words of the spell Morgred mentioned while carrying the stones. And suddenly, everything changes as Sue and Eddie are returned to the twentieth century, as part of their tour group inside the tower. And nearby they spot a middle-aged man walking through the tower… Morgred has joined them in the future!
My Thoughts on A Night in Terror Tower
This is a terrific self-contained time travel Goosebumps story, but it carries some fairly dark and heavy themes for a children’s book –particularly the threat of children being forced to suffer medieval torture and execution. But this story is obviously an allusion to the historical saga of the “princes in the tower” during England’s Wars of the Roses in which the young princes Edward and Richard (the sons of Edward IV) were locked in the Tower of London and never seen again. Their uncle Richard then assumed the throne as Richard III. All of this is cleverly referenced by R.L. Stine in writing this book (assuming this one was not penned by a ghostwriter).
A Night in Terror Tower is also solid travelogue, showcasing the tourist sights around London, but after reading this book I am still left with a couple questions. What are we to make of Morgred’s magic system. As the king’s chief sorcerer, why can he seemingly not manage to waylay the lord high executioner? Why wouldn’t Morgred simply send himself forward into the future to join the children the first time around, thereby preventing the lord high executioner from also traveling through time with the magic stones? Wouldn’t this prevent him from facing torture? And why doesn’t he help the kids in the end? Something just doesn’t add up here but it’s still a higher-tier Goosebumps book.
Corresponding Episode Review
The television episode for “A Night in Terror Tower” is equally as engaging as the book, however the ending has been changed quite a bit (as it turns out the Executioner has somehow followed the kids and Morgred into to the future a second time). Actress Kathryn Short stars as Sue (she also appeared in both “Haunted Mask” episodes), and Corey Sevier as Eddie (he also appeared in the episode “Cry of the Cat” as well as other ‘90s films like Lassie and Summer of the Monkeys).
Stine, R.L. A Night in Terror Tower. Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY, 1994.