Eugene Wish "The King is dead, long live the King!"

The King is dead, long live the King!
Eugene Wish

This ancient legend tells how the Great Evil tried to get to the world, taking advantage of the human passion for power and the vindictiveness of the elves…

The King is dead, long live the King!

Eugene Wish

На обложке "An Allegory of the Tudor Succession: The Family of Henry VIII", 1590 (Public domain)

© Eugene Wish, 2021

ISBNВ 978-5-0055-1825-5

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

CHAPTER 1. THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING!

InВ the empire ofВ Kannassis, with its capital inВ Egoul Fort, Emperor Conrad IВ the Terrible ofВ the Craddish dynasty ruled for forty years. He was the first king ofВ this dynasty, which was originally from the province ofВ Frax inВ the east ofВ the country. The haughty and selfish prince dreamed ofВ the imperial throne, so he paid tribute and performed rituals not only toВ his native gods, but also toВ evil spirits.

As a result, Konrad beat the imperial troops hollow and conquered the capital. After that, he even sacrificed the murdered emperor Leos and his family to his dark patrons. Further Konrad’s rule was a complete insolent and disgusting travesty of the sequarium and priests-sequarates He took the land from the dominant religion, dispersed all the priests and declared himself the head of the sequorium and the son of the one God. Conrad tried to keep everyone in constant fear – from priests to peasants and from princes to ordinary soldiers.

The paranoid king even created aВ whole separate punitive army ofВ the Black Ravens, who were above all the nobles and judges, and acted only at the direction ofВ the king.

This army had been robbing and burning towns for weeks; they devastated barns with provisions, they drank inВ taverns and again robbed everything far and wide: temle-sequas, shops, taverns, crypts and warehouses. Their cruelty knew no bounds, they killed one and all, leaving nobody alive even for sale into slavery. AВ lot ofВ people suffered and died back then.

Many villages and even the small town of Montan in the Swamp Lands were burned for «heresy and betrayal’. At the end of that horror, the Ravens put heads on spikes, hung corpses on poles, and the few survivors they drowned in swamps.

The city never recovered from this bloody campaign and gradually went under the water, covered inВ stinking swamps. After that, the people called them the Blood Ravens.

Even King Conrad himself was scared ofВ the fierce fury ofВ his followers, and soon, on his orders, the royal guard seized the Ravens. They were burnt at the stake with aВ lot ofВ ordinary people watching this inВ the main square ofВ the capital. The king personally supervised the execution and read out the verdict.

After the crackdown, the king pacified his temper aВ little, although he returned toВ the practice ofВ black magic and sacrifice. The sovereign completely sold his soul toВ the forces ofВ darkness for his eternal life. For many years he had been tyrannizing the empire and its people, but his judgment day came.

***

Autumn. The end ofВ October. Almost all the leaves fell from the trees. AВ patchwork ofВ yellow, red and orange leaves covered the earth. The capital ofВ Kannassis, Egoul Fort, blossomed with the colors ofВ aВ warm rainbow. As usual, it was drizzling rain, sometimes turning into aВ downpour. Small rivulets with boats, which children made ofВ leaves, flowed through the streets. The royal castle got dark because ofВ humidity, and the tiles on the cone-shaped roofs got dirtyВ red.

The spikes inВ the castle moat were damp, and aВ specific smell ofВ wet wood came from them. The old king was inВ his bedchamber; the gates were firmly closed.

He was lying on aВ double bed under aВ black canopy, painted inВ the form ofВ green stems with red roses. He slept alone inВ this bed for many years. All ofВ his seven wives were dead or inВ monasteries. The first wife Brunehilde was stabbed byВ him; the second wife Ariadne was hanged for alleged infidelity; the third, the fourth and the fifth wives were burned as heretics; as for the the last two wives, he spared their lives and sent them toВ the monastery.

Conrad was constantly changing his position – he lay and then got up again, and peered into the mirror. In it he saw a thin old man with deep wrinkles on his face, bags under his eyes, and grey greasy locks of hair hanging down to his neck; with a grey moustache and a goatee. He kept waiting for his transformation, although the demons didn’t promise him eternal youth, only a long life. The king drank various potions and mixtures in order to somehow extend his life and possibly restore his youth. While he was finishing off the last potion, someone knocked lively at the door of the sovereign’s chamber.

– I did not expect anyone! Go to hell! – cried the emperor angrily. No one answered. However, in a blink of an eye the guest appeared in front of Conrad.

– Well-well, you are so rude, Your Majesty, I’m just from there… from hell, – the man dressed like a plague doctor said playfully.

– Damn it! – shouted the monarch, bewildered by such a statement.

– Yes, exactly, – the plague doctor pulled out some papers from his first-aid kit, – sign an acknowledgement that you will die soon and your soul will become the property of the Demon Council.

– I will die?! When is it going to happen? – asked the astonished emperor.

– Yes-yes, soon, but we won’t tell you when exactly, this is top secret information, – rattled on the doctor.

– But what about eternal life and youth? – enquired the old man.

– You will have it all, but only after your resurrection, – the Sorrowbearer answered seriously.

– And when will it be? – the old king was still pressing the point.

– After your D – E – A – T – H, – the hell’s messenger explained thoroughly, – well, that’s it, you have signed everything, goodbye!

The king froze inВ horror, but then drank some stiff wine and fell asleep.

* *В *

Indeed, aВ week after the arrival ofВ the Sorrowbearer, the old king died peacefully inВ his chambers at midnight on the first ofВ November under the full moon.

An emergency meeting of the sequarium delivered a bull. It stated that a king who was worshiping demons and practiced black magic could not be buried as an adherent of Tritheism – the cult of the Triad: the Great Father, the Great Mother and the Great Androgyne. Majordomo Azolius was truly in panic due to this rejection from the sequarium. He sent messengers frantically to the representatives of other religions, but everyone refused, except for the dark elves, whom the deceased respected deeply and appreciated their occult knowledge and magic. A delegation from the dark elves quickly arrived at the castle.

They stood in a circle and began to read their dark spells. At the end of the prayer, an unimaginable thing happened: the usually creaky and croaky monarch spoke clearly and legibly, but in the dark elves’ language. His speech was paused for a second – the old man burst into hellfire. And at the same moment he burned to the ground in the delusion of that mumbling. Even the elven warlocks were shaken up by this.

Right in a split second, the emperor’s ashes, ignited, gathered in a fiery whirlpool, pierced the roof of the castle and lit the sky with a lurid flash. When the storm calmed down, from the dark haze stepped forward the same king. However, fifty years younger.

AВ bright face without aВ wrinkle, sharp cheekbones and chin, dark blue eyes, tall and fit, like twenty-five all over again. В«What aВ stink from me!В» Said Conrad inВ outrage.

He threw off all his clothes smelling ofВ elderness and medicine and took aВ bath for quite some time.

– What have you done to him useless elves? – shrieked the majordomo.

– Let’s just say he took a fiery rejuvenation bath, – answered Elmore Parl, the main priest of the group.

– But you should have read the prayer, and not resurrect the king so young! – continued to shout the head of the royal office.

– Anyway he had no heir, don’t be so grumpy! – said the younger priest Elric Cross.

– But how can you imagine this? How is he going to go out to the people? He was an ancient smelly old man, and now look at him! Safe and sound! Neither the sequarium nor the people will like it.

– We will take care of this, – snapped Elmore. Seize him! – ordered the elf, showing with his staff to the majordomo. – Throw him in a dungeon, and we’ll figure it out!

The scrawny bespectacled man, Azolius did not even resist, but still shouted loudly, and that woke the royal guard, sequators and the White Magic collegium. The king was brought aВ new blue caftan braided with gold threads and sapphires, as well as new chausses and shoes.

«This is a whole different story! – rejoiced the new old king. – Where is the clergy? They should have been delighted at my resurrection at God’s command,» the emperor said ironically.

CHAPTER 2. THE CRIMSONВ CITY

The thunder roared outside and clouds turned black like ripe plums. AВ storm was coming. В«The dark elves have not just entered the city, they have already sneaked into this castle. We missed the conquerors, my friends,В» at the chair ofВ the White Magic Collegium spoke Glorian the Light, the head ofВ the department, whose goal is toВ monitor, detect and destroy the adherents ofВ black magic inВ the country.

Glorian wore a gray long wavy beard with two pigtails, a light blue beret with wave-like patterns covered his bald head, and a gray tunic dragged along the floor. He was already very old for human age and mature enough for magicians – he was three hundred sixty years old.

– But how did they get in here? Where was the royal guard? – asked Philus the Longnose.

– This rat, the coward majordomo let them in to bury a dead man, who, by the way, is no longer dead! – declared Horus the Gloomy with irritation.

– You want to say that they resurrected him?! – asked Carlos the Thick with excitement.

– I can confirm, I’ve already heard it from my spiders. – said Alfred the Spiderkeeper.

The skinny old man run his fingers over spiders like it were aВ prayer beads. he picked them from his long gray beard and his long hair, talked with them, since he knew aВ spider language.

– Well, here we go, the dark elves and zombies rule the country! – sarcastically said Galf the Longhand.

– Sooner or later these creatures will break into this place! – cried Neil the Panic.

– Yes, and then we will give them a hard time! – menacingly declared Horus the Gloomy.

– Don’t forget that there are still white wizards outside our collegium and who knows which side will they choose, – noted Glorian.

– Indeed, there will be many renegades, traitors and snitches, – said Horus.

– And bug-outs! – added Philus the Moustachette.

– I suggest you to make a barricade for a while, – squeaked Neil.

– And I suggest – the voice of Horus was like thunder – to go out and drub those long-eared bastards!

Don’t pretend that you had no idea about the king’s dark affairs, – Inga the Herbal-wife touched upon the bitter truth ironically.

– There were no proofs. Just rumors and speculations, – Galf said in their defense.

– Everyone knew! – Horus shouted menacingly, so loud so that the whole castle shuddered, – your scouts are just useless, Galf. Look at Alfred, who with the help of his spiders found out how the king had fun with Felicia the Witch.

– Yes, it’s true. Though they didn’t do magic there, as you said, Horus, – the master of spiders agreed calmly.

– We knew, – Glorian whispered dryly, – but kept everything under control while he was alive. Just failed after his death, – wistfully summarized the head of the collegium.

***

InВ the evening, the king was strolling nonchalantly through his winter garden, enjoying the scent ofВ roses, lilies and gladioli. He loved roses the most, ofВ course. Lush, red and odoriferous, they fascinated the monarch so much, he even wanted toВ replace the black two-headed eagles on the yellow imperial flag with aВ red rose on aВ black background.

The king sat on a bench under palm trees and began making notes in his diary about the garden and beautiful roses. However, he was distracted by his old acquaintance – the Plague Doctor.

– Time to cast away the stones and a time to gather them together, – said the Sorrowbearer seriously.

– What do you mean by that?! – exclaimed the frightened king.