by Scott Toney
Greed
Gems and gold glistened in piles about Thomas’s throne room as he stood in the center of it, an ornate dagger clenched in his hand. “I want more!” he shouted, his heart beating heavily in his chest. His sight pulsed, going from blur to clear over and over again. Don’t these imbeciles know that when I say I want all of the riches in Havilah, I mean it? “Find more!”
A heavily armored knight lumbered up to him, blood streaming from a gash on the man’s neck. The wound had been caused by a peddler who fought him when he demanded that the man give him all the gems he had on him. “If we take any more,” the knight gave him a weary look, “then there will be nothing left to sustain your people. They will starve.”
Thomas’s sight blurred again, then came back to him. “Take everything they own. And when I have all of Havilah’s riches our armies will take all of the wealth in Cush and Assyria for our own too! It is all mine!” He stumbled and almost fell into a pile of gold coins beneath him. His vision blurred again. “I want it all!”
“But sire,” the knight pleaded. “Your people will turn on you. The rulers of Cush and Assyria will turn on you.”
Thomas toppled into the coins now, his dagger tumbling out of his hand. “I…” he stuttered. “I…” His bloodshot eyes looked up to the knight.
“Do you doubt your king?” an old woman’s voice came from a dark corner of the throne room. Dora came slowly through the mounds of gems, a cane in her hand and her shoes clacking on the ruby floor. “Do you doubt that he deserves what he demands?”
The knight looked enraged. “I do not doubt anything. I only want what is best for him.”
Thomas’s vision pulsed back to him again. “You question me?” He put his arms beneath him and slowly lifted himself up. “Collect my riches, or pay with your life!” He stumbled and fell into the coins and gems once more, his vision going to a complete blur.
“I will have your knights do as you ask,” he could hear the knight say as he tried to focus. The throne room’s doors creaked open, then boomed closed.
Thomas struggled to see through his hazy sight.
“Here. Eat the rest of your fig,” Dora’s wrinkled hand closed on his own as she placed the remains of the fruit he had begun eating that morning into his palm. His blood pulsed beneath his skin as it touched the fruit. It burned with life. “Eat it. It will make you feel better.”
He brought it to his mouth, chewing the fleshy fruit as it pulsed like a tiny heart on his palate. Everything is mine, the thought raced through his mind. Everything should be mine. Strength surged through his veins. He could almost feel the fruit breathing in his throat as he swallowed it down. Thomas stood and his eyesight suddenly flashed back to crispness. Dora was gone.
I want it all, he thought as his heart raced. These jewels are nothing. I can take so much more. He snatched his dagger from the gold pieces beneath him. I should have more, now!
He paced the hall, only him and his jewels in the hollow room. Must have more, the thought burst into his mind. Where?
He looked around the room, sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. Then his sight fixed on a doorway with emeralds spilling into its opening. Them, he thought. ‘They’ have them. They’re mine!
Thomas stormed across the throne room and into the hall, walking quickly through sunlight as it flowed through the hallway’s windows. A servant jumped out of his way as Thomas hurried past him.
Once I have all of the wealth in the world, then, Lilya will return to me. He clenched the dagger tight in his fist, passing doors upon doors of servants and maids. He barely felt anything, physically or mentally. His thumb fiddled with a diamond inlaid within the blade.
The door he was looking for came into view. He stopped at it, examining the grooves of the oak and its bronze handle. Mine. The thought raced through his mind, a thought that was his, but at the same time was not. Mine.
“Open the door!” Thomas banged against the course wood with his free fist, sending reverberating echoes through the hall. His hand stung as he pounded. “Open the door for your king!” He kicked hard against the wood.
“Sire…” a man’s voice came from inside. The door slowly opened to reveal Ban Var. His wife and son were backed against the far wall of their chamber by the balcony. His daughter, Mae, peered fearfully over the edge of the bed.
They’re here, the thought raced through Thomas’s mind. “Give them to me!” he shouted into the room, his eyes crazed.
Ban Var looked warily at him as he stepped away. “You can’t have my family. I’ll die defending them.”
“Not your family, you fool,” he laughed. “Give me my ruby shards!”
“We… we spent those,” Ban Var’s wife, Fiol, said fearfully, “and gave them to the needy in the market place.” She held her son close.
“Give me my rubies!” Thomas grabbed Ban Var, thrusting his dagger against the man’s quivering neck. “Give me my rubies or he dies!”
“We don’t have them!” Fiol took a step toward the balcony. “Please! Please let him go!”
“I warned you, woman!” Thomas spoke coldly. He dug the tip of his dagger into Ban Var’s trembling neck and blood streamed down the man’s body, seeping into his clothes. With a swift motion Thomas spliced across Var’s neck, cutting it deep.
Ban choked and convulsed, his body pounding against the floor as Thomas let him go. Blood spewed from his neck. “Run…” he managed to rasp before his eyes rolled back in his head and life left him.
Fiol shrieked and Thomas came farther into the chamber, grabbing Mae by the arm as she tried to run past. “Where are they?” he yelled. He held the girl tight, bracing the dagger against her ribs. He watched as Fiol looked to her bloodied husband lying limp behind them, then back to Mae. “I’ll do it,” he told her. “And then I’ll come for your son. Where are my ruby shards?”
“Mae…” Fiol sobbed. “Mae…”
“Where?” Thomas shouted, digging the knife into her ribs. The girl thrashed and screamed. “Tell me!” He enjoyed feeling the child squirm in pain. He enjoyed the sheer power of it. He dug the dagger deeper into the girl. She screamed even louder.
“Mommy!” Mae wailed.
He expected Fiol to come for him at any moment, to try and free her daughter. He was ready to kill them both. Instead, Thomas was surprised to watch Fiol moving out on the balcony with her son.
“Go!” Fiol shouted as the boy ran the balcony’s length, and then leapt over its rail. “Don’t let us die in vain!”
She came for Thomas then, charging into the chamber and grabbing a fire poker that was braced against the wall.
He thrust the dagger into Mae’s ribs, then dropped her lifeless body to the floor.
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