The Grim Conspiracy

by C. Craig Coleman

  “Like did the chamberlain say something, or did he feel a sudden compulsion to clean your ear?”

  Agmar laughed until the drink sloshed over the edge of his cup.

  “You really are something, Eva.”

  She dropped to her knees at his feet and leaned on one of his staring into his face. She flared her eyes, displaying impatience.

  “My beloved son, Malladar, travels within a day of Tigmoor! It seems a merchant passed his party on the road not two days ago. He will arrive here tomorrow morning.”

  Eva stood, bent forward, and hugged Agmar.

  “I’m so happy for you both. It will be wonderful to see Malladar again, a reunion of sorts.”

  Agmar finished his drink, set aside the cup, and rose to leave.

  “Yes indeed, will you make arrangements for a celebration honoring his return, crown prince of Tigmoor?”

  Eva twirled, “Indeed I shall, my lord. Thank you for giving me this honor.”

  “Thank you for being here to celebrate with us, my dear.”

  Agmar left, and Eva summoned all her servants. “We have been honored to welcome Crown Prince Malladar on his return tomorrow. We must plan and execute a spectacle such as the court will never forget.”

  And indeed the court and entire city would never forget the next day.

  49: Reunion

  Eva took charge of the palace’s inner workings. She organized the kitchen staff to prepare a last-minute feast for the next day. She sent half the staff through the city festooning the north gate. The other half notified the populace of the imminent arrival of their crown prince. The populace was encouraged by household to create their individual displays of welcome. After consulting with the chamberlain, Eva rushed to organize games in the city’s amphitheater for the next two days.

  King Agmar fretted and fidgeted in his private study. Strange stories had reached his ear of an attack on Prince Malladar’s entourage only a day’s journey from Tigmoor.

  “What should I do?” Agmar asked his gray-haired senior general.

  “Majesty, the rumor sounds too bizarre to have validity. The prince has guards with him at any rate.”

  “Who would attack my son and almost at the gates of Tigmoor no less?”

  “I can think of only two men, Octar’s King Jornak and High Priest Ickletor.”

  “Jornak just released the prince, Majesty. Why would he then try to assassinate him?”

  “He’s known any attack on my son while he was in the Kingdom of Octar and I’d declare war immediately. King Jornak isn’t that foolish.”

  The general shook his head, “But Prince Malladar wasn’t in Octar when the attack occurred. The attack occurred on Tigmoorian soil.”

  “Who else would want to provoke a war with Tigmoor?

  “There is only one other person who has had dealings with the prince recently… High Priest Ickletor.”

  “Why would a high priest want war? Sacrificial prisoners, I suppose.”

  “My sources tell me Octar has been getting more and more desperate for some time. The drought there has been unrelenting. There are uprisings all through the kingdom. Perhaps king or high priest wants a war to unite the people and divert the frustrations and animosity away from court and temple officials. The high priest is particularly vulnerable being unable to convince Yingnak to send rain.” The king rose, “Send troops out to meet Malladar and escort him into the city.”

  The general bowed as the king left. “Yes, Your Majesty.

  *

  “Mighty Tigmoor is in the valley below that rise, isn’t it?” Prince Malladar asked the oldest of his servants.

  She beamed, looked up, and brushed fallen gray hair from her brow.

  “Yes, Highness, it’s been so many years since we passed this way going to Octar when you were young, but I believe it is.” She looked longingly to where the forest ended, and the light of cleared fields was stronger. “I think I smell fresh bread and frying meat even from here.”

  The two returned to their activities only to hear a distant but new, ominous sound.

  “Captain,” Malladar said, “what’s that noise?”

  The officer first scanned the sky then glanced behind them.

  “I see something on the horizon, Highness. I can’t make out what it is.”

  Malladar stepped closer and leaned forward straining to see what it was. It changed shape and dipped up and down in the air.

  “Grab your gear! We need to make for Tigmoor now. Move! Leave what you can’t carry or what will slow you down.”

  Everyone around the group turned to Malladar at the sound of heightened strain in his voice.

  “Move now! Hurry!” Malladar tapped the old servant and pointed towards the rise.

  As one, the people clutched what they could and scrambled up the road. They passed by him quickly as he stood staring.

  “Can you make out what it is, Highness?” the officer asked. He drew his sword and held it across in front of his chest.

  No, but it’s enormous, and I think it’s flying. It’s no bird or bat I’ve ever seen or heard of.” He turned the soldier around to the road and pushed him on ahead. “Hurry, it flies straight for us!”

  The officer stopped and pulled his prince forward. “No, Highness, I’m pledged to your safety at the cost of my life. You are the hope and future of Tigmoor. Go now and catch up with the others.”

  He turned back and took a stance to confront whatever was flying fast at them. The pulsing, whooshing sound came from massive wings pounding the wind!

  “May Yingnak be with you,” Malladar said.

  He rushed on to the top of the rise and looked down on the great city, his great city newly rebuilt from the earthquake. He paused at the vision he’d not seen since he was five years old. Pride welled up in him.

  Then the terrible whooshing sound of massive flapping wings assaulted his ears just as a powerful wave of wind nearly blew him over. Malladar steadied himself and looked back. He was stunned at the sight of a monstrous dragon, wings whipping, and jaws snapping as it hovered over the officer. It eyed him like a cat, a mouse. Though hopeless, the soldier swung his sword at the beast just out of reach above him. The dragon’s head hooked back as if laughing. It screeched and thrust out a front leg fanning its clawed scythe-like toes.

  The officer’s sword smashed into a toenail and the weapon snapped in two. The one toe itself was half the size of the man. In an instant, the dragon’s foot snatched the defenseless guard and tossed him in the air. Its jaws snapped shut on him as he fell. The creature chewed and swallowed. Nebo seemed to grin as his huge yellow eyes turned to stare down at Malladar.

  The prince spun around and ran for his life. Before him, he saw the Tigmoorian soldiers were running double-time up the road towards the travelers fleeing towards the city. As he ran, he saw the soldiers speak with one of the guards. The guards turned back, joined the soldiers, and as one they raced towards Malladar giving time to the rest of the entourage to make it to Tigmoor.

  Sucking air, Malladar ran for his life. He didn’t look back again, but he saw the soldiers nearly run into each other, trying to stop ahead of him. Their eyes were bulging as they hesitated. Their captain shouted, and they again ran to their prince’s aid.

  He heard a scream behind him that chilled his blood, but he ran on and merged into the soldiers as they surrounded him. With Malladar among them, as a unit, they began to retreat to the city. Waves of foul-breath wind from the flapping wings blew around and among them.

  One soldier tripped and fell. In an instant, the dragon flew down and snapped the man in two. Nebo circled and swallowed him in two bites. That momentary delay gave the others time to reach the gatehouse. There, soldiers lined the ramparts and openings with their spears pointed at the dragon.

  Safe inside the gate’s tower, Malladar looked up to see King Agmar, with Eva at his side, stood on the balcony of the palace’s highest tower aghast at the sight. Nebo circled high over the city. The intensity of his
laughter shook buildings. The entire populace stood stunned and staring at the sight.

  When the people most feared the beast would level the Tigmoor, it wheeled around and flew back north disappearing beyond the jungle canopy.

  *

  The festivities canceled, Malladar met with his father in the palace’s private audience chamber.

  “What was that thing?” Agmar asked. “I’ve never seen such a thing. Where could it have come from? Why was it attacking you?”

  Malladar poured two goblets of drink and handed one to his father. “It’s some creation of the High Priest Ickletor I suspect. I fear I must have had something to do with the making of it.”

  “What!”

  “I was naïve, and Ickletor charged me, dared really, to go on a mission to the Purple Mountains to find and bring him a unique rock with strange powers that fell from the sky eons ago. It’s a long story, but I think he’s used it with The Book of the Underworld he took from here to create that beast.”

  “Why would he do such a thing?” Agmar asked.

  “The people of Octar are starving. They’ve threated to overthrow the order and sacrifice their leaders they are so desperate for food.”

  Agmar rose and walked about the room.

  “What does Ickletor have to do with that? He’s a priest. The people would blame the king for the collapse of the kingdom. They might be angry Ickletor has no influence with Yingnak to bring rain. He might have created such a monster for his own protection.”

  “That fool can’t control such a thing?” Agmar said. “It will devour everyone it encounters.”

  “I love Princess Kayla, Father. I think Ickletor had designs on her. She told me he’d made advances. Just before I left she told me King Jornak had told Ickletor he would never allow him to marry Kayla. I guess he sent the dragon to kill me out of jealousy. He thinks I stood in his way with Kayla.”

  The chamberlain knocked on the door and entered bowing profusely. Bug-eyed and lips quivering, he looked at each man as if hesitant to speak his message.

  “Majesty, forgive the intrusion, but two runners just arrived from Octar. King Jornak is dead. The captain of his guard murdered him!”

  The three men looked back and forth to each other too stunned to speak at first.

  “With me presumed dead and now King Jornak, Kayla has no defender against Ickletor’s advances,” Malladar said.

  Agmar sat back down, seeming stunned and drained.

  “Kayla is now Queen of Octar. Should Ickletor marry her, he’d become king! As king, he’d rule. Ickletor isn’t the sort of man to take rejection well. Once established on the throne, it’s likely Queen Kayla would die from a sudden illness.”

  50: Escape

  The sudden death of King Jornak had heightened Toda’s suspicions. He had gotten the courage to see what Ickletor was up to when he disappeared most every night. Toda followed the high priest one night to his estate beyond the city. Thinking his imagination had gotten the best of him; he was about to return to the town when a strange and terrible noise followed by a gust of wind nearly blew him over. When he looked back, the monstrous form of a dragon, black against the moon, displayed rising above the caves in the distance. Trembling, Toda sank to his knees watching the beast whip the air, rise, and soar off to the south towards Tigmoor.

  As it disappeared into the night, Toda began to regain his nerve and stood up. What have we done, he thought. That thing has to do with that sky-rock we brought Ickletor. There is dark magic associated with it, and this is the result.

  Toda ran back to Octar until his legs cramped. He struggled on and collapsed just inside the city gate. Associate priests saw him, and half carried him to the temple mound leaving him in his room deep in the pyramid. As soon as he recovered, he sat up.

  What madness is Ickletor up to? He wondered. I must know his intent. Malladar and I are partially responsible for having brought that strange rock to him. It’s enabled Ickletor to create that thing.

  Toda crept to Ickletor’s office, his chest pounding for fear of discovery. The passage was dark, and the door locked, but Toda had long before discovered how to unlock it. Listening for any sound in the hall, he picked the lock, entered, and closed the door.

  Both Ickletor and Sestec are at the estate, but with that beast sent on a mission, who knows when one or both will be back. Hands shaking, he searched the documents on the high priest’s desk, checked the drawers, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Frustrated, he was about to leave when the corner of a document caught his eye in a crack. There was no noticeable drawer. Toda pushed, tapped, and pulled the areas of the desk around it and eventually a slender, unnoticeable drawer slid open. Toda read the message on it and nearly fainted.

  Yingnak help me! He thought. Ickletor is going to…

  A sound outside the door made him freeze. It passed, and he breathed again.

  No time to waste, he thought.

  He slid the article back in its hiding place and crept back out of the office, careful to lock the door.

  Back in his meager quarters, he grabbed some travel clothes and gear, stuffing it into a valise. He rushed up and out of the temple and the city stashing the gear just outside of the gate. Then he hurried back into the Octar, across the plaza, and up to the palace guards who stopped him at the entrance. Out of breath, he wheezed and doubled over.

  “I must speak to the queen!”

  The guards crossed spears over the entrance. “The queen isn’t receiving anyone in her mourning,” the lead guard said. “Come back in a few days after the king’s funeral.”

  Toda stood tall, glaring at the guard, “I MUST see the queen. It’s a matter of life and death.”

  The guard chuckled glancing at the other guard and back at Toda.

  “Well, you see the chamberlain would have us all executed if we allowed you to enter. Now be gone before we lose patience and throw you in the dungeon.”

  The guard shoved Toda back towards the staircase with the butt of his spear. Toda ran down the stairs thinking of the layout of the palace.

  There’s a sewer outlet just outside of the city, I think.

  He scurried across the plaza, out the southern gate, and around the walls to find the sewer opening. Toda stripped off his official outer garments and hid them. Then he began crawling into the sewer and up and through the levels of the palace. The way twisted and turned but he came out at an opening at the dungeon level. A muscled guard posted down the hallway stopped him in his tracks.

  No time to lose, no time to lose, Toda thought. There’s no way around the guard and no place to hide.

  He scratched his head perplexed as to what to do next when a door just up and across the hall cracked open ever so slightly. Toda slipped back in the shadow of the corridor where he stood and watched. After a moment’s hesitation, the other door creaked open more and a head he recognized peeked out into the corridor. Seeing no one, she stuck her head out looking back behind the door. Toda looked again down the hall to see what she was looking at. The guard was grinning ear to ear and shuffling his anxious feet.

  Ah ha, Toda thought. I’ve stumbled onto a tryst.

  The maid tiptoed down the hall to her lover. The man wrapped the girl in his arms, kissing her hard. A sudden noise at the end of the hall behind them caused the guard to resume his sentry stance. The maid scurried back to the room from whence she’d come.

  “Guard!” a voice called from the room behind the sentry. He turned and bolted into the room as the girl disappeared from the hallway.

  It’s now, or never, Toda thought. He dashed across the hall and jerked open the closing door. The maid spun around, her face red and eyes jittery. Her arms flew back as her mouth opened to scream.

  Toda clasped his hand over her mouth and put his index finger to his lips with the other hand. The girl deflated but began trembling. He slowly removed his restraint.

  “Who are you? What do you want?” the maid asked.

  Toda glanced back at the doo
r listening for a sound before looking back at the girl.

  “Forgive me, I mean you no harm. I’m desperate to see the queen. I have seen you before when on business here. Can you take me to her?”

  “Foolish man, yes, I’ve seen you before but in some different clothes. I can’t take you to Her Majesty. The guards would lock me in the dungeon.”

  Toad smiled at the girl, “Not that handsome guard you were just kissing.”

  The girl’s eyes flashed, and she started to flee when Toda grabbed her forearm.

  “Please, I mean you no harm. No one has to know you took me to her. I must see the queen. It’s urgent! Her life may be in danger.” He released her arm.

  The maid considered his comment for a moment, “Her life in danger, you say?”

  “Yes.”

  Her lips pinched, staring at him. She grabbed his forearm and started to lead him down the corridor and up a set of stairs.

  “These stairs are only used by the servants. Not likely you’d be seen, but duck out of sight if someone enters the hallway.”

  Toda got worried before long moving through the palace. As he was about to abandon the girl, she stopped, and turned to him whispering, “This leads to the queen’s wardrobe room. Wait here. I’ll see if she’s in her suite.”

  Before Toda could react, the girl slipped into the room and closed the door in his face.

  What if she’s tricked me and gone to get a guard? He wondered. As he finished the thought, the door opened, and she reached jerking him into the room.

  “Wait here!” she whispered and went to the adjoining room.

  Toda heard the maid’s nervous chatter then Queen Kayla gasp.

  Should I get away before she summons the guards, he wondered.

  He was about to escape then remembered what he’s seen on Ickletor’s proclamation. Overruling his fear, he rushed to the door and into the queen’s presence. She gasped seeing him but didn’t scream, just glared at him.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Kayla asked. “How dare you creep into my private quarters?”