Chapter Forty

The Surprise

The splendors of all great societies come to an end when their rulers give up courage and honor for treachery and deceit

Aden

5L 21/21/20/14

"Oh! That is very unfortunate."

Marcus was sitting on his exquisite golden throne and going through the routine proceedings of the Council when one of his guards whispered something in his ears. Marcus wanted to sing, even dance, but he made a face that made people assume as if he had lost a limb. His acting skills had improved a lot. He addressed his Council in a croaky voice accompanied by moist eyes. "Yesternight, one of our most distinguished Council members, Paul Andrews, breathed his last."

All the people inside the Great hall gasped aloud.

Marcus continued his performance. "We all know that his health had been deteriorating for the last couple of weeks. He had been unable to attend the Council meetings as well. And today we got this unfortunate news."

Marcus paused for effect and then took a deep breath. "Paul was one of the visionaries of our time. A great scientist, scholar but above all a very kind human being. He was a father figure to me and was loved by all Adeners. People always looked up to him for inspiration. His demise, in these turbulent times, is a huge loss for Aden. May his soul rest in peace. I declare three days of official mourning in his honor."

"Yes, there definitely should be mourning." A loud voice from the entrance of the Great Hall interrupted Marcus's poignant eulogy. Everyone looked in its direction. Many eyes became wide, some hands went to their mouths while others just froze. Paul stood there in flesh and blood. He walked menacingly towards Marcus and his booming voice echoed in the hall. "Mourning not on my death, but on the demise of honor and values of the person who occupies the throne. On the murder of morals and virtues in our beautiful world."

A ghostly silence engulfed the Great hall. Blank faces stared at the two adversaries. Marcus's face had lost all its color. Paul's face was flushed and his eyes were breathing fire. He stopped right in front of the throne and glowered at Marcus. "I assume you didn't like this surprise. Did you? You know what? The splendors of all great societies come to an end when their rulers give up courage and honor for treachery and deceit."

Paul gestured behind his back, where his son John, dragged a person into the hall. Paul turned his glare towards Michael, who was sitting to the right side of the king. "You bribed my butler to mix green-weeds in my food to make me ill. But you forgot that I am quite a decent chemist as well. It didn't take me too long to understand that someone wanted my health to worsen so that he can finish me off. I stopped taking that food and pretended to fall ill. My family and I tried to catch the culprit but were too naive to suspect our butler, who had been dutifully serving us for two cycles. But rapacity can corrupt purest of souls.'

'Then yesterday he tried to strangulate me in my sleep. Poor chap didn't know that my son was guarding me in my chamber. It just took a couple of slaps for him to blurt out your name. And I can take a very educated guess that on whose instructions you ordered him to kill me," Paul added returning his attention to Marcus.

Marcus slapped the side of his throne and stood up. "How dare you put baseless allegations on your king? I can put you on trial for treason and banish you from this world."

Paul gave a cold smile. "Do you know how hollow you sound? Your guilt is written all over your face and evident in your stuttering voice. I dare you to put me on trial and banish me. You know that is not an option or you would have done that long ago."

Michael tried to shield his king. "You can't prove anything. Your butler's testimony will count for nothing in a trial. Bound by gratitude, he is obliged to say whatever you want."

Paul curled his upper lip. "Don't get so charged up Michael. I have not come here seeking a trial. I know there is no hope for justice in this place anymore. I just came here to show this Council the real face of our king. He just said that he saw me as a father figure, so he just tried to do to me what he did to his father. We had heard rumors surrounding King Julian's death but we chose to ignore them. However, after this botched attempt on my life, we don't need any more evidence to see the truth. We now know that our beloved king removes obstacles from his path by getting them strangulated in their sleep. He did that to his father to get the throne and attempted the same on me to retain it."

Marcus pointed his finger at Paul. "How dare you accuse and abuse me in front of my Council? How dare you call me a murderer? I will have your head on a spear and parade it in every corner of Aden."

"That would be more befitting of a king, rather than these filthy little games you chose to play. Be a man. Come out in open and face your adversary."

"Since you have admitted yourself that you are my adversary, you are in clear rebellion against the crown. I immediately dismiss you from the Council and ask the Council to initiate a closed-door trial against you. Till then you are under arrest."

Paul broke into a burst of menacing laughter. "Thousands of my supporters were waiting outside when I walked into this hall. Someone spread the word that the king was trying to falsely implicate me and put me behind bars. If I don't safely walk out of here, they will barge into this building. Your handful of guards won't be able to stop them and you will be beaten to a pulp before your army reaches here. I didn't simply walk in here to get meekly arrested."

Paul then landed his last punch. "I know you have dung filled up in that little brain of yours, but trying to kill me was the stupidest thing to do even from your petty standards. Public support for you is hanging by a thread and the last thing you want is a rebellion. And a rebellion is what you are going to get. I promise you that."

Paul turned around and stormed out of the Great hall. A loud cheer erupted in the crowd that was waiting outside to see him. Paul waved to the masses, climbed in his car, and drove out of Aurae.

While Adeners were cheering their popular leader, the deathly silence inside the Great Hall resembled a graveyard. Marcus's opponent had flushed his seemingly perfect plan down the toilet and ripped apart his mask to reveal his ugly face to the public. His biggest critic now held the key to his fate.

***

Standing on the same balcony where his father had spent a lot of sleepless nights, Marcus absently stared at the magnificent Aurae sleeping under a blanket of peace. He knew that this exterior calm belied the hidden turbulence. He could sense a storm coming for him.

"Losing your sleep over your problems, just like your father, isn't going to solve them."

Marcus turned around to see her mother entering the balcony. "Tell me what should I do? You are always so full of advice." Marcus shot back.

"You should have sought my advice before carrying out that foolish plan. Trying to kill Paul, when you have bigger enemies banging down at your door, was the stupidest thing to do."

"I think I have heard that before. Tell me something that I don't already know."

Miriam took a deep breath. She clearly didn't want to further upset her son. "What are you planning to do now?"

"To be honest I am clueless about what to do. Paul has gone to his ancestral town and is assembling his supporters there. He promised me a rebellion and he looks he has taken that promise to his heart."

"You can't sit here and just let him do whatever he wants."

"He is called the king of the commoners. Thousands of people will be charging at our palace calling for my head if I even touch him."

"You should have thought about that before trying to assassinate him. You have already started a fire and now you must find a way to extinguish it."

"If you have any ideas I am all ears." Marcus scoffed.

"You know what is Paul's weakness? His weakness is that he is a kind man with a soft heart and kindness is a frailty that must be exploited by the ruthless. Paul lives his life for other people. He won't let others suffer because of him. And we must use this flaw against him."

"Can you be a little more specific? I am exactly not in a mood to solve riddles."

"You must send a loud and clear message to Paul. Choose a strong messenger who can instill devil's fear in Paul's heart while delivering this message. I think Michael shall be a good choice. Call him tomorrow morning and I will tell him what exactly he has to do."

Marcus looked at his mother. She had a sardonic smile on her face and a spark in her eyes. Marcus decided to trust his mother. After all, she was the one who had put him on this throne and now she was going to save it.

***

Paul was meeting some of his old friends, inside his family home in the town of Agar, when one of his men came into the room. "Sorry to disturb you, but Commander Michael is here. He has brought a large convoy of Aden's army with him. We have stopped them outside the town, but he seeks your permission to enter and deliver you a message on behalf of king Marcus."

Paul nodded. "I was expecting someone, although not with a huge convoy. I think our king has become desperate. Okay just send him in."

Paul received Michael in the artistically designed hall of his ancestral home. Some of the greatest minds of this loop had graced this house. Paul's friends and supporters were still there when Michael entered the hall.

Michael greeted Paul with a sly smile. "Hello Paul, Good to see you in such great health."

"You tried your best to take it away but God had his eyes on me."

"It is your story against mine. I will say that whatever you think happened is just a fragment of your imagination, and you will say otherwise. So let us just keep that aside and have a meaningful chat."

"I think you have a message for me from the king. I can't wait to hear that."

"Not in front of the whole town." Michael gestured towards the people in the hall. "Some matters are best discussed behind closed doors."

Paul requested his supporters to leave them alone. Only Paul, his son John and Michael were left in the room.

"Now tell me, why Marcus has sent you here?"

"He asks you for some time. You know the turn of the loop is just four weeks away. Our enemies are ready to strike us and this will be the worst time to fight amongst ourselves. This is only going to weaken our strengths. Our king wants you to go out to the public and declare that you have reached a truce with the king till the turn of the loop. You and King Marcus will sort out your differences after dealing with the foreign enemies."

"And why would I do that? You know very well that I don't buy any of his crap about Elisians planning to attack us. I am clearly against him sending any troops to that world and I will firmly stand by my opinion."

"I knew you won't give in. Now since you have taken a stand against the King and the Council, you are in clear rebellion against the crown. And it leaves the Council with only one option. To take out the rebels."

"These are just empty threats. If Marcus wanted to kill me, he would have done that the day I walked out on him."

"Well, he regrets that missed opportunity. He should have beheaded you right there but you caught him on the wrong foot and he just panicked."

Paul smirked. "Even now he can't do that. He knows that killing me will spark a fire that will be too hot for him to handle."

"But leaving you alive and unchecked will do even more damage. You with your venomous tongue will instigate more people against the crown than your silent dead-body. At least by killing you we cut the head of the snake and hope that the snake never rises. Maybe people might have second thoughts about the rebellion after seeing the fate of the rogue town that housed a rebel leader. "

That last sentence caught Paul's attention. "What do you mean by that? What are you up to?"

"Three thousand soldiers, armed with the latest weapons, have surrounded this town. I have orders that if you don't accept the king's proposal, I must kill every person in this town. Men, women, and children. Everyone. On the charges of treason and rebelling against the crown."

"Marcus will never get away with this. The Council will never approve this."

"Oh come on Paul! You are smarter than this. You know that the Council is a mere puppet in the king's hands. He has also invoked the Right of the King, which gives him full authority to take emergency decisions to quell the rebellion. This will be passed off as one such necessary step. He doesn't need the Council's approval to dispose of the rebels."

"You can't kill thousands of innocents just like that."

Michael brought his face near Paul's. He could see that bloodlust in Michael's eyes. "How many people are here? More than ten thousand? When we kill them all, this news will spread like wildfire. It will serve as a very good example of what happens to people who go against the crown."

Paul tried a last roll of the dice. "The soldiers won't shoot at their people."

"These soldiers have been under training for years. They have been brainwashed to believe that whoever stands in their path is their enemy. But I must admit, they need some real field practice before going to that dark world. There they might have to kill many innocent people and I don't want their hands to shake when they do so. This mission provides me a great opportunity to test their mental strength. I have handpicked some of my most stone-hearted soldiers for this mission. They will shoot first, and in the ensuing chaos, others will follow suit. You don't worry about the soldiers. I have that aspect perfectly covered."

There was a sinister chill in Michael's tone that made Paul's blood run cold. These were no empty threats. Michael meant what he said and was even looking forward to this massacre. After all, he was a descendant of Henry, who had massacred thousands of people. Paul knew those character traits carried down the generations in these worlds. He couldn't afford to take a chance against him.

"Give me some time. Let me think over it."

"What do you want to think? You don't have a choice. Anyways I am hungry so I give you an hour while I have my lunch."

"Tell me, how will you face your conscience if you kill all these people?" Paul tried to invoke emotions in a heartless demon. Conscience, justice, mercy – such words meant nothing to Michael.

"Don't put that on me. I am doing what I think is the best for this world. Now the gun is in your hands. You have to decide whether you want to pull the trigger or put it down. You will kill all these people if you make the wrong choice. It is your ambitions versus the lives of your followers. And make your decision quickly. Don't keep me waiting for too long and tempt me into doing something I so much want to do."

Michael stormed out of the room. Paul looked at his son John for some advice.

"We don't have a choice father. We neither have men nor weapons to fight their troops. We need time to gather our people and put up any sort of resistance. Michael is right, if you get killed here, there might be uprisings but there will be no revolution. We need some time and for that, we have to accept their terms."

***

Thousands of Paul's supporters were waiting for him in the central square of Agar. Aden's army had moved into the town and surrounded the square. Paul walked to a raised platform in the center and addressed his people under the shadow of guns. Michael stood beside him flashing a wide grin.

"The turn of the loop is just a few weeks away and we suspect that our enemies in that other world are planning an attack on us. In these critical times, we cannot afford to fight amongst ourselves. King Marcus has asked me for a truce so that he can deal with the foreign threat. Once that is done we can try and sort out our differences. Looking at the current circumstances, I have decided to accept his peace offer."

A loud collective groan went up in the crowd.

"He killed his father."

"We must punish the murderer King."

"He must give up the throne."

Many people started shouting at once. Paul raised his hand and asked people to calm down.

"Yes, he has to answer to a lot of things and we will ask him all these questions once we have overcome our common enemy. Till then I request all my brothers and sisters to adhere to this truce and not indulge in any activities against the regime or oppose any of their orders. Believe me, I have taken this decision for our world's sake and your own good."

Many people voiced their disagreement. Some even started booing but Paul ignored them and quietly walked away from the square.

Michael had expertly manipulated Paul's weakness and forced him to accept his terms. For now, he had secured a very important victory for Marcus. He gave a victorious smile on their way back towards Paul's house. "I must say that was a job very well done. Now to maintain this truce you and your son will remain under house arrest. My troops will be guarding this town on my behalf. I am leaving behind some very capable commanders who will not hesitate to wipe out this whole town if they feel someone is not staying in line. I hope you will not give them a chance to do any such thing."

Michael got inside his vehicle. "You know I was quite disappointed. I thought you will not give in and I might get some action. Hopefully, I will have some action when I visit you the next time." Michael grunted and slammed the door of his car on his face.

Paul absently looked at him drive away. Like thousands of his followers, he just hoped that he had made the right choice.