Chapter No. 35 Sīcārius

When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

Dampness permeated the hard stone with a clammy ugliness. The night often brought that to the castle, especially after an evening rain. But, Grimsy didn't mind. He enjoys a stroll down the long passageways that lead past the east battlements. A nightly constitutional invigorates him, and best of all, no one bothers him.

Usually.

The noise of a bolt slicing the air startled Grimsy. He felt a sting on the side of his neck. His hand was instinctively drawn to the point of pain. It came away moistened with blood.
Realizing he was under attack, Grimsy hit the hard stone floor and began crawling for cover. He slipped his stiletto dagger from its sheath and held it ready for what, he did not know.

He stopped and listened. The sounds of leather slapping stone faded into the background noise of the night. Torchlight flickered down the corridor in the direction he had just come from. The light grew brighter.

"Are you harmed, my lord?" a familiar voice echoed on stone.

Grimsy got up. "I'm not sure."

Tollan and two guards ran up to him. A wiry thin-faced man, Tollan seemed too weak to be a bodyguard, but his strength and courage were legendary.

"Let me see," Tollan said, holding a torch close so that he could examine Grimsy's neck. "I think it is but a nick, my lord. We'll have Logen look at it."

One of the guards picked up the crossbow bolt. "This must be the offending instrument," he said, holding it out to Tollan.

Tollan examined it. "This quarrel has falcon feathers. We may be able to trace its origin, but I have no doubt it's from the opposition."

"Yes," Grimsy said, "they have been a royal pain of late."

"You should take more caution, my lord," Tollan said. "You make a tempting target when you are on your nightly sojourn."

"Good thing they have a lousy aim," Grimsy said, chuckling.

"Let's get you to the surgeon," Tollan said.

The Royal Surgeon examined Grimsy's neck with intense curiosity. He had a puffy face with bulging eyes that appeared as frogeyes. "You are quite lucky, my lord. That arrow just broke the flesh. The wound should heal nicely. Just keep it bandaged for a couple of days."

A knock drew everyone's attention to the door. Tollan opened it to admit a guard.

"What brings you to disturb Lord Grimsley?"

The young man in a chain mail coif and Hauberk bowed. "A woman was apprehended near the corridor where you were attacked, my lord."

"Have her brought to the Throne Chamber."

"Yes, my Lord."

Grimsy smiled. "Duty calls."

"How can you be so calm," Tollan said, "when your life came within inches of being taken from you?"

"The gods have smiled on me, my dear Tollan. I can afford to be amicable."

Tollan shook his head.

Grimsy and Tollan hurried to the Throne Chamber, but there was no one there. Grimsy sank into the throne and relaxed. Tollan stood off to the side and was soon joined by three guards.

After a boring fifteen-minute wait, the large oaken doors of the chamber swung open and a guard hustled a young woman up to the throne. Her bare feet made little slaps on the cold stone. Her body was covered with a sheet, which she struggled to hold closed. Her waist-length blond hair swung like a pendulum when she walked and her expressive green eyes glared with disgust at Grimsy.

Grimsy pointed at her. "This is who?" he asked the guard.

"Lady Mocha, my lord. She claims she was simply taking a stroll, but we found these bolts on her." He held them out.

"Let me see one of those," Grimsy ordered.

The guard handed them to him.

"These are identical to the one that wounded me," Grimsy said to Tollan.

After Tollan examined them, he said, "Identical, my lord."

"I know you didn't shoot at me," Grimsy said to Lady Mocha. "Who was with you?"

Lady Mocha jutted her jaw out and pressed her lips tight.

"What was she wearing?" Grimsy asked.

"I'm not sure, my lord," the guard answered. "I wasn't there when she was stripped."

"It's just as well," Grimsy said, with a grin. "You can go now."

The guard's eyes widened. "Do you wish me to return, my lord?"

"No. We'll take care of her."

"As you wish, my lord," he said with a bow.

The guard departed, closing the doors behind him. Grimsy stared at the woman for several minutes.

"You know what your problem is?" he finally said to her.

She tilted her head and gave him a defiant look.

"You believe that you can resist divulging your cohorts' names, don't you?"

"Are you going to torture me?" she said, sounding indifferent.

Grimsy smiled. "Heavens no. We don't use the Inquisition any more. It was simply too crude. I prefer more subtle ways of persuasion."

"Torture by any other name," she said with a mocking tone. "You still treat prisoners with little concern for their dignity. You have taken my clothing from me and have given me this rag to cover my nakedness. Is this how the new Emperor treats woman?"

"I'm sorry about your clothes. They're not suppose to take them, but old habits die hard."

"In that case, give me my clothing back."

"I would like to, but for what I have in mind, you won't need any clothing."

He eyes filled with anger. "Is it your practice to have your way with female prisoners?"

"Oh, no," he said, sounding offended. "I wouldn't do that. No, I have a much better idea."

Her eyes filled with confusion.

"Come with me," he ordered her, gesturing to the door.

"Do you need assistance, my lord?" Tollan asked.

"Yes, but only you."

Tollan motioned for the guards to leave.

With Tollan following him, Grimsy escorted Lady Mocha down to the lower levels of the castle, which housed the former dungeons. The instant Grimsy opened a chamber door, Tollan smiled. Up to now, he had had no idea what his Lord was up to, but now he had a good idea.

Grimsy pulled his reluctant prisoner over to what appeared to be a large well. He lifted a wooden cover aside while Tollan ignited several torches with the one he was carrying.

"Do you like bugs?" Grimsy asked Lady Mocha.

"Bugs?" She stared with a clueless look.

"You know: insects."

Her face twisted with imagined disgust and she made a more concerted effort to keep the two halves of her sheet together. "Oh god, I hate them."

Grimsy sported a huge grin. "Good." He pointed down the well. "I want you to look down here."

She reluctantly approached the well, bent over, and looked. She quickly straightened up with a look of horror. "What are they?"

"Dragon beetles," Grimsy told her. "They just love to eat fresh meat."

She gave him a look of disbelief.

Grimsy turned to Tollan. "There's some piglets in a cage over there." He pointed to the back of the chamber.

Tollan walked to the back, found the cage, and grabbed a piglet. He brought it over to Grimsy despite its vociferous protests.

"Watch," he ordered her.

She carefully bent over and watched Grimsy toss the piglet into the pit. The instant it hit, the bottom of the pit erupted with violent activity. Beetles the size of silver dollars surged into a mound over the pig with a sickening roar of clicking noises. The piglet squealed in pain as the beetles began consuming its flesh.

Lady Mocha reeled back, her face frozen in revulsion.

Grimsy laughed. "Oh, come now. You're missing all the fun."

"How could you be so cruel?" she cried.

"What cruel? The insects have to eat, just like every other living thing."

"Why are you showing me this disgusting spectacle?"

Grimsy grinned. "It should be crystal clear. If you don't tell us who helped you attack me, you will become these voracious insects next meal."

He eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Oh, no! You wouldn't suffer me such a horrible death?"

"Why do you protest? I am within the law in having you executed in any manner that I wish."

"Please, no!" she cried.

Grimsy wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her head down so that she could view the piglet's horrible demise. "Take a good look. All I have to do is shove you into the pit. The beetles will slowly eat you from the outside in."

"No! No!" She screamed. "I will tell you anything you want to know. Please don't throw me in there. Please."

Grimsy looked back at Tollan. They both smiled, but Tollan was most impressed with his Lord's style. Without using any physical torture, he has obtained the names of his attempted assassins.

###

Guards dragged three prisoners in chains across the Throne Chamber. All three were relatively young. One was tall and thin, the other two were of average height.

Grimsy sat up from a slouch. Tollan stood alongside him.

"Why are these prisoners in leg chains?" he asked the guard.

The guard's face telegraphed his confusion.

"Never mind," Grimsy said with a dismissive gesture. He turned to Tollan. "I can't understand why they put them in leg fetters. Where can they run to?"

Tollan answered with a grin.

Grimsy glared at the tall, thin man. He was rewarded with dark angry eyes. The man's dark hair fell in curls around his ears and he stood with a slight curve of his spine.

"Sir Gliven. You stand accused of attempted assassination of your Lord and Emperor. How do you answer?"

"Who implicated me in this?" he asked, his eyes exuding disgust.

"The Lady Mocha."

"Lady Mocha would only confess if she were tortured."

Grimsy smiled. "She was not harmed one twit. We don't use torture now, or haven't you heard?"

"All I've heard is that tyranny is still in vogue."

"I do not see why you persist in this misconception. I have worked tirelessly to erase the tyranny of my father's reign."

"What is our fate?" Sir Gliven said, sounding impatient.

"Well," Grimsy said with a mock sigh, "I have decided that we will revert to the old ways. You obviously had some misconstrued reason to attempt my murder. If your reasons are pure, then you will survive a contest."

"Contest?"

"Yes. You and I will combat to the death. If I win, your friends will be executed. If you win, then your original plan will have succeeded."

"I am in no position to oppose your plan," said Sir Gliven. "But, what of Lady Mocha?"

"She is safe despite the outcome."

Sir Glivan nodded.

"Take these men to their cell," he ordered the guard. "And, remove their fetters."

The guard bowed. "As you wish, my lord."

After they left, Tollan came forward. "Some would consider your plan reckless, my lord."

"Do not despair. I will win. I've been taking lessons from Sir Levan."

"I pray that your luck will sustain you."

"Luck has nothing to do with my plan, dear Tollan."

The crowds began arriving long before the spectacle was to begin. No one had ever seen a joust in which one of the knights was the Emperor. But, this was more than a simple tilting.
Emperor Grimsley the Second was about to combat his opponent to the death. The idea of it was so outrageous it just had to be exciting.

The excitement escalated when Sir Glivan appeared on the jousting field. Dressed in full combat armor, he accepted a lance from a squire and made ready. His lance was not the blunted jousting variety. The weapon had a sharp pointed spike at its tip and when propelled by a knight at full gallop could easily penetrate armor and flesh.

When Grimsy rode up to his squire, the audience erupted with cheers. He accepted his lance and approached the starting line to await the trumpet blare.
Sir Glivan horse reared up with the trumpet signal, but Grimsy's did not. It gave him a slight velocity advantage. When the two met at the middle of the field, the collision resulted in no unhorsing. Grimsy's lance tip had struck Glivan's pouldron, tearing a ragged hole that drew blood. Glivan's lance slid along Grimsy's shield, bent beyond its coefficient of tension. The two knights dropped their splintered lances and accepted new ones from their squires.

The charge started again. Grimsy adjusted his lance to the right slightly and managed to contact Glivan's shield first. The blow had just enough force to twist Glivan's arm and make him lose his balance. He struck the ground with a clanking thud.

The problem with falling in full armor is that the metal doesn't give and bones tend to break when they can't flex with the collision. In this case Sir Glivan's right genouillière caught a sharp edge and jammed his shoulder. When he finally managed to get up, his sword arm was all but useless. Grimsy descended on him and easily knocked him down. He delivered the coup de grace by inserting his sword between the eye slits in Sir Glivan's helmet.
When Grimsy held up his bloodied sword, the crowd cheered wildly. Trial by combat had its rewards: life, but in this case he was afforded the opportunity to bask in the warmth of his subjects' admiration.