Author's note: This one is not my best and frankly was meant to be depressing. And I used all of my vocabulary in it, which I now feel was supererogatory (see what I mean?). So keep your dictionary software open.
The herald in red velvet announced “All rise. Queen Marla, ruler of the empire of Kaglash arrives.”
All eyes turned towards the entrance of the court as the beautiful Queen walked regally through it to her throne. As always her sight evoked awe, envy, treachery, devotion and love in those eyes. Thufir, the chief of royal security, watched them with engrossment. He was thinking of what the herald had announced. Only the day before she had been just Queen Marla, not the ruler of the empire. The king Lukkan had died in battle leaving her the burden of ruling his vast kingdom. He remembered that she had been just a callow young princess of the nearby kingdom of Zentyr when Lukkan had proposed to her a year ago. Now the responsibility of a sovereign of state was abruptly cast on her leaving her little time to even mourn her husband's death. Will she live up to our expectations?
Marla was concentrating on performing her duties. But she found it exceedingly daunting as her will was being drained by the effort it took to hold back the whirl storm, the wailing dirge that was emanating at the back of her mind. Her king and his entourage had been slaughtered in an ambush. The discontented populace of the kingdoms he had amassed in his tireless expansionist campaign looked up to her with hope of peace. The royal counsel had advised her of the cabal of noblemen and traders who were, at that opportune moment, plotting to overthrow her. Already there was talk of a usurper in their midst, someone who had betrayed the king’s war plans to his enemies. She felt weariness that she knew only sleep could obviate, but she could not afford that luxury.
A lot of ruckus coming from a corner of the room attracted her attention. Thufir was hustling through the court towards Marla’s throne.
“Your Highness, we have received credible reports that an assassin has been planted in the court. We have to search everyone”, Thufir whispered.
Even though he did not appear perturbed Marla could see the nervousness in his darting glances. With utmost restrain she intoned, “Do the needful.”
Thufir ordered the royal guard to cordon off the hall and bar all exits. Everyone would be frisked irrespective of their rank or status. Marla was observing her subjects, looking for signs of resignation, fear or cowardice when a sudden movement caught her eye. The court jester was being restrained by several guards while he was maniacally shouting inanities and trying to resist them. Thufir brought forth the jester towards her. He held a dagger in his hand.
“He had this on him. I cannot imagine what he planned to do with it”, he growled.
“The rascal, I know him; he always made us laugh with his histrionics. All the while he was plotting against me? The obscenity…..” The thought of her and her king laughing at his jokes and performances seemed repugnant.
Her enemies would be watching her, she knew, and they would judge her from her reaction. She had to show them her resolve. She had to set an example.
“This man is to be hanged unto death at dawn tomorrow. Find out who hired him and mete out the same punishment to them. Now get him out of here.” Marla tried to overcome the revulsion she felt, there were impending affairs of the kingdom to deal with.
The queen’s orders were executed expeditiously. As the sun rose the next day Thufir was standing on the ramparts of the castle overseeing the hanging. The court jester, whose name was Tyler, trembled and sobbed violently as he was led to the gallows. In comparison the other prisoner, they had found one more assassin in the hall the previous night, was calm and reticent as he went about the requisite formalities. Thufir found it highly unusual that there were two assassins in the hall. All through the night he had pondered the weirdness of the situation. He regarded himself as an excellent judge of character; after all he had reached his current post at a prodigious pace only on account of his shrewd manipulative nature. But no matter how much he ruminated he just could not make out Tyler to be an assassin. The fact that he was a court jester only made things queerer. Was he partaking in a blunder?
The other assassin was undoubtedly a true ruffian. He had on him several blades and had slashed at one of the guards who had tried to shackle him. He was disguised as a member of the priesthood and had sneaked in among the retinue of the high priest. During his interrogation Thufir had noticed several hideous scars on him and like any other mercenary he had revealed all he knew about his employers after very light torture. But Tyler’s interrogation was a different story. His claim that his weapon was meant to protect the queen seemed specious. Even when faced with inhumanely bloody torment he repeated the same babble about being innocent and never harming anybody and loving the kingdom and queen. But he did not appear to be a hardened murderer. Physically he was emaciated and some of his muscles had atrophied due to lack of recent physical activity. Were their enemies so parsimonious as to risk hiring a tyro?
After the hanging had concluded Thufir went into his office to reflect on the case. Based on the leads he had he knew that the assassins or assassin was hired by a duke who apparently was an intermediary of their enemies. The assassin was a loner with no known family. Tyler on the other hand had a family; his mother and sister were in the neighboring kingdom of Zentyr. He had been a minor attendant at the pantry in the palace of the king of Zentyr till he moved to Kaglash about a year ago and joined the group of court jesters there. Thufir thought his family could shed some light on him and they had been brought to the castle and were being questioned. The investigators had also retrieved from his house a few artifacts belonging to Tyler. They were placed on his desk and he went through them one by one. Books, trinkets and several other inconsequential private items constituted the bulk of it.
There was a battered old journal among them. Thufir leafed through the pages and randomly read passages from it. He was alarmed at first and then enraged.
“Utter gibberish” he grumbled, “Insanity….” He hurled the journal into the fire place and after returning to his seat quaffed down the steaming cup of tea that was on his desk. He had not been so discomfited in recent times. He hollered for his adjutant and enquired about the court jester’s family whom they had incarcerated. The mother had not survived the torture during her interrogation but the sister was still alive.
“Release her immediately and issue a statement that the court jester Tyler was mentally unsound” Thufir ordered, “and that he was a ……….bong addict who in an inebriated state had tried to harm our beloved queen.” He could not help but chuckle when he said that. He had lied.
“Ridicule that which you cannot accept,” he thought. Thufir painfully recalled the torture that Tyler had been subjected to. His guttural, almost bestial screams were echoing in his mind. Thufir knew he wouldn't be able to sleep well for many days.
Pages of the court jester’s journal had begun to char among crackling embers in the fire place. It had opened at a dog eared page and the hurriedly scrawled ravings of the court jester were transiently visible before turning into ash. It read,
“I know that pouring forth my misery is to no avail. It has always only made me sink deeper into depression and hence I refrain from dwelling on my sentiments. Today I had an insight into the crux of my quandary. It rained today, a pleasant drizzle that lasted for hours and I gazed out the window relishing every moment of it. I felt a longing to go out for a walk in the rain. Then I noticed that there were other faces too, looking out through the gloomy windows along my street. Did they also desire the same? To loose all inhibitions and play in the rain? When the drizzling stopped I felt disappointment for losing an opportunity to enjoy myself. And then I related the situation to my cursed fate.”
“Isn't the disappointment in my life an extrapolation of this feeling of loss? I think that abnegating myself the experiences that my senses crave for has had the same consequence, but in a larger scale. It is impossibly taxing to be unable to reach out and touch the object I desire even when only inches have to be traversed. Protracting this act of self-denial even though it goes against each and every instinct engraved in my bones seems to have ultimately disintegrated my mind into its basic primordial constituents. I have to forsake my instincts and rely absolutely on my disjointed intellect whenever I have the strength for it.”
“Am I turning into an automaton? Should I live my life as if it is a preprogrammed ritual? I feel the routine I follow day after day is a violation of my self, a slow but unwavering destruction or self imposed decay of my soul. I sense little, there is only a numbness that dilutes all my sentient emotions. But the numbness is overwhelming and every moment it threatens to devour the dregs of my personality that have somehow persisted. It feels as if my consciousness has been dulled and my soul has withdrawn into another realm, watching my pathetic life impassively, sensing emotions vicariously.”
“They say that the destitute crave for a revolution with the hope of ameliorating their life in the process. Well, I am destitute as I have been feeling utterly worthless for years now. I know that due to my shortcomings I will never attain my prize, but I have an irrepressible hope for a change, a revolution that will overturn the current circumstances.”
“In any case she needs all the help she can get now, she needs it now more than ever. I will not let any harm come to her. I am no soldier but I must do what I can to help and protect her.”
That had been the last entry Tyler had made in his private journal and it was now lost forever.
______
The herald in red velvet had announced “All rise. Queen Marla, ruler of the empire of Kaglash arrives.”
All eyes had turned towards the entrance of the court as the beautiful Queen walked regally through it to her throne. As always her sight had evoked awe, envy, treachery, devotion and love in those eyes. Tyler had been eagerly waiting for that moment and as the queen entered he had watched her with only love in his eyes, boundless but unrequited love.
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