The Chosen King Collection

5. What Went Wrong

Trunculin made his way to the sixth level of the palace. He went past the guards without looking at them, straight to Brenddel"s chambers and pushed the door open without knocking, “Where are they?” he demanded angrily.

Brenddel was signing papers and calmly looked up from his work. His thick arms pushed on the edge of the desk while he raised himself from the chair with a soldier"s economy of movement. Taking the name board from his desk, he said, “Room three,” as he led Trunculin back to the holding rooms, “They all claim they switched the name boards. They tell the same details. No one can explain it.”

“They will explain it to me. How could this happen?” Trunculin fumed as they reached the door. Brenddel had the key ready and unlocked it. The moment the door opened Trunculin heard the tail end of a scream.

In the room there were six men. Three knifemen of Brenddel"s guard stood around three men in the middle of the room. In the middle, the men were hanging from a bar by their arms. Their feet were not touching the floor. Trunculin walked up to the man hanging closest to him, “What happened?”

“I don"t know. I swear it. We switched the name boards like we were supposed to. I swear it!” answered the man.

“You are swearing that between last night and the choosing, someone else snuck into the tower tunnels and placed name boards like these inside the tower near every door?” Trunculin grabbed the name board from Brenddel and held it up to the man"s face. Through his pain, the man saw the name Gordon.

Trunculin said, “We found hundreds of these – all say Gordon – just behind every locked door, so that his name alone would be chosen,” The firstcouncilor got closer to the man"s face, “His name should not have been in the tower at all!”

“It"s not possible. We replaced all of the name boards. I swear…” one of the knifemen hit the hanging man across the rib cage with a wooden training weapon. The man screamed.

Trunculin got even closer to the man"s terrified face, “Every choosing we find men just like you. Men desperate for coin, men that no one will miss. We hire them quietly, then dispose of them quickly. Not this time. This time it will be slow. Scream all you want; no one can hear you outside this room.”

The man began to protest, but Trunculin and Brenddel were already leaving the room. As the door was closed to the sound-proofed holding room, they heard the last, “Pleeeeeasse!” anyone would hear from the men.

Brenddel walked quietly beside Trunculin as he raged, “Never! Never has a name been switched by anyone but us. How could this happen? How many of your men do you think are involved?”

Brenddel glanced briefly at Trunculin, “I put some of my best on guard last night outside the tower. It was a small, loyal three that stood guard inside while those men changed the tiles from the tunnels under the tower. They witnessed those men switch the boards. I am still questioning those guards separately. The top of the tower was covered just like every choosing, so it had to be from the tunnels. I do not know how this happened, but I will find out.”

Trunculin said, “I know you will, Brenddel. I apologize for my fire, but it upsets years of planning. Have you found Loren yet? I knew we should have killed him before he became the hero healer of the villages. They must be hiding him in the filthy low lands.”

Brenddel replied, “That is the first place we looked. We are still doing a house by house search and nothing yet. He couldn"t have gotten far, but with so many new faces here, because of the choosing ceremony, many of the houses are empty. Nearly everyone is here in the palace city. My men were ready for the extra crowd control, we are spread thin. But we will find him.”

“To make this happen, it has to be more than a few. Who is leading them? The conspirers could be many. And I have to go play the kind councilor to our empty-brained King Stathen, and the new boy king from the dirty villages. I"m counting on you,” said Trunculin.

Brenddel asked, “What will we do with our new king? He may not be as weak as your first choice. We weren"t watching this Gordon boy.”

“I can keep most of the plan the same, with a few alterations,” said Trunculin, “I"m meeting with the mystic guild now.”

“He"s already arrived through the tunnels. No one knows he is here but us. He knows you are coming,” said Brenddel.

“Of course he does, he"s a mystic,” replied Trunculin. Brenddel simply looked at the firstcouncilor and walked away as the sun slowly disappeared from the world.