Kill the king

Everyone waited eagerly for the giant to recover.

The leader feared the giant might just decide to kill them all in a rage, so he was decided to let no stranger into the mountain until he had spoken to the giant. In the meantime, the raven and his band slept in tents out in the plateau that stretched before the gate to the mountain. The nurse visited the raven every day, even after he had recovered from his injuries. She brought him books to teach him their ancient language through their history.

Over the following weeks the raven realized it wasn’t too late for him, that he could stay there and live a simple life. And then, one day, the giant woke up. The raven and the nurse were by his bed, as they had been every day. She had fallen asleep on the raven’s shoulder and was startled by the giant’s dry cough. She left to fetch their leader, leaving the raven and the giant alone. The giant drank some water and asked,

Where am I, w-what happened?

The giant felt his face with his huge hands and realized he had a thick, long beard.

What the. How long have I been—

The raven stopped him,

Everything is fine now, giant. You and I marched into that town, remember?

The giant nodded slowly.

With the crazy people, yes.

We were both in pretty bad shape after the fight, but these nice people helped us.

Who?

Enemies of the king in the north—The giant sighed with relief—Actually, we’ve been waiting for you to recover for some weeks now. Their leader wants to talk to you. I’ve been studying their traditions and—

The giant smiled and said,

And practicing some traditions as well, huh? Nice nurse by the way—

The giant started to laugh, which soon turned to dry cough. The raven gave him some more water and said,

Please, take it easy. You’re still recovering—The raven paused while the giant drank—You were right. A madman rules the north. The people who saved us, they have been hiding from him for a long time. They deserve to have their land back.

And you want us to help them, right?

But only if you also want to. I… it was too close. I feel like a fool. We could’ve died in that town. And for what?—The raven looked into the giant’s eyes—If you say you don’t want to get into a conflict, I will stand by your decision.

The giant opened his mouth to speak, but stopped after he heard footsteps. The leader walked in with the nurse right behind him. The leader said to the giant,

Hello, I’ve been waiting to meet you.

The giant was unimpressed.

And you are?

I am the leader of the people under the mountain, rightful heir to—

The giant interrupted him,

Right, right. Let’s skip the formalities: what do you want?

The leader turned to tell the nurse,

Dear, do you mind?

The nurse left in silence and the leader continued,

Our plan is simple. We want to kill the northern king in a single ambush. His empire will fall apart after his death, you can be sure about that.

The giant raised an eye-brow,

How can you be sure about that?

He kills everyone who even slightly overshadows him so that there’s never even a trace of a succession line. He holds on to power through terror and terror alone: his cities and towns are loyal to him because they know that if they conspire against him, he’ll eventually find out and purge them. And he always finds out. He claims ‘the Greater man’ granted him ‘the gift of farsight’, but really, he just has a vast spy network of beggars and children. Once he dies, I’ll take his place and restore our ancient glory. Our ancestors paid his power trip in blood, but now his time is running out.

The raven asked,

Excuse me for asking, but how do we know you’ll be a better leader than him?

The leader frowned, confused with confusion.

What do you mean? Anyone is a better leader than that psychopath.

But how do we know the person who sits at the throne won’t also be consumed by power?

The question ostensibly offended the leader,

I have spent my whole life preparing for this. I have carried the burden of responsability for my ancient bloodline and people for years now. Do you think there’s a better candidate than that!?

The raven lied,

No, leader, of course no. Please forgive me, I just want what’s best for the northerners.

He knew there was something off about the leader. The leader sighed, relieved, and continued,

Well, thank you for your concern. Now, will you help us kill him?

The giant watched the raven closely. The raven pondered in silence, pacing up and down the tent until he stopped to say,

Yes.

The giant nodded,

I will follow the raven anywhere.

The leader smiled, pleased,

Good, good. Now, the king is a paranoid man, which is how he has survived for so long. He trusts nothing and noone. He never makes his plans public and always travels with a large army. It will be difficult getting to him alone. But if we get to him, we need to burn him. Others have stabbed him, flung him out of windows and poisoned him before. None of that works.

The raven said,

There’s a problem, though.

What?

Say we kill him, you become king and take over the empire. Do you know why we came here?—The leader shrugged his shoulders—A storm of swords and spears is gathering in the south. They will soon take over the whole continent and set their eyes on the North. Like hyenas, they will attack when we are weakest.

What do you suggest, then?

Let’s wait, let them come and fight each other. Then we will attack and crush whoever is left standing. It’s already hard enough to fight any of the two now. If we have to fight them both, we’re doomed. We must wait.

The leader frowned. He despised the raven’s arrogance and finally exploded,

Wait!? You want us to wait!? O-our bloodline has run thin waiting. No! I will not go back to the city under the mountain and tell my people one more time that we have to “wait”. Every single one of my predecessors already used your little plan entirely consisting of “waiting”. Now the northern army is near, they could be here any day now.

The leader paced nervously. He continued, a little less angry,

Also, you say the southern threat is a sure thing, but you could be wrong. Their army could fall, they could be afraid of the Middle Sea, or a thousand other reasons why they would never come up here. No no. What we want is that decrepit motherfucker dead and we want it now. If you help us win, hell, we’ll give you the city under the mountain to rule as you please. Otherwise, be these words our sign of parting, bird or fiend!

He shrieked, upstarting.