Stories thread - King of the Romans PBM

[econ21]

A cave outside Jerusalem

Horst screamed in pain. Why hadn’t he listened to Dirk? He should have known to pay attention when the fellow, normally so carefree and lackadaisical, had approached him so earnestly after the battle outside Acre. Why hadn’t he listened then?

Horst screamed again, as Dusan Kolar extracted yet another of the young Teuton’s fingernails.

*****

“It is not safe for you to stay. You must go. Leave this place - tonight!” Dirk had entreated.

At the time, Horst had been wracked with guilt and self-criticism: “No, I have failed terribly. I cannot flee. I must stay and be punished for my failure.”

“You do not know what is at stake here” Dirk had implored. “Hell, even I don’t know what is at stake here. But I do know if you stay, it will be very, very bad.”

“I don’t know what is at stake? I do not know? You have no idea what I was guarding that night!” Horst looked at his sheepish companion. “You and your drinking. I had a mission. I was entrusted with something, something more important than you can ever imagine. And I lost it, lost it because of you.”

Horst had continued, rounding accusingly on Dirk: “Yes, you must go. You should leave this place! You are not fit to be the Kaiser’s bodyguard. You are not fit to the Kaiser’s dog’s bodyguard! Go, get out! Run!”

And still Dirk had tried to persuade him, pleading helplessly: “Horst, they will kill you if you stay.”

Horst looked uncomprehendingly at the big man and then said shallowly: “It would be no better than I deserve for my failure. You said you are leaving. Well then, just leave.”

Dirk had moved away reluctantly, gave one last imploring look at Horst but been rebuffed by the young Teuton’s accusing glare.

*****

“You should not scream so much.” said Dusan patiently. “It is not that anyone will come. I chose this cave because it is far away from anyone. And very well sound proofed. The Hashashin provide such excellent facilities and for such a modest price. But you should not scream so much. It is most unbecoming for a knight.”

With heavy eyelids, Horst looked at the loathsome man in front of him. Damn it, he would not scream so much if only each act of torture was not so excruciatingly painful!

“Just tell me one thing, young knight, and then you are free to go. Who did you tell about the chalice?”

Horst’s head slumped down on his chest, his arms hanging from chains hammered into the cave walls. “I have already said a thousand times: I told no one. I swear by the virgin Mary, I told no one.”

Dusan looked at the young man, dripping in sweat and blood. He almost believed him.

“But you see, that is simply not possible. Only three of us knew. You, me and the Kaiser.” Dusan explained patiently. “Do you think the Kaiser stole his own Holy Grail? Do you think I stole it and am torturing you just for fun?”

Horst looked up hopelessly: “But I swear, I did not… AAARGH!”

*****

When Horst was revived, he had a few minutes to recuperate. Dusan was preparing to leave the cave.

"Why don't you ask me where the chalice is?" Horst asked in a moment of lucidity.

Dusan turned around surprised: "Why? Do you know?"

Horst shook his head: "No, of course not: I keep telling you, I know nothing about the chalice's disappearance! It was stolen from me! But if you suspect me, why don't you ask me where it is?"

Dusan laughed: "Does it matter? It is just a goblet. I can find another one just like it. The Kaiser will never know."

Horst collapsed in despair. He knew then he would never leave the cave alive.

[OverKnight]

Outside Jerusalem

Otto and his retainers rode into the Kaiser's siege camp. A swarm of men were working constructing rams, towers and ladders, the assault would happen soon. In the distance, Otto could see the Kaiser and his court gathered in front of his tent, no doubt planning the assault.

As he dismounted along with his men, Otto felt pain shoot up his right leg. The wound from two years ago still troubled him and the ride from Acre had not helped. As Otto reached behind him to pull a cane from the saddle, Kurt Altman approached him.

"Quite a surprise to see you here your Grace," Kurt said, "The Kaiser is not expecting you."

"Expected or not, I must speak with him. I must know the truth about the fate of Jerusalem. It is time to see who is in power, the Kaiser or his spider."

Kurt nodded grimly and looked at Otto's retainers, "You won't get within fifty feet of him if you keep your men with you."

"I know, I will go to see him alone and unarmed."

Awkwardly unbuckling his sword belt with his left hand while leaning on the cane in his right, Otto handed his weapon to his squire.

"I'm just an old man with a cane, how could I be a threat?"

Bringing up the cane, Otto twisted the handle and drew two feet of sharpened steel from out of the wood of the barrel. Jamming the narrow dagger back in, he took a few steps toward the camp, and then began limping in a pronounced fashion as he brought the cane back down to support him.

"Lead on Sir Altman, I have business with our lord."

Following the knight, Otto tried to walk with dignity through the camp despite his ruse. The men he passed looked at him with a mixture of emotion. Some viewed him with scorn or indifference, a product of the past few years. Others, veterans he had served with, with pride as they bowed their heads. In a few eyes, Otto even saw pity for a scarred old man. That cut him to the quick more than the derision.

Still, he thought, this needs to be done. I must see if the Kaiser will listen to reason, to keep to his original vision of Outremer and not betray the Church.

Otto chuckled wryly to himself at the last thought, who would have ever thought he would be an advocate for the Papacy? Fate was strange and God's will sometimes ineffable. His expression however quickly darkened.

What if he won't listen? What if, despite the loss of the chalice, Kolar still has his claws in him?

Otto's grip tightened on the cane. Then I will kill the magician. No doubt I will die in the attempt, but if I can remove him, end this madness, I will gladly do it.

[econ21]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is a cooperative story written by Overknight and econ21

Outside Jerusalem, 1210

Otto came to the assembled court. It was strangely empty. There were few German nobles – so many knights had fallen in the battle outside of Acre. Instead, there were small groups of unfamiliar men – men of Slavic appearance and Arabs too. He could see Dusan Kolar to the Kaiser's right. The Germans in the gathering fell into a nervous hush as they became aware of the Duke of Bavaria's presence. The Slavs and Arabs looked sullenly at him, with disdain.

Gripping the cane for support, Otto went down on bended knee in the dirt of the camp and bowed his head.

"Your Majesty, I must speak with you. My letters have gone unanswered, my counsel unheeded. So now I must come to you for the truth. I have heard dark rumors mein Kaiser. Things I not thought possible. Yet, I must ask."

Otto raised his head and glared at Dusan Kolar, his gaze then swung to the Kaiser.

"Do you intend to forsake our agreement with the Church and take Jerusalem for the Reich? Have you decided to abandon your dream of Outremer and set forth like Alexander out into the eastern desert to conquer? Will you be Kaiser, Chancellor and King? It is time that all this be brought into the light, your Majesty."

Henry spoke superciliously. “We fulfilled our agreement with the Church and gave them Jerusalem. It is not our fault they were so careless as to lose it.”

Dusan snickered at the Kaiser’s caustic words.

“March into the desert you said?” the Kaiser continued. “Now, there’s a thought. You have heard about the horse lords approaching? I am getting old. Perhaps I should meet them on my way out of this tiresome world.”

Otto could not recognise the cold indifferent man in front of him. This was not the solicitous facilitator who had accompanied him to on the great crusade. He looked sideways at Dusan, and tightened his grip on his cane, a few strides, a thrust, and it would be over, one way or the other.

“And will I be King?" asked Henry, rhetorically: "I am already King of the Romans; you don’t want to take that away from me do you? But you mean King of Outremer I suppose. Outremer, my dream, you said. A dream of what? Death and the desert?”

The Kaiser paused. “Dusan, you tell Otto what we plan.”

The pagan magician looked stunned. He was never called out of the shadow and required to speak in public at the court. And yet now that Henry was speaking with Dusan’s voice, to come out at this point seemed appropriate.

“Duke Otto.” began Dusan cautiously. “You ask to know the Kaiser’s plans. But that is the wrong question. In future, no one will ask the Kaiser’s plans. They will wait. And when the Kaiser speaks, they will execute those plans.”

Dusan watched as Otto’s jaw clenched:

“You look shocked. But think on this: how many times has the Kaiser consulted the Council of Crusaders during his reign as Chancellor? How many times has he consulted you privately?”

The questions were purely rhetorical – Otto bade his time while Dusan continued, enjoying each blow against the Duke: “And yet you consider yourself special. You believe that when the Kaiser steps down as Chancellor, you would become King of Outremer.”

Henry interrupted definitively: “I am sorry, Otto, there's been a change of plan: it will not happen.”

Otto replied in a flat tone, trying to keep despair from his voice, "It is yours to bestow mein Kaiser and yours to take away. I did not ask for it, you offered it to me. I would ask how the Diet will react to your new autocratic approach? You are not an eastern Potentate, you must consider the Electors, you could be impeached if you defy their will."

Henry looked thoughtful. “Dusan, tell Otto what we plan for the Diet.”

Dusan straightened his shoulders and spoke with disdain: “The Diet is a bunch of old women. Divided into four petty Houses who are given a single province each to conquer and drool appreciatively over. Fools who cluck and squawk over every development and opportunity. They see nothing, understand nothing. They forget this is the Roman Empire, not the scelorotic Roman Republic of Marcellus Aemilius and Numerius Aureolus. It will operate as the dynamic Empire of Caesar and of Augustus. When the Kaiser says march, his generals will march. When he says fight, they will fight. The generals do not tell the Kaiser who to attack, when to fight. That way lies anarchy and impotence.”

Otto rose to his feet, careful to appear that he needed the cane to do so. If he was to kill Dusan, he could strike quicker from a standing position.

"This is madness!", said Otto as his gaze bored into the Kaiser, "I can't believe you, of all people, would listen to the ravings of this fool. You might have the rest of your term to run wild, but as soon as it over, they will clamp down. What of the city before us? How long will you hold it before they know you won't let it go?"

Henry smiled. “Jerusalem? This was never about Jerusalem, was it Dusan? Jerusalem is just a tool, a device to lever us free of the Diet. To ensure there will be no end of my term, to force a confrontation that will prevent the Diet from ever “clamping down” on its Kaiser.”

[GeneralHankerchief]

Rome, 1208

For the past several months, a general malaise had seemed to be settling over the Reich's capital city. This could not be attributed to anything physical; Rome had never seen better days. But despite this, the mood of its denizens had been down. As Governor of the city, Conrad Salier attributed it to an unhappy God. In his studies he had read one play by the Greeks, Oedipus Rex, where a similar, albeit deadlier, malaise fell upon the city of Thebes. Eventually it was determined that the heathen gods were dismayed at the city's ruler, Oedipus, and his previous actions. Conrad was determined that the malaise in Rome not evolve into a plague.

His advisors, those who were still Catholic yet did not believe as fervently as Conrad did, tried to convince the Governor that it was nothing, just a case of boredom. It was, after all, the first time in a while that the city was fairly safe from attack.

However, Conrad would have none of it. As if to illustrate his point, last week a murder of crows had made a nest on top of the steeple of the city's tallest church, atop a cross. When Conrad ordered the nest dismantled upon first seeing it, the crows had returned with a new nest a day later. Clearly, the Lord was displeased.

The question was, why?

Clearly, it was not his fault. While delegating perhaps a bit more responsibility than he should to his subordinates, Conrad did take part in many of the city's affairs, and continued to attend Mass regularly. He did not sin, at least, not to his knowledge. No, the source of this uneasiness had to have come from elsewhere.

"If I am not at fault, who is to blame for this?" Conrad mused aloud. "Surely not anyone else in the Four Houses, for they are all doing their duties and we are now at peace with the Pope. Perhaps it is Swabia and their preparing to destroy France, waiting for the Papal edict to run out. But no, for we have done much worse things than that and face few consequences. I do not believe that Swabia is the problem."

A messenger, clad in dusty armor, entered Conrad's study without knocking. He carried a sealed envelope with him, which Conrad did not immediately notice.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. "I was busy attaining to deep spiritual matters!"

"Cry your pardon, sir, but I believe that there be bigger spiritual matters going on than you're aware of," the messenger said. "I bring this message from Outremer, from Duke Otto himself."

Conrad immediately brightened. Otto was his main source of correspondence from Outremer ever since his father, Maximillian Mandorf, had passed on. The only real bad news that he had brought back so far was the Maximillian had died.

"Thank you for the letter, Sergeant. I apologize that I was short with you earlier. Please make your way to the barracks, I'm sure that you'll be able to get a good rest after a long journey." Then man bowed and departed, leaving Conrad alone with the letter. He broke the seal and read what Duke Otto had to say with increasing horror:

1208

Count Salier,

I do not know if the news has reached you in the west, but all is not well here in Outremer. The Kaiser is a changed man, and I sense the treachery of Dusan Kolar in this matter. I wish I had more information, but I have been pushed aside and left to rot in Acre.

I fear Kolar may be pushing the Kaiser to abandon our agreement with the Church and take Jerusalem permanently. This would be folly. The Magician must be stopped, I will try, but I may fail.

We have had our disagreements, but Maximillian had always spoken of you very highly. He is gone, more the pity, but I need your help. Come what may, Bavaria will need a represenative in the Holy Land after I am gone. Someone to succeed me if I'm successful, or avenge me if I fail. I ask that you take ship to Outremer as soon as possible. You are needed in the Holy Land.

I will not command you to do this, but I hope you will.
It is God's work.

Farewell,

Otto von Kassel

So. This was the source of it all. The physical Crusade had succeeded but the spiritual one was in grave danger. With two great religious figures gone in Dietrich and Mandorf, Kaiser Henry and Duke Otto were the only two figures left in Outremer with significant influence. And apparently, the Kaiser's was fast losing his to a man in black.

Conrad, clutching only the letter, immediately departed his study and made his way towards the outskirts of the city. His time in Rome was done, one way or another. Charles Otterbach's words, once again relevant, echoed in his mind as he left the Eternal City: "There are other ways that you can be a good Servant of God aside from staying in this place and watching your life waste away for nothing." Besides, business needed to be done anyway. There was the matter of returning his father's body to Nuremburg and claiming the Holy Vorpal Sword as his own.

On the way out, he was waylaid and questioned by the Deputy Governor of Rome, who was surpervising the construction of a new church.

"My Lord, where are you going? I had no notice that you were taking leave; when will you return?"

Conrad simply smiled and waved. "You're in charge, Wilhelm. I'm going to get rid of those crows once and for all."

[econ21]

Outside Jerusalem, 1210

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is a cooperative story by Overknight and econ21. It starts with a brief recap.

Henry smiled. “Jerusalem? This was never about Jerusalem, was it Dusan? Jerusalem is just a tool, a device to lever us free of the Diet. To ensure there will be no end of my term, to force a confrontation that will prevent the Diet from ever “clamping down” on its Kaiser.”

Dusan looked quizzically at Henry, but the Kaiser went on:

“We will keep Jerusalem. Not because it matters, but to show that we can. Isn’t that right, Kolar?”

Dusan shuffled uncomfortably, but nodded agreement.

Otto looked sharply from the Kaiser to Kolar. The man behind the throne had been brought out into the light. By speaking for himself, and not through the Kaiser, his own ambitions and plans had been laid bare for the Court to see. Otto readied the cane and took a step toward the magician, but when he met the eyes of the Kaiser he stopped. Anger burned in them, but also awareness.

Henry continued. “One man cannot rule over a Diet of many proud independent nobles; certainly not the son of a peasant from Croatia. But with guile one man could rule over another one man, a King, and thereby rule by extension. And there is the rub. Everything Kolar has done, everything he has schemed for has been to that end – a simple power grab.”

In alarm Dusan turned and began to run. Leaping forward, Otto swung his cane upward smashing it into the magician's jaw sending him sprawling backwards. Reversing his grip, Otto drew the blade and stabbed it down through the prone man's right leg and into the dirt, pinning him to the earth.

"The Kaiser did not give you leave to go," growled Otto as the magician howled in agony.

“And what you have done to engineer that grab for power, Kolar! What a performance! How much time and thought and effort you have poured into it. Such virtuosity! When we first met in Croatia and you “foretold” my father’s death: what chutzpah! Finding the Holy Grail: was ever such a wondrous object put to such a low use! You played on my foolish beliefs – played on my superstitions, my crisis of faith and my self-doubt.”

“But, oh Kolar, you blew it at the end: enlisting my father for your cause. What were you thinking? If I opposed everything my father stood for in his life, why ever would I follow him after his death?”

Henry stopped and remembered tending to the brutalised corpse of Pope Gregory.

“Even if my father did speak to me after death, even if he commanded every spectre and demon from hell, I would throw myself on the fire before listening.”

Henry laughed sardonically. “At least then the two of us might share something, I suppose.”

Otto, kneeling over Kolar as he writhed in the dirt, looked up to the Kaiser, "What should be done with this schwein, mein Kaiser?"

“Done with him? Nothing. He can go. Send him back to Croatia, to live in his parent’s mud cottage. In the light, he has no power. Alone, he is nothing; just an insignificant charlatan. I remove him from my retinue, but I will not sully my hands with his blood.”

Otto, with a quick pull, removed his blade from the magician's leg, Kolar screamed again. Sheathing the blade, and throwing the cane aside, Otto stood and faced the Kaiser.

"What is to be done now, your Majesty? I assume you will still take Jerusalem? I can take this trash back with me to Acre and send him on the first leaky boat to Croatia."

“Oh, Otto!” exclaimed Henry, in exhaustion, clasping the Duke by the shoulders. “I am so sorry for all I have put you through. I wanted to test Dusan, to find out his intentions, to get him to show his hand. I confess I did not know if he was an agent of the devil or the talented fraud he is revealed to be now. I had to keep you distant, to push you away by petty reprimands and neglect. I sent Hans away too. If Dusan thought either of you still held my trust, your lives would have been in danger.”

“But now this affair is over, we will start afresh and do things right. You will take command of this army and lead the siege of Jerusalem. After all, as King of Outremer, it is only fitting that the honour should fall to you. I did not lie when I said there has been a change of plan – your reign as King will start now, not when I leave office as we had planned."

Otto looked downward with shock and gratitude playing across his face, "Kaiser. . .I would be honored to accept the position and to lead the attack."

"The aim of my Chancellorship has been to establish Outremer under a proper constitution. To prove to the Diet that the Kingdom works, we must run it as it will be run – with a King who is separate from Kaiser and Chancellor. You will return Jerusalem to the Papacy, as we have pledged. Me, I will head north. You will guard Acre and Jerusalem. I will see what else needs to be done in the east. Securing Damascus, perhaps? Or even attending to those horse lords I mentioned. Not everything I said was in jest.”
Otto bowed to the Kaiser.

"As you command, your Majesty. I serve you and the Reich."

Slowly Otto's mouth quirked up in a lop-sided smile and he thought the next time you want to smoke out a rat, mein Kaiser, I would appreciate a messenger.

*****

“I don’t care what the Kaiser said: if Horst is dead, so are you.” Kurt hissed at Dusan in private afterwards.

Dusan looked at the veteran warrior, the magician’s eyes dulled, whether by his disgrace or by the pain caused by Otto’s sword cane: “Relax: I was not through with him.”

Kurt smashed his mailed fist onto Dusan’s leg wound.

“You should be proud of your Teuton.” Dusan grimaced, enduring the pain stoically. “He consistently denied telling you about the chalice, whatever I did to him. The Hashashins with me swore they had never seen a man hold out so stubbornly.”

Kurt fought back the urge to strike Dusan again. “Why did you think he had anything to do with the disappearance of the chalice? That was my work – Horst was not involved!”

“Yes, that’s what he said. But he had to be lying: only he and I knew about the chalice.” Dusan mused. The light came back into pagan magician’s eyes, as he narrowed them in puzzlement: “Tell me, exactly how did you come to learn about the existence of the grail?”

Kurt looked at the wounded magician with contempt and produced a ruffled note from his pocket: “I received this note anonymously. It warned me that you were using a magical chalice to control the Kaiser.”

Dusan snatched the note and cried out in frustration. The note was in Henry's hand.