Outside Jerusalem, 1210
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.
Re: Stories thread - King of the Romans PBM
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