Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: CONSPIRACY (01/21/21)
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TITLE: He Should Have Known | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ruthie Alekseeva
01/27/21 -
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Navarre cringes low. His brow moistens. His limbs tremble. Seconds crawl by, feeling like aeons.
Navarre quails a moment longer, then a gasp escapes his heaving lungs.
“Please God…let them have flown. Scatter them beyond the plains of Wiermichstein”
Another moment elapses. Then, balking, he rises. His heart races. He peers through the wall he cowers behind. A clatter of dry mortar and brick crumbles in his hands. He strains his eyes. He spies only the sky; the heavens stained black again, dense fog misting somber stars.
An explosion thunders, and the gloom burns red once more. Whistling vibrations glide past his ear. Navarre crouches low again. He smashes his eyelids together. He blankets his ears with his fists, more explosives booming.
Then, the palisade he quivers behind shudders. Scads of grout plunge toward his skull. The ground convulses too. His feet reel below him, from tippy toes to heels to tippy toes again. At last, he crashes on his side. He welters in the clay, then scrambles to procure another refuge. He finds none.
He senses a razor-like pressure at his back, piercing his flesh.
“Halt,” a voice snarls.
“God, preserve me,” Navarre cries. He lurches forward, away from the stabbing sensation.
He tumbles, rolls, slithers on all fours, then bounces to his feet. He whirls around, confronting his barbed assailant. His mouth gapes. His forehead creases.
“Basileus,” he gasps, “my comrade and devoted guard."
“Ally and protector no longer,” Basileus says.
“But why? Thrusting a knife at my heart mid coronation wasn’t sufficient?”
“Nothing will satiate my fury,” Basileus cries. “Nothing but your annihilation”
“I implore you…don’t butcher, converse. I acceded the throne. Now, relinquish Andorra-Louise, and my shadow will cloud this land no more.”
“The duchess resides with Alois. You’ll never caress her again. They marry at dusk; the day of the Grand Cavalcade.”
“Marquess Alois? That Francophile? Preposterous. She marries against her will, doesn’t she?”
“She marries Alois instead of you. That’s all you need know,” Basileus says.
He plucks a second blade from a sheath clipped around his torso.
“I should have listened,” Navarre says. “She warned me about you.”
“You should have heeded the gentry, the nobles, and the King-may he rest in peace. Everyone saw this coming. You should too.”
“I now know what the Psalmist meant when he wrote, ‘All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt.’ “
Basileus’s eyes soften, then he snaps them away. Navarre inches forward. A half-smile curves his jaw. He extends his hand. His arm wavers.
“Remember us as boys,” Navarre whispers, “…how we esteemed each other like brothers?”
Another hushed moment slinks by, then Basileus’s countenance hardens. A growl burbles up from out of his gullet. He glares at Navarre, then drives his saber deep into Navarre’s breast.
Navarre howls and clutches his chest. He stumbles, then slams flat on his back, the blow smacking the wind from out of his gills. He pants rapid puffing breaths, gaping at the blood gushing around his fingers.
He murmurs, “Tell Andorra-Louise…I'm crazy about her.”
Basileus narrows his eyes. Beaming, he dances forward. He studies Navarre’s chalky jowls and blueing lips.
“At last. The end looms near,” he says.
Navarre attempts a reply, but his throat gurgles.
Basileus’s eyes soften once more.
“We were intimates once. Although riddled with defects, you always defended me.”
But then, his lips stiffen. His eyes grow frigid.
“Tell Satan you’re finally home,” he says, shoving the dagger deeper.
Navarre’s feet twitch. His shoulders shake. He takes one last gulping breath, then battens his eyelids shut, his tongue lolling sideways.
Basileus stamps his foot on Navarre’s expired carcass. He raises his sword in the air.
“And now,” Basileus gloats, “the throne is mine. Vengeance begins at dawn. All Navarre’s legionnaires will lay dead before noon. A lesson to all those who oppose the new regime.”
Psalm 41:7 NKJV
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