The Trials of the Minotaur

Part Three: The Wondrous Beast (Chapter Twelve)

In the years that followed the Minotaur became the Empress' constant companion; rarely a day passed at court when the two of them were not seen together. The Minotaur had arrived in the early days of the Empress' rule in Huiam. She had only recently thrown off the shackles of a regency led by several princes, and her control of the realm was still tenuous. Every advisor and every courtier in the palace was allied with one prince or another, all of them plotting to ensnare her in a favorable alliance, through marriage or otherwise, or indebt her to them in some way. The Minotaur had no such ties, except to her, and she had given him his life and freedom, so she felt she could trust him as she could no other. He was an intimidating presence, looming over everyone in court, and the Empress used that to her advantage, always having him at her side when she held audiences. Because of the trust he engendered, he became her messenger to the princes and other nobles, and since they had all witnessed his slaying of the Doctor, none dared trifle with him.

The great matter of the day in the empire was the marriage of the Empress, for the regent princes and other nobles all insisted that she had to marry for the good of the realm – naturally, into one of their families or those of their allies. In the first days of her rule the Empress had declined to consider suitors, claiming that she was too young, both in age and in her rule, to consider such things, but, after the Minotaur was ensconced at court, she agreed to see any suitor sent before her. Many came bearing an endless assortment of gifts and with honeyed words of praise on their lips. They abased themselves at her feet, asking for her hand, and she refused them, as the Minotaur glowered at her side, saying that she was betrothed only to the Empire.

Inevitably, rumors began that she had taken the Minotaur as her lover. Those at court began to refer to him derisively as her pet or worse, though none dared say anything to either of them directly, fearing what the Empress might have the Minotaur do. There was no truth to such talk, but it suited the Empress well enough to have it said, for the whiff of scandal that it created, in addition to her defiance of the princes who sought to control her, endeared her to the populace. It did not hurt that the Imperial Guard, which was composed largely of men of no account and whose support was imperative to her continued rule, loved the Minotaur unreservedly, for he had told them all of his triumphs in the pantheon and had offered to adjudicate similar contests for a champion among their ranks.

The princes grew so concerned at the sway the Minotaur held in the empire that they tried several times to murder him. Once they sent two assassins to kill him in the chambers that the Empress had given him, but the Minotaur had grown so skilled at hearing during his years of blindness that he dispatched the men with ease. Next they tried poisoning his meals, but it had no effect upon him, even after they tripled the dosage. Stories of the failed attempts spread among the nobility and the Imperial Guard, and some began to wonder aloud if in fact he had been born of a god in his barbarian homeland.

The moment of his greatest triumph came years later, long after the Empress had secured her place upon the throne and thwarted the designs of the regent princes, imprisoning or exiling them so that she alone held sway in Huiam. The Minotaur felt happier than he ever had in all his days. The populace of Huiam worshiped him as they had in Rheadd at the height of his triumphs and, though the nobility and other grandees were bitterly jealous of his position, they dared not do anything to him for fear of incurring the Empress' wrath. All that he had ever longed for in his childhood in Guthril, suffering under the yoke of Thurir Drahil, was now his. The Empress neither worshiped him nor feared him; of all the people he had known she treated him a man worthy of respect.