The Trials of the Minotaur

Part Three: The Wondrous Beast (Chapter Thirteen)

Rheadd was never to recover from the blow delivered it by the Empress, the denial of the knowledge and trade of Huiam leading it into obscurity and poverty. Auten the Many-Fingered proved to be the last of his line, and in the years that followed much of the empire's territory was overrun by barbarians. Though Barthil Barthil had hidden the Empress' true reasons for closing Huiam to Rheadd, the Dethcalla were still blamed for the terrible fall the Empire suffered. In the violence and retribution that followed the end of Auten's rule, the leading members of the family, including an aged Barthil Vulgih, were all killed.

Huiam prospered under the long reign of the Empress, and by the end of her days all agreed that she had been a fine and just ruler. She had also resisted all suitors, remaining unmarried to her final days, with the result that she had no heir. As suitors had previously lined up to earn her hand, now claimants to the throne emerged from the great families of Huiam, seeking to gain her favor. As always, she was very careful in her dealings with the nobility, refusing to favor anyone, with the result that no one dared to act against their rivals or her for fear of ruining their chances of being proclaimed heir.

She kept up this game till her death, which came suddenly one afternoon as she and the Minotaur played a game of tiles. One moment she was triumphantly placing a tile and celebrating her victory, and the next her eyes had gone still and the breath had left her body. The Minotaur had taken her gently in his arms, trying to coax her back to life, to no avail. His sorrow at her passing was overwhelming. In the days that followed he ate and slept little, and took to wandering the halls at all hours, muttering to himself in a half-waking state. At times it seemed he thought she was still there with him.

The Imperial Guard, protectors of the Eempress, saw to the funeral and his care, for he was seen as part of the imperial body. Given his fragile state of mind, no one wanted to disturb him, so when the Empress' body was set out in the greatest hall of the Eternal Palace – in fact, the very hall where the Doctor had first presented the Minotaur to the Empress – to remain in state for a fortnight, the Minotaur was brought to stand vigil over her. There he remained for the two weeks as important personages from across the empire came to pay their respects, oblivious to the internecine struggles occurring throughout the palace as various factions battled for who was to become the next ruler of Huiam. He did not notice the distance with which everyone now held him as well, or if he did he dismissed it as the reserve that always overcame those who approached someone in mourning. The days passed in a fog that would not lift, with all desire and emotion absent from his soul.

When the vigil was at end, the Empress' body was taken from the Eternal Palace to be interred in the sacred Valley of the Emperors outside Adaher. There were temples dedicated to each of the deceased emperors, where their remains, along with their personal treasure and keepsakes, were stored in massive crypts filled with warrens of passageways hidden beneath the earth. The Empress had begun construction on her temple and crypt as soon as she had claimed her throne, and it had been completed and had priests at the ready for over thirty years.

Now these men blessed and anointed her body and possessions and took them into the crypt under the watchful gaze of the assembled nobility. The treasure was staggering: gold and silver, jewelry and coins, as well as sculptures and statues of the Empress herself. Miniature forms of her Imperial Guard were placed within to protect her wealth on her journey to the afterworld. All that she had been in life was represented below, but for the Minotaur.

When the priests had completed their work and were ready to seal the tomb, the Imperial Guard surrounded the Minotaur, drawing their swords. Hearing that awakened him for the first time since the Empress' death, and he understood with a terrible clarity what was about to occur. He struggled against the Guard, crying in rage and anguish, and was bloodied by their weapons, before the strength and will at last went out of him and he submitted. He went below under the unmoving gaze of those assembled and the tomb was sealed above him. He gave one last cry, heard by all those gathered, cursing them and promising death and vengeance in this life or the next.

That done, he turned from the now-sealed entrance and went to sit beside the Empress' body for the days that remained to him.

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This is the thirty fourth and final chapter of the Trials of the Minotaur. I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned next week for a sample from another historical fantasy. Thanks for reading.