The Curse of Louie the Lame

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished.

Queen Aire’s handmaidens were the first to notice her absence. They rushed to the Queen’s chambers, anxious to tell her what they had seen but could not believe. They knocked frantically on her chamber door for several minutes, finally summoning the courage to enter.

Her bed was empty.

Soon after, as search parties began scouring the countryside, her fifteen-year-old brother, Louis, was named Arbanon’s provisional ruler.

***

King Louis squirms uneasily on the throne, surveying the concerned crowd of generals, knights, and noblemen.

Prime Minister Nicholas Vauban stands by his side. Angelic in his appearance, with shoulder-length blonde hair, ice-blue eyes, and a firm physique, Nicholas is the kingdom’s youngest and most respected member of the royal court.

“Perhaps one of our generals is responsible for Aire’s disappearance,” Louis whispers.

“All of them fought bravely during the war against Naxon and have pledged their loyalty to Queen Aire.”

“But not to me,” Louis replies.

“They will stand by you, as well, Your Majesty.”

“In the hope of my sister’s return. These are hard men, Nicholas, and I am both in awe and fear of what I have heard about them.”

Pointing at a bulky general with a pointed beard and a scar on his left cheek, Louis asks, “Is it true General Pendre hung a hundred Naxon townspeople and left them to rot along the road for weeks?”

Nicholas hesitates, exhaling heavily. “…Yes, to intimidate the enemy…”

Louis turns his attention to the one-armed bald general with a monocle conversing with General Pendre. “And it was rumored General Latorche burned down several churches with the congregations still praying inside… And I heard General Moreau personally tortured dozens of Naxon prisoners… But the worst was General Daedalus …”

“Who resigned as part of our peace with Naxon.”

Nicholas studies the short, red-haired, freckled, reed-thin monarch, noting that Louis’ hands are shaking and his feet, which don’t reach the floor, are swaying haphazardly back and forth.

“May I offer some advice on governing, Your Majesty?”

“I welcome it.”

“Move forward, plant your feet firmly on the ground, and wrap your hands around the arms of the throne for support. Then clear your throat and speak with authority. Shall we begin?”

A nearby guard blows a trumpet, bringing the meeting to order.

King Louis informs the crowd of Queen Aire’s disappearance and that an intense search is underway.

“This reeks of Vexor’s doing,” General Moreau says. “He may be imprisoned, but he is still treacherous. Give me five minutes with him, and he will tell me where she is.”

“This calls for more subtle methods,” Louis replies. “Prime Minister Vauban and I will speak to Vexor.”

“He already betrayed us once,” General Pendre notes. “You will need leverage against him.”

“He has a daughter,” General Latorche says. “A girl your age, sire.”

“I do not wish to involve a child.”

“You were a child, too, until yesterday,” General Latorche replies. “Today, you are a man, a king, and you must rule like one.”

***

The cell door creaks as it opens. King Louis and Nicholas enter, gazing warily at Vexor,

the court’s former mage.

Neither has seen Vexor since the end of the war between Arbanon and Naxon four months ago. Vexor’s dark beard now has flecks of grey, and his once sturdy frame is threadlike, but his coal-black, hypnotic stare has lost none of its intimidating luster.

Vexor betrayed Arbanon by backing Naxon Prince Rudolph’s attempt to conquer Arbanon. Vexor created a potion that made Rudolph’s smaller army invincible for ten hours. But Nicholas organized a militia of men that held off Rudolph’s men at the castle gates long enough for the potion to wear off. Joined by General Daedalus’ soldiers, the villagers routed the Naxon invaders. The Queen's court called for Vexor’s head in retribution, but she spared him.

“What is your game, wizard?” Louis asks.

“Whatever do you mean, boy?”

“The Acton River is running backward. You are the only one in the kingdom who could make that happen.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Revenge,” Nicholas replies. “Seventy percent of our commerce travels down the Acton. Now, merchants will have to travel overland, doubling or tripling their travel time. No river, no commerce.”

King Louis balances his crown. “And Queen Aire is missing…”

“So that is why you are wearing a crown. It does not fit you.”

Louis looks away from Vexor’s malevolent stare. “I do not understand why you would kidnap my sister. When everyone else wanted you executed, she spared you. She thought you could be rehabilitated.”

“Her soft heart was always her greatest fault, even more than your soft head,” Vexor returns. “That is why your people call you Louie the Lame. Her death would make you King permanently, wouldn’t it, boy? Maybe you made her disappear.”

“Keep a civil tongue, wizard, or I’ll have it cut out,” King Louis says.

Vexor huffs. “Put a crown on a boy’s head, and he thinks he’s a man.”

Nicholas grabs Vexor by the throat. “Where is she?”

“Maybe I cast her into the ether. Perhaps Prince Rudolph’s followers kidnapped her and put her to the sword. Or maybe she is a captive and languishes in a dungeon similar to mine. Whatever the case, I am willing to trade my freedom for hers.”

“You are in no position to barter,” King Louis snaps. “Your life is in my hands.”

“And hers rests in mine. Stalemate.”

Louis looks into Vexor’s mocking stare. “You have a daughter, Delphine, a handmaiden in my court. If you do not tell me where my sister is, she will burn alongside you tomorrow at dawn.”

***

The sun begins to rise over the horizon. King Louis looks grimly at Vexor and his eight-year-old daughter, who are firmly tied to stakes in the courtyard. In addition to the King’s court, hundreds of curious villagers watch as Louis says, “Tell me where Queen Aire is, and I will spare your lives. Tell me, for Delphine’s sake.”

“Say nothing, Papa,” Delphine says defiantly.

“Burn them!” General Latorche yells, and the crowd chants in condemnation with him.

King Louie waves his hand, looking away.

Two guards holding torches touch off the piles of straw beneath the stakes.

Delphine screams as the flames begin to lick at her legs.

“Be brave, girl. Remember, a mage never truly dies… I curse you, King Louie the Lame… I curse your court, your generals, and their families… Let the river deliver my vengeance!”

Delphine screams wretchedly as her burnt flesh slides off her bones.

A dense fog engulfs the courtyard. When it dissipates, Vexor is gone.

***

Nicholas and his attaché, Claude Provost, watch King Louis and the court’s new mage, Lara, conduct an animated conversation on the parapet.

Claude Provost may be ten years younger than Nicholas, but the strain of the Naxon war has turned his hair grey and stooped his already short stature.

Lara flips back her waist-length hair, laughing giddily.

“Is she flirting with him?” Claude wonders.

“It’s never too early to get on line to be Queen,” Nicholas replies.

“So, you believe Aire is dead, and we are left with Louie the Lame?”

“Do not say that so loudly. And yes, unfortunately, I believe Vexor had her killed.”

Claude groans. “Then we are now under the command of children.”

“I think Lara will be an asset. She is more cunning than her seventeen years suggests,” Nicholas replies.

King Louis turns toward them, yelling, “Something strange is happening to the river!”

“Stranger than it running backward?” Claude inquires.

An enormous ball of fog moves up the river.

A sailing ship shrouded in black emerges, drifting close to the shoreline. A crew of men, their clothes as pitch black as the ship, stand on the deck, their bottomless eyes focused on the parapet.

King Louis’ skinny frame shivers. “I do not like the look of those men.”

“The ship flies the colors of the House of Latorche,” Claude notes.

“Is General Latorche still in the castle?” Nicholas asks.

“He’s having breakfast with General Moreau.”

“Tell him to report to the King immediately.”

As Claude dashes off, King Louis asks, “Do you think General Latorche is rebelling against me?”

“If he is, he will be the first prisoner we take.”

King Louis gasps. “That man in the beard and the cap, the Captain, he is staring at me!”

“You are wearing a rather conspicuous crown, Your Majesty,” Lara points out.

King Louis yanks the crown off his head, tossing it to a bewildered Lara.

A breathless General Latorche reaches the parapet, followed by Claude.

He salutes King Louis with his remaining arm.

“What manner of treason is this, General?” King Louis demands.

“I do not understand, Your Majesty…”

“That ship! Do you intend to fire upon my castle to get me to abdicate?”

“No! I have nothing to do with that ship!”

“It flies your family’s flag.”

“A calculated move to get you to lose favor in me, Your Majesty.”

“It is working.”

Nicholas studies the ship.

“I do not see how it can float against a backward current.”

“It is an enchanted vessel,” Lara says.

King Louis shivers. “It is Vexor’s curse!”

“I think I recognize the Captain,” Claude says.

Looking at the Captain, General Latorche utters, “…Hans Jodl… General Daedalus killed him and his men before they could board a ship and escape.”

“Is that the ship?” Claude questions.

“Yes. The Terror.”

“There is movement on board,” Nicholas observes.

The crewmen lift several objects covered in canvas onto the deck.

They unravel the canvases, revealing the badly burned bodies of a woman and two children.

General Latorche’s remaining arm shakes as he looks at the bodies.

“That is my wife! My children! I left them at home only hours ago! Permission to be excused, Your Majesty!”

Without waiting for a response, General Latorche bolts toward the exit.

“I think Latorche plotted with Vexor to kill me,” Louis says. “But once a traitor, always a traitor. It appears Vexor has double-crossed the General. Murderers do not tell the truth.”

“Your Majesty is learning quickly,” Nicholas returns. Turning to Claude, he says, “Get a detail of men and follow General Latorche, but do it discreetly.”

A dense fog rolls in, obscuring their view of the Terror.

“If those men are here to overthrow me. I want to see them. Can you lift the fog, Lara?”

Closing her eyes, Lara chants, “Flare, Ventus!”

A strong gust of wind blows the fog away. When the sky clears, the Terror is gone.

***

Seeing smoke above the trees, Claude and the soldiers push their horses, speeding to General Latorche’s house. The two-story villa is engulfed in flames.

Coughing, his uniform and face smudged, General Latorche stumbles out of the blaze carrying his son. Laying his son’s lifeless body in the grass next to his daughter, he staggers back toward the house.

Claude steps in front of him. “You cannot go back in there! It is an inferno! You will be killed!”

General Latorche gags, “My wife is still in there!”

“Then let me send some men in.”

“No. It is my responsibility.”

“…Please, General…”

“I have to answer for what I have done.”

General Latorche disappears behind a veil of fire and smoke.

Moments later, the house collapses.

***

The following day, Nicholas and Claude watch the river roll backward as the sun rises.

“Latorche burned hundreds of helpless partitioners to death, and now he dies in a fire…”

“Some would call that justice,” Claude replies.

“True. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to advocate such an ironic point of view. If Latorche’s family was not actually on board the Terror, then what we saw was an omen.”

“Do you think the Terror will return?” Claude asks.

“We will know very soon.”

King Louis and Lara rush onto the parapet.

Louis shivers. “Please tell me it is not happening again.”

A ball of fog forms over the river.

The swirling mist takes on the form of the Terror.

“They are flying white flags with a gold cross,” Claude notes.

“That is a crucifix, and it is part of General Pendre’s coat of arms,” Nicholas replies.

Captain Jodl points to the hold. Two crewmen open it.

A heavyset woman, her face a mask of tears, emerges.

The crewmen guide her to the Terror’s mainmast.

A crewman holding a rope climbs the mast. He ties the rope to the mast and throws it down to Jodl, who fashions a noose.

Pleading for mercy, the woman is placed on a tall crate.

“Who is that woman?” Louis asks.

“General Pendre’s wife, Josette. Claude, you and I are riding to the General’s villa.”

The quartet winces as Captain Jodl kicks the crate away. King Louis covers his eyes as Josette’s body dances wildly, her eyes bulging and her face turning pale.

The Terror disappears behind a wall of fog when Josette takes her last breath.

***

Nicholas and Claude find the door to General Pendre’s home open. His aide, Maurice Pevan, is pacing back and forth, crying and muttering to himself.

Seeing Nicholas and Claude, he shrieks, “Thank God you are here! We came back from fox hunting, laughing, expecting to have lunch with Josette. We found her in the greenhouse… She was… Hanging from a rafter, her neck broken, her face a ghostly shade of white… I sent the maid to bring the police… When I went back to the greenhouse…”

Maurice sways, fainting.

Nicholas and Claude carry Maurice to a couch.

Nicholas calls out General Pendre’s name as they head to the greenhouse.

They freeze in the doorway.

General Pendre’s body hangs next to Josette’s.

***

King Louis looks down from the parapet at the cannons lined along the river’s edge. “A broadside from thirty guns ought to send that ghost ship back to the netherworld.”

Nicholas and Lara pass concerned looks.

Claude surveys the horizon. “Almost dawn. Any second now.”

A ball of fog envelops the river.

The Terror emerges farther away from shore than before, making it harder to discern Captain Jodl and his crew's actions.

King Louis clutches at his throat, so frightened he can scarcely utter, “…The flags... The Terror is flying my family’s coat of arms…”

King Louis shakes as he signals for the guns to fire. Dozens of shells hit the Terror but are absorbed into its shadowy hull. They tear through the sails, which instantly make themselves whole again.

The cannons continue to fire until they are shrouded in smoke, and the smell of gunpowder fills the air.

Claude receives a message from the riverfront. “General Moreau says his guns are nearly out of ammunition.”

“Have the men fall back to the castle,” Nicholas says.

“And leave their artillery behind?”

“We will need them to protect the King.”

Nicholas points at the Terror.

Two of the Terror’s rowboats are heading toward the shore.