Snippet #1064375

The room stunk of death and ambergris.

In it's center, on a bed shrouded by purple drapes, lay the Lion of Redrock. He had been a tall man, standing head and shoulders above half his court with a chest and arms to match. A fortnight ago, his subjects had seen him leading the hunt from his magnificent red charger and sworn that he would live forever.

Word was that the sickness had been as terrible as it was sudden. The only ones who had been permitted to pass under the drapes and see the king these past three days were the eunuchs with lacquered nails that he had grown so fond of since moving his seat to Seygos. The king of kings didn't trust physicians, not after what had happened to his beloved Basil.

Bessius, the Asephar steward, had produced a pair of highly reputed warlocks who had slaughtered a dozen bulls and recommended that the king bath in their blood, but the only thing that had changed were the pair of fresh heads now decorating the citadel's battlements.

Wracking coughs shook the room, and the scented candles cast shadows of scurrying eunuchs on the curtains. Whispers rose from the small crowd at hand. They now knew the rumors to be true. They, those closest to the king, had been gathered here to attend to his last moments.

Gavon Raine, king of Sain and a close cousin to the dying emperor, stepped forward from the crowd and addressed the chief eunuch. "Narces, does our King grant us his company?"

Narces shook his hairless head, "Our master is in no state to be granting anything. The king needs his rest."

"Rest, he will have enough of soon," noted Ser Delian, dressed just as much for war as mourning in black scale. "The kingdom needs his decision."

The coughing stopped. A few let out sighs of relief... until the candles behind the curtain were blown out. They waited in silence, moments as heavy as minutes, until a single man stepped out from the curtains, his face pale to the point of blueness.

Narces was the first to ask the question on the gallery's tongue. "Who will sit the Throne of Serpents?"

"He said...", even the beat of the audience's hearts seemed to quell, "He said the man who can hold it."

King Raine gasped. No, that eunuch was lying! He shoved Narces aside, and asked the emperor for himself. "Who will suceede your majesty's throne!?"

His reply was silence.

"The king is dead," Delian said, "Long live the king... whoever it may be."