webnovelfull Chapter 386: On the Roof
Chapter 386: On the Roof
September 28, 870 AD
Kingdom of Burgundy
King Rudolf I lay in his feather-stuffed bed. His eyes were closed, and a soft smile rested on his bearded face.
The young maid, Mathilde, was sitting near the hearth on the other side of the royal bedchamber.
She was quietly singing a sweet melodic southern folk song.
Her voice was like honey, washing away the stress of ruling an entire medieval kingdom.
Rudolf took a deep, relaxing breath, letting his muscles sink into the mattress.
He was going to sleep for a week...
Bang!
The doors of the royal bedchamber were suddenly pushed open, hitting the walls with a deafening crack.
Mathilde shrieked, dropping her sewing needle.
Rudolf bolted upright in his bed, his heart hammering against his ribs as he reached for the dagger resting on his nightstand.
"My King!" a frantic voice yelled.
It was Bernard, the captain of the royal guard.
The man was pale, entirely out of breath.
"Damn, Bernard!" Rudolf hissed, dropping his dagger and rubbing his tired eyes. "Are we under attack?! Did the Franks cross the border?!"
"No, your Grace!" Bernard panted, pointing a finger out the window toward the central courtyard.
"It is Prince Conrad! He... he is on the roof of the grand church, my King!
And he says he is going to throw himself off!"
After hearing such words, Rudolf’s heart dropped into his stomach.
"He is doing what..?!" Rudolf roared, entirely throwing his warm fur blankets aside.
He didn’t bother putting on his royal boots or grabbing his cloak. Rudolf sprinted out of the bedchamber barefoot, wearing nothing but his loose linen sleep-tunic.
"Clear the way!"
"Move!"
Rudolf yelled at the top of his lungs, pushing past servants and guards as he ran through the winding corridors of the castle.
He burst out of the main keep and into the autumn air of the courtyard.
The grand church of Burgundy loomed entirely over the castle grounds, its tall, slanted roof rising high into the cloudy sky.
A massive crowd of panicked nobles, crying maids, and helpless soldiers were already gathered at the bottom, pointing up.
Rudolf followed their gaze.
Sitting on the edge of the incredibly high gutter, with his legs dangling entirely over the drop, was his seventeen-year-old son, Conrad.
The young prince was shivering in the cold wind, clutching a crumpled piece of parchment in his shaking hands.
"Conrad!" Rudolf yelled.
The prince looked down, his eyes red from crying. "Stay back, Father! I am done! It is entirely over for all of us!"
However, Rudolf wasn’t going to just stand in the mud and watch his only heir become a bloody stain on the courtyard stones.
He pushed his way through the guards and sprinted through the doors of the church.
He ignored the burning pain in his lungs as he flew up the narrow spiral staircase that led to the bell tower.
He kicked the access door open and stepped out onto the slanted slate roof.
Rudolf carefully grabbed the gargoyles to keep his balance, slowly inching his way toward his son.
"Conrad..." Rudolf gasped, out of breath. "Get the fuck down from there right now. You are scaring your mother to death!"
Conrad didn’t move.
"It doesn’t even matter, Father," Conrad whispered, his voice trembling. "It doesn’t matter if I jump now or die in the mud next month... the world is ending."
"What are you talking about, you idiot?!" Rudolf demanded, confused and terrified at the same time. "Nobody is ending the world! Get away from the ledge!"
"Have you not read the spy reports from the west?!" Conrad cried out, turning to look at his father.
He waved the crumpled parchment in the air. "Salomon de Bretagne! King Salomon just signed a blood alliance with the Iron Demon of the North!
The Vikings are opening their armories! They are trading the fire-tubes to the Bretons!"
Rudolf bare feet slipping slightly on the roof.
He had heard the rumors of Ragnar Ulfsson’s explosive magic, yes. Every king in Europe was losing sleep over it.
But Ragnar had kept his technology fiercely guarded behind the walls of City Titan.
If Ragnar was suddenly giving those weapons to King Salomon... the technological monopoly was completely broken.
Even so, Rudolf didn’t completely understand why his son was currently trying to commit suicide over foreign politics...
"So what?!" Rudolf yelled over the howling wind, taking another step closer. "Brittany is hundreds of miles away from us, Conrad! Let Salomon and Ragnar do whatever the hell they want! It has nothing to do with Burgundy!"
"It has everything to do with Burgundy!" Conrad screamed back, "this raven didn’t just come from Brittany, Father! It came from Paris! Louis the Germanic just sent us an absolute ultimatum!"
"What... what did Louis say?" Rudolf asked, his voice dropping into a highly focused whisper.
"Louis the Germanic finally figured out how to make the explosive black powder." Conrad sobbed, "He is producing Frankish muskets right now. He allied with the Bohemians and the Magyars, and he is building an army of a million men to march north!"
Conrad looked up at his father, his eyes hollow.
"And Louis just ordered Burgundy to join his alliance by the end of the week," Conrad whispered. "He said if we refuse to march with him... he will test his new muskets on our walls. He will burn our kingdom to ash."
The reality of the geopolitical nightmare finally crashed down onto King Rudolf’s shoulders.
Burgundy was a peaceful, prosperous kingdom... they didn’t want any part of this madness. But they were wedged right in the middle of the continent.
If Rudolf said no to Emperor Louis the Germanic, the Frankish army would slaughter them with their new guns.
But if Rudolf said yes... he would be forced to march his men into the meat-grinder against Ragnar Ulfsson’s ironclads, repeating rifles, and Salomon’s newly armed Breton knights.
It was complete suicide either way...
"We are entirely fucked, Father." Conrad cried, looking back down at the drop to the courtyard. "I would rather just jump right now than watch a Viking cannonball tear our family to bloody pieces. There is no way out of this!"
"Listen to me, Conrad!" Rudolf barked, dropping the gentle father act.
Conrad flinched, looking back at his father.
"You are a prince of Burgundy." Rudolf growled, "We do not just jump off buildings because the neighbors found a new way to throw rocks at each other!"
"I don’t give a damn if they are shooting lightning bolts from their asses!" Rudolf roared, reaching out and grabbing his son by the collar of his expensive tunic.
"We will figure a way out of this mess! We always do!"
Rudolf yanked his son backward, pulling the young prince off the ledge and throwing him onto the flat part of the roof.
Rudolf dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around his son.
"I’ve got you," Rudolf whispered softly, pulling Conrad tightly against his chest. "I’ve got you, son. You are safe. I will never let them touch our family. I promise you."
Rudolf helped his son sit up.
"Come on," Rudolf smiled warmly, though his own heart was pounding with dread. "Let’s get off this roof. Your mother is probably preparing to kill me for letting you get up here in the first place."
Conrad finally let out a shaky laugh. "Okay, Father."
They slowly made their way back to the access door.
But as Rudolf pushed the door open to step back into the spiral staircase, he froze.
Bernard, the captain of the guard, was already sprinting up the steps. The armored man looked even more terrified than he had in the royal bedchamber.
"My King!" Bernard panted.
"Damnit, Bernard, what now?" Rudolf groaned, "The prince is safe."
"It isn’t the prince, your Grace." Bernard swallowed hard, "It is the front gates."
Rudolf frowned deeply, "What about them?"
"A fleet of forty ships has just sailed up our main river from the port of Calais, and their captain says they want to trade with us." Bernard answered.