|
Library of the Reddened King
Tomes of Amaxathroth > Scholars |
Beneath the palace of the Reddened King lies a library vault to hold his ten Tomes of Amaxathroth the Wanderer. The vault is rumored far and wide, well-hidden and guarded by the most savage bandsmen of the Edge-Walled City - those yellow-painted ones who wail and cut at one another, dancing about fires at the palace gates. Naked scholars, captive and tormented by the bandsmen, are bound in chains and carried downwards by torchlight with each new night. They must wring new secrets from the Tomes, or be cut at each limb and hurled four ways at once from the Scar Tower above the market of the starving bands.
The Reddened King is hungry for a knowledge of the farthest lands; bandsmen who prove their wiles in the Pointed Maze - and yet live - are sent away on direction of the Tomes and tortured scholars. The returned bear heads of the most wise and honored men of far cities, for the Reddened King dines only upon travel-dessicated brains, and in this grows ever more cruel and powerful with each passing year. Head-bearers are gifted with great rubies and pleasing slaves - or are slain by jealous and cruel-mouthed bands for the amusement of the powerful.
That which my master knows of Amaxathroth - wanderer, murderer, cursed man and scholar - came copied in blood, upon scraps hidden about the bodies of those long cut four ways and eagerly eaten. The words of Amaxathroth have a manner of seeping from the strictures placed about them by jealous Kings.
[ Posted by Reason on October 18, 2006 ]
