there, and the secret passage-way was discovered.
‘The Emperor ordered the King to send his master builder to the Imperial capital. The King at first refused, asking for more time because the fortifications were not ready yet and the savages of the wasteland were proving more tenacious and better organised than had been anticipated, but the Emperor, still nearer to death now, insisted, and eventually the King gave in and with great reluctance sent the architect Munnosh to the capital. The architect’s family treated his departure as they had the false news that he had been killed, those many years ago.
‘The Emperor at this time was so close to dying that he spent almost all his time in the great death-defying palace Munnosh had constructed for him, and it was there that Munnosh was taken.
‘When the Emperor saw Munnosh, and knew that it was his old chief architect, he cried out, “Munnosh, treacherous Munnosh! Why did you desert me and your greatest creation?”
‘”Because you had me walled up within it and left to die, my Emperor,” Munnosh replied.
‘”It was done only to assure the safety of your Emperor and to preserve your own good name,” the old tyrant told Munnosh. “You ought to have accepted what was done and let your family mourn you decently and in peace. Instead you led them into benighted exile and only ensured that now they will have to mourn you a second time.”
‘When the Emperor said this, Munnosh fell to his knees and began to weep and to plead for forgiveness from the Emperor. The Emperor held out one thin, shaking hand and smiled and said, “But that need not concern you, because I have sent my finest assassins to seek out your wife and your children and your grandchildren, to kill them all before they can learn of your disgrace and death.”
‘At this Munnosh, who had concealed a mason’s store chisel beneath his robes, leapt forward and tried to strike the Emperor down, aiming the chisel straight at the old man’s throat.
‘Instead Munnosh was struck down, before his blow could fall, by the Emperor’s chief bodyguard, who never left his master’s side. The man who had once been Imperial chief architect landed dead at his Emperor’s feet, head severed by a single terrible blow from the bodyguard’s sword.
‘But the chief bodyguard was so full of shame that Munnosh had come so close to the Emperor with a weapon, and also so appalled at the cruelty which the Emperor intended to visit on the innocent family of the architect which was but the grain that breaks the bridge, for he had witnessed a lifetime’s cruelty from the old tyrant that he killed the Emperor and then himself, with another two swinging blows from his mighty sword, before anybody else could move to stop him.
‘The Emperor got his wish then, dying within the great palatial mausoleum he had built. Whether he succeeded in cheating death or not we cannot know, but it is unlikely, as the Empire fell apart very soon after his death and the vast monument he caused to be constructed at such crippling expense to his empire was looted utterly within the year and fell quickly into disrepair, so that now it is used only as a ready source of dressed stone for the city of Haspide, which was founded a few centuries later on the same island, in what is now called Crater Lake, in the Kingdom of Haspidus.’
‘What a sad tale! But what happened to the family of Munnosh?’ asked the lady Perrund. The lady Perrund had once been the first concubine of the Protector. She remained a prized partner of the General’s household and one whom he was still known to visit on occasion.
The bodyguard DeWar shrugged. ‘We don’t know,’ he told her. ‘The Empire fell, the Kings fought amongst themselves, the barbarians invaded from all sides, fire fell from the sky and a dark age resulted that lasted many hundreds of years. Little historical detail survived the fall of the lesser kingdoms.’
‘But we may hope that the
‘The Emperor ordered the King to send his master builder to the Imperial capital. The King at first refused, asking for more time because the fortifications were not ready yet and the savages of the wasteland were proving more tenacious and better organised than had been anticipated, but the Emperor, still nearer to death now, insisted, and eventually the King gave in and with great reluctance sent the architect Munnosh to the capital. The architect’s family treated his departure as they had the false news that he had been killed, those many years ago.
‘The Emperor at this time was so close to dying that he spent almost all his time in the great death-defying palace Munnosh had constructed for him, and it was there that Munnosh was taken.
‘When the Emperor saw Munnosh, and knew that it was his old chief architect, he cried out, “Munnosh, treacherous Munnosh! Why did you desert me and your greatest creation?”
‘”Because you had me walled up within it and left to die, my Emperor,” Munnosh replied.
‘”It was done only to assure the safety of your Emperor and to preserve your own good name,” the old tyrant told Munnosh. “You ought to have accepted what was done and let your family mourn you decently and in peace. Instead you led them into benighted exile and only ensured that now they will have to mourn you a second time.”
‘When the Emperor said this, Munnosh fell to his knees and began to weep and to plead for forgiveness from the Emperor. The Emperor held out one thin, shaking hand and smiled and said, “But that need not concern you, because I have sent my finest assassins to seek out your wife and your children and your grandchildren, to kill them all before they can learn of your disgrace and death.”
‘At this Munnosh, who had concealed a mason’s store chisel beneath his robes, leapt forward and tried to strike the Emperor down, aiming the chisel straight at the old man’s throat.
‘Instead Munnosh was struck down, before his blow could fall, by the Emperor’s chief bodyguard, who never left his master’s side. The man who had once been Imperial chief architect landed dead at his Emperor’s feet, head severed by a single terrible blow from the bodyguard’s sword.
‘But the chief bodyguard was so full of shame that Munnosh had come so close to the Emperor with a weapon, and also so appalled at the cruelty which the Emperor intended to visit on the innocent family of the architect which was but the grain that breaks the bridge, for he had witnessed a lifetime’s cruelty from the old tyrant that he killed the Emperor and then himself, with another two swinging blows from his mighty sword, before anybody else could move to stop him.
‘The Emperor got his wish then, dying within the great palatial mausoleum he had built. Whether he succeeded in cheating death or not we cannot know, but it is unlikely, as the Empire fell apart very soon after his death and the vast monument he caused to be constructed at such crippling expense to his empire was looted utterly within the year and fell quickly into disrepair, so that now it is used only as a ready source of dressed stone for the city of Haspide, which was founded a few centuries later on the same island, in what is now called Crater Lake, in the Kingdom of Haspidus.’
‘What a sad tale! But what happened to the family of Munnosh?’ asked the lady Perrund. The lady Perrund had once been the first concubine of the Protector. She remained a prized partner of the General’s household and one whom he was still known to visit on occasion.
The bodyguard DeWar shrugged. ‘We don’t know,’ he told her. ‘The Empire fell, the Kings fought amongst themselves, the barbarians invaded from all sides, fire fell from the sky and a dark age resulted that lasted many hundreds of years. Little historical detail survived the fall of the lesser kingdoms.’
‘But we may hope that the
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