Tidbit: The Boy King

"I leave this city in your hands, a thriving living being, and come back to this!" he roared, upending the enormous table; Lancels' precious territory maps fluttered like anxious bird wings, the quills and jars of ink falling to the floor, spreading a stain of black and blue and shattered glass across the stone.

"People scurrying in the alleys rather than face my company, gaunt faces peering up at me from darkened windows, streets spread with filth and the smell of death from the corpses strung up, rotting at every crossroad!" He strode forward, closing the distance between him and his son. Lancel had gone pale, but abandoned his lounging on the throne to stand at the bottom of the steps to the dias, facing off with his father.

"What in the Gods names possessed you?!" the man, this massive imposing king, shouted "Your advisors? Your council? I am told they are dead! And your sister-" he took a deep breath and shook his head, once, as if to clear it "I placed her in your charge, Lancel. You were her protector, she was your ward, your blood!"

"She was nothing!" Lancel spat, "Worse than nothing; a craven, a vile traitor!"

"Hold your tongue!" King Wallace cut in "She is your kin. Your own flesh! I will not have this smear against family!"

"Not my kin, dear father," Lancel sneered "only by half; only by your romping with some baker's woman in the square!"

"Enough." the Kings voice had gone deadly quiet, his fists clenched at his sides. Lancel continued, oblivious.

"She was worthless! A fool, a folly, a bastard-"

"ENOUGH!" Quick as a snake, Wallace's hand swung up, dealing a blow across the face which sent Lancel crashing to the floor.

"You dare speak to me of folly?!" he roared "Look at what you've done! The city is dying, our people starving, unable to afford the rising price of bread and meat! All this because of your pet, this imagined war between you and the Duke!" he shook his head in disgust as Lancel lay prone, staring up at him, eyes wide, blood trickling from his split lip.

"You are a wrecker, a deciever, a selfish child, and Gods forgive me for ever placing the rule of this kingdom into your greedy hands."

"Father-" Lancel's voice was a plaintive whine as Wallace made as if to turn from him. The older man paused, turning back.

"And as to your sister. A traitor she may be," he said, staring down at the boy-king with cold eyes "but you are a fool. I cannot help but think, which is worse? A traitor, who knows her own cause and pursues it with fervor, or a fool, who knows nothing at all." With that, he turn on his heel, his cloak swishing behind him as he strode out of the hall.
He did not look back.

Lancel staggered to his feet, hand to his mouth. His face turned contemptuous, cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment.

"Father!!" He yelled, then,

"Seize him!" he pointed at the door his father had just stepped through, and glared around at his guards. None moved forward. Beneath their helms, their faces were uncertain.

"I said, seize him!!" Lancel screamed "Arrest him for- for slander, for assault on the monarchy!" One or two of the men took a tentative step towards the door, their gazes flicking from it to Lancel, who grew, if anything, more livid.

"I command you, damn you all, you pox-ridden idiots!" he shrieked, stalking over and shoving the nearest guard towards the door "Seize him, arrest him in the name of the your acting King!!"