You could have heard a pin drop.

 

 

 

Out of everyone in the room, the Queen looked the most shocked. She was about to open her mouth to protest when Morgan spoke up and cut her off, "The law IS the law. Can't do anything about that." He turned to Lance, "What say you, brother?"

 

Lance shrugged, "Seems rather cut and dry to me."

 

Morgan turned back to smile at Ryan and gave him a thumbs up, "Allow me to be the first to congratulate you." Ryan was uncertain if Morgan was sincere or mocking him.

 

Ryan grabbed his head with both hands as he tried to review everything he knew about Lyonesses' law. Unfortunately, he focused his attention on magic and practical matters and never took the time to look through any law books. As far as he knew, he had no legal argument against this, "Hold it! Hold it!" He held his hands out towards Kyle and just kind of shook them in the air, "What is going on?"

 

The Headmaster, Morgan, and Lance stood up as Morgan answered Ryan, "You're the new ruler of the country." They all bowed their heads.

 

This had a startling effect on the rest of the nobles present.

 

It started with a few, but soon everyone caught on. Each in turn stood up, placed their hand over their heart, and bowed their heads towards Ryan. Ryan just looked around, speechless. Soon, everyone was standing with bowed heads except for one.

 

The Queen.

 

She sat there, shell-shocked.

 

Morgan glanced sideways at his mother and gave her a gentle prod with his foot, "Mother?" He jogged his head pointedly towards Ryan.

 

The look of vitriol on her face was only outweighed by her expression of betrayal. However, despite how clearly she hated what was going on, she slowly started to stand.

 

"NO."

 

Everyone looked up as Ryan spoke his command. He pointed towards The Queen and walked over to her table keeping his finger trained on her as he closed in, "No. You are the Queen, the wife of my dear friend. YOU..." He dropped his hand and slowly shook his head, "Do not bow to me."

 

That was the second time this day that she was stunned into silence. She froze, half risen out of her chair. She thought for a moment as her eyes wandered over those gathered here. This impossible child was giving her a way out. Nobody would fault her for sitting back down.

 

To Ryan's horror, she finished standing up and smiled at him as she placed a hand over her heart, "Please do your best to protect MY dear friend's interests." before bowing her head as well.

 

Ryan backed up a step, looked around the room, then focused on Kyle, "YOU." He stalked over to stand over Kyle, "You did this! YOU SET ME UP! Why? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS WAS YOUR PLAN?"

 

Kyle kept his head bowed, "Would you have come here if you knew?"

 

"NO! I would-" Ryan stopped dead. He stared at the ceiling for a few moments before saying, "Everyone, at ease!"

 

This caused most people to look confused. Ryan started to look around the room, "As you were. Sit down, relax, smoke if you got 'em, whatever." He rubbed his eyes as everyone returned to their seats except Kyle who stood up and smirked down at Ryan. The room was a hubbub of murmurs and heated discussion.

 

Ryan looked up at Kyle through his fingers, "You know I don't want this."

 

Kyle nodded slowly with more than a bit of sympathy, "Which is why you are perfect for the job."

 

Ryan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then abruptly ran up the dais, taking two steps at a time, before leaping into the air, spinning around, and landing on the throne. He faced out across the room. The throne dwarfed him in size, making him look like a child playing king, especially the way his legs dangled.

 

"A'RITE, EVERYONE LISTEN UP!"

 

Everyone stopped. One of Ryan's natural gifts was the ability to project his voice.

 

"There are those of you who think of me as nothing more than the King's mutt. His hunting dog. A mangy cur pretending to be a knight."

 

He paused to smile, showing off way too many teeth.

 

"Those people would be right."

 

He pulled his feet up to stand on the throne and looked down at all those assembled, "I am all that and MUCH WORSE. I am a junkyard dog and nothing is more vicious than a mutt protecting his master's property while he's away."

 

He widened his eyes slightly, "Some of you may get the idea, now is an excellent time to put your personal plans for expanding your power into play. You'll twirl your mustache and laugh with evil intent as you believe that some lowly halfling is too foolish to ever prevent you from bringing them to fruition."

 

He smiled even more while hooking a thumb toward his chest, "That's why my plan is to shoot first and ask questions later."

 

A murmur started that Ryan cut off, "If I think, I hear a whisper, of a shadow, of a thought of treason, you will get one warning." He paused to let his words sink in, "That warning will be when you are awakened in the middle of the night in your bed by the smell of my stinking breath."

 

Everyone went quiet.

 

"I have created death cannons that can vaporize armies. I have slain waves of demons and platoons of brigands. If you believe for one second that you have anything that can so much as slow me down, much less STOP ME from coming for you, when you so much as THINK of causing any problems for MY LEIGE, you are truly delusional."

 

He pulled himself up just a little bit more while making his tattoos take on a reddish hue, "Maybe you think you are... too important... or have too many friends... or have enough money to buy me off."

 

He clicked his tongue, "I. Don't. Care."

 

"You can't scare me off, you can't buy me off, and you can't KILL me off, because I've died like... four times now and it ain't stuck YET."

 

He stabbed a thumb against his heart, "I AM A TRUE BELIEVER. THE KING SHALL RISE AGAIN AND BY MIRA, THE ALL-FATHER, AND ALL THAT IS HOLY THERE WILL BE A LYONESSE HERE WHEN HE RECOVERS." He paused before lowering his voice to the point you would have to strain to hear him, "Whatever... it... takes."

 

He paused to let his words take effect, "For now, it's business as usual. If you have a problem with anything I do, keep track. WHEN... the king recovers, you can complain to him to your heart's content and I will happily accept any judgment he has for me at that time."

 

He paused taking in the shocked silence of the nobles before him, "After all... only this dog's master can bring him to heel. Since I'm off the leash, I suggest you be very careful about what you do. Ask yourselves, would what I'm doing be in Lyonesse's best interest, or would it draw too much attention from a certain violent killing machine that has been anointed with the power of a GOD and the authority of a KING?"

 

He sat down and paused to adjust his clothes before continuing, "Nobody wants me as regent, including me. I am here because my friend needs me to represent his best interests, but honestly, the only thing I do well is murder. If I could, I'd hand this off to someone else in a heartbeat. I hope you can take cold comfort in the fact that nobody will be working harder to cure Uther and return things to normal than me."

 

He scanned the room, looking each person in the eye in turn, "No more factions. No more Team Morgan or Team Lance. There are only two teams now. Team Uther, or Team Six Feet Under." He pointed his thumb to the ground, "Choose a side, I don't recognize fence sitters."

 

"Those loyal to the king will be praised, protected, and lavishly rewarded with the fruits of my crazy imagination. Those who seek only their personal profit will find Lyonesse a cold and unforgiving place. No enemy, within or without, will escape my wrath. No citizen of this country will go unprotected, and in the unlikely event I fail to protect them they will be AVENGED."

 

He leaned his head forward so he could look up through his eyelashes and appear just a hint more sinister, "I will not settle for the status quo. This country shall be BETTER than when our king was taken from us. I will not remain idle and allow our enemies to nip at our borders. Our citizens were attacked. Our honor besmirched."

 

He pounded his fist on the throne's armrest, "THIS WILL NOT STAND!"

 

From the back rows, someone let out a soft, "Yeah!"

 

"We will strengthen our military, improve our infrastructure, maximize food production, and begin the production of luxury goods to leverage logistical warfare on our enemies by flooding foreign markets with superior Lyonnesse products for the purpose of dominating the economic sector."

 

This caused a number of the more cowed nobles to suddenly look much more interested.

 

"Using new long-term food storage techniques, famine will be a thing of the past in our country, and instead we will become a net food exporter that we will leverage for political capital. We will pry our way into foreign markets so we can FLOOD it with cheap food that will crush the local markets in other nations thus making them dependent on our food production and vassals to our great KING!"

 

More and more nobles were shifting from being worried for their safety to hanging on Ryan's every word.

 

He made a fist and started shaking it as he spoke, occasionally stabbing a finger to punctuate a word, "Every sector of the Lyonesses Military-Industrial Complex will be modernized to maximize production and encouraged to reach its full potential!"

 

He paused as it seemed that he finally had the nobles hooked. When he next spoke, it was so soft you had to strain to hear him.

 

"And so when you all begin to reap the inevitable profits from the changes that will take place, I want all of you to remember who you should thank for all this... who you should keep in your hearts and prayers at all times until HE finally returns to us."

 

A noble near the back, obviously worked into a frenzy, abruptly leaped up as he thrust a fist into the air, "Great King Uther!"

 

Echoing the man, Ryan thrust his own fist into the air, "FOR GREAT KING UTHER!"

 

As if a dam burst, the stress of the threats combined with the promise of future reward resulted in everyone leaping up and yelling in unison, "FOR GREAT KING UTHER!"

 

Ryan climbed back up to stand on the throne, throwing a fist into the air over and over as the crowd began to chant.

 

 

 

"FOR GREAT KING UTHER!"

"FOR GREAT KING UTHER!"

"FOR GREAT KING UTHER!"

 

 

 

 

 

While Kyle stared up at Ryan and wondered exactly what it was that he had set in motion.