Within the Hollow Crown
Read Within the Hollow Crown Online
Authors: Daniel Antoniazzi
The
Imperial Metals, Book One
Within the Hollow Crown
by Daniel Antoniazzi
Copyright 2013
Cover art by Raymond Minnaar, copyright 2013.
Map by Pheobe Boynton, copyright 2013.
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. And hilarious.
All events described in this book actually happened. Just not on our world.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Toll at the Bridge
Chapter 3: A Glorious Quest Worthy of a Librarian
Chapter 4: Things To Talk About When Dining With The Count
Chapter 5: The Demographically Challenged
Chapter 7: The Trade Commission of Taverns and Inns
Chapter 9: A Noble In Name Only
Chapter 13: Attack of the Turin-Sen
Chapter 14: An Uninvited Guest at the Wedding
Chapter 15: A Pirate in Name Only
Chapter 16: Knowledgeable Birds
Chapter 20: A Match Made In A Match Factory
Chapter 21: The World Crumbles
Chapter 22: The Gathering Tide
Chapter 24: Under the Old Oak Tree
Chapter 29
: Nobles, Ancestors, and Loyalties
Chapter 30: Really Good Salmon
Chapter 31: The Road to Recovery
Chapter 32: Things You Can’t Unsay
Chapter 35: The Lair of the Beast
Chapter 36: The End of the Lesson
Chapter 37: The Edge of the World
Chapter 42: Memory of Betrayal
Chapter 43: A History of Drentar
Chapter 45: Unforgotten Memories
Chapter 53: Men of the Kingdom
Chapter 54: Problem Number One
Chapter 55: The Worth of a Man
Chapter 65: A Silence of Choice
Chapter 68: The Words You Learn First
Chapter 71: Attack on the Queen
Chapter 77: Battle of the Turin-Sen
Chapter 78: The New Assignments
Chapter 79: Memories and Dreams
Chapter 84: The Writing on the Wall
Chapter 88: The Eye of the Storm
Chapter 89: The Battle of Deliem
Chapter 92: The Toll at the Docks
Epilogue: The Tower at Goldmere
Special Thanks to...
My Mom, Dad, and favorite sister (Irene) for believing in the book nonstop, even when the smart money was pointing the other way.
Irene, again, for finding the title.
Bobby Brimmer, for going first and proving there was nothing to fear. You can find his writing at his
website
.
Raymond Minnaar, for the cover art.
Find more of his art at his
website
.
Pheobe Boynton, for the map.
Find more of her art and costume design at her
website
.
And
Kristen Eaton, for liking the part with the juggling.
And a Very Special Thanks to...
Paul Loester, Jon Lum, Evan Piccarillo, Kevin Sheldon, and Sloane Yavarkovsky for being inspiring characters.
Dedicated
to my Mom and Dad.
For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
A
nd tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Richard II
William Shakespeare
Prologue: The Unique King
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of the wind in your hair as you fall from the North Tower of the Castle Anuen.
There’s also nothing quite like the abrupt, sickening thud that inevitably follows.
There had been many assassinations in the history of the Kingdom of Rone, but this one differed from all the others in three important ways. First of all, there had never been an attempt on the King’s life. Previous assassinations had targeted Dukes, Counts, Barons, and the occasional Yodeler, but nobody had ever been so ambitious as to off the King.
Second
, none of the assassinations had been the result of defenestration. This particular detail would make the scholars very happy, since they had been forced to learn the meaning of the word “
defenestration
” but never had an opportunity to use it.
And finally, the motive behind the assassination was unique. In all previous assassinations in the Kingdom, the motive involved moving someone up the line of
succession
. In the case of King Vincent Rone, it was exactly the opposite.
King Vincent was a passable King, but certainly his death would play a bigger part in his legacy than anything he had done in life. Even then, his untimely and unique demise would only amount to a footnote in the history books. Because when the story is all told, it is about another King entirely, and about a sword called the Saintskeep.
But that comes later. To truly understand the scope of this event, we must begin our story three months earlier in the County of Arwall, in the southeast corner of the Kingdom of Rone…