When the king passed away of old age, he was succeeded by Prince Theodis as the new king. With the responsibility of the crown now heavy on his head, nightmares began to fill the new king’s mind at night.
At night the memory of the screaming mule made his dreams always circle back to that fateful day. In dreams, he relived the trial, every word echoing. The words clicked and clacked, rapping off the smooth stone walls. At the end, he was always horrified when his hands turned to hooves, and his accusations became the braying screams of an ass.
For some reason King Theodis could not shake the guilt for what befell that doomed farmboy. Deep down, he knew Gilbert meant no harm and was only trying to protect the reckless children from the poor mule.
Theodis often had nights he could not sleep. Laying awake at night, he sometimes claimed he could hear hoof steps clapping across the floor.
The king's skin broke out into a cold sweat whenever his thoughts raced back to whatever terrible fate might have claimed the widowed wife after her husband never returned home. He wondered what became of her child. He even wondered what had become of the beautiful horse. Often he pondered whether the horse had a kind new master, or if the horse also remembers and dreams of that day in the market square.
As the days became weeks, and the weeks became months, and then years, time did not make things any easier. The king prayed more often and became more merciful in his judgments. The church benefitted from his increasing generosity, and his wife became increasingly concerned for his well-being.
Over supper, the Queen once suggested, half in jest, that perhaps the spirits haunted him because he had not yet made peace with them.
The comment froze the king.
The very next day the king summoned the palace artists and commissioned them to begin work on various projects.
Little changes happened here and there. At first the king had his bed chamber redecorated with various paintings of horses. They were odd compositions with horses dressed in clothes and riding wagon carts pulled by people.
Outside a massive bronze-cast mule head was affixed above the garden gate. Servants whispered that the king spoke to the thing when he thought nobody else was around. One rumor spread that the king sometimes challenged the bronze mule to riddles. Sometimes he simply stood there for a long time quietly staring up at it, or even wept.
Things became more awkward at court over the years as the king started to adopt various equine mannerisms, such as nodding and shaking his head instead of answering verbally, and counting out loud with crude foot stomps.
With delicate observance of rules and manners, the Queen reluctantly convinced the king and council that perhaps it would be best for her to officially assume authority over family and state affairs.
Moved away from the eyes and ears of gossiping aristocrats, the king was stationed in his childhood tower room, where he became fixated on chewing carrots and playing with the wooden horses of his childhood.
In the early mornings, sometimes the king can be spotted running wild and free of his royal raiments, galloping like the wind. After he was spotted by the groundskeeper drinking from a stream, the queen decided it was best to keep him locked inside the castle ground, completely away from the public eye.
The beloved king had completely disappeared from the public eye. As aristocrats jested that the king was too busy eating carrots and praying to a mule idol, common folk sometimes whispered that the now joyless queen had perhaps had her husband murdered in the night.
Some servants even swore they could still hear hoofsteps echoing in the palace halls on quiet nights, long after the king went missing.
Dead, or alive, nobody outside the palace walls knew for certain what had become of King Theodis.
In the courts of nobles and taverns across the realm, he was always remembered by only one name.
The Mad King.
Thank you for reading my short story.
"The Mad King" is the third and final chaper in a three-part series. Feel free to browse the first chapter in this tale, "A Horse and a Mule", or the second chapter, "A Mother's Wish".
Together these tales are meant to broaden the history and backstories of a greater fantasy setting I am exploring. Explore with me, and leave your kind thoughts.
The narrative and plot are entirely my own, with inspiration from Greek mythology, Grimm Fairy Tales, and modern fantasies such as A Game of Thrones. Some revisionary and editing assistantace was provided by ChatGPT.
Cover art provided by Ecency AI image generator.
