The Siege of an Empty Throne Room
Two armies besiege a throne room that has been empty for a century because the kingdom's laws insist somebody is still inside.
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How it begins
For ninety-three days, Nell sent supper into the throne room.
For ninety-three days, it came back untouched.
On the ninety-fourth, she sent an empty plate.
The steward returned it with a complaint.
"His Majesty found the sauce thin."
Nell looked at the plate. Then at the steward. Behind him, the palace windows trembled under another bombardment.
"What did he think of the meat?"
"A little dry."
"Remarkable."
She took the plate into the kitchen and put it beside the ledger.
Two armies surrounded the capital. One wished to restore the king's authority. The other wished to defend it. Neither appeared troubled by the distinction, provided the kitchen sent sufficient bread.
Nell had forty sacks of flour, three barrels of onions and eleven soldiers too hungry to maintain their assigned hatred.
She had no patience left for imaginary sauce.
At dusk she carried the next tray herself.
The throne-room doors rose three times her height. Their hinges had been gilded. Their keyhole had been polished by generations of people who evidently enjoyed looking busy.
A man sat beside them with a box of tools.
"You're not the steward," he said.
"Neither is the king, apparently."
His hand stopped moving.
Nell set down the tray.
"When did you last open these?"
"I maintain the lock."
"That wasn't the question."
The man studied her face. He was older than she had first thought, with the quiet, expensive tiredness of somebody paid not to notice something.
"My father maintained the lock," he said.
"And before him?"
"His father."
From beyond the doors came a voice.
Bring the western army to heel.
The locksmith closed his eyes.
Outside, another cannon fired.
Nell bent to inspect the gap beneath the door. A fine grey line of dust lay unbroken from one side to the other.
Not ninety-four days of dust.
A lifetime.
She stood.
"My name is Nell. I'm going to need your help."
"With the lock?"
"With dinner," she said. "I think we've been feeding the wrong people."
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Outline and characters
- Nell notices the royal meal always returns untouched.
- Oren admits nobody has opened the throne room in a century.
- The armies refuse to stop fighting without a royal order.
- Nell follows the supply chain that keeps the fiction of rule alive.
- They discover successive ministers have issued commands through an old speaking mechanism.
- The rival generals prefer the myth to a peace that would end their authority.
- Nell organizes cooks on both sides to insist on a public audience.
- Oren opens the door while soldiers refuse orders to attack the witnesses.
- The empty room forces the city to negotiate authority openly.
- Nell returns to her kitchen under a government that must eat where people can see it.
Characters
- Nell Arden, 48. A siege cook who can count what the generals prefer not to
- Oren Pike, 55. The royal locksmith paid to maintain an unopened door
Series possibilities
- Other provinces ask Nell to investigate rulers who exist only on official paper.
