Ludwig smiled. “So I will have to do it myself.”
CHAPTER
36
The general took another step forward as he flicked a finger in command at the archers. Without looking, Ludwig heard the “whoosh” as all the bows ignited in the hands of the men before they could loose their arrows, and then the sounds of the weapons rattling against the cobblestone as they were thrown to the ground before they could burn the hands of the archers. He never took his gaze from the general’s increasingly red face.
But he did lift a finger of his own, pointing.
“What’s that, there, General? At the corner of your mouth. It looks like you are bleeding.”
The man was so angry that he hadn’t even noticed yet.
“What?”
Ludwig gestured again. “There, at the corners of your mouth. Isn’t that blood starting to run down your chin?”
The general swiped at his jaw and looked down at his hand to see it covered in blood.
“You seem to have caught a disease, or something. I believe I do recall hearing about some sort of illness that has been befalling people. Quite painful, from the accounts I’ve heard.”
The officers to either side began stepping forward, but Ludwig shot them a glare. “I don’t think you want to get close to the man. He looks quite infectious.” He lifted a cautionary finger. “It could possibly be the plague. I would hate for anyone else to catch the horrifying sickness your commanding general appears to have contracted.”
The officers paused, uncertain about what to do.
The soldiers stared in horror at the man. The general’s face was almost as red as the strings of blood that had begun dripping from his chin.
“Dreier!” the general shouted. “How dare you…”
His voice trailed off in a choking gurgle.
“I am so sorry to have to tell you, General, but your symptoms appear to match the terrible disease I’ve been hearing about. When I heard the stories, I had thought it might be nothing more than the rumors of country folk, but those rumors appear to be proving true. From what I have been told, it comes on swiftly, first with sores bursting open in the mouth and throat. Such sores are said to bleed profusely.”
The general’s hands went to his throat. His eyes looked nearly ready to pop from his head. Blood splattered all over the wet cobblestones at his feet.
“From what I’ve heard of this disease,” Ludwig said as he turned his eyes skyward while tapping his chin as if trying to recall, “the second set of symptoms set in quite rapidly.”
“What—” The man coughed out a spray of blood, unable to ask what symptoms.
“I’ve heard that soon after the sores burst, the bones themselves that have become brittle from the malady start breaking. It is said that the ones holding up the most weight, like the leg bones, go first.”
A loud snap echoed around the courtyard. It was quickly followed by a second. As both of his lower legs broke, the general dropped heavily to his knees.
“From what I’ve heard tell,” Ludwig went on, “it quickly becomes a rapid progression from there to the embrittled bones all over the body breaking. Quite a horrifying thought, actually, considering how many bones there are in the human body. I’m afraid that I don’t know the number, but I’ve heard there are a lot of them.”
Ludwig turned to the men in ranks to his left. “Any of you know the number of bones in the human body?”
They all shook their heads.
Ludwig shrugged. “Well, don’t hold me to it, but I seem to recall that the number might be over a hundred, possibly two.”
All the men now hung on his every word. They watched in horror as their general held his throat while vomiting blood.
Intermittently, more loud snaps reverberated through the drizzle of the courtyard. The general collapsed onto his side.
“Quite painful, I heard tell, the way they just keep breaking, one at a time,” Ludwig said. He let out a deep sigh. “I think I recall hearing that the next thing that happens is that the mere act of breathing is too much for the now brittle bones of the ribs, and they all break.”
With that, there is a rapid, ripping succession of pops, like a fistful of dry twigs snapping.
The general gasped and choked as his feet kicked wildly at the end of broken legs. His muscles could no longer move his broken limbs properly, so the effort made them flop around.
“Well, now,” Ludwig said in feigned, concerned observation, “you do seem to exhibit the symptoms I’ve heard about. You seem to have contracted the plague of fools.”
The men, standing in stiff panic, glanced at one another, not knowing what to do, not daring to move as they watched their general going through the terrifying throes of a painful death.