Chapter 26: The Closed Book

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived a great and wise king named Augustus Horatio. He ruled his kingdom with justice and fairness, and during his reign, all the people prospered and the kingdom grew in wealth and happiness. In the sparkling palace, even servants sang as they did their tasks, proud to be part of the King’s household.

But it was not always that way in the royal household, nor was it always a happy kingdom. The great and wise King Augustus was once the foolish Prince Augie. Prince Augie was known far and wide as the stupidest child ever born to the royal household. He was inept in battle, a buffoon in the dining room. His school work was almost unintelligible, as all the royal tutors had quit when he was a small child and dedicated themselves to copying old manuscripts in a remote monastery.

Prince Augie, you might assume, was a prankster and problem child. But that would be a mistake. He was not clever enough to think up pranks, nor to think up ways to be a problem. It was enough that he existed and it was worse that he was his parents’ only child, so one day would surely ascend to the throne. The whole kingdom despaired of the day when that would happen.

“Whatever shall we do?” moaned Augie’s father as he watched his son pile blocks on top of each other in the nursery.

Augie was then sixteen summers old and the only task he could do successfully was build small buildings with the blocks in the nursery. Augie’s mother let a tear fall as she looked at the child and squeezed her husband’s arm.

“There is no choice,” said his mother. “He is sixteen summers old and must prove himself worthy of the throne. He must be sent on a quest.”

Both parents then wept, for they loved their stupid son and felt certain a quest would be the death of him. Yet it had to be done and so they sat in council to determine what quest they would set their son about.

“He should slay a dragon,” said the minister of the army. “Only then will people believe that he is brave and clever enough to rule them.”

“There has not been a dragon in this country in centuries,” said the minister of farming. “It would be senseless to send him on such a quest. He should be sent to retrieve a rare fruit from a mountain lake guarded by a sea monster. He would have to show his cleverness by outwitting the monster and show his care for the people by bringing back a new source of food.”

There were nods from around the table until the minister of literature spoke up.

“Rare fruits are only revealed when there is some dire emergency, according to the stories,” said the minister of literature. “Someone must be dying and need a drop of dew from the mystical flower or some such, or there is no point in the quest.”

“It makes no difference,” said the King. “None of these things would be possible for my son. I will only accept a quest that is within reason for a lad of his ... er ... experience.”

That caused a great silence to fall on the council chamber as everyone tried to think of a task that was within his grasp.

“It’s no use,” said the minister of the army at last. “We can scarcely send him to the market to fetch an egg. No one would believe that was a great enough task to prove his worth as a king.”

“Ah,” said the minister of literature, “but a simple task might be made to look much more difficult. We should send him to Quentin Renault.” There was great silence. Quentin Renault had been the last of Prince Augie’s tutors who fled to the monastery over four years ago, frustrated over his inability to teach the young prince.

“And why would this be a worthy quest?” asked the minister of farming. “Is it simply to find a man who does not want to be found by the boy?”

“No,” said the minister of literature. “Actually, it is because Master Renault took one of my favorite books with him to copy at the monastery. He promised to return it soon, but I fear now that I shall never see it again. Prince Augie should be sent to the monastery to retrieve this rare book and bring it back to the royal library where it belongs.”

“I fail to see how that shows his cleverness or his bravery,” said the minister of the army. “It is still gathering eggs from the market.”

“Yes,” said the minister of literature, “but the pen is mightier than the sword. It will take Prince Augie several weeks to make his way to the monastery and back. In the meantime, we can create adventures that he ‘might’ have had and send them back on his behalf. Each week, we will gather the people to read the latest missive that will tell of Prince Augie’s great adventures. By the time he returns, he will be a great hero in the eyes of the people and they will be ready to accept him as their crown prince.”

The King and Queen were pleased with this solution. The journey to the monastery was a long one into remote mountains, but it was comparably safe. And so it was decided.

On the sixteenth anniversary of the Prince’s naming day, there was a great celebration. Musicians played all the prince’s favorite music. Cooks prepared all the prince’s favorite food. When the feast had been prepared and all had eaten, the King called his son before him. The ministers of literature, farming, and the army were called forth to describe the majesty of the quest that Prince Augie was to undertake.

“Our son,” said the King, “is preparing to take his place as rightful heir to the throne.” There were some groans among the people at these words, but Prince Augie assumed they were because the people had eaten too much. “As is traditional,” the King continued, “he shall undertake a quest of great danger and worth.”

The minister of the army then rose to speak at the King’s command.

“Prince Augustus Horatio,” the minister began.

There were some twitters of laughter among the audience, who had seldom heard the prince’s full name unless he was being reprimanded by someone for an act of foolishness. Augie found the use of his full name to be funny as well, so the audience’s laughter did not bother him.

“You will be given a horse and armor as a knight of the kingdom. You will undertake a perilous journey into the mountains to regain a valuable talisman that was lost to this kingdom some years ago. You will use whatever means you must to get this object from its current owner and return with it here.”

Prince Augie was less than excited about how this sounded and was ready to bow out when the minister of literature rose to speak.

“For many years,” the minister said, “there has been a book in the royal library that contains the wisdom and judgments of all the kings. Our kings have always ruled wisely because they had the Book of Kings on which to rely. This book was stolen from the library and must be returned. With this book, you will be able to rule wisely when it is time for you to inherit your father’s throne.”

It suddenly didn’t sound so bad. Augie had gotten books from the library before and it didn’t seem to be any great challenge. They had mostly been picture books. Then the minister of farming stood to speak.

“The Book of Kings was spirited away to the mountain monastery,” said the minister of farming. “It holds the secrets to good husbandry that have always assured us of bountiful crops and healthy animals. Now enemies of the Kingdom might use The Book of Kings to hurt our harvests if they get to it first. The well-being of our kingdom depends on you bringing The Book of Kings back from the mountain monastery to the safety of the royal library.”

Augie didn’t like the sound of enemies trying to get the same thing he was going after, but he comforted himself by believing it was really only a trip to the library, and he would get to visit with some of his former tutors. He had always liked his tutors and did not understand why they became so frustrated with him. He had, after all, only asked a few simple questions.

And so it was that Prince Augie, dressed in shining armor and riding a white charger, was cheered as he rode out of the city gates on the road to the mountain monastery.

Now it so happened that there were spies at the royal banquet from an enemy nation. They had never before heard of the mysterious book that contained all the secrets of the kingdom.

“If we were to get this book before the foolish prince,” they said among themselves, “then we could control their crops and invade their weakest places.” They determined that they would capture the prince and use him as a hostage to demand the book from the monastery.

It was only a few days after the prince left the castle that the spies sprang their trap. Prince Augie was riding along near dusk, looking for a place to camp, when the spies fell upon him. Augie’s horse was well-trained by the minister of the army and reared up to face the attack. Augie’s visor fell over his eyes and he could not see as the horse turned and charged down the road past the enemy.

Augie let the horse go as he struggled to raise his visor so he could see. When he succeeded, he discovered the horse had turned off the road and was following a stream, the spies close behind. Ahead of Augie there appeared a stone bridge across the stream and his horse was headed straight for the arched opening through which ran the stream.

“Duck!” yelled Augie to himself, and since he had given the command himself, he immediately obeyed it and flattened himself on his horse’s neck as the great beast charged beneath the bridge. The spies, following so closely behind that the spray of the horse’s hooves blocked their vision, were knocked from their mounts as they ran beneath the bridge. They lay unconscious in the stream as Augie and his horse continued to run down the stream and then back to the road toward the mountain monastery.

Back at the castle, the minister of literature had prepared the first ‘report from the prince’ to read to the people, without knowing what had occurred on the road.

“Spies attacked the prince on the road to the mountain monastery,” the missive read. “In spite of being outnumbered three to one, Prince Augustus Horatio acquitted himself with deeds of bravery. The sun reflected from his shining armor and his gleaming sword as he beat the spies into submission. Then, showing his compassion and sense of justice, the Prince spared their lives, accepted their pledge of homage, and continued on his quest. Our Prince has shown himself brave in the face of grave danger and has brought honor and power to our country.”