The Minister of Welfare, the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Boundaries each climbed into the van without a word when it pulled to a stop in front of them. Of them, only Finance was not obviously streetbound, as his office required more frequent contact with the straight world.
“The One-Eyed King is ready to take as many of our people for the winter as needs be,” Boundaries, a lean, hawkish man, reported. “The usual terms. Though, he hinted would not look askance at an extra pallet or two of batteries.”
“What kind he want?” Mama asked. Her polished tones slipped as her face took on an expression of cunning and calculation.
“Flashlight batteries,” the minister said. “D cells.”
“We can do that,” Mama said. “Some wind-up LED lights, too. Let His Majesty know he can have those and his fee, if he does a better job of guaranteeing our people’s safety.”
“There were no problems I heard about,” Boundaries said. “A little petty thieving, but…”
“When you’ve got next to nothing, that’s the same as grand larceny,” Mama said. “And if somebody steals your light underground, that might as well be murder.”
“But… nobody died,” the minister said.
“Yeah, so nothing ever came of it,” Mama said. “Those who did it and got away with it will be twice as bold this year. You have the king tell his people that our people and whatever they bring with them are untouchable… because, if we’re not safe in his territory, we’ll just have to go back to fighting over the tunnels every winter again.”
“I can’t say that!” the minister protested. “It sounds like a threat.”
“Then tell him how glad we are that we don’t have to fight any more,” Mama said. “Remind him how better things are now.”
Boundaries nodded.
Up in the driver’s seat, Ivan made a mental note to double the number of spies assigned to the underground realm. In the Kingdom of the Blind, every eye counted.
6 Responses
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This serial just gets better with every 333 words Lexy posts
just a random note….the one-eyed king is the king of diamonds which could be another allusion to the wizard of oz…..or im just nuts
btw i still luv all your work lexy keep it up im countin down to january
I dunno… I see the Wizard of Oz pieces that y’all point out, but all-in-all I don’t understand the connection… Kinda like the Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon connection… it’s there, but it’s not easy to understand.
Actually, I took the One-eyed King of the Kingdom of the Blind to be a reference to a saying: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. ie Having something that isn’t very much still puts you ahead of people with nothing. I’ve read a great short story (I think by Wells) disputing the premise of the statement: in the land of the blind, people have probably learned to make do without sight and might not have a concept of vision, so they wouldn’t value or even understand someone who could see.
Of course, I could be totally wrong, and even if I’m not, this doesn’t rule out a cards or Oz reference as well.
I think it’s definitely referring to the old saying, especially given the end of the chapter:
“In the Kingdom of the Blind, every eye counted.”
It makes me laugh at how much time I spend in AE’s writing world, because I wrote a poem featuring the one eyed king symbol a few weeks ago, and posted it here just the other day:
http://www.writingforums.com/poetry/87826-mythical.html
Weird synchronicity.
Damn, I hate it when I’m all caught up. I seriously need to develop my ability to be patient.
This serial is excellent- thank you!