>>5964695Despite the wealth and glory the Crab King had won in his younger years it had seemed there had been no end to the ambition that had burned in him, always there had been some work or deed to be completed, some foe to vanquish and some new story to tell. When the Crab king had sought to build his ship the <span class="mu-i">’’Tyrant’’</span> the castle had near rioted at the cost of it and the council chambers had been wrought with hot accusations of mad folly, the Crab had persisted however and no contention seemed to persuade him, even after the first frame had broken under its own weight and the second rendered smoking ruin by thunder and storm, he had merely sent for more men and timber and though it had taken nigh a decade of labor and the strange workings of an Yi-ti shipmaster that the impossible thing had been built to the horror & awe of all who saw it for the thing was of such aspect and size that it seemed no less a nightmare than Balerion the black dread, or at least the old man claimed. The Crab King had held a tourney in celebration, such was its length and width of her hull that it could easily fit a gallery and then some of knights, lords & smallfolk in attendance.
The vividness of the old man's recollection was hard to dispute, he could recall names and things with a clarity that almost unnerved you though you doubted the tourney had been held, the ship hull you had witnessed had seemed not nearly as big tas to be fit to hold a tourney and the whole thing seemed a great folly.
The old man’s voice grew dark as he recalled the last days of the Crab king’s reign, few things had seemed as inevitable as the crowning of his liege lord, the court had been fierce with its talk and the Crab had grown proud with his glories, It had been talk of the wealth of the sapphire isle of Tarth and the rightfulness of marital conquest by his eldest sons that had set the Crab king to action though the old man bitterly recalled how disappointed the host had been when the sack of the Isle had proved more costly than the meager plunder that had been taken. none had been as wrathful as the Crab king however and the knight who had suggested the campaign, a Harry stone to the man’s recollection, had been thrown overboard in his plate armor.
[3/5]
