‘Take this message to your King,’ said Birin to the Prince, who struggled to his feet, ‘for he is no longer my King.’
‘You will all die for this!’ shouted the Prince, clutching his face, holding closed his split face. ‘Before this day is out, I will have each and every one of you flayed-’
‘I find that very unlikely,’ Birin told him. ‘In the meantime, if you value your life, be silent! You will tell your King that the Thane no longer recognises his former Sovereign, and will strive for the good of all free peoples to unseat his former King. This former King will then be captured and brought to trial for crimes against certain free people, including his own, for which he will surely be put to death. Do you understand me?’
There was something very un-Elf-like about the Prince now as he licked at the blood on his hands. His smile was the mad grin of a ghoul as he glared back at them. ‘You have just signed the death-warrants of yourselves and your families,’ he hissed.
One of the soldiers rode forward, beseeching Birin. ‘Must we let this thing live?’ the soldier cried in dismay.
‘Let it live awhile longer yet,’ said Birin without taking his eyes off the Prince, ‘but mark my words, snake; at the last, when your King and those conspirators who abet his madness fall, and all his plans are thwarted and his insane works destroyed, at the last I myself will come for you, and you will suffer at my hands before you die.’