Long Live the King is the sixty-fifty chapter of A Little Hatred.
Chapter Summary[]
Prince Orso1 is woken in the night by noises in the hall. Then Queen Terez opens his bedroom door, and leads him to his father’s bedchamber, where there's a press of people. The crowd parts to reveal High King Jezal the First2 lying naked in bed with scant dignity, as the royal physician examines him, and pronounces him dead. Orso feels a heavy hand on his shoulder, and turned to see the First of the Magi, who says with almost the ghost of a smile, “Long live the king.”3
Characters[]
| Introduced | Appeared | Mentioned | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orso dan Luthar | Sand dan Glokta | Rikke | |
| Queen Terez | Bremer dan Gorst | ||
| Jezal dan Luthar | Lord Chamberlain Hoff | ||
| Bayaz |
Locations and Terms[]
| Adua | The Union |
References[]
- If traumatizing our hero once can earn the reader's sympathy, then why not lay trauma after trauma on them like a falling row of dominoes? Prince Orso's lover is captured by the Breakers, so he rides out to save her, and negotiates a peaceful resolution. Then the rebels are executed with nobody bothering to check with him, so the common people consider him a mass murders. Then his lover breaks up with him, giving him no explanation and leaving him miserable. Then his father dies, leaving him stuck with a crown he doesn't want.
- RIP Jezal. A rather unexpected death. Could there be foul play here?
- We are left with perhaps two major mysteries left from the novel: who is the Weaver behind the Breakers? and Rikke's vision "a wolf eat the Sun, a lion eat the wolf, a lamb eat the lion, an owl eat the lamb":
- There are two main clues about the Weaver. Rikke's vision, "I saw a bald weaver with a purse that never emptied" and Malmer's description, "Like a priest who’d had God turn up to his service." The former hints at Bayaz, and it's just a safe bet that he is behind everything. The latter perhaps hints at Khalul. My top suspect is Glokta, because Pike interrupting Malmer's interview was just too suspicious. Glokta is the original weaver, and Savine becomes his successor (bald with a purse that never emptied).
- In Rikke's vision the lamb could be Logen Ninefingers, though more likely Prince Orso, who is called the lamb by the crowd during the triumph. The owl could be anyone. Perhaps Rikke with the Long Eye, or Bayaz always watching, or even Broad with his glasses.