Prompt 47 (12 April) – What If?
Title: No way to run a kingdom
Words: 204
Feat. Sir Sacherell of Wellam
It's pointless, of course – a dangerous self-indulgence – but I can't help sometimes thinking, all the same: what if, all those years ago, Sir Alan had beaten Duke Roger?
Imagine it: Jonathan, our Jon, on the throne of Tortall. Could he have fended off the advances of the Carthaki Emperor? Would he have wanted to? After all, the vassal kingdom of Tortall has enjoyed a long peace under Carthak's protection, when to resist would have meant years of war – decades perhaps. King Roald would certainly have favoured peace over war; perhaps Roger, not Jonathan, is indeed his natural heir.
Jon was always a bit of a hothead, and Alan – well. When someone's born with hair that colour, what hope has he got? They'd have had us up to our ears in crisis after crisis, I suppose, charging to the rescue of every damsel – or petty dukedom – in distress. That's no way to run a kingdom.
Still – when we were boys, we all thought Jon would be the greatest king in Tortall's history. And maybe I'm wrong; maybe he'd have got it right in the end.
After all, both Jon and Alan died so long ago … who can say how they might have turned out?