The walls of the hall out side the throne room were bare. The portraits and paintings that were there are currently stacked along the opposite wall covered in tarps. Two men worked efficiently removing the few remaining pieces from the wall and placing them with the others.
"Where are we puttin' des, Otto?" asked the grease covered man who was placing a covering over a picture of Prince Bleys looking over the hilt of his sword while grinning maliciously.
"Jeez, Ralph, can't you remember nothin'?" chastised the tall skinny man, "We're to hang 'em in the south stairwell."
"Oh, yeah. Why are they goin' there?"
"Cuz, Ralph, the west stairwell is full," replied Otto, rolling his eyes because he obviously thought that his partner was more then a little daft.
"But why can't they stay here?"
"Cuz the Queen, may she be blessed, don't want 'em here anymore."
"But they've always been here," whined Ralph, "seems a shame to move 'em."
"No they haven't you nob, These were put up right after the War. See," he said pointing at the portrait of Bleys, "these are all of the Heroes. Prince Bleys, Lord Benedict, Lord Rein, Duke Julian... And some rekreashuns of the battles. You know, 'The Fall of Deidre' and the like."
"Oooo... I've always liked dat one. She's so pretty it makes me cry," Otto sniffed and blew his large nose, "But Ralph, if des is all of heroes and such, why do we got to move 'em?"
"Cuz, ya nob, heroes don't always stay heroes," he whispered harshly. Even though it has been a few years, whispers of the Red Purge still float through the halls of the castle. Otto just shrugged his shoulders and started to help his friend with one of the last portraits to come down. It was of an obviously strong man with long blue hair glaring out of the picture with ice blue eyes. Otto stood back and regarded the painting.
"Hey, who's dis?"
Ralph leaned around and looked at the portrait.
"Duke Roland."
"It is NOT," Otto replied incredulously as he stared at the handsome man, "'es too clean."
"It is," said Ralph absently as he tried to release the painting from the wall while Otto just stood there and looked at it.
"But Ralph, Roland's a barbarian guy with feathers and skins and a green cloak and that wicked-scary ax," Otto shuddered as he remember what Roland did to that poor guard who tried to tell him that he had to give up his ax to go into the throne room. It's a good thing they changed that rule because they were running out of guards...
"It's him," replied Ralph from behind the portrait, "He didn't want ta do it. I hear tell that it took a royal command from King Corwin, may he be blessed in peace, to get him to do it and that Prince Gerard, ya know, the really big guy, had to threaten him to put on dat shirt."
Ralph stuck his head out from behind the painting and glared at Otto.
"Are you goin' ta jus' stand there like a maroon or are ya goin ta' help me with dis."
"Sorry Ralph," said Otto as he scurried over to hold the painting up so Ralph could release it.
"Got it. Now hurry up. It's almost sun up and the Queen, may she be blessed, will be here soon and I knows she's ain't goin' ta wanna see this mess."
"OK, Ralph."