The Corpse-Rat King

Marius dos Hellespont and his apprentice, Gerd, are professional looters of battlefields. When they stumble upon the corpse of the King of Scorby and Gerd is killed, Marius is mistaken for the monarch by one of the dead soldiers, is transported down to the Kingdom of the Dead. The dead need a King--the King is God's representative, and someone needs to remind God where they are.
Marius is banished to the surface with one message: if he wants to recover his life he must find the dead a King. Which he fully intends to do. Just as soon as he stops running.
File Under: Fantasy [ Royal Prospect | Loot | Keep Running | Living Dead ]

Lee Battersby was born in Nottingham, UK, in 1970 and moved to Australia at the age of 5, bringing his parents with him for protection. A multiple award-winning author of over 70 short stories in Australia, the US and Europe, He writes across a wide range of forms, including poetry, reviews, stand-up comedy and film, and has taught writing for both Clarion South and the Australian Writers Marketplace. He lives in Mandurah, Western Australia, with his wife, writer Lyn Battersby, and a brood of increasingly weird children. His long-running weblog, the Battersblog, is archived by Australia's National Library as an electronic source of log-term research value, which amuses him greatly.