Page 40 of The King's Bodyguard
My torturers were asking questions.Who are you working for? What were you intending to do with the king? What Munni plot was hatched with your conspirators? Are they back in Velamere? Was this your bitch mother’s idea?
On and on. I didn’t answer. Talking to them would lead to nothing. At best, they would keep hitting me until I said what they wanted me to say. At worst, they’d take some words of mine and twist them into a confession that would condemn my kin, or, gods forbid, Landis.
I held my tongue, but as their fists slammed into my body, marking my face, my ribs, my back, and my belly, I grunted with rising pain. At some point, a cane was brought out and applied to my back and the back of my legs. I passed out, overwhelmed with the burning pain of my stretched arms, aching shoulders, and now swollen back and chest. When I came to, the chain overhead had been allowed to slack. I was lying on the floor, albeit still chained by my wrists. My shoulders and arms werestill screaming with pain, but I was able to crawl to the bucket by the door and drink some water before drifting off to sleep yet again.
What might have been the next morning, I was woken with shouts and hoisted once again up. This time, I was able to balance a bit on my toes. That respite ended as my interrogators, with rising fury, began to apply more pressure. They had been given some kind of mission to extract information out of me, even if it was false. I was not about to give it to them. Stubbornly, I remained silent except for the gasps—and then cries—of pain that were ripped from my body.
A guard brought out a flogger. Within half an hour, my back was a mass of weals, oozing blood. The last lash of the spiked tails, just above the base of the tails, had me arching and twisting away from the agonizing pain. I was almost sobbing with pain, but I refused to speak. The last thing I remembered was another fist flying toward my already swollen face.
After that, I woke in the dark. I lay on the ground, bleeding profusely. My face was swollen. I couldn’t see out of one eye, and the other was so swollen, I could only see a portion of my cell. And the sight wasn’t all that thrilling either. My gaze was fixed on dark, damp stone that was now spattered with the blood that had dripped down my legs, or the spit I had coughed up. Rolling my head sideways nearly made me fall unconscious yet again. I rested there, unable to move even a finger.
I mentally took inventory. My ribs hurt.A few were broken, I guessed.One of my fingers as well. Otherwise…I moved my legs. I could move, but barely. The pain nearly made me scream. Instead, I groaned and passed out again.
The next time I awoke, I was still alone. This was good. Not great, but better than being tormented by those bullies. I hoped that it was Gareth and Hugh’s doing, and not another manipulation by Lord Morne and his minions. This time, I managed to move my head again, this time without losing consciousness. Progress. Moving my arms and legs, however, was still a strain. When I woke again, there was still no sign of my interrogators. I was alone. I wondered whether Gareth or Hugh or some other person would arrive.
I could not hope for Landis. I didn’t want Landis to see me like this. He’d be so worried and upset. The last thing Landis needed to worry about was me. He needed to focus on keeping himself and the princess safe. When Lord Elthorne arrived, I hoped that he would at least assure me that Landis was safe. That was all I was thinking about.
It took a while. Another day, perhaps. Then I was able to move myself to the bed. When I awoke next, it was thanks to a rough hand pulling me up the hair. I could not bat the hard grip away. My hands had been unchained for some reason, but they might as well have been. They felt heavy like rocks.
“Fukken hell,” the voice said.
A familiar voice.Father.I winced.Great.
“Jan,” my mother said mildly. “Well, at least it looks like he’s learned his lesson.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it, Meera.” My father said, dropping me back onto the pillow. “The brat has all of the commonsense of a grouse. As soon as he can walk, I’ll trot him back to Velamere right quick.”
“It will be a while until then.” My mother didn’t disagree with him.
I tried to say something, but my jaw was too stiff—or swollen. I just managed to groan a little.
“We had best keep him down here.”
“At least I can arrange to send him to a healer,” someone else interjected.
“I think not,” my father said. “He needs to learn his lesson. Pampering got him into this mess—“
“Pampering?” My mother’s voice hardened. “What are you implying?”
“You talked a pretty talk for the general’s sake, but, come, Meera. We all know you probably hoped that Corrin would build some kind of a friendship with the king for whatever reasons you cooked up.” Jan scoffed. “Don’t deny it.”
“I had hopes—“
“Gods.”
“But I never thought that they would end up so… close.”
“Thank the gods we didn’t have a girl to send,” Jan snapped. “Otherwise, we’d be in even worse shite.”
“Well, what would have been your strategy? Fighting your way through Rimefrost?”
They were at it again. Arguing as I lay there, nearly passing out from the pain. The story of my life.What had Landis said the day we first met in the garden?Something about the Munni and their freedom to love. I hadn’t told him the truth. It would just seem so cruel to strip away every one of his ideals.He had said… What had he said?
The Children of the Moon, worshippers of the goddess Meryn, find shelter in its glow. They draw energy from the night... and they pursue love.
Just hearing him say that had given me hope. It was just a dream, really, but it had been a beautiful dream. If he saw my parents now, if he saw how they treated me, he would be horrified. I lay there and hated them. With every fiber of my being, I wished I had woken up today alone. It would have been better if they had never come at all.
“Well,” the other voice said mildly.
