Page 27 of What Fury Brings
Despite his best attempts on the road, he was now in Zinaeya, the Amarran capital. Escape would be much harder now, but he was determined to find a way out of this. He would never stop fighting. He would not leave his family to their fate. He would not allow this woman to make a mockery of him. He would not wed her. He would not bed her. In fact, he would slit her fucking throat the second he had the chance.
They pulled up to what must be the palace. Scarlet banners hung from the windows, the icon of a pointed helmet with long hair trailingdown the back painted on each one. A retinue was waiting for them when the cart finally came to a stop. There was cheering and much more gawking directed at them.
Olerra and Ydra didn’t give him a look as they jumped to the ground.
“I’m to report to my aunt,” Olerra said. “See that the prince is bathed and readied for tonight.”
Those words sent a burst of anger through his limbs, but he forced himself to remain still as the servants came forward to untie him from the cart.
The second he was free, he tried to bolt. One of the men caught him around the waist and another slung a fist into his stomach. Even as the breath whooshed out of him, he still tried to fight. While they outnumbered him, it was clear that the men were not trained fighters.
Sanos struggled until his breath finally returned to him, then he struck out with his bare foot, sweeping the legs out from under one of the men.
“Ydra,” Olerra said lazily. “Put a stop to that, will you? He’s going to hurt the eunuchs.”
The what?
Sanos barely had a chance to look in Olerra’s direction before Ydra launched herself at him. He prepared to snap her neck, but he’d barely made contact with her skin before Ydra threw him to the ground as though he weighed nothing. She pinned him effortlessly, even though her body weight shouldn’t have been able to manage it. Then she pulled back his arms and secured him with rope beforeliftinghim off the ground and onto his knees without so much as a grunt.
A horrible sinking sensation took root in his body as Ydra turned him to face Olerra. He hated kneeling before her.
The princesstsked at him, as though he were no more bothersome than a fly. “I understand that in Brutus, you men are taught to behavelike animals, but we do not tolerate that kind of behavior in Amarra. Since you are still learning our ways, I will only deny you your dinner’s rations as punishment. But should you fight like this again, especially publicly, you will be denied much greater necessities than food. Get him out of my sight until tonight.”
Sanos spat at her feet and muttered, “I will see you dead,” before he was gagged again.
Everyone laughed, but not because he was insulting the princess.
They laughedat him.
As though he were some great entertainment brought all this way for their enjoyment.
The princess leaned down to be at his eye level. She pressed her lips to his ear. “Are we making promises to each other? Unlike yours, I will actually keep mine. Soon, I will have you begging to be inside me. You will worship my curves, and you will love me.”
That was the last thing she said to him before they dragged him away. Everything was a blur after that. He couldn’t take in any of his surroundings through the fury and hatred that clouded his vision. He nearly fell down the stairs amid his distraction. A heated sheen of air brushed against his skin. He was in some sort of bathing chamber down low, low in the palace.
They cut his clothes away with shears. The men. The eunuchs. He knew exactly what that word meant the moment they undressed to properly bathe him.
They were missing their manhood. Had the Amarransdonethat to them?
He could do no more than stare as Olerra’s words from before took real meaning in his mind. He would be denied much greater necessities than food. Gods, was his manhood what she’d meant?
They cleaned every inch of him, including his ass and foreskin, andSanos was horrified to have another man’s hands in so many places. The eunuchs said not a word to him, nor did they look him in the eye, as if they knew what they would find there and would rather not have to blatantly ignore it.
Once they dried him with fresh, warm towels, he thought that would be the worst of it, but a man wearing nothing but a scarlet skirt came into the room to examine him.
“What in the gods’ names happened to your chest?”
Sanos looked down and saw the blank patches of chest hair. Since he was still gagged, it was clear that the man didn’t expect an actual answer.
“Bring me the shears and the wax.”
Sanos startled at that word. She’d threatened to take his beard. But surely they couldn’t mean to—
They tied him to a slab of rock, arms outstretched, as some too-hot, thick substance was rubbed onto his chest. The man laid a cloth atop it.
“Brace yourself, Andrastus. This will hurt.” Then the new man caught the cloth between his fingers and pulled.
Agony ripped through him.
