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"A slave could be replaced with a loyal servant and then--"

"She doesn’t buy anyone from Hayll, and there are no loyal servants outside of our own people Sometimes not even within our own people"

Krelis leashed his frustration This was the first iiven hio He wouldn’t fail He wouldn’t "Then what should I do, Priestess?"

Dorothea stopped pacing "Lord Krelis, you’re the Master of the Guard How you accomplish this is entirely up to you" Her expression softened "However, if you wish me to, I’ll use my particular Craft to assist you in whatever way I can"

He breathed a sigh of relief "Thank you, Priestess"

Dorothea studied hi Then she sht choice in my new Master of the Guard I made the same offer to your predecessor, but he didn’t want my help Since the bitch escaped his trap rather easily, that was reason enough to doubt his loyalty, don’t you think?"

Re what the former Master’s face looked like now, Krelis shivered "Yes, Priestess"

"I’ to have to worry aboutyour loyalty, am I?"

"No, Priestess"

Dorothea walked up to hi, I’enerous with a ainst his chest, kissed hihly, then purred, "That’s to re e white feather into his belt--"will remind you of the penalties of failure"

Chapter One

Nothing that had been done to him over the past nine years had hurt as ht this on hihteen-year-old boy he had been, that young strutting buck who had been so sure of himself, had sent him down this pain-filled road A road that would soon end in the brutality that waited for men in the salt mines of Pruul

Over the past few days, while he had waited to be brought to the slave auction, he had tried very hard to forgive that boy for ignoring the uneasiness his friends had felt and the warnings the older Warlords had given him when that witch had walked into the inn He had tried to forgive hi the rot that existed beneath the beautiful face and lush body, for grabbing that ive hi the whispered words that had proht up in the pleasure between his legs that he’d let her put that gold ring around his cock because she’d poutingly told his she wanted to do with hi of Obedience because she needed alittlecontrol over his passion

She’d played with hi of Obedience could be when it was used by so been a pleasure slave for the past nine years, he couldn’t reet into bed with a woman

And he bla for him, oh, yes, he blamed that boy

"What’s a Red-Jeweled Warlord doing inthis pen?" one of the slaves whispered "They don’t usually put the likes ofhim downhere "

Another slave spat "Don’t h, butI reht he was a pleasure slave"

"He was," a third man answered, "until he became a Queen killer"

"A Queen killer!"

Queen killer Queen killer

Jared remained in the corner of the slave pen he had clai the whispers that swirled around hi he didn’t see the way the other men avoided him Even here, in the vilest slave pen, Bloodbut the meanest labor didn’t want to be contaminated by a man who had a Queen’s blood on his hands

He understood that When the blinding rage had faded enough for him to see the bodies of the Queen and her Prince brother, he had been horrified by what he’d done

His breath hitched as e to tear him apart