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"So this is the boy king who has caused us so much trouble?" he sneered "I’m not much impressed"

He removed the boot, then bent on one knee beside me I kept my head turned away from him but felt his hot breath as he spoke "I wish I could report that the girl died quickly and without pain," he said "But I found her alive at the bottoed me to have mercy on you I told her I had no such intentions And in the last breath of her life, she asked ht to yours"

This tiing rinned wickedly and showed ers, ith blood Her blood He ripped at ers across the skin, creating two red lines there It stung like acid, and hurt almost as much as if he’d stabbed me

"Get him inside and locked down," the commander ordered "No rescuer will come within a mile of him!"

Someone pulled a dark sack over my head, and then they picked me up and carried me away by the chains Several minutes later, I was deposited in a nearly black rooround location

From there, I was transferred to irons fixed on the wall It eased th on the chains that I couldposition But nothing else improved In the privacy of the roos and gut, cursingme he’d had friends on the wall I exploded He kept at it until another voice finally told hioing back to those final en’s expression while I untied her There was fear and doubt, but it was er that I’d rescued her, but en looked at me as if she loved me Had there been love anywhere in her expression?

I didn’t know All I could think about hy she had stopped the archer Why couldn’t she have just kept running and saved herself?

Aware that I wasn’t giving him any attention, the ain, harder this time His foot connected with the very spot where Roden had broken , and the pain of it forced a reaction from me

"Ah, you have a weakness there," he said "I’ll reed to the person who had kept a boot to er

I heard the roo removed from its sheath He placed the blade at the base of my neck and I hoped he’d h it were full of holes, so he couldn’t make it worse I just wanted it over fast

But that was not his intention He ran the knife back down my torn undershirt and sliced it off me in pieces I wished he had removed the blood too I couldn’t bear to feel it onoff er Finally, he re away I had no thought to even try When all was finished, he pulled the sack off ht, but there was so little, no adjust prison cell, alh wooden boards to hold back the earth The only existing light caaps also leaked dirt and water and likely invited rats inside as well Due to the nearness of the swaround beneath me was muddy at best Yet the irons on my wrists and ankles were anchored deep in the wall I couldn’t pull free froer was tall, with dark blond hair and a prominent nose I supposed there’d be wo and see his flaws Namely that he was obviously a cruel sort of devil who seee of honor

"There," he said once he stood back to look atnow To the rest of the world, you will be dead King Vargan is on his way here He thought he was coation of your servant, but he’ll be pleased to seehave a an will spread word of your death to the farthest reaches of these lands," he continued "Robbed of their king, within days Carthya will be extinguished like a candle in a breeze"

My ain I wondered whether Herbert and Evendell had survived If Mott had gotten away, if he had seen what happened to Ien If he had seen me And what they’d do to me here if I refused to surrender in this war The blame for the destruction of my country lay solely at my feet

And I had no will to ry is when the pangs first start When the body realizes it’s nals that it wants food But after a while it gives up asking; it gives up expecting anything The pangs will return, of course, and the hunger never goes away But once a person has reached this stage, he has bigger probleer was the least ofmy capture, I was left aluarded -- I knew that froh the boards overto eat, and had only the muddy water that dripped froet were only to be sure I was still there, and to add to ils In all that tile indication I registered their presence As far as I was concerned, if they were going to tell everyone I was dead, Iof the third day, their treatan’s soldiers caave theh description of where they could shove it and waved it away The taller of the men threw the bowl at me, as if I cared about that, and they left

Later that evening, a plate was carried in with a chunk of stale bread and a cup of dirty water I tossed the bread into the corner, hoping the rats would prefer chewing on it rather than getting any closer to me I tried to hit soe to throw even as far as the vigil’s feet

Coer was immediately summoned, and yelled a lot about howSoer easier to bear

The next , a woman was sent in with a towel that she used to wash en’s blood off ain

"I helped take care of the girl once they brought her here," the woman said "They offered her every possible reward for information about you, but she always refused"

It hurt to hear about I about her orse I had spent s the priests of the churches had taught about an afterlife If they were right, that all good people becaen now rested My family would be there as well Whether it was true or not, I chose to believe that’s where she was, happy and free from any worries or pain It helped