AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By the time he realized I had gotten the better of him, that the negotiations we’d gone through would amount to precisely zero benefit for him, it would already be too late.
I grinned wickedly at him through my visor.
We shook on the deal in the traditional Trader way — by embracing each other’s elbows and digging our nails into the soft flesh of our arms. As I was wearing armor, he could do me no harm, and as I was also wearing gloves, I could not harm him either.
It was what the gesture represented that mattered. A pity, I thought, and wished I could have broken his jaw as a final farewell instead.
During our negotiations, I came to understand how he might have overcome Thillak.
Thillak was nothing if not loyal to his word and by sending too many of his guards to defend Lily — to defend the agreement he had made to me — he would have been less well defended.
And who among the inmates in this prison, despite the riots taking place, would have thought to attack him here, in his own office?
No one. At least, almost no one.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Druin said. “I hope our business relationship will continue to prosper from this moment on.”
I nodded my head, unable to speak in return, for fear he would hear the laugh in my voice.
I was only glad to turn my back on him, to leave him in my past, and never have to look at his grizzled, scarred face ever again.
I doubted I would ever forgive him for the way he treated Lily, but at least now, although done accidentally on his part, he might have paid Lily back for the pain he’d caused her all those years ago. He was crucial in setting her free, even if it was done by accident.
I left his office and nodded to my armed guards waiting on either side of the door. As we approached the exit, I couldn’t help but look back at Cayggod.
His shoulders were slumped, his confidence broken, his face beaten and swollen, his snapped spectacles hastily fixed with materials found on his desk. I’d never seen him look so defeated.
He had been good to me, and it was only thanks to him that I had not taken the wrong road and condemned myself to a lifetime in the bowels of Ikmal prison, forced to imagine the horrors happening to Lily when I could no longer watch over or protect her as her champion.
Cayggod deserved better than this, but attempting to rescue him would only put Lily and my chances of escape at even greater risk.
In my mind, I wished him well and exited Thillak — now Druin’s — office, warm with the knowledge that the next time I thought of it, I would be on a beach somewhere with Lily at my side.
And that made me grin even broader.
Now I just had to tell Lily the good news — that by tomorrow morning she would be free from this place and we could both finally live together in peace as fated mates.
I ordered my entourage to return to their posts. They saluted, smartly turned on their heels, and left.
I stood before the Prize Pool, taking in its plain design in a way I never had before.
The funny thing about living in a place for so many years is that you tended not to pay attention to the details, not until you became aware that you were looking at it for the very last time. And things you never noticed before sprung out at you.
The Prize Pool section of the prison was not large and that was due to the fact it’d never been in Ikmal’s original design. I’d discovered that fact when poring over the prison’s blueprints.
This section of the prison had been regular cells and at some point been knocked through and turned into the Prize Pool.
The same was true with the fighting pit. It too had been part of a lower set of cells and they had been cleared to make way for the fighting pits and the viewing areas.
They had been built as a way to help control the prison population, who grew aggressive and uncontrollable during their long prison stretches.
As they were fighting anyway, why not turn it into an event? And so, the fighting pits and the chain of gambling rings sprung up throughout the empire.
Much of the money passed through the prison, undoubtedly diluted by the corruption of various officials, and then fed back into the prison where it was used to run the administration.
In one fell swoop, the powers that be (politicians) had solved the aggression problem, turned it into an event that made millions in gambling revenue that paid for most of the prison’s running costs, and served as a warning to the residents of the Empire about what would happen to them if they ever broke the law.
It was a clever plan and worked to perfection.
