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CHAPTER EIGHT

Khol

The prisons were a pitiful dark place in Dretis. The cells were below ground. The clay walls were older than the walls of the capitol itself. As I walked down the long corridor, I tried to filter through the smells of waste, bile, and despair.

“Do you want him executed, my King?” Thanu asked, following me as I made a beeline for the exit.

“His crime doesn’t warrant execution. He’s only a doctor who mixed the ingredients as Magdul forced him to do. I believe him. He didn’t know who the lethal dose would be given to,” I said.

“What do we do with him?”

“Leave him in the cell until I decide,” I commanded.

Thanu nodded and veered off to the right where the corridor split in two directions. I was near the end of the prison cave until I recognized my brother’s voice and an angry quarrel from some of his builders. Thinking that Ghid might have needed my help, I turned back swiftly and followed the source of the commotion.

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

“Brother,” Ghid greeted.

The other builders stopped their quarreling, moved aside, and bowed their heads as I approached. “My King,” they mumbled.

“I can’t believe you threw this one in prison after all,” Ghid commented, gesturing to the cell. “My men are trying to decide who would have the honor of taking her first. She sleeps through the anesthetic injection, but her heat still rises. Even the prisoners are worked up over her. Look at them.” He threw his hand in the direction of the cell adjacent where an Aurrakian peered wide-eyed through the bars.

I looked inside the cell and nearly lost it when I recognized Visla as she lay sleeping on the rocky ground.

“What the fuck!” I yanked at the bars. “Why is she in here? Open this.”

My brother looked startled as he produced the keys. “She stabbed you. Isn’t that why you put her here? To put the defiant little wench in her place. It is my understanding that she was roaming the villages. Thanu says that she’s one of Magdul’s slaves. It’s known. Was it not you who ordered her to be locked up in my prison after discovering the hand she played in Varras’s fall?”

“Nyet, brother. I did not.” I snatched the keys from him and unlocked her cell.

I picked up Visla’s limp body from the cold floor and cradled her in my arm. “Find out who put her in here now,” I commanded.

Ghid frowned and scratched his head. “Okay…”

As I passed the builders, their nostrils flared as they inhaled the scent of Visla’s heat. If I didn’t have her in my arms, I could’ve killed them for even attempting to claim her. They could go and fuck who they wanted, but it would not be Visla.

Ghid followed me from the prison. “What is up with you and this little problematic wench, my brother? Are you infatuated with her?”

“It is none of your concern, Ghid. If any of your men so much as lust after this woman again, I will beat them to bloody pulps with my bare hands and then feed their remains to pigs. She is off limits to everyone but me.”

He continued, “It’s her heat, isn’t it? It’s strong and still rising. Just fuck her already and be rid of this hold she has over you.”

“Will you do as I asked, brother?” I bit out.

Ghid stopped in his tracks. I figured he was looking after me as I took Visla away. Guilt crept of my spine for not having gone right after her when she escaped. Ghid suspected what I already knew was true. I was infatuated with Visla. I couldn’t do anything without thinking about her.