“Enough,” Gray Braid’s voice cracked like a whip, and Lory cowered on the cool marble for the entirely wrong reasons.
Not a coward—she wasn’t a coward, but that voice made her embrace the idea that it was all right to be so afraid.
“Set the execution for sunset in the courtyard. Make it quick. Beheading should do.”
Three
“Honestly,you should get into the shade, or you’ll burn.”
Yet another familiar voice greeted Lory as she woke up in the same cell in the brig where the guards had dumped her with a complimentary punch in the face.
“Come on, come on, woman. Move your ass into the shade right now. You wanna look pretty for your execution, don’t you? Not that a black eye like that would allow for proper prettiness.”
Did sheever. Stop. Talking?
“I’m sure Eroth won’t mind if I look like his children spat upon me.” Lory rolled to the side with a groan, focusing her gaze in the general direction of the babbling, all-too-cheery woman inthe cell next to hers.
“There’s a spot of shade right here. I’ll even share the water they brought me earlier. That is, if you want to be conscious…”
“All right, I’m coming.” With a push of her hands against the dirt that she wished she hadn’t performed the moment it happened, Lory got into a sitting position. Every part of her body was sore—from the beating, the heat, the lack of food and water.
“Great, because I’d like to see you from up close this time before they take you away again. I need something exciting to tell my next cellmate.”
A groan escaped Lory’s mouth as she wished for the ringing in her ears to soften so she could be certain the woman really had just said that.
“Tell him I was an old hag who spat into the king’s soup; that will entertain them for sure.”
A surprised laugh bubbled out of the woman as Lory got to her feet and stumbled toward the blurry gray area by the bars separating their cells, struggling to remain upright.
“They got you good, didn’t they? Did the same with me when they caught me.”
With a grunt, Lory dropped back onto the hard ground, leaning her good side—notgood, really, but at leastbetterthan the other—against the fist-wide metal sticks.
“Either they’re really scared I’ll hurt you, or they usually keep leonthors in here.”
A deep sigh fell from the woman’s chest. “I wish. If mythical creatures like that existed, I might believe in miracles again.”
Lory thought of the statues of horned, winged, lion-like horse beasts she’d seen in the city, the creatures of people’simaginations and of Brestolyan fairytales. The strength of a wild cat, paired with the speed of a horse and the deadliness of an eagle, not to forget the variations of horns atop their heads.
“Miracles—” she mocked, spitting blood onto the sandy ground by the bars. “If those existed, I wouldn’t sit here alone.”
“You’re not exactly alone,” the woman pointed out, gesturing at the guards in the corners of the yard and then at herself.
All Lory did was shake her head. “What’s your name, anyway?” Not that it mattered when she’d be executed in a few hours’ time. The sun was already declining, creeping closer to the shimmering white and gold roof of the outbuilding behind the wall.
“Anees—pleasure to meet you.” The woman inclined her head in a bow too practiced for someone locked in the brig. “You?”
“Lory.”
Anees peered at her with clear green eyes that spoke of an alert mind and—unlike herself—definitely no concussion.
“That’s a pretty name.” Anees sat down against the bars at the other side, the folds of her skirt catching Lory’s attention as they shimmered in the sun wherever the dirt cracked and crumbled off.
“You’re from a noble family?” That was the only reason someone would wear expensive fabrics like that, and in a dark blue-green that reminded Lory of how people described the ocean surrounding Brestolya.
Anees shrugged. “Not anymore, apparently. If anyone in my family cared about me, I wouldn’t be sitting in this cell.” A flicker of hurt crossed Anees’s face, the first real emotionLory had spotted on those dirt-smeared features. “Not that it says anything about your family,” she quickly added. “I don’t know anything about your family, obviously.”
Lory bit her lower lip, falling into silence as she watched the guards in the corners of the yard observe them from a distance.
