The fire burned even hotter.
I let the drops of sweat fall down the sides of my face, not bothering to wipe them off—barely even noticing them now as my mind churned for solutions to this dilemma.
“Answer it,” he growled quietly.
Another toss of his hand. The fireroared.
“A queen,” I hissed.
It wasn’t Lord Cato he would assassinate.
It wasme.
My death gleamed in King Niallan’s eyes. “This will be so very lovely, taking away the one person who has broken the ice to Lord Belshazzar’s black heart.”
I held perfectly still, fear tearing at my thoughts.
My king raised his hand again.
Sweat dripped off my face.
I stared at that hand. My life depended on it.
With punishing grace, he flicked his wrist.
The deadly fire raced at me.
Iscreamed.
EVERYTHING HURT.
It wasn’t the same pain from when my leg had been ripped to shreds. This was a deeper pain. A soreness that went all the way to my bones.
Without preamble, I rolled to the side and vomited.
A lot.
My throat was on fire. I wiped my mouth and tried to open my eyes. As soon as I did, they were on fire, and I could see nothing but shapes through a white haze.
“One’s up,” someone said.
A moment later, there was the sound of someone else retching and a small whimper. Several more of the bodies around me moved and retched in the next minutes.
Blinking as much as I could to clear the crust and dirt from my eyes, I felt my vision clearing. I narrowed my eyes and tried to look around.
The walls were cold stone gray. Thick, angry bars of dull gray metal formed a three-sided cage around us. The stink of old, dead blood permeated everything. There was no light except that from torches burning on the walls.
That at least explained the burning sensation in my throat and eyes. Torches.
I sat up carefully and checked to see where my vomit had landed.
On Carolee’s shoe.
Gross.
Nothing else was much better, though. There were druids and vomit all over the floor.
Roran was on the other side and Vitas near the third wall of bars. The other soldiers were trying to assess their situation, and eventually, everyone moved to the edges of the cage, away from the stench in the center.
