Page 20 of His Realm

“I did. Until I was seven.”

His gasp was loud. “Do you bear the mark?”

Zev shook his head. “I was taken before it could be given.”

“What mark?” I asked Sorin.

Unzipping his jumpsuit, he turned sideways to show me the brand on his left shoulder, the sun cross—a circle with a cross in the center. It was raised and had to have hurt like hell.

“How old were you when you were given that?”

“Eight,” he answered, then slipped the sleeve back up over his shoulder. “It takes many days, as it must be done several times with various knives, and as we are young when it is done, we cry out.”

“And Decimus puts that mark on everyone?”

“On his word are the marks given by his sons.”

“To everyone?”

“No. Only to the iceni.”

“To the iceni,” I repeated.

“Yes. We who live and work by the water.”

“The water?”

Quick nod. “We live away from the castle in the dark with the…” He turned to Zev, lifting his hand like he was carrying something.

“Lanterns,” Zev offered.

Sorin faced me again. “We live with the lanterns and our beits.”

“Beits?”

“It’s like a paddleboard,” Zev told me. “They normally only hold one person and a basket or a pail or something.”

“Go back,” I said to Zev. “What about the water?”

“The iceni live at the farthest edge of the holding, near the lake. In Ophir, from where everyone lives, you have to cross the water,” Zev enlightened me. “They use the paddleboards to move around. All their homes are built on stilts in the lake that connects to the river that runs, eventually, to the sea.”

“Okay,” I said, taking a breath, then to Sorin, “So that’s where you live?”

He looked confused. “I live closer to the castle in a home built on the rock, but there are homes built on stilts as well. The nobles live even closer to the castle, and still others live inside with Lord Decimus and his sons.”

“Thank you for explaining.”

“We all live inside the mountain, as we still must be close enough to feed the nobles and the lord and his sons.”

Now I was confused. “Don’t iceni feed iceni and the nobles feed each other?”

“No. All feed on the iceni.”

I looked at Zev. “My understanding was that if you’re a noble, you have to have the blood of other nobles to sustain you.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, turning to Sorin. “I don’t understand. You’re saying the nobles drink iceni blood?”

“Yes.”