“Enough to make him scream a few times!”
This time I struggled against the hand, but whoever it was held on tight.
Shi stood straight and turned on his heel to face me.
“What is the state of the boy?” he asked.
The hand moved away. I was surprised to see blood on it. That must have come from Eustace.
“I healed his back as best I could.” Because I was the only healer at the Fortress. “But there wasn’t much skin left to work with. How he didn’t bleed to death before he got to me is anyone’s guess.”
Seeing my son crawling on his hands and knees, a mass of blood and pulped skin, was the most terrifying sight I had ever seen. He only had the strength to whimper when I picked him up. I laid him flat on his stomach and, as carefully as I could, I folded back the few remaining tatters of skin and focused my power on making it grow back. It had taken a lot of energy to heal him, and there would still be scarring. But my absolute revulsion as Fin told me what had happened overrode all else.
I dared to hug my son, and I put him to bed, told him to sleep, then I charged down here.
Shi’s eyes moved over my head. His hands were fists at his sides as he stared at the wall, and the rest of us wondered what he would do. Then at last he turned and faced the riders crowded around Eustace.
“Chain him on the seaward side.”
Eustace screamed as he was hauled away. Fighting every inch as he was dragged out of my sight, begging for mercy. Shi showed no signs of owning any. Shi turned to Jimny.
“Return to the blue. Do what you can to calm her. If she calms, remove the muzzle. But do not unchain her yet. Allow one hour before she can go free.”
Jimny saluted and ran back to the nests.
Then Shi turned back to me. “Attacking another officer, most particularly a senior officer, is an offence.”
My rational brain was starting to return. Rod it. I hadn’t thought about offences or punishments when I charged. I just thought about hurting the man who had hurt my son.
“The punishment would usually be five lashes of a nine length.”
A nine length was a whip of leather with nine lengths free, each knotted at the end and each knot coated in iron. One whip of that was bad. Five could cause permanent damage. Ten had been known to kill.
“However, it would seem that the Segast family has received such punishments already today. That will be recorded as sufficient.” He nodded to the men still holding me. They pulled me to my feet.
At the flick of Shi’s head, they moved away, disappearing up the stairs to the fortress itself.
Shi stepped up in front of me. He held himself upright, which was more than I felt able to do, though I forced my body to attention. His dark eyes roamed over me. A tiny frown flickered at what he saw.
“Sir?” I asked. “May I ask something?”
He nodded.
“What will happen to Eustace after this chaining?”
His head tilted. “Nothing.”
I closed my eyes, locked my jaw and dragged in what breath I could. The bastard was getting away with it.
“Flight Sergeant Segast,” he said at last, “are you aware of what chaining to the seaward side means?”
I opened my eyes and looked into his eyes. “No, sir.”
“No, sir,” he repeated. Then he took a breath. “The subject will be chained, bound hand and foot, and lowered on other chains over the side of the cliffs on the seaward side of the island. Lowered to below high tide level. The incoming waves will crash over him. Grinding him into the island bedrock. That alone will break a number of bones. If he is lucky, it might knock him unconscious. Whether it does or not, the seas will rise, and he will drown. The fish will have a meaty supper this evening. Alternatively, when Salvadora is released, she may decide to fly alone and pay him a visit. Dragons are free to act as they see fit in such cases. When the chain is pulled back on the morrow, it is unlikely that anything but chain will come back.”
His voice was calm and measured. He had ordered a torturous execution, and he didn’t turn a hair. Discipline in the Riders had always been brutal, but this was a new level in my experience of it. I swallowed. A tiny iota of sympathy for Eustace arose.
It didn’t live long.
