“Nothing is impenetrable,” I muttered under my breath. The same thing I’d been telling myself all these years.
Nothing is impenetrable.
I walked past the general in the doorway, but his voice stopped me, his demeanor changing back from acute fear to his usual smug vileness.
“I almost forgot to tell you. You’re needed in the dungeons.” A smile slithered through his voice, and I paused, my stomach dropping.
Faisal only experienced joy at the expense of other’s pain.
That meant whatever was in the dungeons wasn’t good.
My eyes slid to the pulse at his throat, thinking how easy it would be to use my magic to command a thorn from the roses on the desk to slash his throat clean across.
Death by flower. Fitting for such a man.
“Why? There are no new prisoners down there.” I knew every single one, and had a plan of escape for them all.
His greasy smile returned in full force. “We’ve caught more of your rebels.”
* * *
I wove through the halls of the River Palace, keeping my footsteps brisk but measured. The general followed behind, huffing to keep up as I barreled toward the dungeon.
There was no way he’d actually caught a rebel, not with the safeguards I’d put in place to prevent that from happening. The members of my guard were all loyal to me, and when it came to it, loyal to the Court of River. They would never allow a true member of the Red Jasmine Rebellion to slip into the hands of the Salt soldiers. I’d made sure of it.
But when I arrived at the dungeon, I stopped short.
Two boys were on their knees on the stone floor, their heads bowed. They weren’t in cells with the other prisoners, but hands tied behind their back in a cell in the main room. A small window in the corner of the room allowed the afternoon light to illuminate the tears on their cheeks, the blood on their mouths.
They were no older than thirteen, their limbs too big for their bodies, not yet properly grown into their skin. One had longish hair, cropped at his nape, the other a shorn head, as though he’d scraped it over with a shaving blade, the bumpy shape of his skull giving him an eerie look. Cuts and bruises marred their hands and necks, evidence that they’d already been tortured.
One was struggling to remain upright, shaking against the pain in his wounds.
The general entered the dungeons behind me and leaned against the entrance door.
I breathed through my nose and curled my hands into fists at my sides, anger heating my blood.
“Who did this?” My voice was low and violent.
“I did,” the general replied, picking his teeth with his nails. “They were caught by a Salt patrol trying to drum up support for the rebel cause. They needed a little roughing up, but I’ll still leave the real torture for the Viceroy.” A laugh tainted his words, and I nearly bared my teeth at him.
“They’reboys,” I said dismissively. “They know nothing of the rebels.”
“Weren’t you just a boy when you decided to join the Viceroy? Children can still fight. They still commit treason, can still attack our troops. Don’t be so soft, dog.”
I didn’t bother to spare him a glance. “The Viceroy entrusted me to deal with the rebels. Surely you have better things to deal with, given Salt is actively fighting wars with every other peri Court right now.” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to calm the fury tainting my voice.
If I could, I’d rip the general’s head from his body and dump him in the River.
If killing him meant I wouldn’t damn every other peri in my Court, he would have been dead years ago.
“We’ve had a few victories of late,” Faisal said with a smug grin, his voice bouncing off the walls of the stone dungeon. “Nothing like the way the Court of River folded, though. You can’t fight Salt with water,” he said, the air between us thick with tension.
I flinched at the words, the mantra often repeated by the soldiers of the Court of Salt.
His teeth shone in the flickering torchlight, and I was reminded of the day they’d come, remembered the heel of his boot on my father’s face as the Viceroy had laughed. Right before they’d slit his throat.
“Besides, I felt the need to bloody my own hands today.” He flexed his fingers out in front of him.
