Ammey McKeaf by Jane Shoup

Author:Jane Shoup
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781695403918
Published: 2019-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

The sight of her fear and her dignity caused Marko to feel a potent combination of remorse and anxiety, but it was too late. He’d ordered her marked in front of all these men. Mehr looked over at him, willing him to commute the order, but Marko ignored him. Damn it, it was too late.

“Bring in her people,” Zino spoke up.

Ammey’s breath caught. She heard the order repeated and then there was a shuffling of footsteps as a group of people were led in and made to stand in her sightline. It took several seconds before she recognized the villagers of Daleog. They looked thin and frightened and exceedingly shocked to see her. Catherin was not among them, but the rest of them seemed to be there, including Nasim.

“Lady Jade,” Zephyr said with a mocking formality, “who is your king?”

So this was how Corin was forcing her to pledge her allegiance and whatever else he wished her to pledge. “Marko Corin,” she said, looking directly at him. She would say what he wished, but he would know how much she loathed him for it and how little she meant it. “King of Bellux-Abry.”

“You will refer to him as the king of Azulland,” Zephyr said.

She reeled as she understood their ultimate purpose.

“Which he soon will be. You will swear your allegiance to your king or your people will die, one by one.”

“I swear it,” she said without hesitation or emotion.

Zephyr smiled slowly. “I see the defiance you speak of,” he said to Corin.

Corin turned his head and looked at Zephyr with narrowed eyes. A warning?

“Obviously,” the older man said, looking back to her. “You will say it and then you will prove it.”

“Jade,” Mehr spoke up for the first time. “It has been decided that you will be marked. Your arm,” he clarified. Nafino Zephyr had turned a livid scowl on him, but Mehr didn’t seem to care. “The Uraz,” Mehr continued, “symbolizes greatness and is worn with pride by our best warriors. However, it is, I’m sorry to say, a painful process.”

Ammey remembered Ulima’s description. She clutched her hands together to conceal their shaking.

“And you will bear it in silence,” Zino took back over, “or your people will die.”

“However, if you bear it in silence,” Mehr said. “They’ll go free. A show of mercy from our king.”

Ammey’s gaze shifted to Corin, wondering how much pleasure he was deriving from this. Oddly enough, he looked anything but pleased. He looked miserable.

A man with stringy gray hair and a long, brown coat came at her with a terrible looking instrument and two other men moved in to help restrain her.

“She should have something to bite on,” Mehr said sharply.

“I think not,” Zino rejoined. “That would interfere with the demonstration of loyalty. Besides, she’s proven herself to be a warrior among warriors. I’m certain she can do without.”

She felt nauseous from fear as a man ripped the sleeve off her gown. Her breathing was fast, her chest abruptly rising and falling with it. Must not cry out, she chanted in her head.

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