Empress of Dorsa (The Chronicles of Dorsa Book 3) by Eliza Andrews

Author:Eliza Andrews [Andrews, Eliza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eliza Andrews
Published: 2022-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

42

~ AKELLA ~

The only thing worse than being stuck behind the walls of a landlocked city was being stuck behind the walls of a landlocked city surrounded by fanatically patriotic Imperial fools who believed the gods themselves had preordained their victory.

Gods never preordained anything. They gave their mortal children enough rope to tie either a sail or a noose, then stood back to see what would happen.

That was how Akella saw it, anyway.

She stood on the tiny balcony of the tiny cell of a room the Commander had so graciously granted her when the Empress moved her personal battalion into the gigantic castle that dominated Pellon’s eastern edge. Unlike all the other rooms Akella had seen in the castle, hers had the unique characteristic of locking from the outside. Of course.

She’d let out a low whistle when the Commander had first opened the room’s door and waved her inside. “Impressive. What was it before the war – a broom closet?”

The Commander had only pursed her lips.

“Are you sure you want me to have this?” Akella had asked. “This one is so… quaint. And is that a balcony I spy? Aren’t you sure there’s not some nice, cozy dungeon in the bowels of this castle you’d rather me have?”

“It’s not the room I wanted you to have. It’s the one the Empress wanted you to have,” the Commander said. “It belonged to a Wise Man. He’s dead now. Like the lord he served.”

“Lovely. Killed just inside, I suppose?” Akella gestured vaguely at the interior. A narrow bed was pushed against one wall, a narrow writing desk against the other. About two feet stretched in between them.

The Commander shrugged. “I’ll let you settle in.”

“Settle in what?” Akella said. “I left a brothel six months ago with the clothes on my back and nothing more. I don’t have anything to settle.”

“Then I guess it won’t take you very long,” said the Commander. She turned away.

Bloody concubine, Akella thought now, elbows on the balcony’s rail. Got myself injured fighting for the bloody Empire and she still doesn’t trust me.

In truth, Akella admitted to herself, she hadn’t exactly been fighting to protect the Empress or the Empire. She’d fought the day of the raid to impress Megs. That, however, was beside the point. An injury was an injury – Akella had shed blood for the Empire, and that should’ve been enough for the Commander.

She reviewed a mental list of her grievances against the Empress, one she added to every so often. First, rather than simply ask if she would guide them to the Kingdom of Persopos, they’d ripped her from bed one morning, thrown her in a dungeon, and threatened her family. Then Akella saved the Empress’s gods-damned fleet – and the Empress and her concubine – when the shite-for-brains Imperial captain sailed them straight into a hurricane. Most recently, she’d saved the lives of several soldiers during the raid on the Empress’s camp, and what payment did she get? A concussion and several days in the infirmary.

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