Page 142 of Prize for the King
“Did you redirect the honey to Trista?” Magnar asks in a calm, pleasant voice that carries over Ronan’s howls of pain.
“No! My king, I’m sorry! Mercy! Have mercy!”
“Oh, but you insulted me. It’s only fair, friend. Now, did you or did you not send those barrels to Trista?”
There is a snap of bones. Ronan’s arm twists even further, and I wrestle with nausea when I see the broken pieces moving under hisskin in a freakish way.
“No! Please, no!”
Magnar lets him go, pushing him down deliberately so he lands on his broken arm. His screams grow high-pitched and unbearable, a distillation of horrid suffering turned into sound. The king waits, examining his nails until Ronan calms down somewhat, then hauls him up by his unbroken arm.
“I’ll keep breaking your limbs one by one until you tell me the truth,” Magnar murmurs in an obscenely intimate voice, his lips pressed to the minister’s large ear. “I’ll keep you chained and alive, and if you resist, I’ll put you in a cage full of starving rats. Do you know what they’ll do once they scent your meat?”
The minister whines, and Magnar straightens, his voice growing stronger.
“Minister Ronan, did you send honey to Trista?”
There is a moment of tense silence, and he slumps in Magnar’s hold, his head hanging in defeat.
“Yes.”
“Did you put treasonous documents in those barrels?”
“Yes.”
“Who else was involved?”
The ministers erupt into protests and shouts, and Magnar nods at his soldiers. The three ministers quarreling the most loudly are wrestled into silence and brought forward, and Magnar shakes Ronan, who’s close to passing out from pain.
“Give me names.”
“Lagnar,” he says, voice barely louder than a murmur. “Sadran. Axhilla. Egerd de Bloom was our contact in Trista.”
“Anyone else?”
He shakes his head, moaning in pain.
“Where isBodra’s mother kept?”
“I don’t know!” Magnar presses down on his broken bones, and Ronan screams from agony. “Lagnar knows! Ask Lagnar!”
The king looks at the three ministers held in his soldiers’ tight grips.
“My wife will sentence and replace you,” he says with a mean smile. “You’ll die from an order made by the human queen. How does that feel?”
“He’s lying,” Lagnar says, spitting viciously at Ronan. “He wants to take us down with him out of spite. He’s the traitor, he admitted it!”
Magnar shrugs and looks at me. “I see enough proof to get some heads rolling,” he says with a grim smile. “But the decision is yours.”
I watch Lagnar and the others as they clench their fists, fear and rage stiffening their bodies. They don’t have to die today, and could very well have their own trials later. Also, they might know something more. At least finding Bodra’s mother will be quicker if the soldiers can torture the answers out of them.
“I sentence Ronan to immediate death by beheading,” I say, watching the others closely. They flinch, their eyes flying up to me in fear. A shiver sizzles down my spine, thrilling and powerful.Thisis reward enough. I never realized before that being feared was so exhilarating.
“Lagnar, Sadran, and Axhilla shall be imprisoned for further questioning, and will be tried when we learn more of their involvement.”
Magnar gives me a nod. The ministers are led out of the room, only Ronan remaining in front of my dais. I swallow with difficulty, but I knew this was coming. I turn to Raduna.
“My knight, you shall be my hand. Carry out my sentence.”
