Book Chapter 1
"Are we going to get the others then?" Valek asked.
"Not yet, I want to see what this book is about first. Then I can decide whether anyone else should be allowed to join us. I think it best to just start reading and see if the book gives any answers."
Locked in darkness that surrounded me like a coffin, I had nothing to distract me from my memories. Vivid recollections threatened to ambush me whenever my mind wandered.
"Who do you think this is about?"
"We won't find out if you are going to interrupt me."
Encompassed by the blackness, I remembered white hot flames stabbing at my face. Though my hands had been tied to a post that dug sharply into my back, I had recoiled from the onslaught. The fire had pulled away just before blistering my skin but my eyebrows and eyelashes had long since been singed off.
"That doesn't sound good."
"No, it sounds like someone is being tortured."
"Put the flames out!" a man's rough voice had ordered. I blew at the blaze through my cracked lips. Dried by fire and fear, the moisture in my mouth had gone and my teeth radiated heat as if they had been baked in an oven.
"Whoever is doing this is completely crazy."
"I quite agree."
"Idiot," he cursed. "Not with your mouth. Use your mind. Put the flames out with your mind."
"Magic, there are trying to get them to do magic. That is the only explanation," the Commander spat out looking annoyed.
Closing my eyes, I attempted to focus my thoughts on making the inferno disappear. I was willing to do anything, no matter how irrational, to persuade the man to stop.
"Try harder." Once again the heat swung near my face, the bright light blinding me despite my closed eyelids.
"Set her hair on fire," a different voice instructed. He sounded younger and more eager than the other man. "That should encourage her. Here, Father, let me"
"Who are these people? I will find them and stop them," Valek said angrily. His threat hung in the air. They both knew how Valek would stop these animals.
My body jerked with intense fear as I recognised the voice. I twisted to loosen the bonds that held me as my thoughts scattered into a mindless buzzing. A droning noise had echoed from my throat and grew louder until it had invaded the room and quenched the flames.
"That is definitely magic. The person they are torturing is a magician."
"Probably but the note said something about having to trust magicians so maybe this one is on our side."
"I don't care, I will not have magic in Ixia," the Commander ranted sounding quite irrational.
The loud, metallic clank of the lock startled me from my nightmarish memory. A wedge of pale, yellow light sliced the darkness, then travelled along stone wall as the heavy cell door opened. Caught in the lantern's glow, my eyes were seared by the brightness. I squeezed the shut and cowered in the corner.
"Where are we now?"
"Where we were at the beginning. That last bit was just a memory remember."
"Move it rat, or we'll get the whip." Two dungeon guards attached a chain to the metal collar around my neck and hauled me to my feet. I stumbled forward, pain blazing around my throat. As I stood on trembling legs, the guards efficiently chained my hands behind me and manacled my feet.
I averted my eyes from the flickering light as they me down the main corridor in the dungeon. Thick rancid air puffed in my face. My bare feet shuffled through piles of unidentifiable muck.
"Lovely," Valek said sarcastically.
Ignoring the calls and moans of other prisoners, the guards never missed a step, but my heart lurched with every word.
"Ho, ho, ho…someone's gonna swing."
"Snap! Crack! Then your last meal slides down your legs!"
"One less rat to feed."
"Take me! Take me! I wanna die to!
We stopped. Through squinted eyes I saw a staircase. In an effort to get onto the first step, I tripped over my chains and fell. The guards dragged me up. The rough edges of the stone step dug into my skin, peeling away exposed flesh on my arms and legs. After being pulled through two sets of thick, metal doors, I was dumped on the floor. Sunlight stabbed my eyes. I shut them tight as tears spilled down my cheeks. It was the first time I had seen daylight in seasons.
This is it, I thought, starting to panic. But the knowledge that my execution would end my miserable existence in the dungeons calmed me.
Yanked to my feet again. I followed by guards blindly. My body itched from insect bites and sleeping on dirty straw. I stunk of rat. Given only a small ration of water, I didn't waste it on baths.
"That is the worst part of being in a prison cell."
"What would you know, you are never in one long enough to find out." The commander joked.
"That is why everyone should have lock picking skills."
"Yes, just what we need prisoners escaping."
Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I looked around. The walls were bare, without the fabled gold sconces or elaborate tapestries I had been told once decorated the castle's main hallways.
"Those tapestries were awful. In my opinion they couldn't be destroyed fast enough."
The cold stone floor was worn smooth in the middle. We were probably travelling along the hidden corridors used solely my servants and guards. As we passed two windows, I glanced out with a hunger that food could not satisfy. The bright emerald of the grass made my eyes ache. Trees wore cloaks of leaves. Flowers laced the footpaths and overflowed from barrels. The fresh breeze smelt like an expensive perfume, and I breathed deeply. After the acidic smells of excrement and body odour, the taste of the air was like drinking a fine wine. Warm caressed my skin. A soothing touch compared to the constantly damp and chilly dungeon.
I guessed it was the beginning of the hot season, which meant that I had been locked in the cell for five seasons, one season shy of a full year. It seemed an excessively long time for someone scheduled for execution.
"I like the hot season," the Commander said.
"That is just because you don't have to go in Sitia. It gets far too hot there. I definitely prefer a cooler season." Valek replied.
Winded from the effort of marching with my feet chained. I was lead to a spacious office. Maps of the Territory of Ixia and the lands beyond covered the walls. Piles of books on the floor made walking in a straight line difficult. Candles in various stages of use littered the floor, singe marks evident on papers that had got too close to the candle's flame. A large wooden table strewn with documents and ringed by half a dozen chairs occupied the centre of the room. At the back of the office a man sat at a desk. Behind him a square window gaped open permitting a breeze to blow through his shoulder length hair.
"At least we know where they are now. Do you ever tidy up your office?" asked the Commander.
"I like it like that. I can see if anyone has been in there because generally books have been knocked over." Valek said smiling.
"I would just like to be able to enter your office without tripping over something."
I shuddered, causing the chains to clatter. From the whispered conversation between prison cells, I had determined that that condemned prisoners were taken to an official to confess their crimes before being hanged.
Wearing black pants and a black shirt with two red diamonds stitched on the collar, the man at the desk wore the uniform of an advisor to the Commander. His pallid face held no expression. As his sapphire-blue eyes scanned me they widened in surprise.
"Then you must be acting. You are never surprised."
Suddenly conscious of my appearance, I glanced down at my tattered red prison gown and my dirty bare feet roughened with yellow calluses. Dirt-streaked skin showed through the rips in the thin fabric. My long black hair hung in greasy clumps. Sweat-soaked I swayed under the weight of the chains.
"This book is very descriptive, isn't it?"
"I could do without some of these descriptions though."
"A woman? The next person to be executed is a woman?" his voice was icy. My body trembled on hearing the word executed aloud. The calm I'd established earlier fled me. I would have sunk sobbing to the floor if the guards weren't with me. The guards tormented anyone who showed any weakness.
The man tugged at the black ringlets of his hair. "I should have taken the time to reread your dossier." He shooed the guards away. "You're dismissed."
"What are you up to now?" the Commander asked. "You are always fully prepared."
"I don't know. It hasn't happened yet."
When they were gone, he motioned me to the chair in front of his desk. The chains clanged as I perched on the edge.
He opened the folder on his desk and scanned the pages. "Yelena, today may be your lucky day," he said.
"That is why they wanted Yelena here. The book is about her."
I swallowed a sarcastic reply. An important lesson I had mastered during my dungeon stay was never to talk back. I bowed my head instead, avoiding eye contact.
The man was quiet for a while. "Well behaved and respectful. You're starting to look like a good candidate."
Despite the clutter in the room the desk was neat. In addition to my folder and some writing implements, the only other items on the desk were two small, black statues glittering with streaks of silver-a set of panthers carved to lifelike perfection.
"You've been tried and found guilty of murdering General Brazell's only son, Reyad." He paused, stroking his temple with his fingers. "That explain why Brazell's here this week, and why he has been unusually interested in the execution schedule." The man spoke more to himself than me.
Upon hearing Brazell's name, fear coiled in my stomach. I steadied myself with the reminder that I was soon to be out of his reach forever.
"Do you think Brazell was the one torturing her?" the Commander asked. "If so this book may give more information about what is happening in his orphanage and you can stop pestering me about it."
"I think it must be. Who else would she have met?"
The Territory of Ixia's military had come to power a generation ago, but the rule had produced strict laws called the Code of Behaviour. During peacetime-most of the time, strangely enough for the military-proper conduct did not allow the taking of a human life. If someone committed murder, the punishment was execution. Self preservation or an accidental death were not considered acceptable excuses. Once found guilty, the murderer was sent to the Commander's dungeon to await a public hanging.
"Sometimes that law is quite stupid."
"We are not starting this argument again. The code of behaviour means everyone is treated equally."
"I suppose you're going to protest the conviction. Say you were framed or you killed out of self-defence." He leaned back in his chair waiting with weary patience.
"No sir," I whispered, all I could manage from unused vocal cords. "I killed him."
"That is unusual. Most people try and say something in their defence," said Valek frowning.
The man in black straightened in his chair shooting me a hard look. Then he laughed aloud. "This may work better than I planned. Yelena, I'm offering you a choice. You can either be executed, or you can be Commander Ambrose's new food taster. His last taster died recently, and we need to fill the position."
"Really how did the last one die?"
"I don't know. It still hasn't happened yet. He's not much of a loss anyway. He is pretty useless."
I gaped at him, my heart dancing. He had to be joking. He was probably amusing himself. Great way to get a laugh. Watch hope and joy shine on a prisoner's face, then smash it by sending the accused to the noose.
I played along. "A fool would refuse the job." My voice rasped louder this time.
"Well, it's a lifetime position. The training can be lethal. After all, how can you identify poisons in the Commander's food if you don't know what they taste like?" He tidied the papers in the folder.
"You'll get a room in the castle to sleep, but most of the day you'll be with the Commander. No days off. No husband or children. Some prisoners have chosen execution instead. At least then they know exactly when they are going to die, rather than guessing if it's going to come with the next bite." He clicked his teeth together, a feral grin on his face.
He was serious. My whole body shook. A chance to live! Service to the Commander was better than the dungeon, and infinitely better than the noose. Questions raced through my mind: I'm a convicted killer, how can they trust me? What would prevent me from killing the Commander or escaping?
"Who tastes the Commander's food now?" I asked instead, afraid if I asked the other questions he would realise his mistake and send me to the gallows.
"They never ask the right questions," Valek said grinning.
"I do, so I am anxious to find a replacement. Also the Code of Behaviour states that someone whose life is forfeit must be offered the job.
"Oh no! I hate it when you are my food taster. You are never on time so my food is always cold when I finally get to eat it," complained the Commander.
"It is not my fault. I have lots of other jobs to do aswell you know."
"That is why you should train someone to be your second."
"I will when I find someone good enough."
No longer able to sit still, I stood and paced around the room, dragging my chains with me. The maps on the wall showed strategic military positions. Book titles dealt with security and spying techniques. The condition and amount of candles suggested someone who worked late into the night.
I looked back at the man in the advisors uniform. He had to be Valek, the Commander's personal security chief and the leader of vast intelligence network for the Territory of Ixia.
"She has only just worked that out," said Valek shocked.
"It is not like people know what you look like and she was in an emotional state at the time."
"What shall I tell the executioner?" Valek asked.
"I am not a fool"
"Well it looks like I am getting a new food taster. That is the end of the chapter."