Bramen's eyes twinkled. "Wisely spoken, Yuna, as usual. Then we shall let them go."
Azuma drew in a deep breath. "So it is settled then. Our parents will be buried at home, we will announce the deaths of the Hiwan scum, and we'll plan Ren's coronation."
"Indeed," Bramen drawled supportively.
"In the meantime," Azuma said, glancing at his sister, "Yuna has a prisoner to speak with."
Torchlight flickered in the passages to the imperial dungeon, casting shadows on the walls.
Two Nari guards descended the stairs with Yuna, flanking her on either side as they proceeded into the palace’s belly. Once they all reached the bottommost floor, a pungent smell drifted in the air, one like moldering hay and piss. Yuna instinctively recoiled, then continued on to the single, occupied cell.
A desperate man with deep-set eyes and a swollen lip sat on a rickety stool, hovering just out of sight in the shadows of his cell. She studied him as she silently closed the gap between them, drawing his attention only moments before she arrived.
He leapt off the stool with a growl, throwing himself against the bars. They rattled on their old hinges. He spit at her, but Yuna deftly dodged the foul spittle.
The Nari guards shoved their spears through the door, snarling. The prisoner backed away, hands up, and bared his teeth.
"Greetings, Nobu," she murmured, "you heartless traitor."
"You!" he screamed, pointing at her. "You're the traitor. I know the Nari clan is behind all of this, you whore. You killed my father. You killed the Emperor. I never trusted you!"
Yuna grinned. "What are you going to do about it now? No one is going to believe you. They're too busy mourning our dear Emperor, whom your people killed. It helps that your father is dead too, doesn't it?"
He screamed in agony and rage, the veins in his neck popping out.
Yuna rolled her eyes. "Control yourself, you fool. You're the greatest traitor here. Don't you see?"
She extracted a knife from a sheath in her belt, holding it up for his perusal. His eyes widened as he recognized the blade.
"What are you doing with that?" he whispered.
"Oh yes, you do recognize it. How lovely. I found it in my father's chest, naturally. You should know; you're the one who put it there. No one is doubting it now, what with the Ameyas betraying the Empire, and all that. Terrible, isn't it?"
"I lost that knife. I didn't use it to kill anyone."
She tsked. "Didn’t you now?"
"I didn't kill anyone!"
"You can scream all you want; no one will hear and no one will care."
She leaned forward, her face mere inches away from the cold metal bars. He reared back, but didn't look away, his eyes locking with her intense, nearly animal-like stare.
His eyes widened. He opened his mouth and closed it again.
"You have betrayed everyone, and so must die," she cooed. "In one of the worst possible ways. Slowly. Without light. Without fresh air, sunshine, or hope. Slowly, slowly, slowly. Like the maggot you are."
He blinked, as if coming out of a trance. His nostrils flared.
"You," he whispered. "You were the hooded figure in my father's room. You got my knife then. You stole it. YOU killed your own parents!"
Yuna snorted. "You're a fool, Ameya, if you believe that. I adored my parents. Why would I kill them? Continue with your mad ravings if you must, but know that it will get you nowhere. You have committed the ultimate treachery, the ultimate sin."
"I am innocent!"
She stepped back. "So says everyone who lives in Iskawan, don't they?"
The blood drained from his face. He rushed up to the bars of the cell, gripping them with blanched knuckles. "Iskawan? You cannot do that to a noble member of a clan. You don't have that power!"
"Oh," she murmured, "but I can," before slipping back down the hall.
Nobu shrieked after her, "You cannot do this!"
She stopped at the first step of the staircase to glance back and meet his terrified gaze. She grinned, feeling a delicious surge of power all through her bones. "Enjoy your stay in Iskawan, you traitor."
Her robes fluttered behind her as she turned and moved up the stairs. The torchlight cast a shadow as she passed, a little flutter of spectral shadow following in her wake.
Celty
One of the cannibals pushed Celty, then Isao and Khalem, forward into the yawning mouth of the cave.
The air within smelled brackish. It surrounded the captives in a chilly embrace as water dripped down the dark walls. The light from the outside dissipated the further in they went, as the tribe of cannibals clicked and talked around them.
Just when Celty thought the tunnel would narrow into an impassable passage – likely funneling them right to a massive rotating spit and a cauldron of boiling death – the cannibals stopped them with a rough clasp on their shoulders.
Celty blinked, disoriented. A massive fire as tall and wide as a horse roared in the middle of an enormous room. The cavern here soared at least ten paces overhead, with rock deposits hanging from the ceiling of the cave and dripping water onto them. Brightly colored depictions of faces – similar in appearance to those on the obscene-looking masks the cannibals wore – decorated the walls.
Nestled in the stone were several buildings carved into the walls with windows, jagged doorways, and strange paintings on the outside. What appeared to be skins and furs stretched over windows and walls, forming tents along the outside of several houses.
A shudder went down Celty’s spine. She glanced at her captors – and hoped those weren't human skins she saw.
The tribe that brought them here split into two groups. All the broad-shouldered, towering cannibals moved off to the left, shuffling onto a path that became a thin trail. The remaining cannibals – slender enough to seem like they might be females beneath those terrifying masks – marched Celty, Isao and Khalem off to the right. They moved in silence, only the distant trickle of water and small rocks falling breaking the quiet.
A few minutes later, Celty recoiled instinctively as bright rays of sunshine streamed in through holes. A few steps more, and the group stepped into another open space.
Steep walls made of a sheer rock shot up until they abruptly ended, leaving a wide hole across the top of the space – the only escape route Celty had seen since she had entered the cave.
She swallowed back a scream. There would be no climbing out of this place unless she could kill her guards and run all the way back through the dark, complicated maze. Unlikely.
The cannibals shoved her farther into the space. She stumbled, caught herself, and scowled. A wooden cage sat in the middle of the space. Old hay filled the floor, limp and moldering from age. Pieces of wood, both fresh and charred, littered the ground around it in a semicircle. Dried leaves were scattered across the stone floor.
A rise of hot bile filled the back of Celty’s throat as she watched a leaf blow across the ground – and land in an empty skull.
Skulls set on top of stakes stood on the floor at random intervals. Dried blood stained an empty eye socket on the one closest to Celty. A path of skulls lead to a tall drum with skin – again, Celty hoped it was an animal’s – stretched over its top. Smaller drums lay on the floor around it.
Behind her, Isao sucked in a sharp breath. Celty ignored him, the hair on the back of her neck standing up, her heart beating fast and hard in her chest.
The cannibal holding her wrists yelled something, then thrust her forward, pushing her toward the cage. Celty pushed back, leaning against the cannibal, determined not to be forced in. Would she ever come out of it if she was?