The shackles at my wrists shook as the Dothikkar approached me. He was almost twice my size and the way he looked at me made my flesh crawl. When he stepped closer, I saw the way his nostrils flared and he immediately reared back.
The stench had probably reached him and instead of being ashamed, I was relieved.
“This will not do,” he rasped, frowning, his arm covering his nostrils. “If I am to have entertainment, how can I even enjoy it with you smelling like death?”
Entertainment?
His gaze slid past me. To the guard, he said, “Have a bathing tub brought in.” His smirk reminded me of how the Ghertun moved sometimes, slithering and unnatural and fluid. “I think I will enjoy this. As will my Vorakkars. Lysi?”
My stomach sank.
Chapter Four
The sight of the kalles stepping into the Dothikkar’s throne room was like a punch in the gut.
Last night, after I’d returned to my quarters in the keep, I’d thought of her. Long into the night. Of her frightened eyes, of her haunting questions. I thought of the sense of calmness that had descended into my mind and I knew, without a doubt, that she’d been the cause.
But why?
Now, the Dothikkar was eyeing her with the same kind of amused malice that had been the cause of my family’s destruction.
That rage boiled inside me. I choked on it as I watched a golden bathing tub being brought in almost immediately, as I watched a line of the Dothikkar’s servants begin to fill it with water before it even touched the ground. All the while, the small human stood, frozen, in the sheer dress I’d discovered underneath her cloak last night.
She had been caught. Had she spent the night in the dungeons? Or the morning? It was nearing sunset now. The last meal had already been served. Had she been underground the entirety of the day?
I didn’t know why but the thought set my teeth on edge. Next to me, at the Dothikkar’s grand table, the Vorakkar of Rath Kitala sat rigid. His Morakkari was human, after all. As was Rath Tuviri’s, who sat across from me, his jaw tense, claws curling into the surface of the table. He loathed the Dothikkar most of all. For good reason.
The human girl—Vienne, I remembered—looked so still I wondered if she even breathed. But then I saw her hands trembling, just as they’d done last night.
I stood, my seat scraping back from the table. I saw the kalles jerk her gaze towards me, those solemn, light-colored eyes almost my undoing. There had been a moment last night, in the quietness of the alley, where something resembling understanding had passed between us. Or, even more dangerous, recognition.
The eyes of the Vorakkars were upon me as I turned my attention to the king of Dakkar, though thinking of him as such left a bitter taste upon my tongue.
“I am eager to return to my horde, Dothikkar,” I said. “Our meetings have dragged on and I do not think your entertainments help matters.”
Two nights ago, he’d had a few of his concubines brought in to dance for him as we attempted to revisit the matter of the Ghertun testing their borders of the Dead Lands.
Rath Tuviri’s mother had been among them, a golden-haired beauty, rumored to be the Dothikkar’s favorite whore. I’d quite enjoyed studying the way Rath Tuviri’s jaw tensed so tight I thought it would crack and I’d smirked when he left the table, storming from the grand hall as the Dothikkar’s laugh echoed around it. His mother’s eyes had tracked after him and I’d caught the brief downturning of her lips before they curled for the king when he leaned forward to suckle on her neck.
I’d been amused then because I didn’t quite like Rath Tuviri. I didn’t quite like any being outside my horde and I liked my fellow Vorakkars least of all—because I knew just how cold and cruel they could be. I was one, after all.
But now, instead of amusement, I was annoyed and my temper was throbbing. All week, we’d been here. I was beginning to think the Dothikkar didn’t have a plan regarding the Ghertun, that he would rely on the hordes to take care of the matter without the assistance of his army.
The Vorakkars regarded me, perhaps surprised that I’d said anything at all. Even the Dothikkar paused in his perusal of his newest toy to send me a bewildered look.
Then his expression darkened, his eyes flickering briefly to the