It was met with silence.
“Do you understand you will be whipped until you submit?”
Silence.
Izumi clasped her king’s hand as the whip whistled through the air and sliced across Saieke’s back. Izumi gasped at the pain that she felt from Saieke. The wind whistled again and again against her back and on the tenth stroke, Saieke’s gasp turned to a scream of pain. Izumi rose out of her chair and stepped toward the balcony railing, gripping the edges.
“Stop this!” she ordered.
The wielder looked to their king who shook his head. She wanted to scream at him. This was their daughter.
With a grimace the man flicked the whip again.
Saieke’s caftan had ripped in several places and dots of blood soaked through her clothing. Crack…crack…crack. The whip curled in the air. Izumi flinched in sheer shock as the hand that descended with the whip flew through the air. Gasps rushed through the room, and as one, the entire room surged to their feet on edge. The warrior crumpled, and screamed. He held hi
s severed stump as blood sprayed from him in an arch.
Izumi saw no one, but darkness coated her mind and she trembled at the malevolence that stepped into the room.
Chapter Twenty Two
Drac
Tears slid down her face.
I am here.
Manacles dropped as claws she could not see sliced them off her feet and hands. Saieke was moved with speed and deposited away from the blood. Her body singed and her heart soared despite the pain that roiled through her body.
Drac
She felt a feathery brush against her neck and whispers of emotions leaked from him to her.
“What is this?” a voice thundered.
She glanced up. Her mother gripped the railing and her eyes were wide and shocked filled. Saieke knew her mother could feel some of the malevolence that Drac brought with him.
Everyone was standing and searching the room, but he remained in the shadows. She felt the powers of others that arrived with him— ten distinct chakra that were ice cold and deadly.
Pain lanced at her back, but she could feel the torment lessening.
Your body is already healing
“What is the meaning of this?” the Nurian chancellor demanded.
Their warriors were tense and the intent that leaked from them was almost intimidating. King Ajali launched himself gracefully over the balustrade and landed in front of her. In eerie unison, his unit of ten landed behind him and the heat that washed from them made the air in front simmer.
A high and mellifluous pitched sound suddenly wailed through the room. Screams of lyrical beauty and destructive harmony scraped and grated across the room, and the ceiling above her head contracted. Thousands of shards of stained glass exploded and rained down on them. Borean warriors rushed in and waved their hands in a canopy of movement that flung the glass away from them.
Before anyone could process what was happening, Saieke felt the cold press of twin blades enclosing her neck.
Everyone stilled.
Low and melodious laughter filled the room. The ground roiled and power pulsated, and more than fifty Mevians dropped gracefully into the room from the ceiling.
Her parents launched themselves over the balcony.
“Tsk, tsk,” uttered a voice so beautiful, tears sprang to Saieke eyes.