Content Warning: This chapter contains depictions of torture, violence against prisoners, including children, and psychological cruelty. Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter 421: The Spectacle of Suffering
Lyria's POV
I regarded the Queen.
There was a cold satisfaction in her eyes, a brightness to her countenance such as I had seen upon but few occasions before.
She beckoned me nearer, and I obeyed without a second thought.
I was upon the point of curtseying, as was expected of me, when the Queen gestured towards the further part of the chamber.
"I have a gift for you," she said.
I knew already it wpuld be nothing good, and yet I was not at liberty to refuse, and so I turned to behold this supposed gift and wished at once that I had not.
There were people. Dozens of them, chained, blood dripping down their flesh and pooling upon the stone floor. The men had been stripped of their shirts. The women remained clothed, though their garments were soaked through with crimson.
