“I did the best I could for you,” Sabit muttered when she could get her parched throat to speak. In the dimly-lit chamber before her stood Kehnan—tall and proud, resplendent in a fine silk tunic and lush fur leggings. Behind him, several shadow-cloaked figures lingered or toiled, as was their place.
“You certainly did, Mongoose!” Kehnan chuckled, the scar on his cheek pulling his smile into a perpetual sneer. “Twice you held my life in your hands, and twice I stopped you from taking it. I should say you could have done no better! If you had, you would still be the merry old bandit queen of the woods, and I would be rotting in a ditch. Instead, I am richly rewarded by Lovro, the vizier of the King of Bahteel. And I get to see you—the proud Sabit, the invincible warrior—brought low and set before my mercy. It’s not the ending I would have chosen for us, Mongoose, but it is one I will gladly take!”
Sabit raised her head. Her eyes peering through the tangled mass of her hair did not focus on Kehnan. “I did the best I could for you,” she repeated, a bit louder. “Why did you betray me, Regida?”
Behind Kehnan, one of the cloaked figures gasped. Lowering her hood with her good left hand, Regida turned to face Sabit—although she could not raise her eyes to meet her former queen’s. “My arm. Lord Kehnan has vowed to restore it. He knows of a temple where—”
“Enough!” Roared Kehnan. Stepping forward, he seized Sabit’s jaw in his massive hand. Pain lanced through her as he raised her face to his. “I defeated you! Not your crippled little healer. Not the Junjai troops that I bought off. Not the weak bandits and puny farmers that you relied on as an army. No! It was me! It was Kehnan who triumphed over the great and mighty Sabit! I have done what no one else could ever do!”
Through clenched teeth and a throbbing jaw, Sabit said, “Shout a little louder. Perhaps you will succeed in convincing yourself of your merit.”
Kehnan shoved Sabit back and turned away. She swung in her chains, her shoulders screaming in protest at the weight. Clenching her throbbing jaw, Sabit kept herself from giving voice to her agony. She refused to offer Kehnan the satisfaction.
“You want me to shout, Mongoose?” said Kehnan, as her returned to her. “I’m afraid I won’t be the one doing the screaming today.” He lifted a long, knotty shaft of of pale wood, crested with a razor-sharp tip of iron—Sabit’s own spear.
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Wayfarings of Sabit: Agony is copyright (c) 2018 by Michael S. Miller. All rights reserved. New chapters post every Thursday. You can support this and other stories on Patreon: https://patreon.com/michaelsmiller Find more sword and sorcery fiction at http://ipressgames.com/fiction/.