“You disgraced me in front of the vizier, foolish woman!” roared Kehnan. Regida shrank back from his towering form until the stone wall of the stairway cut off her escape. “And for a petty silver bauble, too! Are you too blind to see that when the vizier’s plan bears fruit, I will be able to shower you with trinkets of gold and gems? If Lovro wants to see the necklace because of some ancient poem he heard, then we must show it to him. Where did you hide it?”
Regida looked up at Kehnan’s reddened face, his nostrils flaring with rage. She could feel the bulk of his muscular form trembling against her. Regida had no weapon–nor even a strong right hand to use one with–but it had not been so long ago that she had lived by her wits and her weapons in the forest. “I don’t have the necklace, you dolt. You had it wrapped around your wrist in the dungeon. If it’s not there now, you must have dropped it. We must track our travels backwards, eyes fixed on the ground until we find it. It’s only a simple string of silver. It cannot have gotten far.”
Kehnan narrowed his eyes. “If you have taken it, I will cleave off your other hand, wench.” Then he stepped back and grinned his twisted smirk. “Go. Put your nose in the dirt on the way we came. I will go tell the servants that there is a sizeable reward for the return of a plain-looking silver necklace. Many eyes make for light work—particularly when driven by the lust for gold. I’ll start with one of the comely chambermaids. They’re always cleaning things up.”
Kehnan walked away, leaving Regida to her task, alone. Her change of loyalties had left her few allies. Despite his boorishness, only Kehnan knew where to find the secret temple and how to command the priests and their miracles of healing. Regida began to slowly retrace their steps, eyes scanning carefully for the necklace she had allowed Kehnan—that is, “Lord” Kehnan—to steal from her bandit queen, Sabit.
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Wayfarings of Sabit: Agony is copyright (c) 2018 by Michael S. Miller. All rights reserved. New chapters post every Thursday (and the occasional Monday). You can support this and other stories on Patreon: https://patreon.com/michaelsmiller Find more sword and sorcery fiction at http://ipressgames.com/fiction/.