Chapter 18
KORMAC
I was given a room with no window, only a vent at ground level providing me with air. Two torches cast light on a bed, a bookcase, a wardrobe, and a desk. In a room attached to this was a bath filled with hot water.
The door was locked behind me, a jug of water and some bread and fruit left for me to eat on the desk.
I wanted none of it but ate some grapes anyway.
Being set free from the soul bond. Could Lasair really make it happen?
Freedom. My own mind returned.
Did I want it?
Of course, I hellpissing did!
Did I?
There were better clothes in the wardrobe. Yellow breeches and a yellow shirt, both with black piping. And a pair of black leather boots, as well as undergarments. Ignoring the corset, I removed the clothing and laid it out on the bed.
I stripped the itchy robes off my body, rubbed at my skin. Much better. Free of them, I took a quick dip in the hot water. Didn’t bother with the shaving utensils. I scrubbed my body and hair with the soap, then climbed back out to get dry.
There. That was the sea off my skin.
I dressed and sat down again, looking at the spines of the tomes on the bookcase. Nothing for me. I didn’t read much, and they all looked stuffy as a story from Old Man Kian in Riverleaf. After too many ales, he liked to walk down the lanes of his past and bore the piss out of the rest of us.
Right now, I missed his stories.
I waited for what would come next. Maybe the next part would take me closer to Valance or a solution to get to him and get—
Voices.
Faint.
Coming from the vent at my feet.
Voices?
I slid off the bed, crouching to listen.
Was that Valance’s voice?
I listened closer.
The prince! Yes!
How could I hear him like this? A flaw in the building’s design carrying the sound up the vent?
Whatever it was… Good!
I spread out on the stone floor, getting under the bed, pressing my ear to the vent.
Listened.