Master of Hounds1 by R. A. Steffan EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Author: R. A. Steffan
- Language: English
- Genre: Fantasy Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
“THROW HIM TO the dogs.”
Princep Kaeto, the emperor’s son, waved a careless hand toward two
guards holding a bound prisoner between them. The pair dragged the
unfortunate man forward to the entrance of the royal kennels, where sounds
of growling and scrabbling could be heard coming from within.
Caius Oppita, once a respected Legatus of the Alyrion Imperial Guard,
stood at parade rest as the order was given, his eyes fixed impassively
ahead. Gossip had been rampant in recent weeks concerning the steady
parade of prisoners arriving at the royal compound, only to meet inventive
and grisly ends on the direct order of the princep. The lithe young man with
bound hands and a bag tied over his head was only the latest to confront
such an unpleasant fate.
One of the guards addressed the master of hounds, who stood next to
the kennel doors, his head bowed in groveling subservience. “Have the
beasts been starved for a full week, as His Highness requested?” he asked
formally.
The houndsman’s shoulders hunched a bit further inward. “Yes—it is as
my imperial lord has commanded. They are near-mad with hunger.”
The guard nodded. “Then lead the way and hold them off while we toss
this piece of garbage into the cage with them.”
With a deep breath, the houndsman straightened his spine. He clutched
the handle of the whip coiled at his side with a white-knuckled grip, as he
entered the low building to complete his unpleasant task. The guards pulled
their captive along, following him into the kennel’s dark interior. Inside, the
ominous growls erupted into full-throated baying, growing in pitch and
intensity until the sounds filtering out to Caius and the other observers
standing in the courtyard became positively frantic.
Caius fought down a wave of queasiness, not allowing it to show in
either his face or his bearing. He’d been a soldier for twenty-nine of his
forty-six years… had seen men hacked apart by swords, trampled under the
hooves of warhorses, and dying of dysentery in the battle camps. Yet
something about this casual cruelty still sickened him. If the talk making the
rounds of the palace was accurate—and he had every reason to believe it
was—then the only crime committed by the men being executed under
Kaeto’s hand involved their conception. The wrong seed had reached the
wrong womb, resulting in the birth of another inconvenient bastard son.
A few moments later, the guards re-emerged from the kennel. The one
who had spoken to the houndsman approached Kaeto and bowed low.
“The master of hounds will stay to watch until the beasts calm enough
for whatever remains of the prisoner to be removed,” he said, speaking over
the din of howling and snarling. “I don’t expect they’ll leave much behind.”
Kaeto made a dismissive gesture. “Let the creatures crack the bones and
suck the marrow, for all I care. Leave the filthy whore-son to rot in the
manure pile after they shit him out.”
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