Justice meant something to him. Unarmed prisoners should not be executed.
Cendel looked at Sergeant Reneda and reluctantly nodded. He knew he had no choice. Reneda was dangling an incriminating piece of information before him to use as leverage. If the wrong people found out about his smuggling days…
“I’ll try my best,” Cendel said.
“That’s all I ask for.”
“If it means saving a life, and an end to this invasion, I’d be crazy to say no.”
As dawn came, Cendel was taken to the dungeons beneath Port Denarim. Those remaining in town continued to dispose of the dead. No one had the time or energy to dig graves, so pyres were the way to do it.
The night-time air became thick with the stench of smoke, of death, and of burning flesh.
It was sickening, overpowering.
Cendel had only ever been in the dungeons when transporting criminals while on guard duty. He had always hated it. It was cold and wet, lit only by torches on the walls, giving the dungeons an otherworldly feel.
Puddles of muddy water splashed under his feet, forming from seas pray in the cracks of the uneven stones. Squeaking rats bolted away as Cendel and Reneda headed for their prisoner.
Cendel clasped his hands together to try and stop them from shaking. The shock of the battle persisted.
Two guards stood outside the cell where the Imperial was held. They unbolted and opened the door for Reneda and Cendel, bowing to their Sergeant as he strode past them.
Inside the small, dank, gloomy cell sat a lone chair on which the Imperial soldier sat. His armour had been removed, revealing a naked seven-foot-tall man with well-defined muscles and short, black hair.
The man was looking down at his chained feet, clearly feeling defeated. Both wrists were also cuffed to chains behind the chair he sat on.
He was going nowhere.
The Imperial raised his head up at Cendel as he entered. He looked surprisingly…human? After fighting them for days on end and hearing his comrades speak of their monstrousness, it was hard for Cendel to remember how alike they were to Alyrians.
Aside from his height and his grey eyes, the prisoner could almost be mistaken for an average person.
The Imperial sat up in his chair. His expression was completely void of emotion. His skin was covered in scrapes, bruises, and dried blood from the fighting.
Cendel and Reneda stood before the Imperial prisoner.
The sound of water dripping cut through the eerie silence.
“Ask for his name,” Reneda said.
Cendel paused, thinking back to his days of smuggling. He had chosen to learn the Avarwythian language to help make trading with the Akurai Empire easier and more profitable.
But it had been many years since he’d practiced it.
Cendel cleared his throat. “Kinchasa re no?”
The prisoner went wide-eyed, looking directly at Cendel. He had not expected an Alyrian to be able to speak his exotic language.
The prisoner responded, “Evi neto sena kanatefa.”
Cendel translated for Reneda. “Um…he says he will not speak to ‘mainland scum’.”
Reneda huffed before backhanding the prisoner in the mouth. A drop of blood fell to the floor.
“Ser, is that necess-”
“Ask him why he’s here,” Reneda instructed. “Ask him why his people invade our lands.”
Cendel hesitated but did as he was ordered. Better he gets beaten than me. He translated the question into Avarwythian.
The prisoner responded the same words. “Evi neto sena kanatefa.”
Reneda, without warning, drew his dagger from his belt and stuck it deep into the prisoner’s knee. The tip pierced his skin and drove straight through the flesh, sliding underneath the bone of the knee cap.
The prisoner wailed in agony as Reneda twisted the blade, lifting the kneecap up from its normal position.
Cendel quivered as he heard the ligaments tear and the bone crunch against the blade.
Reneda shouted in the prisoner’s face as he writhed around in his chains. “Why are you here?!”
Reneda pushed the dagger in deeper before lifting it upwards, the kneecap splitting in a horrific popping sound that made Cendel want to expel the contents of his stomach.
He had to avert his eyes, lest he be sick.
“Why are you here?!”
The prisoner screamed. “Ila, ila!”
Reneda pulled the dagger out, wiping the blood with his coat. The Akurai prisoner stopped screaming, before grimacing and spitting at Reneda’s feet.
“Heretic bastard,” Reneda muttered under his breath. “Ask him why he’s here again, if you don’t mind.”
Cendel gulped. He did not want the prisoner suffering anymore. “Ser, I… I don’t think this is the right thing to do.”
“Look at him.”
Cendel looked at the prisoner, chained before him. His knee was dislocated, and a thin stream of blood ran down his bare shin. His head was bowed, and he was shivering.
“This thing does not deserve an ounce of sympathy from either one of us. He was sent here to plunder, to rape, to kill. We need to know why, we need to know by who, and we need to know where any future attacks will take place.”
“But ser, we cannot torture this man. It’s not right.”
“He is no man. You will do as you have been ordered, soldier. We are at war- the rules do not apply anymore while these bastards attack our lands and murder our people.”
Reneda stared at Cendel without blinking. The sergeant seemed desperate; he wanted answers, and he wanted them right then and there.
Cendel rubbed his eyes, huffing. He knelt before the prisoner so that their gaze aligned. It was an intimidating position to be in- the man was huge. But he felt his odds were better if he tried connecting with the prisoner, and what better way to do that than stare the man in the face?
Cendel continued
