“My word? My dear, my word has nothing to do with it. You carry out your part, do as you are told, and I will see if you have been cooperative enough to warrant me granting mercy to Tilly here, and to all the rest of your friends. But I can tell you that if you do it all correctly, and make everyone believe in your sincerity, then I will be in such a good mood that I will be far more interested in the pleasure you will bring me on our wedding night than harming anyone. Do we understand each other?”

Magda swallowed back her rage. “Yes.”

“Good.” He smiled. “Good.” Lothain turned and patted Tilly on the cheek. “She is a good person, is she not?”

Tilly, tears of pain and terror streaming down her cheeks, nodded. Magda doubted that Tilly even knew why she was nodding.

“Don’t worry, Tilly,” Magda said. “I will do what I have to do to keep you safe.”

Tilly’s eyes squeezed closed as she wept. Magda could just make out her muffled words of gratitude.

Lothain lifted Magda’s chin. “You know, I was going to kill you for all the trouble you’ve caused, but then it came to me that it would be much better to subvert you instead and have you undo all the harm yourself. Much better solution all around, don’t you think? Better that you live to see it, than to be dead and unaware of my triumph.”

“You had better let her go after I do what you want.”

Lothain chuckled. “I don’t care about this scrub woman. She means nothing to me. I have no need to kill her. It’s all up to you what happens to her.”

“I told you that I would do as you say.”

“Indeed you did. And I believe you mean it.” He leaned back a little as he took her in with an appraising look. “You are so weak that you would do it to save a handful of lives. You foolishly value the life of an individual over the greater good.

“You don’t have the courage it takes to be a part of such an epic struggle.

“That is why you are a nobody.”

He gestured to the guards. “Take her back to her room so that she can have the women there make her wedding dress. Stand guard out in the hall tonight. No one goes in or leaves but the seamstresses.”

The men saluted before yanking Magda away.

She could hear Tilly weeping behind her.

The corridors she was dragged though were empty. The Home Guard had apparently been dismissed by the prosecutor’s private army. The men’s bootsteps echoed through the halls. The Keep was gradually being subverted by Lothain’s looming rule. His influence, his control, was tainting everything and everyone.