I pinned his god-king piece. “And that’s game.”

He scowled at the board. “So it is.”

The next day, I traveled down to the prison level—still quite a way up from the Spring Caves under the palace—and realized just how bad the test would be.

Unlike Jorat, Yor does have prisons. Or at least the Ice Demesne has a dungeon. It was as dreary and miserable as anything I’ve encountered outside the Afterlife itself. Despite Kaen’s orders, his dungeon didn’t need emptying, because he never left prisoners alive for long enough to overfill its cells. This wasn’t about executing prisoners. This was about seeing if I would execute prisoners.

I’m no stranger to death, but slaying someone in battle and killing someone who is weaponless, bound, and helpless are very different.

The condemned were political dissidents who had been too outspoken against the duke’s rule or who had moved against him in some fashion. I had no idea if they’d received a trial, but I suspected not. The dozen men and women all appeared to be Yoran, dressed in the clothing they’d been wearing when arrested. From the looks of them, none had been pulled from their beds; they all wore furs, boots, the normal Yoran cold-weather attire. Since no effort had been made to heat the palace’s dungeon, they’d been allowed to keep their clothing. Apparently, the Hon hadn’t wanted them to freeze to death before they could be executed.

Which had given me an idea.

I gestured to the men Kaen had dispatched as my escort. I knew their leader, Hedrogha, from previous escort runs out to the clans. “Captain, pull them from the cells and follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Hedrogha seemed wary. I wondered what his orders were if I refused to kill the prisoners.

“The kennel,” I answered.

The soldier’s eyes widened.

The prisoners barely made a fuss as they were pulled from their cells. They looked weak and beaten. If they’d been fed, it hadn’t been enough.

I kept my expression blank as we made our way back up to the main level, to the kennels.

Of course, what the Yorans called the kennels would have been called the stable anywhere else. Even though most travel to and from the Ice Demesne happened via Gatestone, a main road did lead up to the pyramid’s base. Any conventional travel happened by way of animals more adapted to the cold than horses—namely, snow hyenas and ice bears. Neither animal was ridden, but teams of hyenas or bears often pulled sleds or wagons across the snowy countryside.

This was Suless’s (or rather Wyrga’s) domain. She trained and took care of the duke’s animals. No matter how she was despised, everyone admitted she excelled at her job.