This story could be a ruse. Drey could have gone to the Firenz and shared the plot.

For the stupid twat was getting fucked by Mars’s top general, and he didn’t even know it.

Dear Bedi.

“And why wasn’t this reported to me?” Seph asked.

“Why?” the man queried stupidly in return.

“Yes, why?”

“Well, my liege, you instructed us to be wary of G’Drey and not—”

Seph turned, finding the handle of whichever instrument was closest, instruments that were kept there for times such as these, and others besides.

It was a crop.

Perfection.

He then lifted it and brought it down violently on the man’s cheek. And again. And again. Again. Again. And again. Until the soldier fell to a hand and his knees, lifting his other arm to stave the blows that Seph kept raining on him.

G’Seph tired of the crop, tossed it aside and kicked him in the face, taking him to his back.

And he did this again.

Again.

And again.

When the soldier was curled into himself, his arms over his head, Seph stopped and squealed, “Disrobe him! Bind him to the slab, fifty lashes. And someone go to that bloody infirmary, find bloody G’Drey and bloody bring him back! Immediately!”

Men moved to the soldier on the floor or out of the room, but Seph moved his eyes to his lieutenants.

“We do not flee,” he declared. “The Go’Doan had naught to do with this coup no matter what one of those infidels might say.”

“Sir, we lost over one hundred foot soldiers to that—”

“We will replace them,” Seph stated offhandedly.

“This is our second failed—”

Oh yes.

He tired of this conversation.

“Silence,” Seph whispered. “Recruitment goes unabated in schools and hospitals. Firenz, Dellish, even Airenzian are brought to their bloody knees in gratitude for healing of loved ones and the promise of a bright future for their children. It’s ludicrous, but we all know how very well it works. And it will continue to do so. The Rising has had a setback, but we will recover, we will regroup, and we will rise again. Much more swiftly this time. So swiftly, they will not expect it.”

He turned to another of his soldiers.

“Send a bird to G’Fenn in Go’Doan. Report these events. Share our defeat but that we are not defeated. I will see to it that I ride with the cavalcade when they leave Firenze. We will rise again in Wodell.”

The man nodded and moved to push through those behind him.

Seph waited until the whipping started.

But he did not wait to see it end.

He wished to.

But he could not.

He had much to do.

37

The Mortal Blow

Prince Cassius

Guest Suite, Second Floor, East Corridor, Catrame Palace, Fire City

FIRENZE

His intended whirled on him the minute he closed the door behind them after following her into her bedchamber.