Prologue
Queen Celene of Alera, Prison Cell, Location Unknown
I knew from the angry, quick slap of my captor’s boots on the smooth, metallic floor that something had happened. Something that would make his customary ranting and raving seem pale in comparison.
“Open the door.” The bark was louder than usual through the thick metal.
His order was obeyed instantly, but even the speed of the two guards he had chained outside the door wasn’t enough, and I watched as he struck them with an electrically charged flogger repeatedly for being too slow.
The two aliens—whose race I could not define—flinched, but didn’t make a sound. Like me, both were prisoners. Perhaps more so, for I was not a slave destined to live a life of cruelty and despair.
And this bastard knew it. Thrived on it.
I wasn
