Chapter Eight
The stairway took us downward into the bowels of the Palace. In the darkness, the cool air helped to disguise the smell of sweat and the odor of human torment.
Yes, as opposed to the nation’s prison system, the dungeon was where the former King and later my Queen chose to incarcerate special offenders, those who refused to bow or did so without the required display of obeisance. Political opponents were ‘re-educated’ in the dungeon. And the Queen took great delight in playing hostess to some teenaged boys who chose to engage in acts of vandalism on the day of her coronation.
But mostly it stood empty, until of course the special troops returned from the border with those who had dared encroach upon the Queen’s territory. And the Queen was horrified and yet oddly delighted
