After barking orders at the men beyond the gate, Borit stormed off into the castle to check on the king's condition.
'Rhodri would never stand for this. I am the commander. If there is even a hint that he is awake now, so help me, I will…' He stopped short of the final turn and listened. A conversation was already taking place outside the King's chambers.
"There is nothing to worry about, Your Highness, I assure you. His Majesty has not been sleeping well and developed a headache as a result. I gave him a sleeping draught as a precaution. He should be right as rain by morning, but I will monitor him just to be sure." The doctor spoke clearly and calmly.
"Are you sure I cannot visit him?" Rose asked anxiously. Her care for the health of her father was evident in her tone.
The physician hummed softly. "You can peek in if you like, but he will not hear you. He is usually immune to the tonic so he asked for a stronger dose..."
Borit backed away from the princess and the healer. He had no desire to run into Rose again. In his mind, she had given him the greatest insult by siding with Rabert, when the Commander was clearly his superior.
'Palace Brat,' he thought not for the first time. While he had at one point thought he could charm Rose into submission--or possibly even marriage--he now abandoned that thought entirely. The girl was pretty but incorrigible. He would have to bend her knee to him by force.
But that would have to wait until he got the troops inside the castle. 'I don't like waiting. That brat has nearly ruined everything by playing pretend ruler…'
The anger welled up in Borit. He needed to get somewhere where he could release his fury. There was only one place in the palace that was safe for that kind of explosion.
The dungeon.
Careful not to be followed, the Commander marched down into the depths of the castle to unleash his anger. The guards at the entrance snapped to attention on his approach. He waved at them. "Don't come no matter what you hear."
"Yes, sir."
Passing them, the Commander snaked through the catacombs. He needed someone to torture. Borit didn't even care who it was.
The prison was the perfect place to inflict pain on others without consequence. Those in the cells had been either too stubborn or too weak to join Borit's secret forces, so he already held them in contempt. In his mind, they deserved whatever they got.
He walked through the corridors to select his victim.
"I think he's finally gone off his rocker," a voice cut through his thoughts. "I wonder what hair brained-scheme he is up to now."
Borit strode casually over to the wall and got the keys from a wooden peg. He unlocked a cell and looked at the man inside. The old codger was lying on his back looking at the ceiling.
"What did you say?" Borit asked coolly.
"I wasn't talking you. I was talking to the fairies. It's rude to eavesdrop especially when we were gossiping about you." The prisoner rolled over and faced the wall like a petulant child.
"Then please, keep going. What does the fairy have to say?" Borit shut the door and tucked the ring of keys in his belt. He cracked his knuckles with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
"There is more than one fairy, you fool! And they don't want to talk to you. They think you are a meanie." The prisoner cried out as he received a kick in his back.
"What did you do that for? Them's the one that insulted ya," the old man whimpered helplessly as he grabbed at his scraggly white hair. "Even if I agree with 'em," he added barely above a whisper.
A second kick landed on the man even harder than the first. "Ah, I feel a bit better. Don't you?" Borit smiled.
"You really are crazy as the day is long…I mean ow! I'm sorry. Please! PLEASE!" The old man slunk to the corner trying to find a refuge from Borit's fist.
The commander lifted his arm for another strike with a malicious gleam in his eye.
"Sir!" A feminine voice echoed through the chamber.
"Not now, Ingrid!" Borit barked. He was a bloodhound chewing on a bone, and his subordinate had interrupted him at the start of his feast.
"You'll want to hear what I have to say," the woman insisted.
Borit ran to the bars and pressed his face between them. His eyes were clouded with anger as his spit flew through the air.
"You better hope you are right or his beating will be yours."
Ingrid showed no sign of fear. She held his gaze until he threw his hands up in the air. Pulling the keys from his belt, he unlocked the door.
"Thank you!" The prisoner said while still curled up a ball. "No no," he whispered, "I don't like her, but I can still be polite!"
The Commander gritted his teeth as he walked away from the cell, thinking of all the ways he could pay back Ingrid for her intervention.
As soon as they had reached his secret office and closed the door, his hand flew to strike her across the face. Anticipating the move, the woman easily dodged before calmly standing upright again.
"I will not comment on that since you are clearly upset. But if you want my information, sir, you will keep your hands to yourself." Ingrid looked down and rubbed at her uniform, which had gotten a smudge from the dirty prison walls.
Borit's face reddened as he balled his fists. He could bully most other people into submission but Ingrid was unflappable. She had managed her own group of bandits, many of whom had tempers worse than him, and so trying to threaten her did no good.
"Did things not go as planned on the farm?" Ingrid spoke carefully. Her eyes were watching for any sign that he might lash out again.
"On the contrary, things went even better than expected out there. The Lakilians even burned the farm to the ground for good measure. The troops are here and ready for a coup…"
Ingrid narrowed her gaze. "Then why were you trying to beat that lunatic prisoner into a bloody pulp?"
Borit shrugged and looked at his knuckles. They had gotten scraped up when one of his strikes brushed up against the stone wall.
The Commander sat down at his desk with a weary sigh. There were papers piled high that seemed to have accumulated while he was away. He picked up the top one and placed it back down again.
"Oh you mean that little run in with a prisoner? It was nothing really. I was just a tad upset. King Rhodri took a sleeping draught before I arrived and the pretender of a princess sided with that boot-licker Rabert. So now the troops are in Burke for the night, and I just felt like murdering someone."
The words were said so casually that Ingrid wondered not for the first time about the monster before her. But what did she care about any of it? It was just kingdoms and politics.
All that mattered to her was that she came out on top. "If it is the princess you are worried about. Don't be. I have information."
Borit smiled, his face suddenly soft. "Ingrid, my darling, sit down and tell me more…"