Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale - Colin McComb

The Tale of the Excruciations
Morning, early spring, and the chill had not yet left the air. The courser’s motion was smooth,
even as it leaped rocks, streams, logs. Pelagir sat atop his mount, cradling the child. His face was
dirty with the dust of the countryside.
Spring, Month of the Metal Dog, CY 581
The dormitory of the senior squires was quiet, moonlight from the high windows streaking across
the midnight floor. The boys and girls slept in their bunks, some snoring softly. A spring breeze
sighed in the open windows behind the moon, and on the back of the breeze came the hooded
men. There were twenty of them, and they moved without sound as they clambered through the
windows. They dropped to the floor, and in teams of two they spread across the bedchamber.
They took their positions, and at once, they struck.
Seven boys and three girls were clubbed, gagged, and stuffed into black sacks within
moments. The twenty men and their burdens were out of the room with such efficiency that none
of the other squires had awakened.
Their destination was Devilsfoot. They were to begin the excruciations.
Pelagir awoke draped unceremoniously across a saddle, and he could feel the courser moving
smoothly underneath him. Its smooth gait told him that it was no natural beast. This likewise told
him he was in the custody of a high-ranking officer of the Empire, which in turn suggested any
attempt at escape would be noticed and dealt with harshly. Furthermore, he deduced, those
squires who had made it to the fourth year—and with a record like his, no less—would be among
the most carefully guarded assets of the military, and therefore he was one of the ten squires to
have been chosen for the Elite. Thus it was that, like so many who had come before him, he was
borne unprotesting and unresisting into Devilsfoot. Thus it was that he came to the place where
the humanity had been torn from so many of his predecessors.
Colin McComb Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knight's Tale
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