Eventually the servants returned, and I had them place the table and chair so I could sit in between my new friends, able to see them both, but not blocking them from seeing each other. I had them pour me a glass of wine and I took a slow sip. “It’s not bad, if you’re wondering.” They didn’t reply, so I took another. “We captured quite a few of you last night. It made the Kathaldi that we haven’t caught quite yet very upset. They killed my bride to be. You may have known her. I’m certain you know who she was.” I took another sip and sighed. “Jade. So beautiful. And her laugh. I won’t be hearing that again.” I paused, remembering for a few moments before I took another little drink of wine. “You can understand how angry that makes me, I bet.”

I set down my wine, stood and moved to the older Kathaldi, letting a knife slip into my right hand. I held it in front of his face to let it enter his line of sight. I let him have a good long look at it as I moved it around so he could see every detail of it before I pointed it at his right eye, about three inches away. “This is an old favorite of mine. I’ve had it since I was just a boy.” I moved it about an inch closer. “It really keeps an edge. I only have to sharpen it half as often as a lot of my other blades.” It was now just an inch away from his eye. If he hadn’t been restrained by the mage I would have marveled at his self control. Instead, I moved the knife until it gently rested against his eye. One of the guards, Nelrania, I think, gasped. She wasn’t going to like what happened next at all.

I pushed the knife home.

Venzik took a step toward me, but I stopped him with a furious look. Lintok turned away with a sick look on his face. I pulled the knife out and used it to slit the Kathaldi’s throat. He couldn’t move, but his blood did. I stepped back and used my other hand to pull a small cloth from one of my pockets and cleaned all the bits of eye goo, and blood, and whatever else from my knife. The assassin started sagging and the servant behind him just stepped back and let him collapse to the floor. It made sense; I suppose. A dead man isn’t going to hurt himself hitting his head on the floor.

The young mage was the first one to throw up, but one of the servants soon joined him. I moved to the table and had another drink of wine. This time a larger one. I set the glass down and moved in front of the Kathaldi that yet lived and smiled. “Thirsty work.” I stabbed him in the stomach a few times, then a few more for good measure. “Put him back on his pallet. I want him to think about his life while he dies.” The servants hurried to obey.

The mage had recovered somewhat and approached me angrily. “What was that for? You didn’t even ask them any questions!”

“Why would I ask them questions?” I asked as I turned to pour myself some more wine. “It’s not as if they would talk. We’ve tried that before and all we ended up with was a bunch of dead Kathaldi.” I sampled my fresh glass of wine. “I’m just shortcutting the process.”

“But… but… you murdered them!”

“Did I? Or did I execute them? Or did I simply kill them? Venzik, what do you think?” My captain didn’t answer, obviously not wanting to join me in my madness. He just stared back at me and kept his face expressionless. I turned back to the young mage. “You are probably right, though. I should have asked them some questions.” I motioned to the servants. “Bring in four more.” I nodded at the mage boy. “I’ll interrogate these ones first.”

He shook his head and left with the servants, who had asked if they should take away the first two Kathaldi. “No, just leave them. Perhaps they will inspire the next ones to speak more freely.”

Venzik sent the guards out into the hall to join the others. We were alone except for the one definitely dead prisoner and the other one who was slowly dying but would probably last for hours. He still hadn’t said a word to me, even though I raised my eyebrows in a clear invitation for him to speak. “Yes?” I finally said.

“You are in pain. But it is not good for you to do this. And it is definitely not good for the guards to watch you do this.”

I sighed. “Venzik, they killed Jade. In my own bedroom. They need to pay. I need to make them pay.”

He nodded slightly. “Then make them pay by destroying them. Not by torturing them to death for fun.”

“That wasn’t for fun. That was for Jade.”

He just stared at me. He had said everything he wanted to tell me. It was up to me to decide how to proceed.

I decided to kill some more Kathaldi.