"Aii!" screamed the girl as Balthazar's caress turned into a tormenting, possessive hold on her that tore her once luxurious hair.  She placed her hands on his wrists, only seeming to remember herself before she fought with him, and looked up, whimpering in fear and pain.  She stood, the prison rags falling to her feet as she stripped, her smooth, round arms fell before her breasts, a hand reached down between her legs to cover herself there.  What he could see, however, was clearly a treasure many would enjoy possessing.  Broad hipped, gentle curves, white flesh smoother than the promise of silk, full-figured was the term that came to mind, soft around the belly and bum, and, yes, spiced deliciously with the fear that coursed through her with every heartbeat.<br/><br/>"My Lord, My King," Sophie said, speaking as if she was whispering into his ear, instead of declaring her utter depravity and worthlessness to him, the guards, the headsman. . . "I will do anything to live.  Anything at all.  To. . .to. . .at-atone for my f-f-father's. . .treason.  I will obey any order.  Do anything you would want. . .me. . .to do to please you.  I want to be your s-slave.  I want to serve you in the. . .Black Chambers."  A fragment of conversation, an unpleasant rumor of where Balthazar was rumored to sport with his women.  "Please let me."<br/><br/>--==--<br/><br/>Aurora gave Darius another smile, seeing for herself just how tightly he was being wound around her whim, her desire, his seemingly limitless need to please and obey her.  Oh, how useful, that.  How best to use him?<br/><br/>"Father's own chamber is where we must begin.  There is, if I remember my lines correctly, a fireplace that has been bricked off when the new one installed; the fault of the old one being a collapsed chimney failing to allow smoke to escape.  Behind that old fireplace, I think we will find the passage I seek, for I recall a history of the Deschain line hinting of escape routes such as these in my ancestor's first hall, in Valeria's little Thorpe."