A
Autumn Queen
Guest
The night had been brutally cold, though thankfully spring was breaking and the walls of the dungeon were partially submerged into the insulating ground. From the cell where they had thrown the newest prisoner, a woman caught fisting a loaf of bread and a dried wedge of cheese from the open market, only the faintest hint of daylight could be seen bouncing off the walls. Most of the light came from the oily torches hanging on the walls, and the scant heat they gave off was very much appreciated by all who spent their last years of life in the king's dungeon.
The cell was small and empty, save for soiled rushes stained with vomit, excrement, and worse, and the occasional rat. The pot in the corner had not been changed in ages, if ever, and a constant dripping in the corner added to the clammy coldness in the air. A worn, dirty and torn thin blanket was all the prisoner was given to warm herself with. She was lucky to have even that.
Sounds of the shift change vibrated through the corridors of the cells. Several of the other prisoners, who she could hear but not see, began to shift towards the front of their barred cells. She could certainly smell them; the rank odor of sour bodies permeated everything. Only the smell of filth running down small furrows cut into the rock added any change to the sickening stench of the damned.
The cell was small and empty, save for soiled rushes stained with vomit, excrement, and worse, and the occasional rat. The pot in the corner had not been changed in ages, if ever, and a constant dripping in the corner added to the clammy coldness in the air. A worn, dirty and torn thin blanket was all the prisoner was given to warm herself with. She was lucky to have even that.
Sounds of the shift change vibrated through the corridors of the cells. Several of the other prisoners, who she could hear but not see, began to shift towards the front of their barred cells. She could certainly smell them; the rank odor of sour bodies permeated everything. Only the smell of filth running down small furrows cut into the rock added any change to the sickening stench of the damned.