Crystal had once walked through Valtor’s castle gates with her head held high, cloaked in authority and reverence. Now she returned as someone else entirely.

There was no grand entrance this time. She was shoved through the rear gate with a dozen other women, all of them hunched and silent, their eyes lowered in instinctive submission. Somewhere inside the castle, torches flared and laughter echoed, but back here, there was only the scrape of boots and the sharp bark of orders.

“Line up. ...