"Get moving, scum!"

I felt the dirt print left on my back as I was shoved forward, invading the space of woman before me. Stumbling over my chains, I felt the ground meet my mouth, its gritty taste swashing with the blood seeping where once my tongue laid. Rough hands quickly grabbed me and set me upright.

"Come now, Bern! We wouldn't want our royal guest to be dirty before her trial?" The hands on me were warm, but his voice dripped of ire. His laugh a dagger as he patted me and shoved us on, joining his compatriot in our march deeper.

I felt myself flinch, not in body but in soul. Dripping with sweat I stared at the haphazard cobble path we walked, river stones dragged underground to provide some semblance of a path through the dark. Monoliths of stone, a realm of iron and ice. An ethereal cerule shone from the depths, casting cragged cracks of shadow shown spirits upon our walk. Forests of stalagmites swathed before us, but ants lost in a world so far beyond our own. This was the realm of a dangerous god, who could shape such terrifying beauty.

Or maybe a demon.

"Royal or not, she won't be heralding anything with that attitude." Bern chuckled. I kept my eyes to the ground, rather than have his toothy maw glean with black and green ooze.

"Aye, she bled from her mouth before that cunt o' her's ever woke"

I kept my head down. let a glob of blood drop down. Let them laugh, let them lead me down. Deeper and deeper into hell. But while their chains may be laid on me, it was by my reins that they would be led.

So I would wait, and bide my time. Let them talk about how we were all tapped underground. Little they know, or even consider, that that was exactly what I wanted.