### Chapter 24 – The Queen's Answer
Dawn broke over Draeven in pale streaks of gray. In the palace courtyard, the silence was shattered by the clatter of boots and the cries of men dragged in chains.
Captain Verrun knelt before Kael and Selara, his scarred face pale. Behind him, soldiers dumped empty grain sacks and broken crate lids at the monarchs' feet.
"My lord, my lady," Verrun said, bowing so low his forehead brushed the stones. "The western storehouse was breached. Food and weapons are gone."
The courtyard grew colder though the morning sun climbed high. Kael's silver eyes narrowed. He lifted one of the empty sacks, its coarse fabric still stained with grain dust. "Gone," he repeated softly. His voice carried no anger, no heat—only the kind of calm that made men tremble.
Selara stepped forward, the hem of her gown whispering over the stones. She studied the sack as though it were a corpse. "Rats," she murmured. "Clever little rats who think themselves lions."
She turned to Verrun. "And you allowed this."
The captain swallowed hard. "We… we searched, my queen, but found no trace—"
The words cut short as Selara's dagger found his throat. Blood gurgled over her hand, spraying the stones. Verrun's body slumped, twitching, his last breath a wet rattle.
Selara wiped her blade delicately on his cloak. "Excuses are a disease," she said coldly. "I will not tolerate infection."
Kael's gaze swept over the soldiers standing frozen, their faces pale. "Do you understand now?" His voice was low, but it struck like iron. "Every grain stolen, every blade lost, is not a theft from the crown—it is a theft from **your lives**. Fail us again, and Draeven will drown in your blood before theirs."
The soldiers dropped to one knee, shaking, murmuring oaths of loyalty.
Selara's lips curved into a smile, cruel and beautiful. "Good. Then you will give them a lesson."
By nightfall, twenty peasants from the western quarter—chosen at random—were hanged in the square. No crimes proven, no trials given. Their bodies swung from ropes as crows circled overhead, black wings cutting across the red-stained sky.
Children wept. Mothers screamed. Men clenched fists in silence, hatred smoldering in their eyes.
From the balcony, Kael and Selara watched it all.
"Do you see, Kael?" Selara whispered, her fingers brushing his arm. "Rebellion breeds from hope. Starve the people of hope, and they will kneel forever."
Kael's silver eyes glinted in the dying light. "Then let Draeven learn despair."
Below, the corpses twisted in the wind like broken banners, and the people understood: the crown's answer to defiance would always be death.
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