Ashot, the feral street rat, infiltrates Antioch. It's mostly to please Stephen, the boy who sees him as something to value.
Ishan and Wylan swap bodies. Perhaps it's a manifestation of Ishan's desire to escape. Now they are both in a fix, but Wylan is in infinitely more danger than Ishan.
You might consider the possibility that Dreknar don't have a digestive system similar to humans if you were sealed in a crate for three years, what would the inside be like?
The problem with anything based in text, whether it be religion, laws, or contracts, is they can be broken down to phrases and interpreted differently.
On one side we have a drunken king who is little more than a barbarian, and on the other brothers who are terrified of a brutal and insane grandfather. It's a toxic mix.
Fenn is so fragile. His guilt and PTSD have affected him too much. Without the stimulant he wouldn't have succeeded, and he still needs to repeat this.
We see the monstrousities each side is capable of and neither is right or clean. Strategically both are wrong.
Wylan and Ishan are forced witnesses to these horrors with no power to stop them. Their clean hands are little comfort.