Those were both the same word.
“There was an extraRin that last one. And anE. It makes it a proper name.”
Why? Your alphabet means nothing to me.
“It just does. Trust me.” She was mostly teasing for the sake of entertainment, but she did like the way the name looked in her mind’s eye. “Valorre. There you have it.”
Fine. The word was curt but she could sense that he liked the name.
She grinned at Valorre and realized it was the first time she’d smiled since leaving the Forest People.
Valorre stiffened.
Cora’s momentary mirth drained in an instant as she felt the unicorn’s trepidation. “What is it?” she whispered.
The hunters. They do not pause to hunt. They pause to join others.
Fear and anxious excitement clashed in her stomach.
They’d found their prey.
16
Every inch of Teryn’s body was sore, but nowhere more so than his ass. When he’d imagined the Heart’s Hunt, he’d entertained a multitude of ridiculous notions, but mostly he’d imagined, well…hunting. Stalking prey like he was used to. Moving quietly between the trees in search of mythical creatures. What he had not anticipated was five days of hard riding with only an hour or so of scouting the surrounding woods before making camp. No part of their day contained an element of what Teryn would considerhunting.
The first day of the Heart’s Hunt had gone as he’d imagined it would. He’d ridden north until evening, met his allies at the inn Helios had specified in his letter, and—surprisingly—wasn’t betrayed and left with a dagger in his chest by morning. After that, Helios had set them to riding at a brisk pace north into the Kingdom of Khero, leaving the main road on the third day only to maintain the same pace on the hunting trails through the forests. Helios clearly had a predetermined destination in mind. One he showed no intention of sharing with his companions.
Teryn’s eyes unfocused on the fire blazing at the center of tonight’s camp. They were somewhere in northeastern Khero by now, a prospect that didn’t sit well with Teryn. Even though he was a prince, it wasn’t exactly fine manners to go hunting in another kingdom without permission from its monarch. That was yet another thing Helios claimed to have under control. Yet another secret he kept to himself.
With a grumbling sigh, Teryn leaned his head against the trunk of a tree. One glance at Prince Lex wincing as he shifted in his seat on the ground was evidence that he too found the excessive riding a bit much. Helios was currently nowhere to be seen, having stalked off wordlessly an hour ago.
“My bum has been flayed raw, I just know it,” Lex said, adding a wadded-up shirt beneath his bottom, on top of four other articles of clothing and his bedroll.
Teryn let out a halfhearted chuckle. Berol angled her head at Teryn from her perch on his shoulder. His hunting vest was fitted with extra padding on each shoulder for that exact purpose. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a strip of dried venison. After taking a bite for himself, he fed the rest to Berol, who snatched it from his fingers with relish. “Lazy animal,” Teryn said with a grin. “You have the entire forest as your personal buffet and yet you still come to me for treats.”
“I cannot believe you have a peregrine falcon as a pet,” Lex said, eying her from across the fire with a grimace. “Those talons look sharp enough to rip out my throat. And that beak. I’ve no idea how you can feed her by hand and still have a full set of fingers. Those are your original fingers, right? They aren’t constructed of wood by now?”
“You sound like my brother.” Teryn huffed a laugh and gave Berol a light scritch on the side of her neck. “She won’t hurt me, though. I’ve had Berol since she was a hatchling. I found her injured while out on a royal hunt. Father almost didn’t let me bring her home with us, but he figured it would be a proper lesson in death and the futility of fixing broken things. In the end, it only served to prove the virtues of stubbornness in the face of great odds.”
“Cute,” Lex said, though his expression said anything but. He shifted on his seat again, then gave up to recline on his side. “Do you think Helios actually has a plan? Or has he dragged us out here to murder us and steal your bride?”
Mention of Helios had Teryn’s mood turning sour. He’d given the prince the benefit of the doubt during the week leading up to the Heart’s Hunt, hoping he’d eventually share his plan with them. But after more than five full days together, he was coming to regret ever agreeing to their so-called alliance. “I don’t know.”
“Where is he, anyway?” Lex glanced around the camp, then shifted slightly closer to Teryn. A mischievous glint sparked in his eyes. “Should we leave him?”
“The prospect is tempting but far from rational.”
Lex quirked a brow. “Nothing about our situation is rational.”
“Valid point.”
Lex glanced around the camp again before saying, “Our original terms still stand. You know that, right?”
Teryn was relieved to hear Lex still held a greater allegiance to him than to Helios. Although, he still couldn’t figure out how that would do him much good. First, they had to find those damn unicorns. But how were they going to find a single one by riding all day and hunting so little? What was Helios’ plan? Gritting his teeth, he reached into his pocket for another strip of venison, but his hand came away with only a crumpled sheet of parchment. It took him a few moments to sift through his cloud of fatigue before realizing he’d reached into the wrong pocket. Berol nipped at the paper, then gave Teryn a look that conveyed her agitation at finding parchment over treats. To further prove the gravity of such an offense, the falcon launched from Teryn’s shoulder and landed on a branch in the tree above him, sending a shower of cherry blossoms to rain upon his head.
“It was an accident,” he called to Berol, although he couldn’t keep the laughter from his voice. He studied the paper again, smoothing out its crinkled folds until he realized what it was—Larylis’ list of notes. His lips tilted into a grin as he scanned his brother’s scrawled writing.
Unicorns are found deep in the forests. Obviously. Not helpful, thanks.
