“This was a terrible accusation indeed. Butruehnarmarks were found on the licorneir, along with traces of chaeora blossoms. Elashor, naturally, offered both explanations and protests, and the evidence was all circumstantial, but there was enough to give some credence to Elandorr’s word. So the elders called for a bond-test.”
A lump thickens in my throat. I swallow it with difficulty. “Yes, all right. That’s all straightforward enough. But what does this test involve exactly?” Any number of vague, dark images dance across my mind’s eye. “Burning? Impaling? Poison?”
From the far side of the fire, Tassa’s voice hisses out a curse. “She thinks us barbarians, brother.”
“You’ve given me little enough to go on,” I snap. “How am I to guess the ways of your people? Only a short while ago, I found myself tossed to the bottom of a well, awaiting imminent execution, so pardon me while I imagine the worst!”
Taar speaks to Tassa in a low, firm voice. She tosses her hands and shoots me a withering glare before putting her back to me.Taar shakes his head before addressing me once more.
“Our world is a small one,” he says. “A pocket world, of sorts. I have told you of its creation by the hand of Nornala, formed exclusively for her licorneir and the Licornyn people. Over generations, the borders of this world have grown as our population increased, and our towns and cities spread. Since the days of the Rift, however, we exist primarily in the hinterlands, which is the country on the very edge of our world’s borders.
“Beyond the hinterlands is what we call the Unformed Lands. This is shapeless country which may, over time, be claimed and solidified into Licornyn territory, if the songs of the licorneir permeate its soil. Until then, it is a nebulous space of uncertain existence. There are no paths in this place, no safe roads that may be followed by those who know or recognize them. It is a realm of pure potential, existing in the sliver of existence between the physical realm and realities far more complex and strange.”
Though I listen attentively, my brain struggles to comprehend what he says. I am new still to world-traveling, to the idea of layered realities and the spaces between them. I’m not sure I will ever truly understand. But a terrible dread begins to blossom in my gut, nonetheless.
“Licorneir,” Taar continues, “may navigate the Unformed Lands alone, but generally choose not to. Without an anchor for theirsouls, they are vulnerable tounmaking.”
“You mean death?” I whisper.
Taar frowns. “Death would be preferable. This is an unraveling of essence, which will then reweave itself into a new form, not quite like what it was before. It may be the licorneir loses its ability tovelra,to bond with a rider, making it no different from a wild unicorn. It may be a worse transformation still, one I cannot guess. I know all this only in theory, you understand. There is no documentation, and the only songs and tales which have lived on through the ages speaking to this subject are abstract, to say the least. All I know for certain is that an unbonded licorneir would never enter the Unformed willingly. It is perilous even for a bonded soul.”
I can see where this story is going. Part of me would rather not hear it, but I ask anyway, “What happened to Elashor?”
Taar breathes out heavily. “He was sent into the Unformed Lands. While his licorneir was restrained, he was made to march forward, out of our world, until he vanished from all sight.”
My lungs constrict painfully in my chest.
“His licorneir—lovely Ciradi—was then unleashed and given the chance to find hervellar.Up and down the edge of the Unformed boundary she galloped, singing a wild sort of song, tail streaming behind her, hooves tearing up the ground. I remember watching her for over an hour, holding my breath, praying she would make a sudden dart across the boundary, go after her rider. Go after him, find him, bring him safely home as only she could.”
His words trail away. He cannot bear to finish the story. After a too-long silence, it is Tassa who takes up the tale. “Elandorr neverrecanted a word of his accusations,” she says, her accent stronger than her brother’s, her voice sharper. “But a good twelve months after the loss of his brother, he disappeared. Some say he went into the Unformed Lands, searching for Elashor.”
“And . . . Ciradi?” I ask.
Tassa meets my gaze across the fire’s glow. “Velrhoar.”
My heart sinks. “It was true then,” I whisper. “The bond to Elashor was real.”
“Maybe.” She shrugs, her expression cool, but fire glints in the depths of her eyes. “Or perhaps the spell used was strong enough that the breaking of it caused a soul-reaction akin tovelrhoar. The result was the same for Ciradi either way. She was lost to us and given a swift death when she could not be bonded anew.”
An image of Diira appears in my mind—bound with those cruel chaeora ropes, which dug into her flesh and suppressed her inner fire. The cruelty of existence in that hearttorn state was unmistakable; I cannot bear the thought of her going through that again. If I am lost in the mists of the Unformed Land tomorrow, such will be her fate, and this time there will be no miraculous new bond to save her.
I look at Taar. He is still turned away from me, his features hard. “Has anyone ever passed this test?”
“Yes.”
“But you have not seen it.”
He shakes his head. We are silent again for some moments.
Then: “So why in the skewering hells did you recommend mefor this little jaunt?”
“Ilsevel—”
“No!” I throw up my hands. “Don’t use that calm tone with me! I’m not some wild mare run amuck. This is my life we’re discussing, Taar. My life, and Diira’s too. I don’t want her to end up hearttorn again! Not to mention, there’s this whole ‘being unmade’ business, which certainly lacks appeal.”
He finally faces me, his brow hard. “The alternative is your death by execution. Which you know I cannot allow.”
I read the truth he does not speak in those words. He may not be able to prevent the laws of Licorna being carried out. But he can die trying. That’s what he means, what he intends: to stand against his people, defending me, possibly killing friends and comrades for my sake. In the end to be cut down by a Licornyn sword, knowing, even as he bleeds out, that the doom of his whole world is now sealed.
