When Ryper and Dash had proclaimed their group Outlaws, it’d been in the unicorn sense of the word. Someone who wouldn’t be broken or tamed.
Xaydin had taken the word as a personal challenge. Out of their entire clan of miscreants and malcontents, he was the one who’d actually gone off and decided laws would no longer apply to him. He’d become a vigilante who made Ryper’s body count insignificant.
Yeah, they should leave him out of this.
“Be careful.” She watched as they left.
Chrysis had no real idea where Ryper had gone, but if he was after Dove, they’d most likely be in Alarium. While Dove had a lot of hard feelings for his elfin brethren, he still tended to stay in their lands.
Maybe I should be a wolf.
It’d be a lot easier to track them that way. But unlike others of her kind, she didn’t like moving from one form to another. She much preferred to stick to one shape.
Shape-lock. Their people considered it an unforgivable sin to remain in one form. So much so that she’d been banished from her home because she refused to leave her crow body.
Yet King Dash had never minded or thought less of her for it. He’d welcomed her into his service and had built her an unbelievable nest.
For that, she’d always be loyal to him. Others could insult him if they wanted, but she knew the truth. He was a good unicorn with a kind heart. He took care of those who were under his protection.
And she would do whatever she could to keep him safe. She just hoped they weren’t too late to save him.
Chapter 10
Why do you think they picked Sester for their auction?” Tanis carefully dismounted Dash’s back and rubbed her arms.
Dash returned to being human. He looked around from the shadows where they were hidden on an icy shelf from the small city that rested atop a hill. “Neutral territory, I guess. The revenants don’t usually involve themselves in politics. Pagos is the one kingdom I’ve never had to worry about scheming against me.”
“How do you mean?”
“They don’t care. They can’t have children and they’re immortal. All they do is sit around, debate, have contests, and play chess, or some such. Those who join them with ambitions of conquest are usually culled before they can gather an army.”
She gaped at his bleak description of their existence. “You’re kidding?”
“Not really. They don’t want anyone to disturb their hard-won peace.” He gestured toward the castle that appeared to be made of solid ice. “King Ambrose has been the ruler here sincehe was brought back by a necromancer almost a thousand years ago. No one has ever challenged him for his throne because most of the dead have no ambition. They’re content with what they have, and they don’t want the stress that comes with wanting more. Their lands are virtually inhospitable for the living. That’s why I gave you the band when I sent you here to get your brother’s skull. It’ll help you breathe as a human in their atmosphere that’s not as rich in oxygen as what you’re used to.”
She blew her breath against her freezing hands to warm them, wishing he’d also given her heat. “Why was Ambrose brought back?”
Dash created a thicker fur coat and gloves for her, along with fur boots and a hat. He held them out to her. “Land dispute.”
She paused while pulling them on. “Wait. What?”
He wrapped a thick wool scarf around his head and neck. “As stupid and unbelievable as it sounds, it’s true. Centuries ago, there was a simple land dispute between Ambrose’s heirs. When they couldn’t settle it, the judge wanted to be fair, so he had a necromancer raise Ambrose from the dead to tell him how he wanted his lands divided. Problem was, no one knew how to send Ambrose back to the dead once it was settled.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. How do you kill a dead man?”
He had a point. She braided her hair and put it under her fur hat. “No one ever figured it out?”
“Not for Ambrose’s kind.” Dash pulled on his own gloves. “Worse. Other necromancers kept bringing the dead back for all manner of reasons until Queen Morvana finally had the good sense to outlaw zombies, liches and the like, eight hundred or so years ago in her kingdom, and it caught on in the rest. Since no one knew what to do with a walking, talking corpse, they carved out a kingdom for them here so they could live in peace.”
She laughed nervously. “I thought that was just a myth. Are all the Pagosians really dead?”
“Absolutely.”
“But don’t they rot or decompose?”
“I honestly don’t know. What I’m told is that the climate here is unlike any other climate in the world, and they have their own magick system they’ve developed that isn’t anything we know or that they share with outsiders. Some of them are exceptionally powerful.”
