The eye blinked slowly. “Might order me to throw you down the hill.”
“He might,” Dash said. “Or he might let me in.”
“Hmph. Wait there.”The eye went away and the door turned to solid ice.
Tanis cocked her head as she tried to make sense of what he’d said. “Pigeon rope?”
“It’s a game we play in Licordia. The rope is long and tied in complicated knots that you have to figure out how to unknot.”
“Is it hard?”
“Can be.”
She thought about that. “How do you know you’re the only one who ever sent one to the king?”
“When I sent it to him, it had the head of the necromancer lich who’d awakened him attached to it.”
Tanis made a sound of extreme displeasure. “Tell me you’re joking.”
He shook his head.
And the door opened.
She was still squealing at the thought of a living head being gifted to the king when a frost giant led them inside the huge palace courtyard. Pressing her lips together, she suppressed the noise, but on the inside, she was still making it.
Not just over the severed head. No. Now it was because everywhere she looked there was something rather grisly.
This was definitely the land of the eternal corpses. All in various stages of rot and decay. Not to mention, it rather stank. Musty. Moldy. Like a nest that had been left out in the rain far too long. She was trying desperately not to curl her lip.
Don’t offend them.She assumed they still had feelings.
But it was really hard not to be offensive or to show her distaste.
“Good day,” a lady said as she passed by in a tattered red gown.
Dash politely returned the greeting while Tanis smiled and nodded as she swallowed bile. While the woman seemed nice enough, her flesh was mostly rotted off. Some of it still clung to the bone.
“Are they all human?” she asked him.
“No. Other species are here as well.”
Interesting.
Although once she became acclimated to their condition and smell, she supposed it wasn’t so bad. They all seemed happy to be here. They were all going about their business as if this was normal and to them, she supposed it was. Some strolled about with friends. Most sat about in groups, talking. Some played games while others groomed their undead pets.
All in all, they did appear happier than any inhabitants of any city or town she’d ever visited or known.
Friendlier, too.
Even though it was obvious she and Dash were strangers to this land... and still living... everyone they passed waved and said hello to them as if they were old friends, or family who’d returned to visit.
So much so that she began to feel selfconscious. “Are they always so friendly?”
“They are. I think it might actually have something to do with being dead.”
Interesting thought. Perhaps because they were dead, they didn’t have to worry about betrayal? It made her wonder. “Have you visited here often?”
“Just a handful of times to speak to Ambrose.”
