That was the one lesson he’d learned in Meara’s court. Just how deep her intolerance ran for the other Thirteen Kingdoms.
It wasn’t just hatred centaurs bore unicorns. They wanted them exterminated. He and those who’d been sent with him had been punished for their mere existence. There was no negotiation possible with Meara.
With Naomi, it was about power. She wanted to subjugate and rule the others.
With Meara, it was about hatred and annihilation.
All the years he’d spent with the centaurs, he still couldn’t understand their mindset where unicorns were concerned. Theirunrelenting hatred. Granted their two races had fought wars against each other for centuries, but this went beyond that.
It was systemic, unreasoning and unfounded, and it terrified him. They were both equine and had more in common than not, but it wasn’t enough. The centaurs didn’t think the unicorns were fit to live. All they focused on was the fact that centaurs had human torsos, and therefore human hearts which somehow made them better.
Meara had gleefully starved or worked to death more than half the hostages his father had sent with him to her kingdom. Dash still wasn’t sure how he’d made it through. Other than Ryper and the other members of the Outlaws. Somehow, they had leaned on each other and forged a bond so tight that it had allowed them to survive that nightmare.
Sometimes those years seemed like a faint dream from long ago.
Most of the time, they were a vivid nightmare that still didn’t let him sleep through the night.
The only thing he knew for sure, he hadn’t emerged sane from it. None of them had.
And it wasn’t just centaur against unicorn. It was the dragons against his people and gryphons. Nereids against the mermaids. Stonemen against trolls. Everyone against humanity and humans against them all. On and on it went into madness.
The only ones who didn’t seem to hold grudges were the Pagosians. Anyone who could survive in their inhospitable climate was welcomed. They didn’t care about species.
Why everyone couldn’t take a lesson from Ambrose and his kingdom and just live in peace, he’d never understand.
But the others couldn’t seem to let those old grudges go.
All Dash could do was help maintain borders and keep as much civility between the kingdoms as he could.
And pray a war didn’t break out between everyone before he stopped it.
That was where their fear of him came in handy. Because he was psychotic, no one tested his temper. They were too afraid to do so as they had no idea how he’d unleash his fury against them. A lesson he’d learned from his mother.
Make them terrified.
Once you kill your own father for power, they realize that you have no value for their lives.
So, none of them had wanted to test his temper.
Granted he had no great love of dragons, but after he’d become king, he’d never sought to wipe them out or fight with them. He’d come to terms with Iagan and left them alone.
Same with Meara. As much as he hated that bitter, intolerant bitch, and had very personal reasons for wanting to wipe every centaur out of existence and have her head planted on a pole beside his throne, he’d set their terms for coexistence and tolerated her kingdom, even though it galled him.
So long as she abided by the terms they’d set, he allowed her to reign in peace for the sake of his people and hers. Better to grind his teeth in aggravation than watch the children of their races suffer and die in an endless cycle of hate and war.
But if he didn’t get home with Renata’s horn, no one would have peace again. All he’d worked for would end.
“How do I find my sister’s horn and her brother’s skull?”
Ambrose sighed heavily. “That is the question, Lord Dash. All we know is that they didn’t bring them here, but they wanted you to think that. The question is why?”
He had no idea.
Tanis screwed her face up. “I don’t know what either of you is thinking, but the dragons wouldn’t have turned on you, Dash. Granted, my father didn’t want me to search for my brother’s skull, but I know he would never have sacrificed Davin. Not foranything. Even to end your life. While he’s been no friend to your reign, he would never give up his heir to challenge you. I know he wasn’t part of this.”
Dash believed her. Granted, his own father would have gladly slit his throat, he knew others weren’t like that. And he’d seen for himself the love Iagan bore his son.
No, this was something else.
