“He doesn’t look as dead now, does he?” she asked.
“Not even a little.” Masakage jerked his chin toward their prisoner. “That one, however, looks a little worse for the wear. I hope you beat the hell out of him for me.”
Rob snorted. “His woman more than the rest of us.”
Masakage arched one brow. “Well, I’ve missed a lot.”
Xaydin wrinkled his nose at the condition Masakage was in. “Including a bath.”
He laughed, then groaned. “Looks like we both owe your captive an ass beating.” Masakage turned his attention to Rob. “Be careful. He wasn’t working alone. There’s another shifter around who helped him capture me from Mardyth’s kingdom. He goes by the name Diflyn. I’ve seen him as a merman, human and troll. I have no idea what his main form is.”
Ronan let out a feral sound. “Open up. Let me see under everyone’s tongues.”
Rob stepped back. “I beg your pardon.”
“You’ll beg more than that if you’re a shifter. Open wide and let me look.”
With one more fierce scowl, Rob obliged.
“You’re clear.” He went to Xaydin who arched a brow at him. “And we’ll clear you on principle.”
Masakage snorted before he opened his mouth and lifted his tongue.
Candara pursed her lips. “And you wonder why everyone hates a shifter.” She exposed the underside of her tongue.
“Oh, I know why we’re hated. Don’t blame you a bit. Shifters don’t like shifters either. It destroys your ability to trust anyone or anything. It’s why we don’t have our own country. You’d never know if your ruler was the actual ruler…and anyone could pretend to be them. It’s really unnerving when there are a bunch of us together.”
It was also why there weren’t that many of them. Most had been hunted down and executed by the other races. Those who remained, kept to themselves and lived remotely. Or like her, were assassins or mercenaries.
She’d never considered before how lonely it must be for them. “You really don’t have a community?”
“We implode whenever we try to live together. For whatever reason, shifters just can’t get along.”
How awful. Even the undead had their own country.
“Have you any siblings?” she asked him.
He inclined his head to Xaydin. “The Outlaws are my family.”
“Ronan’s mother was the last queen of Lygaria.”
Gisela winced at Candara’s words. Lygaria had fallen while Ronan would have been in captivity.
The Fourteenth Kingdom. It’d been located in the southeastern tip of Sagaria, the southwestern tip of Dythnal and the northwestern part of her mother’s kingdom.
When the queen’s army had fallen to the Sagarians, their kingdom had been absorbed by all three. Gisela wasn’t sure why or how.
She only remembered her mother’s jubilance over it. Mostly because Meara had hated the shifters so much. And even though it’d been the fey kingdom that defeated them, her mother had taken the largest share of Lygaria’s land.
“I’m sorry, Ronan.”
“Thank you.” Clearing his throat, he went back to their prisoner. “I’ll keep watch on him while you take Xaydin back to bed and let him rest.”
Xaydin started to protest.
“Don’t even,” Ronan snapped. “You look like shite and you need to heal. Don’t go troll on me when I know you better. Rest for a day and you can pummel whatever tomorrow.” His gaze went to Masakage. “You as well.”
Rob led them toward the door. “We’ll stay the night to make sure none of you are disturbed.” He smirked at Masakage. “And to make sure they rent a room to you.”
