Chapter 8 #4
Masakage screwed his face up in protest. “I’m not talking about dark magic, idiot. I can heal him with herbs.”
Gisela’s face lit up. “How so?”
“It’s a poison that’s making him sick. All poisons have antidotes that don’t require magic.”
“Not all poisons,” Xaydin reminded him.
“Most poisons have antidotes that don’t require magic. This is one of them.”
“And you can do this for them?” Gisela asked.
“Rather sure I can.”
Xaydin cursed his brother silently. Of course, he could. Anything to make his life more difficult. “So you want me to kill him?”
Masakage gave him a droll stare. “No. I’m proposing an exchange. He releases the contract for his life.”
Just as Xaydin warmed to the proposition, Gisela’s happiness faded. “Wait a second. You still intend to break the contract?”
He rubbed his jaw as he considered it. “Void the contract, not break it.”
“Semantics.”
Xaydin nodded at her hostile word. “And the most important semantics for you is that you will have fulfilled your orders. The ataswere you were sent to protect will live. Semantically, you will have done what you were ordered to do.”
Gisela considered that. He was technically correct. In good conscience, if the ataswere was alive, she would have fulfilled her mother’s orders. But that wasn’t the intent. Her mother wanted the contract preserved.
“Dash will kill my mother.” And while she had issues with her, she didn’t want her mother dead, per se. Maybe because she kept hoping her mother would do better.
Be better.
So long as her mother was alive, she had hope that they could rectify their broken relationship. And hope was so important.
“That would be up to your mother. Unlike me, Dash doesn’t kill indiscriminately.”
He said that, but she hadn’t seen him kill anyone haphazardly. Indeed, if it were true he’d have slaughtered Saress on his deathbed and not cared.
No, there was more to Xaydin than his terrifying, callous reputation.
A lot more.
“Shall we talk to him?” Masakage asked Xaydin.
He nodded. “Let’s see how badly he wants to live.”
Masakage left their group and went back to knock on the door.
She frowned. “Should we go with him?”
“My presence would only make them nervous. If they weren’t grieving, they’d have normally attacked me.” He squinted toward the cottage. “Grief does strange things to people. Even the ataswere.”
“I’ve never known grief. It’s as foreign to me as happiness.” Her honesty surprised even her. She wasn’t sure why she made such a confession. But it was true.
“You’ve never lost anyone?”
She laughed bitterly. “Never had anyone to lose.”
Xaydin flinched at those heartfelt words. But he understood. He was a loner himself. Loved ones made him vulnerable, and he knew it.
Because he knew the pain of loss. Of watching those he cared about suffer and die, he kept to himself so that he wouldn’t have to live through that pain again.
To not know it…
Xaydin couldn’t decide if she was lucky or cursed. Cursed because it meant that she’d never known friendship or family. That awakened a horrible feeling inside him.
He cared. And he hated the part of him that was touched by her honesty.
Touched by the beauty of her unusual features.
Stop it!
He couldn’t afford any tenderness for her. So he decided to focus on what he knew would end these feelings. “How many shapes can you shift into?”
She gave him a stern frown. “Pardon?”
“You’re a shifter. What I know about your breed is that you have forms you take easily and some are harder. I’m just curious what forms you usually take. Besides human, what’s your preferred form?”
If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was shamed by his question…which had not been his intent. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, only protect himself.
“You said you took one form to get to the town where we met. What was it?”
Gisela felt the heat rush to her cheeks. Don’t you dare tell him. Don’t do it.
It was a secret she’d been keeping the whole of her life. Letting it go wasn’t easy. It was impossible.
“I don’t want to anger you.”
He gave her a confused stare. “Why the reticence? I won’t get angry.”
“You hate shifters.”
“True, but I don’t hate you.”
Those words wrenched a sob from her. How awful that it was the kindest thing anyone had ever said to her. The closest statement to love that she’d ever received.
I am pathetic.
Because those words touched her. They made her ache for a normal life.
It was so hard to live at court and listen to the petty concerns of those who thought their lives were hard. They had no idea how lucky they were. No appreciation for the love that was thrown at them.
Not the ones like her mother who dealt with falsity and lies. Everyone claimed they loved their queen, but Meara knew the truth as well as Gisela.
No one loved her mother. Not even her daughter. It was what had turned her mother into such a horrible beast.
With her mother’s power and position came such paranoia that Meara had long ago convinced herself no one could be sincere. She’d expected Gisela to hate her and so, by her own actions, Meara had guaranteed that outcome.
As a child, she’d done her best to love her mother.
But cruelty had crushed that love beneath her iron hooves.
And so Gisela had learned to keep her head low and care for no one.
Now…
She wanted the world to see her and more than that, she wanted some of what she’d seen. Did that make her greedy? To want a friend?
Someone to treat her with kindness?
“I do have one form I prefer over the others.” The truth was out before she could stop it.
“That is?” he asked.
Gisela shook her head, then did what she’d never done around anyone else.
She shifted into her birth form.
Xaydin gaped as he saw the black unicorn before him. As shocking as that was, it was the horn that held his attention most.
Red, but tipped with black. Never had he seen or heard of such.
A unicorn’s character and skills were always evident to those around them as their horn colors changed as their bearers did.
White horns belonged mostly to children.
Those who bore them were innocent and pure.
Orange came from those who encouraged and passionately led others.
Blue horns meant the unicorn was calm and tranquil.
They were the unicorns who mediated between others or were found in administrative jobs and tasks.
Unicorn healers held green horns, while yellow signified those who were driven and creative. Purple horns were their clergy or those who held high levels of intuition or magic.
Silver horns usually came with age. It showed wisdom and sacrifice. Great leadership.
Then there were the gray horns who were indecisive and deceptive. Ostracized within Licordia as the bearers couldn’t be trusted. They were renowned for their selfish pettiness and jealousy.
But there were three colors in particular to note, with two of them being exceptionally rare.
The first of those colors was the black horns. Those who’d mastered their powers to such an extent they were to be feared by any who crossed their path.
King Dash had been such a beast for most of his life. His red horn had turned black after he killed his own father and took the Licordian throne. By that infamous black horn, everyone had known the power he wielded and the temperament to make his enemies pay dearly.
His deceased sister’s horn had been gold. Pure of heart, those who bore gold were altruistic…willing to sacrifice themselves for others. For centuries, Dash’s sister had been the only unicorn to bear a gold horn.
To his knowledge, no one since Queen Amandine.
Until Dash had been killed by his enemies. When he returned to life, he did so with something no one had ever seen before…
A black horn that was edged by gold. His dark powers were tempered by his willingness to die for those he loved. To sacrifice himself for his kingdom.
And then lastly were the red horns. While not uncommon, they were still a minority in Licordia as they belonged to those who were angry and aggressive. Those willing to fight to the death.
With the exception of Dash, Xaydin had never heard of any unicorn possessing a mixed color.
Black and red meant she was powerful.
And furious.
Yet there was more to it than that.
“You’re not just a shape shifter,” he said with a tsk as he realized she’d been lying to them.
“How do you mean?”
“Shifters can’t duplicate unicorns. Not without telltale signs that betray them, such as two horns instead of one.
It was a curse placed upon their blood long ago by the great Queen Amandine.
Only a unicorn can be a unicorn. The rest are just cheap copies that are easily identified… Is Meara really your mother?”
She turned back into her human body and quickly picked up her cloak to shield her nudity. The shock on her face further proved his point. A born shape shifter knew they couldn’t mimic unicorns, and they would never have attempted such. Never mind claim it as the first choice of form.
No, she was a unicorn by birth. And she could take other forms.
“Is Meara your mother?” he asked again, giving her his back so that she could redress in her clothes. Now, it was imperative that he know the answer.
“Yes.”
Xaydin cursed. If that was true, then he knew Gisela’s father, and it explained so much about why Meara hated unicorns as much as she did. Especially given Gisela’s age.
This woman was King Dash’s sister.