14
Hillod used a bone key pressed flat and camouflaged against his skin to unlock the padlock that Rolonder had used to bolt us inside the prison cart. I gazed back toward the Forests. ‘What are they then?’ I asked. ‘Your horses. How have they come to be such as what I just witnessed? For, were they not originally beasts of Strangeworld? No such magic exists there they say.’
‘A curse of the Dark Wraiths of Corthware.’
‘Really? And how often does this take place? How often do they change?’
‘Daily,’ he declared, pushing the prison door open and jumping down into the grass. ‘On the sun’s zenith. Hence why we travel mostly at night.’
I gazed down at him, my jaw still in a dull ache from Rolonder’s punch, my ribs in a throb. ‘Was this your plan all along then? To do in the Barony’s good men?’
‘They banished us from Palemoth. And were most brutal and unfair in their conduct.’ He held out a hand for me as I left the cart, climbing down awkwardly with my lame foot into deep dry grass. ‘But for Arrabel Grean, she of the Greans of Raethgar, she who lopped off the head of the Baroness... why, how could we stand by and allow you, our Varrën, to be taken into custody to face unwarranted execution?’
I smiled at him. ‘Again, Hillod, I must thank you for your aid. And must apologise for doubting you.’
‘I hear you. But you must plead neither from us. It has been our deepest honour to assist you.’
I looked about, adjusting the belt fastened around my dress. My eyes found the perforated carcass of Rolonder, lying there, his spine cracked and hinged and twisted backwards, almost inside-out. His spilt belly-guts being nibbled at by those small grass lizards, his eyeballs being picked at by ants and mantis and grass crabs. I wanted to feel a sense of victory over that horrid soul. But I simply felt a numbed sense of continued hate. For his role in incarcerating my family, for his role in the violent, torturous rape of so many innocent young girls and women. At least now he was dead. Justice done, I suppose. Although, I wished he had endured a death of far greater suffering. For his hurtful, wicked ways. I snorted and spat at his blank, hateful face one last time.
I turned and pressed Hillod, ‘I judge we are safe then if we are vacating the safety of this cart.’
As if in answer he pointed toward the edge of the woods. Firstly one, then two horses… then a handful more… leaving the confines of the trees and thickets. Blood soaked and speckled in torn flesh, yet all now returned to their original form, grazing now peacefully upon the plentiful grasses.
15
Within the hour we were away once more... heading East toward the Gundarven Marshes, where I bid farewell and offered many thanks to my new friends and their strange steeds... where I would trudge for the next six weeks in the hope to find the friends that I believed still lived in the hills beyond... where I would go into exile... and at last mourn the passing of my family...
~ END ~
The Shapeshifters Page 3