Read Online Kingdom of Lies (Imp Series Book 7) by Debra Dunbar - Free Book Online
Authors: Debra Dunbar
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“Snip? Pustule?”
They darted forward to stand before me, quivering in anticipation.
“You are to carry this elven body with care and reverence and escort Tollan to the Cyelle border. Ensure that no one hurts him, and keep the corpse from desecration. Got it?”
Pustule raised his hand. I wasn’t sure who had taught him that.
“Yes?”
“What’s revenant?”
“Reverence. It means ‘don’t eat, play with, or damage the body in any way’. Respect the body.” Sheesh. There were days when I wished I had more than Lows in my household. Or that I hadn’t sent Leethu to Kllee and that Dar wasn’t love-struck in Illinois.
“Got it.” Pustule squeaked. Snip saluted and went over to pick up the elven body with great care.
“But not today. Give me forty-eight hours. In the meantime, no harm is to come to either of these elves. Got it? And make sure this guy has elf stuff to eat. No beaks and blood.”
“What?” Tollan shrieked. “I’m not staying here. That wasn’t the deal.”
It wasn’t the deal I’d intended to make, but I could hardly release this elf when he knew exactly where I was heading, who I was looking for, and probably which elven kingdom I’d be flying over. Not with a bounty on my head.
“You’ve got a choice. You walk out of here carrying your brother’s body and hike through demon territory the whole way to the border. Or you wait forty-eight hours and get an escort.”
I could see his mind working. He’d make it on his own, but carrying a body? His brother’s remains would slow him down and bring even more attention from all the demons in Patchine. “Okay, I’ll stay and take the escort.”
And he’d do everything in his power to see me dead the moment he got back to elven territory. I winced and turned my back on him, hating that I’d killed a young elf and made an enemy out of another. The bounty on my head and the disturbing situation in the elven lands were things that needed to be higher on my priority list. Everything needed to be higher on my priority list. Chasing after Gareth’s gem didn’t seem quite as important, but I had a solid lead on Swiftethian’s whereabouts. Who knows how long he’d be there.
I needed to act now, and hopefully put this one to rest, so I walked to the outskirts of the city and revealed my wings. They still hurt, the physical wounds healing with unusual slowness after my manticore-inflicted injury. Ugh. So many scars. Not even a thousand years old, and I looked like the angels who’d been through the war.
I shook off the thought and opened my wings to their fifty-foot length, stretching the muscles and tendons that had stiffened after injury. Then I took to the air, stirring a small dust devil as I rose. Eresh, here I come .
Chapter 7
I took the shortest distance through the elven kingdoms—the river Styx that ran from the mountains of the north, dividing both the northern demon areas and the southern elven kingdoms of Tonlielle and Wythyn. I rose as high as I could reasonably manage and still navigate the terrain by sight, hoping the magically enhanced elven arrows couldn’t reach this high and that any systems in place to detect aerial attack didn’t extend to a thousand feet. I’d stopped worrying about those magical alarms since the elves had been too intimidated by my odd semi-angelic status to do anything but stare and point. I guess the novelty was over, and I was once again just an unwelcome impish intruder—one with giant, black-feathered wings.
It had been a while since I’d traversed this fast-moving river, but still I noticed the differences. The lush green of Tonlielle had a faded quality, as if the kingdom were on the edge of autumn. Wythyn’s forest showed bare patches of brown. Towns appeared abandoned, and I actually saw small dots of conveyances heading toward the larger cities. Was another war brewing? Were people moving to the more fortified areas for protection? And did this have anything
They darted forward to stand before me, quivering in anticipation.
“You are to carry this elven body with care and reverence and escort Tollan to the Cyelle border. Ensure that no one hurts him, and keep the corpse from desecration. Got it?”
Pustule raised his hand. I wasn’t sure who had taught him that.
“Yes?”
“What’s revenant?”
“Reverence. It means ‘don’t eat, play with, or damage the body in any way’. Respect the body.” Sheesh. There were days when I wished I had more than Lows in my household. Or that I hadn’t sent Leethu to Kllee and that Dar wasn’t love-struck in Illinois.
“Got it.” Pustule squeaked. Snip saluted and went over to pick up the elven body with great care.
“But not today. Give me forty-eight hours. In the meantime, no harm is to come to either of these elves. Got it? And make sure this guy has elf stuff to eat. No beaks and blood.”
“What?” Tollan shrieked. “I’m not staying here. That wasn’t the deal.”
It wasn’t the deal I’d intended to make, but I could hardly release this elf when he knew exactly where I was heading, who I was looking for, and probably which elven kingdom I’d be flying over. Not with a bounty on my head.
“You’ve got a choice. You walk out of here carrying your brother’s body and hike through demon territory the whole way to the border. Or you wait forty-eight hours and get an escort.”
I could see his mind working. He’d make it on his own, but carrying a body? His brother’s remains would slow him down and bring even more attention from all the demons in Patchine. “Okay, I’ll stay and take the escort.”
And he’d do everything in his power to see me dead the moment he got back to elven territory. I winced and turned my back on him, hating that I’d killed a young elf and made an enemy out of another. The bounty on my head and the disturbing situation in the elven lands were things that needed to be higher on my priority list. Everything needed to be higher on my priority list. Chasing after Gareth’s gem didn’t seem quite as important, but I had a solid lead on Swiftethian’s whereabouts. Who knows how long he’d be there.
I needed to act now, and hopefully put this one to rest, so I walked to the outskirts of the city and revealed my wings. They still hurt, the physical wounds healing with unusual slowness after my manticore-inflicted injury. Ugh. So many scars. Not even a thousand years old, and I looked like the angels who’d been through the war.
I shook off the thought and opened my wings to their fifty-foot length, stretching the muscles and tendons that had stiffened after injury. Then I took to the air, stirring a small dust devil as I rose. Eresh, here I come .
Chapter 7
I took the shortest distance through the elven kingdoms—the river Styx that ran from the mountains of the north, dividing both the northern demon areas and the southern elven kingdoms of Tonlielle and Wythyn. I rose as high as I could reasonably manage and still navigate the terrain by sight, hoping the magically enhanced elven arrows couldn’t reach this high and that any systems in place to detect aerial attack didn’t extend to a thousand feet. I’d stopped worrying about those magical alarms since the elves had been too intimidated by my odd semi-angelic status to do anything but stare and point. I guess the novelty was over, and I was once again just an unwelcome impish intruder—one with giant, black-feathered wings.
It had been a while since I’d traversed this fast-moving river, but still I noticed the differences. The lush green of Tonlielle had a faded quality, as if the kingdom were on the edge of autumn. Wythyn’s forest showed bare patches of brown. Towns appeared abandoned, and I actually saw small dots of conveyances heading toward the larger cities. Was another war brewing? Were people moving to the more fortified areas for protection? And did this have anything
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