Read Online Rampant by Diana Peterfreund - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Diana Peterfreund
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and slipped on the stairs, the soles of my feet knocking against Cory’s calves. Bonegrinder bleated in complaint.
“Relax,” came Cory’s crisp voice through the darkness. “It’s just a kirin.”
And a dead one at that. I shuffled through my comparatively small store of unicorn knowledge. Kirins were the third largest kind of unicorn. They were originally from Asia, but by the time of the “first extinction” they’d spread throughout Europe aswell. In ancient China and Japan, the horse-sized monsters had been worshipped as gods by villagers terrified of the alternative. A timely sacrifice here and there was preferable to wholesale destruction. The kirin were wily creatures, who hunted in herds and had even been known to kill for sport. According to Cory, the overpositive portraits of them in much of Eastern lore existed to appease their vindictive tempers—not dissimilar to the characterization of cruel Celtic fairies as “the Good Folk.” Treat them well, and maybe they’ll leave you alone.
Unlike zhi, kirin had no special affinity for hunters. They’d kill us as easily as any other person.
Cory still hadn’t found a decent description of them. They were alternately portrayed as wreathed in mists or flame, or as being covered in ever-changing scales that camouflaged them perfectly. I stared up at the all-too solid kirin skull, which laughed at me, at my fright, and at all the secrets I didn’t know.
Cory twisted the horn, which opened the door at the base of the stair into a room I’d never entered before. “This is the chapter house,” she said. “Brace yourself.” She placed the lantern in a small glass cage and hoisted it high, illuminating the cavernous space. Even braced, I hadn’t been sure of what to expect.
It was a trophy room. One curving wall was covered top to bottom with skulls, horns, and other bits, some mounted on plaques and marked with tiny cards or engraved nameplates, some affixed to the wall with metal spikes and carved with the name of their killer. Skull after skull ogled me, their dark, empty eye sockets seeming to flicker and wink in the shadowed lamplight.
Bonegrinder was bleating in earnest now, tugging backward against her collar, her hooves sliding and clicking on the stoneas she fought for purchase. I held fast to the chain, and her bleats turned into snorts.
“What is it?” I whispered in horror.
“The Wall of First Kills,” Cory replied. “For hundreds of years, the hunters marked their passage into the Order by bringing a piece of their kill to hang here. She pointed at one enormous, broken skull. “Look, this is a Llewelyn. Katherine Llewelyn, aged fourteen. Can you imagine if your first kill was a re’em?”
A re’em. The giant unicorn of the Bible, second only in size and ferocity to a karkadann. The oxlike beast had roamed the deserts and plains of the Holy Land for millennia before being subdued by unicorn hunters sometime after the Crusades. In more recent translations of the Bible, they’d downgraded descriptions of the animal to a type of wild ox called an aurochs—a fact that made my mother’s blood boil.
Fourteen, and up against something the size of a raving bull.
“No,” I said. “I can’t imagine.”
Cory surveyed the room, a shadowed conglomeration of ancient furniture and large, muslin-draped shapes. “Let’s find a good spot to anchor the chain.”
I cast a look back at Bonegrinder. Her blue eyes were bulging, and she was practically choking in her eagerness to escape. “We can’t leave her here!” I said. “In the dark, alone, with all these… bones .” The place smelled of death. It was a monument to the prowess of the hunters, a shrine to the destruction of Bonegrinder’s species.
Cory snorted. “It likes bones, remember?” She snatched the bloody, gnawed spine from my hand and waved it in front of Bonegrinder. “Nice unicorn. Yummy. See?” She tossed it a fewfeet away. Bonegrinder paid little attention.
I
“Relax,” came Cory’s crisp voice through the darkness. “It’s just a kirin.”
And a dead one at that. I shuffled through my comparatively small store of unicorn knowledge. Kirins were the third largest kind of unicorn. They were originally from Asia, but by the time of the “first extinction” they’d spread throughout Europe aswell. In ancient China and Japan, the horse-sized monsters had been worshipped as gods by villagers terrified of the alternative. A timely sacrifice here and there was preferable to wholesale destruction. The kirin were wily creatures, who hunted in herds and had even been known to kill for sport. According to Cory, the overpositive portraits of them in much of Eastern lore existed to appease their vindictive tempers—not dissimilar to the characterization of cruel Celtic fairies as “the Good Folk.” Treat them well, and maybe they’ll leave you alone.
Unlike zhi, kirin had no special affinity for hunters. They’d kill us as easily as any other person.
Cory still hadn’t found a decent description of them. They were alternately portrayed as wreathed in mists or flame, or as being covered in ever-changing scales that camouflaged them perfectly. I stared up at the all-too solid kirin skull, which laughed at me, at my fright, and at all the secrets I didn’t know.
Cory twisted the horn, which opened the door at the base of the stair into a room I’d never entered before. “This is the chapter house,” she said. “Brace yourself.” She placed the lantern in a small glass cage and hoisted it high, illuminating the cavernous space. Even braced, I hadn’t been sure of what to expect.
It was a trophy room. One curving wall was covered top to bottom with skulls, horns, and other bits, some mounted on plaques and marked with tiny cards or engraved nameplates, some affixed to the wall with metal spikes and carved with the name of their killer. Skull after skull ogled me, their dark, empty eye sockets seeming to flicker and wink in the shadowed lamplight.
Bonegrinder was bleating in earnest now, tugging backward against her collar, her hooves sliding and clicking on the stoneas she fought for purchase. I held fast to the chain, and her bleats turned into snorts.
“What is it?” I whispered in horror.
“The Wall of First Kills,” Cory replied. “For hundreds of years, the hunters marked their passage into the Order by bringing a piece of their kill to hang here. She pointed at one enormous, broken skull. “Look, this is a Llewelyn. Katherine Llewelyn, aged fourteen. Can you imagine if your first kill was a re’em?”
A re’em. The giant unicorn of the Bible, second only in size and ferocity to a karkadann. The oxlike beast had roamed the deserts and plains of the Holy Land for millennia before being subdued by unicorn hunters sometime after the Crusades. In more recent translations of the Bible, they’d downgraded descriptions of the animal to a type of wild ox called an aurochs—a fact that made my mother’s blood boil.
Fourteen, and up against something the size of a raving bull.
“No,” I said. “I can’t imagine.”
Cory surveyed the room, a shadowed conglomeration of ancient furniture and large, muslin-draped shapes. “Let’s find a good spot to anchor the chain.”
I cast a look back at Bonegrinder. Her blue eyes were bulging, and she was practically choking in her eagerness to escape. “We can’t leave her here!” I said. “In the dark, alone, with all these… bones .” The place smelled of death. It was a monument to the prowess of the hunters, a shrine to the destruction of Bonegrinder’s species.
Cory snorted. “It likes bones, remember?” She snatched the bloody, gnawed spine from my hand and waved it in front of Bonegrinder. “Nice unicorn. Yummy. See?” She tossed it a fewfeet away. Bonegrinder paid little attention.
I
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