Dirge for a Necromancer Read Free Page A

brick red arrow at its end.
    Raettonus slapped Brecan sharply on the nose. “You should’ve woken me,” he said. “I wanted to get an early start before it got hot out.”
    “Ow,” said Brecan, his tail drooping. “But, Raet, you always yell at me when I wake you…”
    “That’s other days. Today I wanted to get an early start before it got hot out.”
    “I’m sorry, Raet,” Brecan said, lowering his head. “I didn’t mean to let you down. I was just helping Rhodes get—”
    “I don’t want to hear it,” said Raettonus, smacking the unicorn again. “Let’s get going.”
    Brecan closed his mouth and nodded eagerly. He moved his long, white wings forward so Raettonus could mount him. “When we get to Kaebha Citadel, I get to stay with you, right?” he asked, craning his neck around to look at Raettonus with his pale blue eyes. “You’re not going to send me away, are you? I get lonely here by myself.”
    Raettonus pulled up his riding boots. “You’re not by yourself here,” he said nonchalantly. “There’s Rhodes.”
    The unicorn considered that for a moment. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, there’s Rhodes. But that’s only sometimes, and it’s not the same.”
    He shrugged. “If the general will let you stay, you can stay,” he said. “I don’t care either way, honestly.”
    That seemed to strike Brecan. He flattened his ears. “You don’t care?” he asked in a small voice.
    “Not even slightly,” Raettonus said, grabbing a hold of his mane. “Can we get going?”
    “Y-yeah,” said Brecan, spreading his wings. “Sure, Raet.”
    He took a few running steps and then leapt into the air. The unicorn and his rider spiraled up, away from Ti Tunfa. Raettonus watched the little city sink away beneath them, the little white and red buildings falling farther and farther away as the pair rose into the clear blue sky. Raettonus could still remember the first time he had seen Ti Tunfa, approaching it on Brecan’s back. Scared half to death, he had gripped the unicorn tightly as the city had appeared on the horizon like a row of little dollhouses coming closer and closer.
    “When you dropped off my books at the citadel, did they let you inside?” Raettonus asked as they glided over the plains.
    “Huh? Oh, no,” said Brecan. “I didn’t think to ask. A couple centaurs came out and took them from me, and the general thanked me. I didn’t ask to go inside. Why?”
    “Nothing. I was just wondering how many men were there,” Raettonus answered, turning his attention downward. He could see the patchwork fields of the farmlands off in the distance. To the east of the farms and soft, weeded hills, he could see the icy wastelands called Noa Kurok, which stretched on clear to the ocean. The Dragon’s Teeth Mountains rose up before them to the south—a jagged, purple blemish against the blue horizon.
    “It’s right beside the ocean,” Brecan said. “Well, no—I don’t mean right beside, because it’s up on a cliff, carved into a mountain. But the ocean’s down beneath it. You can see it from the citadel.”
    Raettonus rolled his eyes. “Oh, the ocean. How nice,” he said. “Yes, I’m sure I’ll be very glad that we’re right beside the ocean when the waves crashing on the cliff are keeping me awake. Or maybe when a storm kicks up and batters the citadel for a few days.”
    Brecan lowered his head and mumbled, “Well, I thought it was pretty…”
    With a heavy sigh, Raettonus leaned back. Miles below them he could see workers moving through the fields, looking so much like ants. This is how God must view us, he thought, not for the first time. To Him we must all be little specks moving about so far below Him that He can’t tell one from another. That’s why He doesn’t care.
    “I should’ve stayed in Ti Tunfa,” he said. “This is stupid. God knows how long I’m going to be stuck down there now.”
    “But, Raet, it’ll be fun,” said Brecan. “You’ll have something to