The Priestess' Bridegroom E-Book

Valsirion Scharona

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: In the Sign of the Black Unicorn
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1152

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

King Rediva had summoned the Rhodian Centaurs to help in the war against the Unicorns' Peace Empire. However, the warriors unexpectedly meet the most beautiful mare of all time and fall head-over in love with the beauty. Now, this mare is, of all things, one of the highest-ranking priestesses of the Black Unicorn, the king's enemy in the flesh, and also enjoys a very high reputation among the unicorns. Nevertheless, the centaurs set off to dare to show up before the Lord of the Order and ask for the mare's hand. This one, instead, sends them on a murderous quest.

Leseprobe

Index

War against the Peace Empire

Fixed

Last warning for King Rediva

Liberation

Court

The price for a priestess

The knights of the king of Shedu-Ann

The monster below Tarkona Castle

Queen Sonirda of Shedu-Ann

Arrival at Tarkona Castle

Crown Priestess Varnia of Viondjanar

A fatal vow

The riddle – Part I

The knights of Schedu-Ann before the Throne of the Unicorns

Count Sengor's assignment & The riddle Part II

The riddle Part III

Departure

Count Sengor's army

Division of the remaining groups

The Road of the Unicorns

Setting off for the quest

Sionde

Gridron I- Gridron lets himself get seduced

Sharvjién and Priestess Varnia I- The humans of Sionde

Count Sengor I – The travails of a thrown-together squad

Gridron II – Becoming animals for slaughter

Count Sengor II – At the border to Sionde

Sharvjién and priestess Varnia II- The first operation

Ridova's strike force I

Shagon I – Shagon's rebellion

Sharvjién and priestess Varnia III – Moving on

Shagon II – Shagon's failure

Ridova's strike force II – Assaultl

Sharvjién and Priestess Varnia IV – A priestess has to intervene

Sengor III – Rebellion of the army

Sharvjién and Priestess Varnia V – The second operation

The Riddle IV

Segona

Vishion

Herwidés – The vindictiveness of the scholars

Rhoshah – The royal city Grudjesh

Rufon I

Cendo I - In Shabak

Kjuvar - The conquest of Veskat

Cendo II- The conquest of Grudjesh

Rufon II - The iniquities of the humans along the coast

Rufon III - The fall of the last human stronghold

Segona's downfall and the founding of Shervijón

Iondeza

Gedja I - The road to the dwarven kingdom

Rhoshah I - The road to Tshavin

The Council of the Dwarves before the Throne of the Priestesses

Gedja II- The Golden Fleece of the dwarves

Rhoshah II- Starting all over again

Gedja III - The audience before the Throne of the Unicorns

Freiguns

The breakup

Freiguns - Odyssey

Wishion – Going for the quest again

Rufon I - The temple of the winds

Count Sengor I – A priestess restores order

Fallen for a priestess

The downfall of Reavir

A letter from a priestess

Gridron I - Dissident from Crown Priestess Varnia

Gridron II -A new task

Count Sengor II- The great battle has started

Rufon II - Roads of heaven

Scev-En

Freiguns I - Gods, centaurs, and humans

Freiguns II - The way home through the desert

Wischion - Underworld gods

Ikabod

"The glory is gone"

Tavar

Rufon - Delicate goods

Count Sengor – Fight against Windmills

King Sengor – A war predestined to lose

Magic of the Unicorns

The Golden Fleece

King Sengor I - Selfsacrifice

Gridron I - The northern kingdom of Rhingva

Gridron II - Dragon hunters

Heroes' fate

Gridron III – The Golden Fleece on the altar

King Sengor II- Through the realm of death

Annex

List of names

Dictionary Serin – English

The series „In the Sign of the Black Unicorn “

Further books

War against the Peace Empire

Fixed

Gridron retightened the straps of his saddlebags. The straps were chafing and lacing into the flesh. But anyhow they kept squeezing and slipping constantly. Of course, Gridron had adequately padded the straps. However, the padding was only preventing the straps from cutting deeply into his flesh.

For several days already, the horde of centaurs had been trying to pave their way through the lowest level of the undergrowth of the dense rainforest. Hurry was required, and the hard work was hampering the progress. Next to him, Gridron could feel one of his comrades sweating. Their sweat was all over their chests and flanks. Mighty and tirelessly, their heavy swords were cutting their way through the thicket, slashing down branches of an arm's strength as if these wouldn't be anything but scrawny brushwood. However, the real obstacle was the thin undergrowth, which was yielding like felt to the swords and was tough enough not to let itself get cut. Much of it was also reinforced with thorns or had sharp edges cutting like knives through the fur and skin deep into the flesh. Gridron felt chafed and cut all over his forehand again. At some spots, blood was seeping through the fur. Gridron took a look around, seeking Tavor. Tired, the stallion was trying to master the undergrowth with his sword.

A couple of days ago, the geographer had thought to have discovered a shortcut. In fact, he had succeeded in persuading the horde leader to take the imagined shortcut. Considering the horde already having been pretty late anyway, Count Sengor had finally given in. Great had been the centaurs' progress! At least at first. A considerable distance, the centaurs had even managed at a gallop. But at first, the path was narrowing in only gradually, but steadily, until it permitted at best a single dwarf at once to pass and soon after not even that any longer. Now the centaurs were struggling to make up for the lost time. To turn back and to travel the regular road again wasn't an option. Then they would be way too late!

Considering the density of the thicket, at least they were making good progress. Given the circumstances, one could be quite satisfied with several yards per hour. The same, on this day, they kept fighting their way through the overgrowing green stuff since the early morning. The nights were kept short by the centaurs. As long as one could orientate oneself in the fading daylight and recognize the obstacles of the thicket, the stallions kept on the battle against the bushes without any break. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they took turns.

And again, the next rain came approaching at tremendous speed. Considering the breaking night, this meant for the centaurs to have to continue working all night long. Under no circumstances were they to rest while inside sweaty and outside soaked by the rain. Then everyone would have caught pneumonia latest by morning. Unfortunately, at night and with the cloudy sky, of course, they couldn't see absolutely anything! The centaurs lit lanterns and continued to fight their way through the thicket. Only the warmth from within could dry them again from the rain! The roar of the rain came approaching faster than a centaur at full gallop. The very next moment, it was literally pouring. Within an instant, the centaurs were wading till their fetters in the water. The ground softened, and their hooves sank deeper into the mud. Like a torrent, the water came flowing through the dense canopy, down the tree trunks, penetrating relentlessly between hand and sword hilt and soaking the animals' fur so that the drops falling from the treetops were striking their skin like needles. The noise of the rain drowned out all other sounds. The centaurs had to yell if they wanted to communicate. Within instants, the ground transformed into a swampy morass. Cursing, the centaurs kept skidding through the mud, cramping their sword-holding hands. The downed plant material on the ground didn't grant any grip but often caused the centaurs to stumble instead. The few lamps quickly degenerated into tiny fireflies that were vainly trying to scatter their light through sooty bull's-eye glass windows into the surroundings against the encroaching darkness. Night was laying its cloak over the jungle steaming from the heat of the day.

Count Sengor divided his striking force of centaurs into groups for these to take turns at regular intervals. One group was to continue the fight against the scrub. The second group was to spread out to orientation spots with lamps in the breach already made. The third group was finally to carry out the required measurements for the entire fighting force to not lose its correct direction in the pitch-black darkness of the night. Rainwater kept dripping equally from the centaurs' beards and head hair over their sweaty bodies to the ground as through the canopy of the thicket. The warriors spoke only the bare essentials. Tavor avoided any conversation partly out of fatigue, partly out of shame. The other centaurs would have loved to take Tavor to task, but they had to concentrate their little bit of remaining energy on the work. Tavor wouldn't get off scot-free anyway. His only hope for leniency consisted of at least a certain punctuality. Centaurs were never late! They mustn't ever be late by any means! And now, the man-horses were losing all hope of adhering to their code of honor. Count Sengor and his entire troop weren't allowed to show up again in the country of Rhode, the country of the centaur-people of the east in the Kingdom of Shedu-Ann unless they would have made up for the shame in a particularly heroic action. But given the high centaurs' expectations, the chance of such an eventuality was more likely zero.

Gridron and his group were the first ones who had to keep up the fight against the jungle. Despite his fatigue, this was quite all right with him. Of course, he didn't have to let off steam anymore. He was already way too exhausted for that. But he could let his mind wander. In that darkness, he couldn't see anyway into where he was striking. There wasn't any need to worry about that either. The undergrowth was surrounding him so densely that his blade always hit something of it anyway. Now and then, the sword got stuck somewhere, and Gridron had to free it with a strong jerk or several. Not even for cursing, he wasted energy anymore.

Gridron remembered King Rediva, the High King of Shedu-Ann, having summoned the centaurs of his province Rhode to support him in the war against the Sharona-Empire. At first, the Council of Centaur Lords had thought the message to be a bad joke. However, the messenger had been able to prove the authenticity of the message with the royal seal. The king would want to launch a preemptive strike against the rapidly expanding Northern Empire before it might sense an opportunity to attack Shedu-Ann. Who had put that dumb idea into the king's mind? Usually, that wasn't his style at all! Everyone knew the High King and his siblings, who were ruling with him each on his own throne next to the High King at Tarkona Castle next to the sea in the very west, as extremely prudent. Since long, he was treating the provinces of Rhode and Vendar, as well as their surroundings with special care. The king didn't want nor wasn't permitted to lose this important and very large province of Rhode way in the east of his realm. Besides, it was of utmost importance to maintain the connection to the even somewhat larger Tavar behind it. Since enforcing royal orders in the far east became increasingly difficult, the king relied on the centaurs' dominance over the entire east of his realm, generously allowing them autonomous government, thus maintaining their loyalty.

This unfathomable Sharona-Empire in the north, on the other hand, the so-called Black Empire, reached out in indefinable vastness since centaur memory. Even the eldest centaurs admitted that even in their childhood, their elders had never known anything else than to consider the entire north, including the great tundra plus the entire world not inhabited by humans, as part of the Empire. Neighboring human kingdoms, voluntarily or not quite as voluntarily, let themselves be guided by the Unicorn Empire in devoted trust. There wasn't any point in challenging such a powerful neighbor! Comparing the Kingdom Shedu-Ann in all its vastness, even for centaurs, with it Shedu-Ann wasn't but a tiny speck of land. Vendro laRhon, the Lord of the Empire, would hardly ever consider it worth the effort to conquer it. And he didn't need so, too! He was already controlling the provinces of Rhode and Vendar from the Kingdom of Shedu-Ann with a matter of course, as if they had long belonged to his Empire. The former was extending way from the very north to the very south of the Shedu-Ann Kingdom, so Vendro laRhon had a reliable, very wide road way through the realm to any place in the Shedu-Ann Kingdom at his free disposal, and the latter even denied the King of Shedu-Ann access to Rhode, if he didn't want to set foot on a province which in truth proudly behaved as already having been admitted annexation to the Empire. Even though yet officially independent High King Rediva had absolutely no say in all of his very own realm before the Emperor's Throne. There wasn't any record of High King Rediva ever having done it, but he'd rather be well advised obtaining the Emperor's permission for each of his decisions. Rhode and Vendar, at least still being provinces of the Kingdom of Shedu-Ann on paper, Vendro laRhon for sure could change at will at any time. A simple note in the notice board of the Council of Centaurs would reliably suffice. So why all this din of this ridiculous war?

As if that such overpowering rule of the Emperor over the neighborhood realm of Shedu-Ann still not being enough, the so-called Great Forest was reaching way from the north like a broad wedge so deep into the realm so that the forest divided Shedu-Ann into an eastern and a western kingdom. The members of the Shedu-Ann Kingdom couldn't use the woods. However, unicorns had it at their free disposal. Thus, the sovereignty in this forest was held unrestrictedly by the unicorns and thus to the so-called Unicorns' Peace Empire, which in turn was a very special partner of the Black Empire! East of the western border of the forest, therefore, the King had practically so little influence as his rule over the east was hanging by a hair as wide as the main southern road, and its immediate vicinity measured in width at its narrowest spot. This location consisted of the Gorge of Rodikar nearby the border of Rhode with Vendar, the walls of which were rising vertically for more than three hundred hoofs high and in places didn't enable two centaurs to walk side aside. At the top of the ridge, the span of the gorge also narrowed in at many spots due to overhanging rocks. Unconcerned, centaurs were doing a hop over this gorge on their many paths between north and south. Such a trivial obstacle didn't trouble even the youngest centaur foals. At some certain spots, the rocks were almost touching each other, so that each one had only to take a larger step to cross from one side to the other. So why bother to travel the official road, way in the east, if wanting to travel between north and south in that region? Where the gorge was wider, some centaurs were earning their living by carrying other beings over the ravine on their backs. As long as the amount of luggage carried was kept within limits according to the current width of the gorge at the respective place, one could travel quite elegantly back and forth between the Unicorn Empire and Iondeza over Shedu-Ann without setting hoof on Shedu-Ann. Only with really bulky luggage and quantities, one had more difficulty. But that was more due to the terrain, which became more difficult toward the gorge. The lack of a suitably constructed road was hindering free trade between north and south. A couple of large scaffolds and a few wooden bridges were lined along the edges of the gorge, so also to enable the heavy and extensive exchange of goods. After all, the dwarves had already begun to build a proper, large road, including a bridge made of stone, and would complete it in the foreseeable future. Then the new road from the Unicorn Empire to Kondokra in northern Iondeza would be finished. There wasn’t any point in entering the human-ruled Kingdom of Shedu-Ann. And this human High King nobody needed either!

In fact, this High King Rediva von Shedu-Ann had no say anyway. Practically nothing belonged to him from the Great Forest eastwards. And that puny piece of country that he thought to rule all by himself in the west of it certainly didn't yield a province in the Emperor's terms that he possibly could feel compelled to respect its sovereignty.

And as if the Emperor of the Sharona-Empire on his own wouldn't be powerful enough already, he was also enjoying the very special friendship of the Black Unicom, who was ruling the Unicorns' Peace Empire with not a dot less power.

His Most High Majesty of the powerful, holy, and magical Unicorn Empire and Vendre laRhon, the Emperor of the omnipresent Black Empire - this combination was simply crap!

And then the two of them were also always sticking together - worse than pitch and brimstone! They were really always in agreement on everything. Each of the Empires existed within the other. A difference couldn't be recognized in any case. They were sharing their power over their realms unreservedly, supporting the partner always and everywhere, and not caring a damn about other interests. All other beings did exist exclusively to get used by them according to their arbitrariness. Either the Unicorn Empire in the north was commonly called the Sharona-Empire, the Black Empire, so named by Emperor Vendre laRhon in honor of the Black Unicom, indicating its unrestricted and all-dominating power far beyond its borders, or it was called the Unicorns' Peace Empire, since, starting with His Most High Majesty, its inhabitants enthusiastically were referring to the Emperor's Realm in this way. Whether one defined the latter name primarily in such a way that in this realm, the unicorns were living in a truly fairy-tale peace, or the population was enjoying an equally extraordinary peace through the unicorns, one could choose. Rumors had it that when His Most High Majesty and Vendro laRhon were chatting with each other, it rather sounded as if them being a single person talking to himself. In fact, all utterances of Vendro laRhon had to be interpreted as having been spoken by His Most High Majesty in person and vice versa.

And that's what King Rediva wanted to start to mess with. That dumb, one could only become by purpose!

Of course, none of the centaurs was feeling pleasure in the all-encompassing power of the Unicorn Empire in Rhode. Now the treacherous Kingdom Iondeza in the south was also applying to the Lord of the Unicorn Empire for official admission to the Empire. For many years, the centaurs had been suspiciously observing how the most southern dwarf kingdom was carefully preparing for the annexation. This might be the real reason why the stingy and contentious dwarves so selflessly were building the road from the Empire to their kingdom for well-functioning trade traffic and also immediately generously set up and maintained the infrastructure for such traffic and maintenance of the road. Although the dwarves didn't ever mention their true intention by a single word, there wasn't any doubt about that. The construction work was obviously close to completion. The official integration into the Empire seemed to be imminent. Obviously, it was only about the Emperor's blessing anymore. The same as in Rhode, it wasn't anything but a matter of plain formality. The dwarves had long since submitted the laws and administration of their kingdom to submissive obedience to the Emperor. Of course, the king of the southernmost dwarf kingdom was lurking on a share of the rich subsidies, which the Empire shared for social and economic promotion only for its provinces officially belonging to the Empire. However, the centaurs knew perfectly well that for the dwarves, an entirely different reason was decisive. Besides, each of the Empire's officially annexed kingdoms enjoyed the constant presence of a great number of unicorns, who by their plain presence were ensuring peace and prosperity in the country. The king of Iondeza went supporting his request with gifts which were enough as a provocation for every Shedu-Ann's centaur. However, touching any of the voluntary taxes and tributes in transit was a taboo that no one dared to consider.

Now, geographically, or precisely, only on the map anyway, Shedu-Ann was situated right between the Sharona-Empire and Iondeza, thus "preventing" at least formally by its "independence" the annexation. This apparently nourished the king's worries that the Unicorn Empire could steal essential parts of his kingdom and, on occasion, might even want to incorporate the rest of Shedu-Ann into the Empire, too. The king was clearly reacting in panic. The Sharona-Empire, by all its power, hadn't ever taken a single province by force. And if the Lord of the Sharona-Empire wanted something, he simply took it! Rhode and Vendar were indisputable evidence of this in all political, geographical, and social aspects. Adding the Great Forest, there had always been a solid, direct, and much broader connection between the Empire and Iondeza than Shedu-Ann otherwise was measuring in terms of land. The Lord certainly didn't see Shedu-Ann as a problem that he would have to worry about at all.

In general, several folks nearby the Empire were coveting the supremacy of the immensely rich Unicorn Empire over their own realm, hoping to get a share of the seemingly inexhaustible prosperity. Whether there was a common border to the Unicom Empire or not was apparently irrelevant. Several emperors and kings around the Unicorn Empire went vouching for their loyalty to Vendro laRhon and, in return, kept reaping much more prosperity in their realm than they had ever dared to dream of. So somehow, the bill always worked out in favor of the requestors. Even the mighty Darkra Empire, which was located far to the east between the Sharona-Empire and the Hchadoch-Empire and which had been said to never pass away, had voluntarily submitted unconditionally to the Lord of the Sharona-Empire, passed the dissolution of the independent state by law and since then was claiming to be a province. However, nobody knew whether the Lord of the Empire had officially approved the admission to the Peace Empire. But that wasn't an issue anyway. Such rulers took over the jurisdiction of the unicorns one to one. The highest authority was always the Peace Empire. Difficult problems were brought before the Lord of the Empire, and people proudly described themselves as belonging to the Empire, whether it was true or not. A simple recommendation of the Emperor for the solution of this or that problem was regarded only too gladly as law and judgment of the highest authority at the same time. The borders of the Empire became totally blurred. Probably no mortal had an overview of who or what actually was part or member of the Empire and what not yet.

All the kings devoted to the Unicorn Empire were constantly courting official admission to the Empire and diligently sending gifts and presents. They literally kept imposing their country on the Emperor, signing over their land, people, and wealth in one-sided documents to the Emperor as his personal property. The constitution of the unicorns was ruling every code of law. On every castle, fortress, and ship, the flag of the unicorns was flying on the ruler's place and their own, royal one in the rank of a province. Nor did neither of the kings content himself to pay arbitrarily set very high tribute, just as if their kingdom had long been incorporated into the Empire as a recognized province. No ruler renounced the honor of even giving his citizens as slaves to the Lord of the Empire. Every year, citizens from all social classes and professions and some members of noble families were selected in public tenders and given as slaves to the Emperor. Each guild and association was entitled to choose a certain amount of members depending on the strength of the guild and association, sending them as their tribute to the Emperor. The families of the members chosen to be given as a tribute to Vendro laRhon celebrated lavish festivities for days before they solemnly bid farewell to the chosen ones for their departure to Edonja Seromenda Clercae Sharona, the allegedly indescribably magnificent Castle of the Unicorns and Throne of the Sharona-Empire, together with abundant gifts.

- What a megalomaniac name for an ordinary castle. -

The day on which Vendro laRhon officially approved the annexation of a kingdom to the Empire was henceforth proclaimed the highest national holiday in the new province and was celebrated excessively by the entire people for a whole month. Shamelessly, the nobility mingled with the ordinary people, and counts were drinking fraternity with their peasants.

Also, countless centaurs were given to the Emperor as slaves. No centaur of the province of Rhode in the Kingdom of Shedu-Ann could catch a clue of what actually the centaurs of other realms were up to by letting themselves being given as slaves. The voluntary nature of the animals given was out of question. If a centaur wanted to be free, nobody and nothing could enslave him. Moreover, occasionally traveling centaurs came showing up in Rhode, proudly boasting that they had been given to the Emperor as slaves. They kept looking down pityingly at the Rhodes centaurs, who had hitherto been denied such a privilege. Unconcealed and ruthlessly indiscreet, they even proclaimed with conviction at every opportunity their opinion for the centaurs of Rhode to finally secede with their province from Shedu-Ann, renounce loyalty to the king, and send his faithful to hell, to finally make possible the longed-for submissive and honorably unconditional incorporation into the Empire. A good kick with a hind hoof into the king's belly could adequately seal the declaration of independence and possibly even score a plus point before the Lord of the Unicorn Empire. Every counted second sentence of these arrogant stallions contained at least an apparent reference to these foreign centaurs' attitude in Rhode. At least among the animals of Vendar and large parts of Tavar, these centaurs found great approval with their attitude. Only in the far west of Tavar, the king might possibly still find a couple of loyal.

And then these arrogant stallions from the Unicorn Empire also had pretty daughters with them. No matter how faithful to his wife a stallion was, these daughters were so insanely beautiful that no stallion could manage not to fall into unrestrained lust. Deliberately shaming the people of Rhode, the fathers showed off their daughters, especially pointing out the precious jewelry. So richly, these mares were adorned with the noblest bling that whole towns of Rhode would have to pool together if them wanting to afford even a single trinket of such a sweet, little mare. Just the same, the daughters kept talking and behaving with an unbelievable matter-of-factness dignified as slaves of the Lord of the Unicorn Realm, disappointing every hope of the centaurs of Rhode for a possible marriage. Their fathers were boasting if the Lord in person had called their daughter to his court for service. As a sign of his vocation, Vendro laRhon had given these daughters hair slides, bold, noble, and precious, made of materials that no goldsmith in the entire Empire, the province of Rhode and all the known kingdoms included, knew and therefore couldn't even start to replicate the most ordinary of these hair slides. Not a single father of those pretty daughters of the Peace Empire was ready at any price to sell his daughter as a bride to a young stallion residing in the province of Rhode. These poor lunatics didn't sell their daughters but treated mares with equal rights as stallions. Quite a number of these daughters would allegedly already have been appointed to serve at the court of Vendro laRhon or be dreaming of it. And her father didn't want to screw up her chance by her having to marry a sappy, retarded, pathetic stallion from some dilapidated province, which didn't even enjoy the privilege of officially belonging to the Sharona-Empire. No centaur of Rhode Realm doubted that these arrogant, superrich snobs only wanted to be seen as something special, downright lordly.

Gridron spat at the thought and took a breather before returning his attention to the sprawling greenery around him and sinking back into his thoughts.

Often, unimaginably and indescribably beautiful and sweet mares came passing through Rhode. There wasn't even a chance for any goddess saga to hold a candle to these beauties. The boldest descriptions didn't even begin to suggest such beauty. All mind failed in trying to comprehend this indescribable beauty or to vaguely recall the glorious, majestic sight even an instant later. Like radiance from another, higher world, supernatural light was shining out from the girls, crowning the beauty of the mares to magical glory. A mysterious breeze kept constantly playing around the appearance of these priestesses, making their hair gently flow and enticing with indescribably sweet, beguiling fragrance. Finally, combined with the majestic, exquisite grace that was a naturally part of these girls, this beauty burst every imagination, penetrated every mind, like a heavy battle-ax smashing through dry brushwood, that the fragments got hurled away in all directions, and every willpower, no matter how true, burst as if a vast blacksmith's hammer driving into a rotten tree trunk. Arrogantly, these girls were claiming themselves to be priestesses by His Most High Majesty's Grace. These insanely pretty girls always came at least in pairs. One could clearly recognize something like a brand on both sides of the hindquarters, the left upper arm, above the left breast, and on the forehead, which stood out like a seal and which the girls kept displaying majestically.

At every opportunity, transiting unicorns, the ruling beings of the Unicorns' Peace Empire, confirmed the priestesses as the official authorities of justice on behalf of the Black Unicorn. Given the much more powerful suzerainty over Rhode than the Kingdom of Shedu-Ann had ever enjoyed over its own province, these priestesses thus naturally had always and everywhere the final say. Reluctantly submissive to the priestesses, the centaur-people of Rhode had even had the dwarves build and furnish a palace for the priestesses, with whose splendor the Tarkona Palace of the Great King Rediva of Shedu-Ann by no means could compete. Only the Unicorn Temples of the dwarves in Iondeza boasted even more splendor, but such an outfit the centaurs couldn't afford by any stretch of the imagination. In the heart of each shire of Rhode and Vendar, the peoples had built further palaces for the priestesses, which were only gradually inferior in matters of pomp and comfort for the priestesses as the actual priestly palace of Rhode. More likely, the counts or dukes preferred to spend the rest of their lives in debt up to their throats for the construction of a dignified palace, than that the palace would lag behind the other palaces, and thus the priestesses could end up avoiding the palace for lack of comfort and luxury. After all, every region benefited from having priestesses in the country, judging there, and managing the government business.

On the other hand, the manners of these priestesses left much to be desired. As the holy Queens of Rhode, they were regulating the jurisdiction of Rhode in such a dignified and sublime manner that all animals of the province and the surrounding provinces kept seeking advice and justice from them. Quite often, animals also came from western Shedu-Ann because a sentence of the High King of Shedu-Ann didn't please them. Much more likely, however, they didn't even want to ask the king because of his incompetence compared to the majesty of the priestesses. Judgments, laws, decrees, and whatever else the king issued and said from his throne, the priestesses almost always discarded at once. In the entire eastern and southern realm of Shedu-Ann, as well as in every non-human-ruled shire of western Shedu-Ann, people had long since gotten used to submitting royal bulls and decrees first to the priestesses for inspection. Only a priestess was allowed to break the royal seal. In a brazier in the throne room, next to the throne of the priestesses, the fire was already waiting patiently for the new food. Hardly any document made it further than that. If currently wasn't any priestess in the province, the documents from Tarkona had to wait. Whoever dared to open a document before a priestess had broken the seal got burned alive and the document with him. The contents of a forcibly opened document weren't be paid attention to by any means. Even the royal messenger with the call to war had to keep his message under lock and key until a priestess allowed him to read the document in her presence. Nobody cared about the indignation of the messenger. He simply got subdued by a good beating.

Effortlessly, the priestesses were managing the feat of ruling the realm of Rhode and its surroundings and pronouncing judgments that were at the same time absolutely just and satisfied every participant and inhabitant of this unofficial realm of the priestesses. In the case of disputes, the disputing parties were always only ready for a judicial settlement if a priestess was leading the court. Inevitably one waited until a priestess came visiting in the realm. Animals, elves, dwarves, fauns, nymphs, and whatever creature else didn't mind even the farthest distance when seeking advice and justice from the priestesses. Because of such grandeur, the animals made an effort to serve the priestesses. Even for a vague glimmer of hope for a slight, fleeting benevolence, a small, implied smile, or even a little praise from the priestesses, they carelessly swore-off to the King of Shedu-Ann. Since long, the King of Shedu-Ann didn't get any taxes and tributes from Rhode, and the surrounding provinces of Vendar, Sionde, and the greater part of Tavar anymore. Every being in Rhode and its environs made a point of paying all taxes and tributes, at least in undiminished amounts, exclusively to the Priestly Palace in the center of Rhode. Even in those years, which the centaurs already perceived as sheer famine, the priestesses had at their disposal a budget more than twice as strong as the Great King could hope to dream of in the best economic years.

The priestesses indeed were behaving as if the rest of the world were subject to them. Considering such a position of power, one could wonder what the King of Shedu-Ann still had to determine even in his western kingdom. Was there really still needed a public notice in the council's notice board to make Rhode a province of the Empire, or was the submission of the animals to the absolute supremacy of the priestesses over Rhode and the neighboring provinces already enough anyway?

Rhode's so-called "independence" was depending only on a single, far too thin hair. As soon as a single priestess would even accidentally and indirectly in the margin of an ordinary sentence mention either Rhode or Vendar as a province of the Unicorn Empire, the annexation of both provinces to the Empire would be complete, and every centaur would have to submit. No chancery worker would have to do a pen stroke on a piece of parchment. More likely, for generations, they had only given themselves up to the moronic illusion of belonging to the realm Shedu-Ann at all. But that had always been bullshit. They were property of the Emperor! He'd always been doing with them what he wanted. There wasn't any way to deny a bit of it!

Consequently, simply no one could compete with the priestesses or even prevail against them. The priestesses were ruling unchallenged as sublime queens. From time immemorial, their word had always been considered as the only valid law. Whenever a priestess all of a sudden declaring any traditional law invalid, no resistance was of any use. There was hardly any law in Rhode left that had not at least been sifted and evaluated by a priestess. Compared to the priestesses, every wise stallion, high educated scholar, heroic warrior, and powerful magician was fading into a small, uneducated, loudmouthed schoolboy. Unashamedly, the priestesses also were teaching the masters in the most diverse professions how they were supposed to do their job, criticizing mistakes in the master’s works, and setting up work, safety, and quality regulations. The old, experienced masters, who had been in their trade for generations, were supposed to give ear to blood-young mares, whose beauty, moreover, was rather made for taking possession of them without further ado!

But as much as that was concerned, neither curling nor force was of any use. If one tried to marry the insanely pretty mares through wooing, they unabashedly played with the stallions "Catch me if you can – but you won't get me." In doing so, they really heated the stallion's hopes, just to let their helpless toy drop into a bottomless abyss of despair right next.

If one tried to take one of these insanely pretty mares by force, each one of them turned out to be even better able to defend herself than all other travelers together in square. As a young stallion who had enjoyed the presence of a priestess for his very first time, Gridron had let his lust get the better of him. In the face of such beauty, his mind had gone nuts. The entire surroundings had faded away to mere shadows. The plain sight had killed the young stallion. He couldn't help but to want to grab the beautiful mare immediately. And as the cherry on the cake, he had met her all alone in the woods while him being on a hunt. If that wasn't a worthwhile prey, what’d it be? Since then, long scars all over his body reminded Gridron that these outrageously cute mares could draw the sword somewhat way too fast and strike unabashedly within the very same swing. Gridron had first thought the mare’s behavior to be a feminine joke when she had drawn her sword at his approach. With her enormous sword in her hand, the maybe sixteen-year-old girl had looked even cuter! Playfully he also drew. Immediately he had been allowed to learn the deadly seriousness behind the beauty of these mares. The wounds hurt all the more since the small, graceful mare with a single elegant swing out of her wrist had blocked even the superior master trick of the well-trained stallion, which no one else had up to then been able to defy, in a single move, destroyed it and struck back herself. Did the girl still wield a sword as a weapon, or rather a lightning bolt already? Perplexed, Gridron felt caught off guard. He didn’t get any chance to make a single move anymore. However, the motions of the honey-sweet, young mare’s hissing sword were completely merging with her body’s motion. Tied up, Gridron couldn’t have been more at her blade’s mercy. Clearly, he felt himself getting expertly dismembered starting way from the first strike. He got hurled to the ground. For not more but a blink of an eye, the stallion was allowed to feel like a sacrifice on an improvised altar. Gridron panicked. Desperately, he tried to throw himself from the "altar", thus taking his last vague chance to escape. If he accidentally dropped in front of the mare's hooves, his fate would have him anyway. In fact, the penetration of sharp, cold steel into his flesh already betrayed his escape from the altar, having failed even before the first flight attempt. In a timeless moment, Gridron felt the blade approaching his body and knew his fate sealed. He felt as if he could see the blade slowly approaching him - see the blade penetrating his body and sinking deep into it up to the shaft, turning, coming out again a little, only to penetrate deep again. Gridron felt in detail the blade sliding through his body, peeling his hide cleanly off and cutting flesh and bone expertly so that even today, he could remember every detail precisely. Helpless, he had to experience the sliding of the blade through his flesh. Again and again, the blade turned, penetrating deeper and deeper, precisely cutting more limbs, detaching muscles, and separating organs. The stallion knew precisely at every moment what the mare was cutting out of him, which muscle she was working on and how she was preparing his innards for further processing. The stallion felt the blade approaching his heart and struggled desperately against his helplessness. He knew he was lost. Relentlessly, the sword, guided by a professional hand, slid through Gridron's flesh, preparing the pieces of meat for roasting. No butcher could have cut up his prey nearly as perfectly. Gridron had had to wait helplessly for the blade to finally cut off the heart of the horse's body, thus eventually paralyzing the rest of the horse's body, whatever was still connected. At the latest, by then, he would be only a nice piece of meat, which is allowed to live on until it is getting consumed. The girl wouldn't even need to tie him up anymore. Fully conscious, he would be going to watch her take his flesh as meat out from his dismembered horse body, roast it over a fire and consume it. Despairing, he lost all hope.

Gridron meets his priestess

However, just before the blade came to touch his heart, the timeless moment ended surprisingly, and the stallion was finally allowed to plunge down the very high rocky slope to where he had hoped to save himself from the mare just a moment before. Possibly it was only because of Gridron's desperate approach to pike over the edge that the slaughtering strike, with which the mare would have finally cut him up into juicy cutlets, hadn't finished its job. At that time, Gridron had been afraid that the mare to come after him. For her healthy legs, the slope wasn't an obstacle. The huntress saw her prey mostly ready for roasting. Gridron had long since ceased to be able to resist, not mentioning to flee. The mare only had to help herself at the hunted-down stallion. There had been enough firewood lying all around, and dinnertime was imminent anyway. Only a tiny moment had been between Gridron and him being allowed to watch, still alive, the mare finishing cutting him up, roasting, and eating his meat as a juicy, tasty roast. Undoubtedly, she would have even chatted affably with him during the entire time, making comments about Gridron's body and meat quality. As macabre as it might sound in retrospect, even then, the mare would have saved Gridron from a much worse fate, namely having to plunge alive into damnation for an assault on a priestess due to the protective unicorn spell that was surrounding also the priestesses.

Gridron wasn't used to defeats, and then a cute, sweet, graceful, outrageously pretty, and probably even underage girl had come along, whose mere beauty had driven him completely nuts, made him forget all respect for her highness, and whom he in his madness would have preferred to mate her at once, inflicting on him, the young, very tall, heavy, strong, and well-trained warrior, a humiliation that he had to suppress howling even at the plain memory. Swords and weapons, in general, shouldn't get into the hands of mares at all. They would only be doing nonsense with it anyway. Never ever a mare could learn to wield a sword the way it's supposed to be wielded. They knew nothing of honor and consequently didn't kill their opponents in a warlike heroic manner. All they were capable of was to hunt down, slaughter and roast everything that came between their fingers. Mares just won't ever change!

As Gridron had once again peered up the slope seeking the sealing of his fate, the mare had already vanished.

It seemed a miracle Gridron still being alive. A childhood friend had found him, but he had first believed the game to almost having been finished to slaughter and wanted to fetch the prey before the actual hunter could return.

More than a year, it had taken Gridron to recover from his encounter with the priestly amazon. All the healers had given him up way from the start anyway, and the best healers, who unfortunately all came from different provinces of the Peace Empire and were loyal to the Black Unicorn, mocked him or even scolded him for not having allowed himself to be slaughtered and eaten submissively. Brazenly, Gridron would have deprived the priestess of her well-deserved food and had let her starve just because of him sticking to his useless life. In the end, he had to submit to yet another shame, unfortunately, visible to the public and to surrender to another priestess, who, after long pleading, had restored him at least more or less. There even hadn't been any need for her to touch him. A single word from her had been enough to restore Gridron within an instant. Gridron was sure that the priestess could have healed him better than that. For a long time, aching joints and deep scars reminded him of the sweet amazon, which almost would have literally eaten him alive. Still, this arrogant brat of a healer priestess probably hadn't set much store by really restoring the stallion in its entirety. If she had at least finished cutting him up, roasted, and eaten him, but Gridron's meat was obviously not good enough for her. Probably the only reason she had refrained from completing her orders-sister's plan was that the stallion was already looking too unsavory and disgusting at this point. Pus, maggots, and flies were covering the rotting flesh and decaying hide. Not even his hide would have been enough for a priestess to make at least a strap for a handbag out of it. The fine, aristocratic, spoiled mare had probably just loathed eating his meat. In any case, nobody would have hindered her. At her behest, the centaurs would even have prepared the fire for her for the roasting, slaughtered Gridron according to her wishes, and roasted the pieces according to her desire over the fire until she would enjoy the meat. Probably she would have drunk beer or wine from Rhodes' cellars with it, and Gridron would have been allowed to watch her prepare a banquet for herself and her sisters at his expense. If she had at least done that, Gridron would even have been happy to provide the wine from his own cellar.

Such habits of the priestesses' show-of-power weren't imagination. Such a thing had really been done by a priestess not so long ago. Gridron had known the stallion well. His only mistake had been to afford himself minor negligence in the performance of an ordered task at the wrong time with the wrong priestess in what was, from the centaur's point of view, an insignificant, minor matter. While the stallion had performed the task reluctantly, he had at least made an effort to exercise a minimum of care. Nevertheless, the priestess had found something to complain about, of which today no one knew anymore, what it actually had been and had immediately sentenced the stallion so terribly. Just like that! Gridron had only escaped a repetition by a hair's breadth with his amazon. In any case, he had sinned way worse and had been attacking the priestess herself. Really nobody could and was allowed to oppose a priestess.

Furiously, Gridron struck the bushes of the nocturnal jungle, which simply refused to give way. Both priestesses hadn’t been giving a damn for completing their job properly. Instead, both of them had spurned him! Not valuable for anything! He, one of the best warriors of Rhode and one of the most sought-after stallions for complicated tasks, spoiled for success and glorious, wasn't for a priestess even good enough for her to eat him up!

The roar of the rain was currently increasing again. The rainwater poured down on him from the indefinable darkness, dripping from his hair, flowing over his hands, soaking the saddlebags, and finally nourishing the mud under the stallion's hooves, making him sink in even deeper.

While Vendar and large parts of Tavar were already eagerly campaigning for the annexation to the Empire, Gridron's folk still boasted, as the only one of their kind, albeit only formally, to represent an island of independence in the Empire, an independence for which all other folks, except the humans of Shedu-Ann, pitied the province of Rhode. That Rhode had long been part of the Unicorn Empire couldn't be denied. After all, most of the country's young mares vanished for good into the Order of the Black Unicorn, which was run exclusively by Vendro laRhon, the Lord of the Sharona-Empire.

The disappearing of the mares, unless once again a traveling priestess simply seized one or more mares for the Lord, caused a stir every time. Many a young stallion, who had finally succeeded in buying the young mare from her father for quite a money, ultimately ended up empty-handed. Even all her sisters, girlfriends, and whichever else could have been used as a substitute vanished just as mysteriously. Locking them in until the wedding wasn't of any use at all. In this regard, miracles were taking place so that the stallions lacked composure after each escape that had taken place. All bolts, locks, and shackles, whether made of ore or whatever, the stallions found intact and tightly locked on the next day. The seals on the locks witnessed that no one had opened them. Wandering blacksmiths of all guilds earned a golden nose from Rhode's centaurs by offering bolts and shackles made of various materials that were supposedly absolutely unicorn-proof. Most of the traveling merchants left before anyone could get them to justice. The others only stayed because they were "prevented" from leaving. Those swindlers, who could get hold of, were tied up the following day with their own shackles and thrown into the river, where the strong current washed them away, plunging them down the next waterfall.

Entire towns lost all of their virgin mares overnight. Accordingly, the fathers set the price for a marriageable mare high. For many a young stallion, the entire clan had to pool together - and then the mare vanished overnight, no matter where and how she was locked up before the wedding or buried up to her neck and guarded. Still in the night, the prison was found empty, and in the pits, the fathers or the suitors usually were found instead, depending on the cynicism the unicorns had currently preferred.

Rarely the robbery took only the mares, but for everything that these mares were taking along with them. And modesty wasn’t an issue! Strangely enough, the stallions never succeeded in thwarting an escape, no matter how well they were guarding the imprisoned mares, or in catching the fugitives, despite their large numbers and much luggage. The fugitives didn't even leave a trace behind. The mares seemed to dissolve into thin air literally.

The entire thing had the character of overpowering magic, which even no wizard of the realm could cope with. So, for certain, His Most High Majesty of the Unicorn Empire was taking part in the game. In any case, the Black Unicorn made no secret that unicorns in general didn't need to respect other interests, not to mention other sovereignty. And these monstrous unicorns were taking full advantage of it. They minded only their own business. There was no way to counter their power. Attempts to bribe them went unheard. They shamelessly snatched from the centaurs more than two-thirds of the maids of marriageable age and often even those who were just about to reach marriageable age. The unicorns almost left only those maidens for whom no stallion volunteered. To ravish the daughter early, for her to become uninteresting for the unicorns, was one of the absolute taboos in the entire Empire, and therefore also for the centaurs of Rhode, this trick was ruled out from the beginning. What the punishment would be if someone in the Empire violated a taboo, they would preferably not even try. So not a single mare could be married against her will.

As if a mare would have anything like a will at all!

Gridron had even heard of some provinces where the mares about to reach marriageable age were first symbolically sacrificed to the Lord on the unicorn altar of the folk and thus consecrated. If the mare remained in the country until one year after her marriageable age, she could marry whomever she desired. Her father only had the right to approve or forbid marriage with a particular stallion. Did the mare feel hindered by her father she could invoke the Right of the Unicorns and thus submit the judgment to His Most High Majesty. In such a case, depending on the presence, either a priestess or a unicorn, and in difficult cases and as the highest authority Vendro laRhon himself decided whether the mare was allowed to make the covenant for life with the stallion in question.

This custom found great approval among more and more centaur tribes. Fathers and suitors let themselves be disenfranchised and were even proud of it. As soon as Rhode would get officially connected to the Empire, one would have to expect that, at the latest, then the priestesses to introduce this right also in Rhode.

Gridron had to swallow at this thought since he had his eye on a pretty little mare of Rhode. Until now, there had been a vague hope of buying the little girl from her father quickly enough and marrying her before she too could run away, but this hope went melting away with every hoofwide that the Empire would take away from Shedu-Ann in this hopeless war. And now, he would never see his mare again anyway since he wouldn't be allowed to enter Rhode again until he had made up for his disgrace against the honor code.

His Most High Majesty and the Lord of the Sharona-Empire - the combination was simply crap. The two of them really were doing what they wanted and didn't let anyone bother them in the slightest. Each of them did his best to shower the other with glory and honor and to support him in all his plans with all the power that both had at their disposal, at any cost, and the power of each knew no limits. The life of all beings and plants degenerated in this mutual show of honor of the ruling beings to the pure object of their action.

And then there were the unicorns, all of which served each of their masters with a zeal that defied description. No matter whether a unicorn only stepped on the mountains or ruled the universe, whether they commanded the moon as well as the weather, or whether a desert storm or a blizzard whirled up around the holy being in worship, the absolute power of the magical beings was always at the hoof of the Lord of the Unicorns. The priestesses of the Black Unicorn were not noticeably behind but emulated their examples among the unicorns with all their energy, and the latter was great. With a single brief touch, a priestess could bring a dead one back to life, or with a single word from her mouth, destroy the thousands of enemies of the Peace Empire. Hopefully, in this senseless war against the Peace Empire, no priestess got on the idea of considering the Rhodian warriors as enemies, even by them, also according to their own convictions, serving the wrong side.

So, the centaurs of Rhode could only wait for the final proclamation of annexation to the Sharona-Empire. Many a night, the plain thought had robbed the stallions of sleep. Nobody knew what the priestesses were waiting for with the proclamation for the annexation to the Empire. Or did none of them think of none of them having pronounced this verdict yet? More likely, they already considered the provinces south and east of the Great Forest as incorporated provinces as a matter of course. After all, they were ruling over the country accordingly. So, why waste time and energy for a proclamation thus to integrate the provinces of Rhode, Sionde, Vendar, and Tavar into the Unicorn Empire? The Council of Centaurs kept squirming around before the priestesses. On the one hand, the centaurs wanted clarity. On the other hand, they feared the risk that, if they asked the priestesses about it, they would make up for the omission and pronounce the verdict of annexation to the Empire.

And now King Rediva was challenging the Empire and with it all four His Most High Majesty, Vendro laRhon, and all unicorns, as well as priestesses of this world all at once! In any case, the priestess reviewing the king's summon call to war must have enjoyed herself immensely. Cynically she had left it up to the centaurs whether they preferred to follow the call or rather confessed to the Unicorn Empire right away. No one needed to mention that the result, in the end, to be the same in either case.

Gridron no longer understood the world. The king couldn't even commit suicide that thoroughly by signing his kingdom away to the Empire in his will and simply throwing himself on his sword or from a tower of his castle. The latter would at least have been decent. Instead, the king's behavior could no longer even be called downright suicide.

The same, the Council of Rhode had been acting conceivably unreasonably. After all, the councils had already met before the priestess at her behest with an uneasy feeling in their stomachs. For a long time, the councilors had tried to avoid a decision. Everyone knew since long Rhode being part of the Empire! What was the priestess up to with the stallions again? No doubt, she was only seeking her fun with her little toys, as if it wouldn’t be about the fate of whole provinces at stake. Secretly,