Dirge for a Necromancer - By Ash Stinson Page 0,82

set before him.

Raettonus poked at his meat with his knife. “Didn’t know you caught any gryphons,” he said.

“Well, I only caught one,” said Diahsis. “Deggho helped me catch it.”

“Vuriin,” said Raettonus.

“Yeah, that was his name,” said Diahsis, with a nod. He put a hunk of meat in his mouth. “Oooh, he’s delicious.”

Dohrleht frowned at his plate. “I don’t know how I feel about eating something that has a name,” he said.

“Everything has a name,” said Brecan. “My name’s Brecan. Some people say it Brekkan, but that’s wrong.”

The young centaur screwed up his face. “Then I guess I don’t know how to feel about eating something whose name I know.”

“We’re going to catch more gryphons tomorrow,” said Diahsis. His handsome face was flushed from the wine. He grinned and leaned his elbows on the table. “Lots of gryphons—whole armies of them! Right, Deggho?”

“Well, I don’t know about armies,” muttered the goblin, picking up his head and carefully placing it back on his shoulders, only for it to roll off into his lap. Diahsis laughed heartily and picked up his head by the hair. “Certainly we’ll find a gryphon or two.”

“Wonderful!” said Diahsis, holding Deggho’s head against his chest with one hand and picking up his goblet with the other. “And then we’ll hunt faeries! Oh, Raettonus, will you be joining us?”

“Nope,” said Raettonus, chewing his gryphon meat slowly.

“Suit yourself,” said Diahsis. “It’ll be fun though. You’re missing out. How about you, Daeblau?”

Dohrleht squeezed Daeblau’s hand and looked at him pleadingly. “No,” said Daeblau after a short hesitation. “I think I’ll sit this hunt out.”

“Well, fine,” said Diahsis, his pointed ears lowering. “I guess that Deggho and I will go by ourselves then, spoil-sports.”

“What about the soldiers?” asked Deggho, his voice somewhat muffled by Diahsis’ forearm.

“Them too,” said Diahsis. He set Deggho’s head down on the table and patted it fondly. “But when we bring back delicious faerie meat, you don’t get any, Daeblau, because you wouldn’t come with us.”

Daeblau smiled slightly. “I think I can go on without it, General.”

Diahsis frowned and took a long drink from his goblet. When he set it down again, he said, “How about more riddles?”

“Oh, dear God, no,” said Raettonus, resting his head in his hands. “Those aren’t riddles you’re telling, anyway. No more.”

“All right,” said Diahsis, somewhat deflated. He swirled his goblet around in his hand. “We could tell stories instead.”

“I love stories!” said Brecan.

“So do I!” said Diahsis. “Do you have any?”

The unicorn flattened his ears and cocked his head to the side. “Well, no, I guess I don’t, really,” he said. “One time I fought a chimera. That’s a story.”

“Go on, then,” said Diahsis, waving one hand lethargically toward the unicorn. “Tell it.”

“Okay,” said Brecan. “Well, this one time I was in the forest, and I came across a chimera, and then I fought it. The end!”

“Who won?”

“Huh?”

“You or the chimera?”

Brecan’s ears perked forward. “That’s a good question,” he said. “I guess…we drew. I mean, he went his way, I went mine.”

“It didn’t try to kill you?” asked Diahsis.

“No, we just argued a bit about who had the right to keep walking down a narrow path,” said Brecan. “Then I remembered that I could fly, so I flew. The end!”

Diahsis frowned. “Oh, I see. Very… Erm. Well, I guess, technically, it was a story.” He thought for a moment and said, “I’ll tell a story now, then. I’ll tell a story about how I became a general!”

Beside Brecan, the Tahlehson centaur sighed and edged away to listen to the conversation on the other side of him. Apparently, this was a story he’d heard before.

“I am well known throughout Tahlehsohr for my deeds in the Wolf-Blood Wars, you must know,” Diahsis began, leaning back in his chair and puffing out his chest proudly. “I did many marvelous, brave, and frankly amazing things. It’s really quite surprising it never reached you. I’m a folk hero.”

A couple of the nearest Tahlehsons chuckled to themselves quietly, but Diahsis didn’t seem to notice. “What were the Wolf-Blood Wars?” asked Dohrleht, leaning forward.

“Wars against wolf-bloods,” answered Diahsis, raising his goblet to drink. He found it empty and called for more. Once a young soldier rushed to him to refill it, he continued his story. “I was serving with a battalion of five hundred men, lead by one General Gaema. I was just beneath him, actually. I hated being just beneath him, really; he made me attend him everywhere he went, as though I were some kind of servant.