He shifted a pile of folders from a bench to the floor, and gestured for us to sit. We did, and then he took his sweet time parading around the corner of the desk and sinking into his own chair. His shirt was rumpled, his hair more so, and I thought I detected bags under his eyes. I felt a stab of guilt that he’d been worrying all evening. I’d done enough babysitting to know how tough it was to have parents show up when you didn’t have everything perfectly under control.
“I’ll hear your explanation.”
“That’s it,” Phil said. “There is none. We went out. We had fun. Last I checked, those things were not illegal.”
“If you believe that, then why didn’t you inform me?” Ooh, score a point for Neil.
Phil was smooth, though. “If we’d asked, why would you have said no?”
He pointed at my arm. “Is that not reason enough for you? Your cousin was attacked by a unicorn tonight. An untrained hunter is in danger any time she’s not inside. Don’t you get it? The potentia illicere—the unicorn is drawn to the hunter, always. And tonight, it came for her.”
“I beg to differ,” Phil replied. “From what I heard, she attacked it.”
I nodded in support. And perhaps now wouldn’t be the best time to bring up my lost passport.
“What you heard from whom?”
“Her date.”
Now Neil stood up. “You must be joking. Not only did you remove my charge from the Cloisters without permission but you set her up on a date?” He shook his head in disbelief. “Have you no respect for what we’re doing here?”
“I don’t see how we’ve jeopardized anything.” Phil rose in turn.
“There’s no dating allowed. That goes against every rule of the Order.”
Phil laughed. “Please. I’ve been dating for years and I’m still an eligible unicorn hunter. What do you take us for? We just met these guys!”
“So you’re dating, too, then.” He crossed his arms. “These points aren’t negotiable.”
She shrugged. “You’re the one desperate for unicorn hunters. How many is it you have coming now, six? Nine? Against how many unicorns?” She smiled. “Everything here is negotiable.”
He leaned forward and smiled every bit as charmingly. “Not that. I assume you know those rules.”
I groaned. “Don’t you get it yet, Phil? This isn’t a summer program. It’s a lifestyle choice. If we’re going to be hunters, then that’s it. That’s all we’re going to be. Not girlfriends, not wives, not mothers…”
Phil looked at me, appalled. “So that’s what Aunt Lilith meant. And you agreed to this?”
What were my options? Maybe I would have fought harder if I felt like I was giving up anything. But after Brandt, it wasn’t like I had much of a chance with any of the boys back home. And things with Giovanni hadn’t been going anywhere even before the kirin showed up. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for romance, unicorn hunting or no.
“Well, that’s just ridiculous!” she cried. “How do you expect anyone to submit to that?”
“Now you see why we’re having such a hard time,” Neil said. “The historical stigma is a tough mantle to shed. Half the extant family lines are descended from the female side—a population who rarely had descendants before the unicorns became extinct. Even if they’re aware of their heritage, few are in support of it. Resistance was expected.”
“Then why follow the old rules?” I asked. “You’re saying you’re willing to lose Philippa because she doesn’t want to give up every aspect of her life to be a hunter. That you’re willing to give up all of us. I’m here because my mom is making me, and because, as you say, I’m a minor. You’re trying to recruit more hunters and you’re just making it harder on yourself. Wouldn’t it be better to change the rules to suit the fact that nowadays women are more independent?”
“To what end?” Neil asked. “Spend time training girls who ditch us the moment they decide to take their relationships to the next level?”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
“I understand your points, believe me,” Neil said, sitting back down. “I deeply resent being forced into the position of caring about your personal affairs. It’s none of my business. But there was a reason that the Order of the Lioness was formed in the guise of a convent, and it had nothing to do with Catholicism. By taking the hunters out of the secular world, the Order removed any possibility that they would lose them to it.” He gestured to Phil. “You’re nineteen; you say you’ve been dating for several years; and yet, you’re still…eligible. Do you have any idea how rare that is in this age?”
“Call me a loser to my face, why don’t you?” Phil said.
But Neil was not to be sidetracked. “Especially someone as attractive and vibrant as you are. To be perfectly frank, if I hadn’t seen you pass the trial by zhi with my own eyes, I’d be hard-pressed to believe it.”
The look of surprise on both of our faces made him blush, and he backtracked. “You’re the oldest girl here by several years.”
“How does her age have anything to do with it!” I exclaimed. “You think because she’s pretty and nice and fun that she should be having sex?”
“No!” Neil ran his hand through his hair. “Don’t you see? I don’t care. I didn’t make the rules. But I have to follow them. The old way worked.”
“The old way,” I said, “was developed in a society where women were nothing more than chattel.”
“Nothing more than what?” Phil’s brow furrowed.
“Possessions.” Neil explained, and slumped in his seat. “I know. And, to some extent, I agree. I see the problems inherent in asking teenagers to make a lifelong commitment. But we don’t know how long it will take to have any hunters ready to fulfill their duty. In the old days, you would have been trained from childhood and you would hunt well into old age. So what do we set the terms at? Four years, like military service? Thirty, like the vestal virgins of ancient Rome?”
“Thirty!” Phil choked. “Might as well be a lifetime.”
Or we got killed in action on our first hunt. There was always that option. I checked out the scratch on my arm, which had scabbed over completely. What had I been thinking, to leap at the kirin like that? I could have been killed tonight.
“Why do you get to be the one to set the terms?” I asked. “Who appoints the don? How does that work?”
Neil looked beaten. “Usually, the old don or a quorum of experienced hunters. In this situation, we had none, and so I just stepped into the role.”
Good thing Lilith hadn’t known Neil’s position was self-appointed, or I had no doubt she’d have tried to usurp it.
“But maybe that was a mistake. Before, when it was just Marten, Cornelia, and me, it all seemed cut-and-dry. But in practice…maybe you’re right. The old system won’t work anymore. And maybe this is something we all need to discuss, as an Order, together. Nobody owns you; no one can force you to do this. And I’ll admit to you: I’ve been hating every minute of it.”
No one can force me to do this? Neil had been talking to my mother, right?
Phil shook her head. “If you hate it, then why are you here? No one’s forcing you, either.”
“Depends upon how you look at it.” He put his head in his hands and was silent for several long moments. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. None of it. But you’re right. What makes me any more qualified to be in charge here than Philippa? At least she’s a hunter. The dons never were before, but this is now.”
I saw Phil lift her chin, but I was still watching Neil. He sounded nothing like the crusty Cornelius Bartoli who’d been so eagerly e-mailing back and forth with my mother.
“My sister,” he began, still crumpled on the desk, “was a genealogist. It is from her records that we have been able to track most of the families. She thought the unicorns were an interesting family story, helpful only as far as they gave an intricate portrait and a series of records she could use to trace our line. She never believed it.” He straightened and me
t our eyes. “One day about six months ago, she was out in the woods with her daughter, and they were set upon by a herd of zhi. She was killed.”
“Oh my God,” Phil whispered. “Neil, I’m so sorry.” But I was shaking so hard I couldn’t speak. Just like Brandt. Just like Brandt, only no one was there to save her.
“When I found them,” he said, “the zhi were dead. Cornelia had bludgeoned them to death. All but one. She’d passed out, covered in cuts. The only one left was fast asleep on her lap.”
I swallowed hard. “Bonegrinder.” No wonder she’d wanted it dead. And I’d protected it. And Phil had…cuddled it.
He nodded, miserable. “The unicorn is drawn to the hunter, always.” After a moment, he went on. “Cory knew nothing about this, nothing about her abilities. You wouldn’t have recognized her then. She’s changed so much. When she went through her mother’s things, she discovered the existence of hunters, of the Cloisters, of the Order. Became obsessed, really. It was Cory who contacted Marten Jaeger, who contacted Lilith Llewelyn.”
So it had never been Neil writing as Cornelius. Always Cory. No wonder he sounded so different in person than in Lilith’s e-mails.
“We needed an adult to become don, to keep looking for new hunters, so I came aboard. What else could I do? Sybil was my sister, and now I’m all her daughter has left.”
Phil reached out and laid her hand on his shoulder. “Neil,” she said softly.
“You’re a fraud,” I said. “You and Cory brought us here under false pretenses. You haven’t the first clue how to turn us into hunters.”
Neil set his jaw. “We have whatever records remain, and we’ve been working night and day to form a program. I’ve got an expert bowman coming in to teach you archery; we’ve got Gordian Pharmaceuticals for any other resources we might need. No, we have no experience—no one does, anymore—but we know more about the unicorns than anyone alive.”
“And,” Phil said in encouragement, “I’m sure that the new hunters might have family records that could come in handy.” She smiled at him and I felt the urge to scream.
I stood up. “Yeah, you people are just steeped in expertise. I’m going to call my mother and tell her exactly what’s going on here.”
Now Phil did turn on me. “Think it will make a difference to her, Astrid? ‘Oh, sure, sweetie. Forget that whole unicorn hunter business and come on home.’ Yeah, right.” She looked back at Neil. “I want to help you. You’ve been through way too much on your own. But it has to be on equal footing. I’m a hunter, yes, but I’m not going to sit back and be anyone’s…chattel, or whatever. I’m a grown woman and I get to make my own decisions.”
“Agreed,” Neil said, and he sounded relieved.
She glanced at me. “And we should take into account the desires of the underage hunters as well. Not just Cory but all of them. I’m not saying chaos, but it’s unfair to enforce centuries-old rules where they no longer apply. I know we can work something out.”
I made a sound of protest, but she ignored me, continuing to outline her little coup to Neil. That was it. I’d been bossed onto a plane by Lilith, bossed around since I arrived by Cory. I would not be bossed around by my three-years-older cousin. I whirled on my heel and stormed out of the office.
Phil caught up to me before I was halfway across the rotunda. “Astrid, wait.”
“No!” I hugged my arm to my chest and kept on going. “You were supposed to make all this better. Bearable! And now you’re buying into it. I wish you belonged to Mom and I belonged to Uncle John! Then I’d never have to be here.”
She tugged me in close. “Astroturf, come on. Don’t be like that.” Inside her arms, she felt like Lilith. Taller than me. Stronger than me. I tried to push away, but Phil had spent hours in the gym and could spike a volleyball so hard into the court it left a mark. “Don’t you see how much better this is going to be?”
“No. I’m trapped here either way.”
“But not forever. And not the way they want. Think about it. You said Cory wants to hunt the unicorns into extinction. And if your mom had her way, she’d lock you up in here and throw away the key. I may not know all your fancy words, I may not know anything about hunting at all, but I can read Neil. He can’t do this alone. He needs us, as hunters and as helpers. And we need him on our side. Don’t you see? Work the system. Don’t fight it.”
“Fight the unicorns?” I scoffed, pushing away and holding out my injured arm. “So that next time they can hit me someplace much more delicate? We may be immune to the poison, but no one is immune to a big sharp horn through the gut. A foot to the right, and I could have died tonight. Brandt could have died in the woods back home. Sybil Bartoli? Dead. And nobody here has the slightest clue about how to train us, how to make us safe.”
Phil had no answer to that.
I pointed at the figure of Clothilde behind us. “She trained all her life, and she was still killed by the karkadann. Unicorn hunters die, Phil. This isn’t a game. You can make all the pacts you want so that we can go on dates, go to college, leave after however many years in service, but it doesn’t change the fact that my life is in danger here. I don’t want this. I’m not a warrior.”
“But tonight—”
“Tonight I was crazy. It won’t happen again.” I stopped talking, suddenly feeling very out of breath.
Phil bit her lip and studied me. “Astrid, I love you so much. And I swear—I swear—that I want you to be safe, and I want you to be happy. And I’m going to do what it takes to make that happen.”
“You’re going to get me out of here?”
She didn’t respond.
“Didn’t think so. Good night.”
I took the stairs, wincing when I reached for the banister and stretched the scab on my arm. I wanted to rip the bone sconces from the walls. I wanted to smash the bones that jutted from the masonry. On the dormitory floor, I saw a light on beneath the door of another room that must belong to the new hunter. I glanced at the names on the door as I passed by on my way to the bathroom at the end of the hall. DORCAS AND URSULA.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I washed and disinfected the nearly healed cut as best as I could. I may be immune to alicorn venom, but who knew what kind of germs unicorns carried? On the plus side, I got to use some of the first-aid supplies Lilith had packed for me. I applied both a liquid bandage and a surprisingly neat row of butterfly stitches—considering I was putting them on one-handed.
The light was off in the room I shared with Cory, and the lump on her bed clearly had nothing to say to me. Moonlight glinted off the glass frames on her shelf, the pictures of her mother, of her dog, of a time when she, too, was normal.
I tried to be as silent as possible as I tiptoed in, changed into pajamas, and climbed into bed. I lay still and breathed deep but remained awake. Phil had joined me at the Cloisters, but she wasn’t on my side. My passport was gone, so I couldn’t even run away. And I’d never see Giovanni again. Minutes passed, maybe even hours, but my head was too full for sleep. My eyes burned, my head ached, and my arm itched, but I didn’t cry.
Instead, I thought of the kirin.
8
WHEREIN ASTRID WELCOMES THE HUNTERS
WHEN I WOKE THE NEXT morning, Cory had already dressed and vamoosed, which, to be honest, was a relief. I still didn’t know what to say to her. I made my bed, then padded off down the hall to the bathroom, rubbing my thumb against my palm. I’d washed it thoroughly last night, but it hadn’t made a difference. My dreams had been filled with kirin, and my skin smelled of fire and flood. When I emerged from the shower, seven lukewarm and trickly minutes later, I saw a tiny, pale-skinned girl with a mousy brown shag standing over the sink, dabbing at her red-rimmed eyes.
“Hi,” I said. This must be Dorcas. Or maybe Ursula.
She burst into tears and ran from the room. At last, someone who wanted to be a hunter even less than I did. I hurried after her, tying a knot in my robe belt as I went. I saw her brush
past Cory in the hallway and disappear into her room, slamming the door behind her.
Cory shifted the bundle of linen in her arms and snorted. Then, without acknowledging me, she walked into yet another of the rooms. I followed.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
Cory turned her back on me and heaved the linens onto one of the beds. “Dorcas Bourg, of the family Bourg. Belgian by birth and spoiled princess by trade. You should have seen her complaining about the rooms yesterday.” She ducked her head into the wardrobe and began rummaging around.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?”
The sounds stopped, but Cory stayed behind the door. “Aren’t you going home soon? With your cousin?”
“No. We had a long talk with Neil and—”
Cory slammed the wardrobe closed and glared at me. “He told you.”
I met her gaze. “Yes. Cory, I’m so sorry.”
She clenched her fists, then stretched out her fingers several times, breathing hard. I thought she might throw something again. I thought she might throw me.
“I can’t imagine what you’ve been going through,” I managed.
She crossed to the bed and starting snapping out the sheets, whipping them across the mattress and tucking them in so tightly I was surprised the bed didn’t buckle under the onslaught. I fell silent. My wet hair dripped onto the carpet.
At last, she said, “We’ve two more hunters arriving soon, so there’s plenty of work to be done.”
And that was that. She didn’t speak again, and she avoided me for the rest of the day. Even when our chores brought us together, she wouldn’t look me in the face, and she refused to join any conversation Phil and I had. Even the ones about unicorns. Now that Phil had decided to take on a more active role at the Cloisters, she was filled with curiosity. There was no escape.
I caught myself thinking about the kirin quite a bit, remembering its greasy mane, the fire in my blood when its horn punctured my skin. The scab on my arm was almost completely healed, thanks to my careful ministrations. But I could still feel kirin eyeball against the pad of my thumb.
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