by Morgan Hawke
The dreams that took me were filled with thick pillows and phantom hands I couldn’t see or escape. They slid across my skin, exploring me rudely while accompanied by low whisky-potent chuckling.
And galloping hoofbeats.
The sound of hoofs was so odd, it literally pulled me from the madness of pillows and hands into a place of mist with no sky or visible ground. Standing there in my flannel nightshirt, my feet invisible in the ground mist, I could hear a horse rushing toward me, but saw nothing but silver-gray mist.
The sound of galloping hooves circled around me.
I turned, but still saw nothing. “Who’s there!”
The hooves stopped directly in front of me, yet there was nothing before me but churning mist. A horse’s snort came from the mist, then the sound of a scraping hoof. There was a clatter of fast approaching hooves.
Something stabbed me directly through the heart.
The pain was immediate and horrific, like a sword thrust. My breath was literally punched out of me. I grabbed my chest and choked for a breath I couldn’t catch, then sat bolt upright in my bedding, eyes wide. The tent was bright with sunlight. I jerked at my nightshirt, looking for the hole that should have been in my chest.
I found nothing. My chest was whole and untouched; not even a bruise.
Yet, I could still feel it, the large, gaping hole through my heart.
Completely shaken, I crawled out of the bed and grabbed for my camp robe. On shaking legs, I stepped out of the tent and into warm spring sunlight.
One would think that under direct sunlight, with my bare feet nestled in soft grass, the dream would fade. It did, and it didn’t. After a few moments of standing awake and staring at a robin’s egg blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds, the pain in my heart did fade, but to a bruised ache. It did not go away.
Hours later, after completing my morning camp duties of chopping dead wood for the night’s fire and feeding the gelding, the ache in my heart remained. In fact, it remained when I bathed and washed my hair. I dressed in my oldest and most comfortable gray leather breeches and coat, and it still remained, a fist around my heart not quite squeezing. It was still there two hours later when I set my plain black tricorn hat on my head and mounted my horse to go meet my prince at the back of the palace’s formal gardens.
I couldn’t help but feel that something was about to go terribly wrong.
~ Fourteen ~
The elegant little copse of birch trees at the very back of the formal gardens was the perfect place to do something nefarious. One could see anyone approaching while remaining perfectly concealed. Pleased with my prince’s choice of meeting place, I dismounted and strode under the birches leading my gelding.
A dulcet, feminine voice spoke from within the green shadows. “Hello, Julian.”
I started rather badly. I dropped the reins to my gelding and had a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other before I realized that it was Gabriella standing under the birches. She was dressed in a knee-length of gown striped in ash gray and black, with tall black boots that had buckles climbing all the way up the sides. Oddly enough, the multitude of white ruffles among the gray and black stripes of her belled skirt, the extravagantly puffed sleeves, and dangerously low bodice actually helped her blend into the black and white tree trunks.
Her presence gave me rather mixed feelings. Considering her jealous threats yesterday, then how she’d thrown herself at Master Corwin last night by shoving me out of the way, I was kind of relieved to see her and kind of...not.
Gabriella eyed my bared weapons and openly sneered. “Make up your mind. Are you going to stab me or shoot me?”
Annoyance soured in my stomach, adding to the ache still lodged in my chest. “You’re welcome to take your pick.”
One of her brows arched up and she tilted her head, her red curls sliding to one side. “Goodness, Julian, I actually think you mean that.”
I didn’t reply. I wasn’t inclined to disagree.
“Julian, don’t tease Gabriella.”
My prince’s voice made my heart soar with happiness, which was totally uncalled for. Ruthlessly stomping down my feelings, I put my weapons away and turned to face Alberic with a short bow. “Good morning, my prince.”
Prince Alberic dismounted from his white mare with easy grace and turned to face us. Despite the fact that I had not been there to care for him or his clothes, my prince appeared perfectly dressed in a royal blue velvet coat trimmed in gold lace. His golden hair was well groomed and tamed into a long tail held back with a blue bow. There wasn’t a curl or ruffle out of place.
It was somewhat disappointing.
My prince looped the reins of his horse over a low-hanging branch and frowned at me. “Did something happen last night?”
I blinked at him and scowled. “Beyond the obvious?” Beyond taking my virginity? I absently rubbed at my aching chest.
My prince lifted one golden brow and smiled. “You’re going to have to learn to let the little things go, Julian.” He brushed past me to face Gabriella.
My eyes widened and my mouth fell open. “Little...?”
Gabriella was frowning. “Did I miss something?”
The prince waved a gloved hand awash in gold lace. “Nothing important.”
Oh, so now my virginity was not only little, it was nothing important? I bit my tongue to hold back what a truly wanted to say on the matter, but there was no erasing the ferocious scowl on my face.
“So!” My prince folded his hand behind him. “About this spell, Gabriella?”
“Yes!” Gabriella stepped forward with an enthusiastic smile. “As I was saying before, we don’t need to hunt for the unicorn because I can make one.” Her gaze slid to me, and her smile turned more than a little sly.
My eyes narrowed. She was definitely up to something.
My prince lifted his chin. “The spell is ready, I presume?”
Gabriella nodded. “It’s right here.” She reached into a velvet bag tied to her waist, one I hadn’t noticed, and pulled out a softly glowing sphere the size of her fist of boiling blue-silver mist. Then she threw it...at me.
The ball of mist whizzed toward me and quite literally bounced away before it even made contact.
I yelped in surprise and dodged away from it.
My prince dodged in the opposite direction. “Ho!”
The sphere whizzed through the trees, bouncing against trunks like a ricocheting bullet. It came shooting back like a comet, flying for my prince.
I rushed in front of him without thought. The ball of mist hit me right between the eyes and exploded all over me, wrapping me in sticky silver-blue gossamer. I gasped in shock.
Gabriella jumped up and clapped. “Yes!”
There was a loud electrical crack and the gossamer evaporated. I stared as it melted off of me.
Gabriella moaned in open defeat. “No!”
My prince chuckled. “I told you before, Gabriella, enchanting Julian doesn’t work. It always falls apart on him.”
I looked over at my prince. “It does?”
My prince blinked at me. “You mean you never noticed?”
I frowned. “Noticed what?”
Alberic’s brow lifted. “That neither curses nor charms have ever worked properly on you.”
My eyes widened. “I’ve been cursed?”
My prince blew out a weary sigh and rolled his eyes. “Only once or twice a week since the day you arrived.”
“Are you serious...?” I meant to ask for an example, however my heart suddenly gave a violently hard lurch and I was too busy gripping my chest and gasping from the pain to pay attention to anything else. The world tilted around me. My knees hit the ground hard.
My prince grabbed me by the upper arms. “Julian!”
My hair fell from its bow to curtain my face and right before my eyes, it turned silver white. Then the front of my skull decided it wanted to split in half, and I saw no more.
Far, far away there was a rippin
g sound and screaming; a woman was screaming.
In the distance, another woman shouted. “That’s not supposed to happen! It’s supposed to wrap around the subject, not...not do that!”
I blacked out completely for a while. I have no idea how long. I awoke to someone slapping my jaw, and a masculine voice shouting in my ear, “Julian! Julian, are you in there?”
I opened my eyes, and the world was very strange. Although I was lying on the ground, I could see almost all the way around me, and what I saw didn’t make sense. There were gray rags on the grass around me, and my knife harness was in pieces, Stranger still, there appeared to be a white horse lying on the ground directly behind me. I lifted my head to get a better look and gasped in shock. Or rather, I meant to gasp but what came out of my mouth was a deep-throated wicker.
That horse was me.
I lunged to my feet, all four of them, and they were not at all steady. My balance was completely off. I was not used to walking on my hands. I was definitely not used to my head being so heavy. My line of sight was where it normally was, until I lifted my head on my extraordinarily long and mobile neck. The ground didn’t seem any further way, just...smaller. Everything was smaller. My prince, who was by no means a small man, looked positively childlike, and Gabriella, huddled against the trunks of the trees, looked like a doll.
Even more alarming, the gray rags on the ground appeared to be the remains of my clothes.
My prince dodged away from me with speed. “Watch where you are pointing that thing!”
I meant to frown, but quite literally felt my ears turn back instead. “What thing?” Well, that was what I meant to say, but what actually came out of my mouth was a low whicker.
My prince pointed to my head. “That thing. In case you haven’t noticed, you have a rather long horn on your head.”
I looked for it, but I couldn’t see it. Oh wait, I could, the end of it, or rather, the last foot of it. I lifted my head and found that the spear attached to my head stayed exactly perfect with my line of sight; no wiggle at all. I have a...horn? Curious as to just how firmly it was attached, I dropped my head to stab it into the ground.
The impact was impressively solid, as though I’d used a solid iron spear. The horn sank into the ground a good foot. It was very firmly attached. In fact, it was clearly part of my skull. I lifted my head, and the dirt fell away from it as though repelled.
Abruptly, something itched on my...flank. Then something else whipped at the itch. The sudden strike startled me into jolting forward into a half rear.
Alberic dodged away from me again, his arms flung upward to protect his head. “Julian, what the hell are you doing?”
“Something hit me!” I turned to look and discovered my tail. It was not a horse’s tail. It was long, very long, and slender. The very end curled upward and over with a thick tuft of silver curls at the end and an occasional small tuft of curls along the underside.
Alberic snorted then threw his head back and laughed. “You’re scared of your own tail?” He shook his head. “Are you going to be afraid of your feet next?”
That’s when I finally decided to actually look at my feet. My hooves were split like a deer, or a goat. My brain blanked for more than a few breaths before I could accept what I was seeing. I was not a horse.
I had been transformed into a unicorn, the one creature every single noble on the palace grounds was looking for.
I turned to face Gabriella with my ears flat back and my long teeth bared. “What the hell did you do to me?!” Of course, what actually came out was a squeal that didn’t sound like it belonged to either a horse or a deer.
Gabriella raised a shaking hand to point a trembling finger at me. “Don’t look at me! I didn’t do that! My spell broke before... Before that happened!”
Alberic’s amusement evaporated at once. “You can turn Julian back, right?”
Gabriella shook her head hard, her red curls flying. “I just told you, that’s not my spell! I didn’t do that! My spell certainly wasn’t designed to change Julian’s...gender.”
That froze me in my tracks. Of course there was no disguising my true gender. I was an unclothed beast.
Gabriella bit her bottom lip and wrung her hands. “I have no idea how that happened, or...” Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. “Or how to un-do it.”
I blinked in shock. “You mean I’m stuck this way?”
Alberic scowled at me. “You’d better not be stuck this way!”
Gabriella frowned. “Wait, you can understand what he...she’s saying?”
Alberic looked sharply at me, then back at Gabriella. “Of course.” He blinked. “You mean you can’t?”
Gabriella shook her head. “I hear an animal, that’s all.”
Alberic turned away from both of us and wiped a gloved hand across his jaw. “Fuck... This complicates things.”
Gabriella took a tentative step away from the trees. “Do you know something I don’t?”
Alberic laughed bitterly. “I know many things you don’t, but...” From his sleeve, he pulled out a small slender knife. “Only one way to find out.” He slashed his palm. Blood welled, rich and scarlet.
I snorted in surprise. What the hell was he doing?
Alberic turned to me. “Julian, hold still.” He reached out with his wounded hand and took hold of the end of my horn.
I held very still, I didn’t want to stab him accidentally. Even so, something tingled inside my head, right between my eyes. My horn, or rather, what I could see of it, suddenly emitted a blue glow.
Alberic winced and pulled his hand away. He looked at his palm and whistled softly. He looked at me, then turned his hand toward me. The cut was gone, though not completely; a pale, white scar had taken its place.
My horn had healed it, like a real unicorn.
Alberic’s eyes narrowed on me. “It seems that Julian, at this very moment, is in fact, an actual unicorn.”
Gabriella frowned and tilted her head. “But isn’t that...impossible? According to the laws of magic, even if you give something the shape of something else, you can’t actually change their true nature. A human shaped like a unicorn, is still a human. They can’t do...unicorn things.”
Alberic’s frowned deepened. “Such as healing...”
“Unless...” A deep gruff voice interrupted and Master Corwin emerged from the deeper shadows. “That human was actually a unicorn to begin with.”
All three of us stared at Master Corwin. Had the man lost his mind?
Master Corwin smiled. “I can’t believe you didn’t see it, Halfling Prince.”
Alberic scowled. “Don’t call me that.”
I eyed my prince. Halfling...?
“Julian’s a unicorn? For real?” Gabriella’s head tilted to the side and her mouth fell open. “Is that why my magic never worked right around him?”
Master Corwin snorted. “Magic warps the natural order of things. Unicorns purify everything around them. They restore the natural order simply by being there. No spell can last in their presence.”
I snorted and one ear tilted back. “And here, I just thought she was a screwup.”
Both Alberic and Master Corwin choked back a laugh.
Gabriella scowled. “What did he-she say?”
Alberic wiped the smile off his face and waved a gloved hand. “Nothing important.” He turned to master Corwin. “So, how do we turn Julian back?”
“Turn her back?” Master Corwin broke out into deep loud laughter. “My prince, you just did! This is Julianna’s true form!”
Alberic tilted his head to the side. “Haa...?”
Gabriella mouth fell open, again. “Juli-anna?”
“No!” I stomped a cloven hoof on the grass and tossed my head. “I was born of human parents!”
Corwin’s laughter died and his eyes narrowed on me. “One can change the shape of a thing, but not its true nature. That is a law of magic. Your nature is that of a unicorn. I saw it the moment I laid eyes on
you.”
I shook my head in confusion. “How the hell did that happen?”
Master Corwin rolled his eyes. “Well obviously, one of your parents, or possibly grandparents was a unicorn in human form, how else?”
I stepped backward, not an easy thing with four legs. “Not possible.”
“Sure it is.” Corwin folded his massive arms across his chest. “Unicorns are known to be shape-changers.”
Alberic blinked. “They are?”
Corwin rolled his eyes. “Of course they are. Why do you think they’re so difficult to find?”
Unicorns were shape-changers? Did that mean I was too? I took a step toward Master Corwin. “I can get my human body back?”
Corwin shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
Alberic and I both spoke at the same time. “How?”
Corwin set his hands on his hips and snorted. “Don’t ask me, I’m not a unicorn.”
Alberic scowled. “So we need a unicorn.”
And there just happened to be one in this kingdom.
Both Alberic and I looked at Gabriella.
Gabriella blinked. “What?”
Alberic pointed at her. “Where is that unicorn?”
Gabriella scowled and folded her arms under her more than ample bosom. “What for? We already have one.” She stared pointedly at me.
Alberic’s scowl deepened. “I am not leaving Julian this way.”
Gabriella scowled right back. “Don’t you mean Julianna?” She curled her lip in a sneer. “I’m perfectly fine with Julianna being this way. It’s her true form, isn’t it?” She turned her back on me. “Let her keep it!”
Alberic’s face went white, his hands fisting at his sides. “Obey me, witch!”
Gabriella stepped back from him, but her eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth. “I refuse! I refuse to help you with that...animal!”
Alberic’s face went red with anger. “Julian is not an animal!”
Master Corwin shook his head and tisked. “Jealousy is such an ugly thing.”
Gabriella balled her fists and screeched at the top of her lungs. “I don’t give a fuck! Why should I help him with that thing!” She pointed at me. “When he already has me?” Angry tears began to streak down her cheeks. “I’m more than enough woman for any man, and I’m perfectly human!”
