by Kate Gordon
Sigvard paused. “You’re right, my apologies.” Around him a warm light grew, pushing back the shadows. “I’m not feeling quite myself.”
Sasha and her chestnut gelding shone brightly in the pool of light as they walked up the forestry track. “I forgot how cool this is!”
Lily couldn’t work out the look that Sigvard gave Sasha. Kind of confused, perhaps.
He replied. “Let us move faster. The night will pass more swiftly than you realise.” With that, he broke into a canter. Slow, Lily thought, by his standards, but plenty fast enough for the ponies on a rough track. Not that Rainbow seemed to mind; he was full of energy and needed checking from time to time through the ups and downs of the forestry track.
Sigvard made an easy leap over the boundary gate while Sasha unlatched the gate for the ponies. “You could have come through the gate with us, Sigvard,” she said.
“But why?” his deep voice rumbled with humour. “It barely comes up to my elbow.”
Sasha laughed as they cantered along the grass verge, which they could see easily thanks to Sigvard’s circle of light. They swept around into the driveway of the abandoned farm. Sigvard called a halt as they crested the drive and, breathing hard, the ponies pulled up beside the King’s lieutenant.
Chapter Six
“Oh. My. God,” Sasha breathed. “I forgot how beautiful they are.”
Lily drank in the sight of the unicorn herd dotted around the wide pasture. Each unicorn was bathed in its own nimbus of light, and where a pair grazed side by side, the pools of light merged to be bigger and brighter.
Magical and magnificent. She sighed. Like the most beautiful horses you’ve ever seen, with one difference – they all have that steely glint of a unicorn horn.
“Wow.” Chloe sighed. “It’s amazing to see them like this, isn’t it?”
Lily could only nod, her heart full of an unexpected love for the whole herd.
“I love all the colours,” Chloe continued, her voice hushed. “Some like Sigvard, that deep, burnished pewter grey. Look, those ones are almost pure white – I wonder if they’re very old. There’s every shade of dappled silver-grey, some with dark manes, some with lighter manes. And the foals, of course, which are much darker. Kind of like Lipizzaner horses, aren’t they, in that way?”
“Yes,” replied Lily, knowing Chloe referred to the breed of white horses who were born black, made famous by the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. She’d studied their history for a school project. “Do you see how they have very small horns, like they’re just starting to grow?”
The foals were absolutely darling.
And that made her even more worried.
Ambrosius’s request for them to help hide the herd from Abellona felt very real as she watched a foal suckling from its mother. What if they tried their very best but still couldn’t help the unicorns?
She took a deep breath and tried to let the worry go. Like Kuia always said, worrying doesn’t change anything, except make you more worried.
Sigvard’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Come. Ambrosius is with Brökk.”
Reaching the pair, Ambrosius greeted them warmly. “I am pleased to see you all. Forgive my eagerness, but I hope your internet search was fruitful.”
The unicorn’s friendly welcome made Lily feel a bit better. He trusts us to help as best we can, and that’s what we’re doing. “We have some possibilities.” She dismounted, looped and buckled Rainbow’s reins around his neck so they wouldn’t slip off over his head, and ran the stirrups up the leathers before letting him go to graze. “Don’t go far, Rainbow.”
“He won’t,” said Ambrosius.
“How do you know?” Lily asked, slipping her backpack off as the others dismounted and did the same with their ponies.
“I asked him, and he said so.”
She stopped. “You asked him? How?”
“Any one of us – even a foal – can communicate with your ponies.” The unicorn king chuckled. “We are all equines after all.”
“Well, please ask Tommy not to be difficult being caught again,” Sasha said as she patted her chestnut pony and let him go.
Sigvard snorted with amusement. “He says he thinks it’s funny to make you run.”
“Oh, does he?” Sasha tried not to smile but failed. “You’re very cheeky, Tommy!”
The pony lifted his tail and farted as he trotted off.
“He knows what I said!” Laughing, Sasha turned to Sigvard.
“Horses understand a lot more than humans believe,” the warrior unicorn replied. “And now, to your search.”
“I know, but Brökk first if that’s okay,” Lily replied, reaching into her backpack. “Chloe, do you want to start the tablet? And Sasha, could you get the bucket off Rainbow’s saddle and half fill it with water from the trough, please?”
She pulled out the tonic and walked beside Ambrosius to where the darkest of all the unicorns had moved to lie down under a tree.
Lily sensed a kind of hum, a buzz of energy around Brökk. If I can feel this now, imagine what it’s like when he’s healthy and strong.
“My friend,” Ambrosius said to the mage, “you remember Lily.”
Brökk lifted his head with a sigh. “Greetings, young one.” His voice croaked with exhaustion.
Lily knelt beside the unicorn mage and stroked his neck. Her hand warmed as the feeling of immense power intensified. “It’s good to see you, Brökk. I hope you’re feeling a little better tonight.” Was it really only twenty-four hours since she’d first seen the unicorns?
“Ja, a little better, but not out of danger!” He sounded upset, and the hum of magical power fractured for a moment. “No, we are all still very much in danger. So much so that we need to risk asking for help from a human we do not know in a land unfamiliar to us. Bah!” Brökk looked away into the trees with a snort of disgust.
Lily sat back on her heels. What can I say that doesn’t upset him more? If you look at it from Brökk’s point of view, he’s right – they are still in danger. But at least they escaped Abellona for the time being. He did the best that he could, and now he’s exhausted and hurt.
“Brökk, if you don’t mind,” she said respectfully, “I have bought the herbal tonic we talked about this morning.”
“Well, other than time to rest, which we don’t have, or being able to cast a strengthening spell upon myself, which I don’t have the strength to do, we don’t seem to have any option other than to try your tonic, do we?”
Oh dear. Lily looked at Ambrosius. Was she making things worse?
“Now, Brökk, there’s no need to put your frustrations on Lily,” Ambrosius said gently. “She’s just trying to help, and you must admit, we need all the help we can get right now.”
Brökk looked away into the distance for a long while as Lily waited anxiously. Then he sighed loudly, his head bowed down to the ground. “Very true, Sire. I apologise. That was uncalled for.”
After a slow breath, he looked at Lily, his eyes showing some of the spark that she imagined was more usual. “Bring forth your tonic,” he said politely.
Carrying the bucket, Sasha crouched down beside Lily, who opened the small bottle. “My grandmother is a respected healer in the old traditions of the Māori people. She said this will help heal your burns.”
Brökk looked towards Ambrosius, who nodded his encouragement. “It’s worth trying, Brökk, is it not? We have herbalists in our country after all.”
The mage sniffed at the bottle. “It doesn’t smell dangerous anyway.”
Lily smiled. “This is rongoā – Māori medicine – used for hundreds, if not thousands of years.”
Carefully, using the unicorn light, she measured out two capfuls and swished it around in the water.
“If you would like to drink this bucket slowly over the next half hour, my grandmother says that’s best. I’ll leave another one made up for you for the morning.”
Brökk took a cautious sip. “Ja, I will do that.”
“The grass here is good for grazing, Ambrosius,” said Sasha, “but is Brökk able to eat? Would some other kind of food be helpful?”
“How do you mean, child?”
“Like the hard feed we have for the ponies. High nutrition horse pellets made from grain.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea, Sasha,” Chloe chipped in. “What a shame we didn’t think of that before we came over tonight.”
“We are familiar with it. If you wish to return tomorrow, I’m sure the additional food will be very welcome,” Ambrosius said. “I can think of a few of foals who could also benefit. Perhaps we can see them once we look at your map.”
“We’d love to,” Lily smiled. “When Brökk is finished, we could give the foals a little tonic as well. I have one for exhaustion and stress too.”
“If you feel it will help them, by all means.”
Happiness surged through Lily. She didn’t know much about Kuia’s herbs – yet – but it felt good to help.
Lily got to her feet, unsure how the grumpy, injured mage would react to her next suggestion. She swallowed. “Um, Brökk, do you think I could check you over...? I have two salves, balms, from my grandmother, one for burns, one for cuts and bruises. We know you have burns and perhaps other injuries I can treat. Are you able to stand up for a few minutes, please?”
She thought she heard Brökk groan.
“Only if it’s not too painful,” she added.
“Are you able, Brökk?” Ambrosius asked gently.
With a sigh and several more groans, the mage stood up. He shook his head carefully, then looked at Lily. “All right, get on with it.”
“I’ll try not to hurt you.” Gently, she ran her hands down Brökk’s shoulder, feeling for heat which indicated bruising or cuts on a horse and, presumably, a unicorn.
Avoiding his legs for the moment, as she knew they were burnt, Lily felt something on his chest. She looked hard, struggling to make it out against his black coat. “It looks like another burn.”
“Ja, burns everywhere, like we already said. I’m often burned making chasms,” he grumbled. “But usually I can fix them myself.”
“Can I put the salve on?”
“If you do my legs as well.”
Pleased he was accepting her help, Lily gently applied the salve. Sasha and Chloe gently stroked Brökk’s head and neck. Bit by bit, Lily could feel him relax.
Perhaps he’s never had much contact with the person Ambrosius talked about. Maybe we’re the first people to touch him.
That was a nice feeling.
“Brökk, why didn’t tell us you were so badly burnt?” Chloe’s question was quiet.
The mage was silent for some time. “I didn’t agree with Ambrosius that three small human girls could help us.”
Oh. Lily hesitated, then Sasha asked the question before she could.
“So why do you trust us to help you now?”
Brökk sighed as Lily crouched down to apply the burn salve to his fetlocks. “I must be honest and say I questioned Ambrosius when he rushed straight into this connection with Lily. That was not wise. But to find a believer right away, things did seem to be going in our favour. Perhaps you will be able to help us keep out of Abellona’s clutches.”
Lily bit her lip. “I didn’t know if I could help, but I think I am – I mean, we are, aren’t we?”
“Indeed, you are.” Ambrosius nuzzled her shoulder.
Brökk replied, “I no longer doubt you are doing everything you can to help, Lily. I can feel the salve working already.” Tears sprung in Lily’s eyes at his sudden praise of her efforts. “It seems our Sire was right to trust his instincts when he felt the strength of the connection with you.”
Wow. Lily kept her head down, blinking the tears away as she finished soothing the rich herbal balm on Brökk’s leg.
Chloe’s quiet voice came next. “If you don’t mind me asking, have you never felt a connection with a human, Brökk?”
“I have not. Perhaps I have been too cautious. I have always felt I must protect my powers, and from my observations, one can never be sure how that connection with a human may result.”
Lily stood up, screwing the lid on the jar. “A connection might not be a positive thing?”
“Not always,” replied Ambrosius. Lily wondered what happened for him to say that.
“Oh, that’s interesting,” said Sasha, her hands tidying Sigvard’s curly mane where she could reach.
“We’ll talk about it sometime,” said Ambrosius, “but now I want to see what possibilities for another location you have found.”
Lily wiped her hands on the grass. “Let’s look at that webpage Chloe bookmarked. Can you show us, Chlo?”
Chloe turned so the unicorns could look over her shoulder at the map open on the little screen. “Right, so we’re here now.” She pointed out the dead-end of Sanderson Road and the abandoned farm. “There’s the forest behind us. Lily said you came up from the beach here.”
Lily spoke. “Looking at the first possibility we found near school, which is possibly large enough, it would mean a long way by road.” She leaned in to trace her finger along a route from the abandoned farm onto the main highway then around the back of town to a park near their school.
She frowned. “We’re worried how the whole herd could travel unseen along the highway.”
“Hmm.” Ambrosius nodded.
“The problem is that nearly all the parks we found would have a similar route.” Chloe tapped the screen to show four other options.
“Yes, we see that,” said Sigvard.
Ambrosius said, “We can send Guilio to scout ahead, but he is only one pegasus and also in danger of being seen.”
Lily chewed her lip, worried. “I don’t know how you’d get to any of these without being seen, but we plan to ride around as many of the parks as we can tomorrow morning to see how near houses they are, whether there are good hiding places, access to fresh water. How much grazing do you need?”
“We have fifty mares, fifteen with foals at foot and thirty warriors,” replied Sigvard.
“So that’s nearly one hundred all together,” came Chloe’s quick response.
“How do you add so quickly?” Lily flashed a smile at her friend, who always topped the maths tests. “That’s a lot of grazing. I didn’t think to count when we saw you this morning. Some of those parks will be too small.” She paused to think. “Are you sure you can’t stay where you are until Brökk is well again? I can’t see how all of you can safely travel along the main highway anyway – there’s always trucks no matter what the time of night.”
“Every day we stay within a day’s travel of the chasm is another day closer Abellona is likely to be.”
“A day’s travel?” Lily looked at Ambrosius, concerned. “But none of these parks are that far away.”
“But if they’re close enough to humans so that human scent helps disguise us, that will definitely help.”
“O-k-a-y,” she said slowly, still concerned they’d been looking for the wrong sort of hiding place.
Chloe asked, “How many days does it take you to come through the chasm?”
“Without the passing of day and night, it’s difficult to be accurate, but approximately three,” said Sigvard.
“You must all have been very tired.” Lily smoothed her hand down Ambrosius’s muzzle.
“We were, especially the mares and foals, despite setting our pace to look after the youngest as best we could,” he replied.
“You talked about a distraction, right?” Chloe continued. “So that gave you a head-start on Abellona?”
“Ja, we waited to leave until Guilio could barely sense his brother’s presence, which meant Galen and therefore Abellona, who was following Pudersnö, were on the far side of our land.”
“How would she know you’d left? And if she’s had to track your departure point and travel through the chasm, she might be days away.” Chloe’s voice lifted with hope.
; “We anticipate she would know within hours of our departure,” replied Sigvard. “Although we managed to stay hidden from Abellona for many months, the sheer force of magic that Brökk had to exert to create the chasm would immediately be noticed. One of her many spies would undoubtedly have passed on that information.”
“She sounds horrible!” Lily’s stomach was queasy. Imagine living in hiding and a witch so evil she’d force you to fight in her private army.
Ambrosius sighed. “That is the way it has been for many years.”
“We’ve chanced our lives by coming to your country.” Sigvard’s voice was dark. “Yet it is a gamble we would make again if we can change our future.”
“We’ve got to be able to help,” Sasha said with passion. “Somehow!”
“We already are,” said Chloe decisively. “Let’s focus on finding the best hiding place we can. How long do you think it would take Abellona to reach the chasm?”
“About three days, maybe less,” replied Ambrosius.
“Okay, so if you arrived last night, Thursday, after about three days in the chasm, she could have entered it as you emerged, right?”
Lily saw Chloe’s logic and nodded, as Sigvard replied snappily, “Yes, we know that.”
“Well, I’m just trying to make sure we all understand correctly,” Chloe replied with an authority that surprised Lily for her normally soft-spoken friend. “It’s Friday night now, so we have only forty-eight hours.”
“So they have to move by Sunday night?” Lily asked to be certain she followed the timeline.
“That’s right. The other problem I see is if there’s nothing around Whale Bay that could work as a hiding place, it’s a long way to another town and other people. And we wouldn’t be able to get there to check things anyway. You’d just have to leave here and travel through the big native forest which wraps right round Whale Bay and hope you get far enough away from the chasm that Abellona has trouble finding you.”
Ambrosius spoke. “Which offers Brökk little opportunity to rest.”
Chloe nodded.
If Lily felt sick before, she felt even worse now. If they couldn’t find a big enough park tomorrow, where would the unicorns go?
