by Kate Gordon
“Of course.”
“Thanks!” Chloe swung her backpack on. “I better get walking. Thanks for keeping Angel here, Lil. I’ll see you tonight. Hope I can get out okay. That’s almost scaring me more than the thought of Abellona.”
Shutting Rainbow into a yard by the barn, Lily hugged Chloe. “You’ll be fine. Give yourself plenty of time and clear the way before you go to bed. Remember the dog toy here?” Chloe smiled and nodded.
Sasha wrapped them both in a bear hug. “You won’t trip over anything – there’s never anything out of place at your house! You’ll be right, mate. See you later.”
Chloe waved as she set off down the drive towards home, church and extra tutoring.
Going into the barn to get her gear, Sasha said, “Wish I could come with you.”
Lily grabbed Rainbow’s tack and the box of brushes. “I know. But you have to go support your sister. Is your dad going too?”
They groomed the ponies quickly. “I hope so. I haven’t seen much of him lately.” She picked out Tommy’s feet, Lily matching her actions with Rainbow. “Mind you, Mum will just go on and on at him all day, so it’s probably nicer for him if he’s not there.”
Lily flipped the saddle cloth over Rainbow’s shiny bay back. “I wish there was something I could do to help, Sash.”
“There isn’t, but thanks.” Sasha tightened the girth. “Well, Tommy, it’s time to leave the peace and harmony of Lily’s home.”
“Come here, you.” Lily wrapped Sasha in a tight hug. “Hopefully there’s no fighting today anyway. I’ll text you when I know more.”
“You better!” Sasha swiped a tear off her cheek and turned to mount her chestnut.
“Bye!” Lily closed the gate onto the driveway behind Sasha. “I’ll just run and tell Mum we’re having a quick ride,” she said to her pony. “Then we’ll go.”
Lily dismounted to get Rainbow through the gate from the horse paddock into the cross-country paddock. Kahurangi tried to push through to Gracie and Angel.
“Move back, girl.” She opened the gate just wide enough for Rainbow. “I haven’t got time to catch you again if you get out.” She swung the gate shut millimetres behind Rainbow’s rump, into the faces of Gracie and Angel who wanted to follow. “You guys!”
Lily swung up onto Rainbow and walked him along the fence-line, all the mares following on their respective side of the fence. They swung left up the far edge of this paddock where it backed into the pine forest. The hill rose before them and Lily leaned forward to help Rainbow as he bounded upward. Kahurangi ran with them for a while then turned back to the others.
“Good fitness work, buddy.” Lily pulled Rainbow up at the top, the pony breathing hard in the cool morning breeze blowing in off the sea. She could see right over their farm to the bush and the beach. “I forgot how great it is up here. You can see right along Whale Bay beach and back towards town. There’s Sasha’s place along the road too.”
She turned to the back boundary of the paddock. “Let’s hope it’s not padlocked.”
They trotted over.
“Curses, it is.”
She looked around. Along a bit, a big pine branch had fallen on the fence, breaking some wooden battens which normally kept the wire taut, but now it was sagging. She rode Rainbow over and dismounted.
“Perhaps we could jump here.”
Looping his reins over the fence, she pulled the broken, rotting branch out of the way.
“It’s about shoulder height on you, Rainbow, so that should be okay.”
She clambered over the fence and pulled more branches away, so Rainbow had a safe place to land. “That should do it.”
She could feel the minutes ticking away as she showed Rainbow the fence and circled him. Perhaps she should have just gone the other way and risked that someone might see her go into the forest without asking permission.
But she was here now, and they simply had to jump the broken fence.
Lily cantered Rainbow at the fence. One, two, three strides and over!
She gasped as the pony stumbled slightly on landing before she managed to turn him away from the trees. He picked his way carefully through the scrub growing between the pines and the fence. Lily asked Rainbow to canter as soon as they reached the track into the pines leading from the locked gate.
“I’m sure this track takes us to the main one, so let’s go!”
The rough gravel trail took them across a ridge line then they slowed to go down a hill. “Here’s the main track.”
Familiar with the road’s ups and downs, they cantered quickly through to the gate at Sanderson Road. A swift gallop along the grass verge bought them to the abandoned farm driveway.
She pulled Rainbow up partway across the paddock where the unicorns grazed at night. It was empty.
Her heart sank. “We know they hide in the daytime, Rainbow, but I hoped we’d see some sign of them. Let’s look along the edge of the bush.”
Lily and Rainbow trotted in and out of the pockets of bush-clad gullies which edged the paddock. At every patch of trees, her hopes lifted. Surely some unicorns would be lying down among the native shrubbery.
But there were no unicorns. Anywhere.
Did Abellona reach them overnight? Could they have been captured?
She choked back a sob.
“No! I don’t believe it. We have to keep looking.”
They reached the end of the big paddock. Acres and acres of the abandoned farm stretched away into the hills. Clumps of trees and bush were dotted all over. Fences wouldn’t stop the herd going wherever they wanted, but Lily and Rainbow would have to go through the gates and search each block of bush. The unicorns could be anywhere.
Lily pulled her phone out of her jeans’ pocket. Drat. She didn’t have time to search more or she’d never get home for eleven o’clock.
“Oh, Ambrosius, where are you?” she called into the brisk breeze.
But there was no response.
“Come on, Rainbow, we may as well go back.” She asked him to walk. “I thought they’d be nearby, but we could look and look, and still not find them.” She sniffed as tears pricked her eyes. “I still wouldn’t know if they were just hiding or somehow Abellona did reach them. We’ll just have to hope they meet us at the gate tonight as planned.”
Swiping a tear away, Lily nudged Rainbow into a trot as they crossed the paddock and started down the driveway.
Please be okay, Ambrosius!
Lily trotted Rainbow through the pine forest, not wanting to tire him too much before tonight’s long ride moving the unicorns. Well, she hoped that was what they’d be doing.
Over and over, she asked herself, could Abellona have reached the herd? Was Mikaela’s ability to sense the evil witch accurate?
She wiped away more tears.
Please, don’t let it be true. They will be safe, resting somewhere I couldn’t see.
She couldn’t be bothered going home via the hill paddock. If someone in the house saw her coming through the forest gate...well, that was the least of her worries.
Feeling glum, Lily sat in the back seat, trying to message Sasha and Chloe while Liam shouted excitedly from his car-seat as they passed things on the road.
“Truck! Tractor! Car! Beach, beach, beach!”
She felt the most un-beachy she’d ever been in her life. But now she was stuck with playing in the shallows with Liam while Mum went swimming.
“No sign of herd,” she tapped on her phone. “Prob jst hiding smwhre I cdnt see.”
A reply from Sasha pinged back immediately. “Could be captured!”
“No sign of fight,” Lily tapped, realising the significance of the uninterrupted peace of the abandoned farm. Surely, if Abellona had attacked the herd there, she’d have seen something – ripped up pasture, hoof prints, blood... “All peaceful and undisturbed.”
Feeling slightly less worried with that realisation, she sent the same messages to Chloe.
“Not conclusive,” Sasha re
plied, “Im still worried.
“Me too but trying not to.” Lily pressed send as Chloe replied, “I hope that’s a good sign. Wht do you think?”
“More likely herd is hiding than captured. Hope so anyway.”
Mum pulled Lily’s door open. “Come on, Lily, we’re waiting for you.”
“What? Why?” Lily shoved her phone in her backpack and scrambled out of the car.
“We parked and unpacked ages ago.”
“You did?” She hadn’t noticed, but now saw Liam was strapped into the big-wheeled buggy Mum sometimes took running. Kuia was ready to push it over the sandy path to the beach.
“Beach, beach, beach,” Liam repeated.
“We’re going, buddy. Lily, carry the blankets.” Mum shoved a pile into Lily’s arms and picked up a cooler bag of drinks and snacks.
After the usual kerfuffle applying sunscreen to Liam, Mum waded into the sea and waved to Lily standing in the shallows, holding Liam’s hand. His bucket and spade were clutched in the other.
“Want to make sandcastles?” she asked, leading him over to Kuia sitting on the blanket.
“Yes!” Liam shouted, running ahead.
The sun was much warmer then when she’d been riding earlier, so she pulled off her t-shirt. She had her swimsuit on underneath. “Can you put sunscreen on my back please, Kuia? You dig here, Liam, that’s nice firm sand to make a pretty sandcastle for Kuia.”
Worried as she was about the unicorns, Lily figured there wasn’t much she could do now so decided to build a sandcastle to rival Liam’s.
Chapter Twelve
Waiting by the barn, Lily flinched at the tiny clink of metal on metal.
“Sorry,” hissed Chloe as she appeared out of the night. “I tried to be so careful with the gate latch too.”
Lily grabbed Chloe’s hand. “Come on. I stashed our tack under the trees in the horse paddock again. Sasha is meeting us there.”
The crunch of their steady footsteps on the gravel yards around the barn sounded awfully loud in the still, cool night.
A morepork’s simple call made them both jump. Lily huffed out a breath of relief when they got through the gate into the horse paddock and could walk quietly on the grass. “Gee, it’s awful, this sneaking out at night, isn’t it? I’ve never been so worried in all my life.”
“I reckon,” Chloe whispered. “My heart was beating so loud as I went past Mum’s room, I was sure she’d be able to hear it.” She stumbled over a clump of grass. “Oof! Mum’s been asking some funny questions.”
“Like what?”
“Like have I heard any noises in the night or noticed the back door was unlocked?”
“Oh, help...”
“Come on, you two!” Sasha’s voice hissed from the gloom by the trees.
“Ooh...” Chloe gasped, her hand clutching at Lily’s. “I didn’t expect you to be here yet.”
“Ambrosius said an hour before moonrise, didn’t he?” Sasha sounded anxious. “And we checked the moon chart together, so I’m here and you both need to hurry up! The ponies are standing together around here.”
As quickly as she could, Lily put Rainbow’s bridle and saddle on. The pony snorted, shifting as she pulled the girth up. “Steady, boy, you’re excited about these night rides now, aren’t you?”
Sasha swung up into Tommy’s saddle. “He’s not excited, just worried we’re not going to find the unicorns tonight, that they’ve been captured,” she said angrily.
Lily bit her lip. There was no point snapping back at Sasha. They were just as worried as each other. Checking Chloe was okay, she mounted Rainbow and leaned down to check the girth. “We better get moving then. The sooner we reach the farm, the sooner we’ll know.”
Sasha pushed Tommy into a trot as soon as they were clear of the trees. The night was dark, and the ponies followed the familiar route to the forest gate without any problems.
“Sigvard!” Sasha exclaimed in a kind of whispered shout as they caught sight of the big unicorn.
Lily felt a surge of excitement. "He's here! I hope that means that the herd is alright.”
Sasha flung herself off Tommy and over the gate to wrap her arms around Sigvard's neck. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, we are. We have rested, Brökk says he’s nearly back to full strength and now Ambrosius is anxious to move, so let us hurry.”
Sasha bustled everyone through the gate and secured the latch. “Any sign of Abellona?”
“Mikaela says she senses her much more strongly now.” His voice was factual, resolute. “She must be close.”
Lily's stomach clenched. This is it. We are definitely helping the unicorns to move tonight.
“Do you need the glow?” asked Sigvard. “I would prefer not to show any light if we can.”
“I think the ponies will be okay if we stick together,” said Sasha. “What do you think?” She looked at the others.
Lily nodded, too anxious to speak.
“I guess so,” said Chloe, her face pale and scared in the faint light from the stars.
“Then let's go.” The unicorn cantered off along the track, Sasha and Tommy right beside him. Lily and Chloe followed close behind, but they'd only gone a few metres before Chloe waved her arm at Lily.
“I have to stop.” She clutched her mouth and slipped from Angel's back before stumbling to the edge of the track.
“Wait!” Lily called to the others.
“What?” said Sasha.
“It’s Chloe,” said Lily as she caught Angel’s loose reins. She heard Chloe being sick. “Are you okay, Chlo’?”
“Um, I think so.” She came around her pony. “I guess it’s nerves.”
“I know how you feel.” Lily slipped off Rainbow. “I’ll give you a leg-up.”
“Thanks. Actually, I feel better now.”
“Good,” came the unicorn’s rumbling voice. “Ambrosius awaits!”
Sigvard plunged off into the night, and Lily let Rainbow spring forward after him and her friends. No one wanted to get left behind in the dark.
Cantering up a hill towards a clearing in the pines, Lily had an awful sensation they were being followed.
She glanced round.
Oh no!
The words froze in her throat.
Something black and winged broke the star-lit night sky high above them.
Anchoring her hands against Rainbow’s saddle as he cantered fast with the others, Lily turned her body to get a better look.
One large flying creature. About the size of a pegasus.
It could be Guilio.
Oh, there was something on the pegasus’s back. And several smaller flying creatures around it.
A cold fear washed over her, leaving her weak and desperately hanging onto her pony.
Their worst nightmare.
“Abellona!” she managed to croak.
Sigvard didn’t hesitate, plunging off the track into the pines. The ponies followed, stumbling over old tree stumps and scrub as they tried to keep up with the bigger unicorn.
Lily’s heart pounded. Oh god. What if a pony caught a leg in a rabbit hole? She didn’t know whether to slow Rainbow or trust he could see much better than she could. It was terrifying!
“Sigvard, wait!” she called.
Instantly, the unicorn spun to face her. The ponies didn’t need to be told to stop. They were all breathing hard.
Lily tried to catch her breath. “It’s Abellona, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Sigvard scanned the sky through the trees overhead.
Chloe gasped. “Oh, no!”
“We’ve got to keep going, to tell the herd,” Sasha shouted hoarsely.
“We all need to keep going,” he replied briskly. “But they’ll know. Guilio should have got through with a message from Mikaela well before Abellona came out of the chasm.”
“Um,” Chloe squeaked, “if you’re here, was Mikaela alone on the beach?”
“No.” Sigvard snapped his gaze to Chloe, then back to the sky. “
Fredek and Isak, my next in command, were on guard. All three will have made their way back to the herd as soon as they were sure when Abellona would arrive.”
“But what if none of them managed to reach the herd?” Lily’s stomach clenched again, and she had to swallow hard to stop being sick. “What if Ambrosius doesn’t know? You must go, Sigvard! And fast! The ponies will help us find the herd, I’m sure, if you move from the farm.”
Sigvard shook his head, his mane flying impatiently. “We all go. Together. Ambrosius said I was to bring you safely to him. I can’t leave you here with her hunting overhead.”
“But surely she’s looking for unicorns, not humans,” Sasha said. “You’re in more danger out here, away from the herd, than we are.”
The warrior unicorn snorted. “I’ve fought Abellona before and won, believe me!”
“Sigvard, please, just go,” Lily begged. “The herd needs you. We’ll be okay.”
“Go!” Sasha shouted again.
The dark grey unicorn looked at Sasha, his eyes worried. “I do not like leaving you against Ambrosius’s orders.”
“We know, but Ambrosius needs you more than we do.” Sasha reached out to smooth the wild curls of his forelock out of his eyes. “We’ll follow, keeping watch carefully all the way.”
“Very carefully.” Sigvard rubbed his cheek on Sasha’s hand.
“Of course.”
Tears pricked Lily’s eyes. The unicorns meant so much to them now. She’d do anything to help keep them safe.
Sigvard spun on his hocks and disappeared into the darkness.
They were alone in the forest. Lily shivered as an icy chill trickled down her neck. Somewhere in the skies above, a demented witch was trying to track down and capture their unicorn friends.
“I’m frightened,” Chloe whispered.
“Me too.” Lily grabbed Chloe’s hand and squeezed. “But I trust the ponies will follow Sigvard’s path somehow and lead us to the herd. Come on.”
She pointed Rainbow in the direction Sigvard had gone and the others followed.
“Have we done the right thing,” Chloe called in a hushed voice, “sending Sigvard away?”
“Of course we have.” Lily leaned back as Rainbow scrambled down a small bank onto what looked like a rough track. “Making sure the herd knows Abellona is here is the most important thing. As Sasha said, she’s hunting for unicorns, not people.”
