by M. A. Larson
“Why am I always so negative? Allow me to enlighten you. Unicorns are the biggest pests in all the . . .” The inquisitive unicorns enveloped him. He sighed again. “. . . in all the land. Now we’ll have the lot of them following us all the way back to the Academy.”
As Evie slipped the rope over one of the unicorn’s heads, dozens of other snouts began inspecting her. “Hello,” she said, smiling at all the innocent, soulful eyes looking at her. “You’re just determined to be a grump, that’s all. I think they’re absolutely magical.” She remounted her unicorn and smiled down at the small herd in front of her.
Forbes shook his head darkly, then climbed onto the unicorn Evie had prepared for him. “On the positive side, perhaps your family will think they’re as magical as you do and eat them instead of me.”
• • •
Forbes slapped the unicorn on the snout. “Get away, vile beast!”
The curious creature jumped back and disappeared into the herd. They were milling by the dozens around the makeshift campsite set up at the bank of a glassy lake. Evie was eating what was left of an enormous fish they’d caught earlier, after riding well into the night. The unicorns had followed them through the forest, over streams, across thin mountain trails, and around the vast lake stretching out before them now. As they chose a flat piece of ground and set about building a cook fire, the unicorns made themselves at home. They didn’t just linger on the fringe of camp; they walked right through as if Evie and Forbes were just two more members of the herd.
The rain had stopped several hours earlier, and now the chirp of crickets and the croak of frogs surrounded them. The sky had cleared into a grand explosion of stars. The smell of the fire and the sounds of the cool evening brought her back to that first night she’d spent with Remington, the night they’d rescued each other from a wicked witch. She had been so suspicious of him then. So sure that, as a knight cadet, he would like nothing more than to kill her and her dragon family. Now here she was willingly bringing a different knight cadet to the family cave. How times had changed.
“You’re deadly with a line,” said Forbes. “I don’t suppose you could pull a bit of chocolate out of that lake.”
“Or one of those Friday tarts.”
“Mmm, yes, best pudding at the Academy, bar none.”
“I never would have rated you a lover of sweets.”
“Me?” he said with a laugh. “I would subsist entirely on chocolate if I could. You can keep your salt.”
A unicorn strolled between them. Evie held out a hand to stroke it. When it passed, she took another bite of fish and looked at Forbes out of the corner of her eye. “Could I ask you something without you having a tantrum?”
He shot her an irritated look.
“I’ve been thinking about my family, obviously, and . . . well, yes, they’re dragons, but I’ve always been a human, even when I didn’t know it. You . . . you actually became a pig. What was it like? I mean, do you remember when it happened?”
He took a deep breath and contemplated. “You can’t imagine what it feels like when your bones shrink. Or when bristly hair comes jutting out of your skin. The pain is incredible. But that’s not the worst of it. What haunts me is that while all that was happening to my body, I couldn’t stop thinking I’d just made a horrible mistake. The panic . . . the helplessness . . . it’s . . . it’s awful.” He stared into the fire, reliving the worst moment of his life. “On the other hand, as excruciatingly painful as it was to turn back into a human after I saw you, the exhilaration of knowing that my mistake was finally over was the greatest thing in the world. Greater than tarts.”
One of the unicorns whinnied in the darkness. Evie turned his words over in her head. “What about before that? When you first walked into the room to look at the portrait?”
“Ah, you mean how can we make my traumatic life experience about you?”
“That’s not what I—”
“It was you, Evie.” He was looking straight into her eyes without a trace of humor. “I know you’d love me to say I was wrong, but it was you in that painting.” He picked up a stick, broke off a piece, and tossed it in the fire. “There are a great many things I’ve forgotten in my life, and a great many more I’ll forget in the future, but not a moment of that day will ever be included. I can close my eyes and be right back in that room now. The dread was overwhelming, but I couldn’t contain my curiosity. And when I lifted the sheet . . .” He shook his head and blinked away the memory. “It was you.”
Evie said nothing. The portrait that had cursed Forbes had been haunting her since her earliest days at the Academy. Despite what he said, she still didn’t believe it could be her in the portrait. After all, she’d spent the majority of her life in the forest with dragons, miles and miles from humanity. How could she sit for a portrait and not remember it? Maggie had done some research and discovered that it could have been any number of other factors that caused Forbes’s curse, and also his cure. For a little while, Evie felt the weight of that mystery lifted. But then on the last day of her first year, King Hossenbuhr had mentioned the portrait by name: The Princess of Saudade. Remington had called her the Princess of Saudade in one of the visions she’d seen in the dragon’s blood. The coincidence of that had been too great to ignore, and she had been thrust right back into the mystery.
“I can see you don’t believe me. That’s fair. I don’t know if I’d believe me, either. But it’s you in that portrait. There’s not a doubt in my mind.” He prodded the embers, sending an orange spray into the air. “See for yourself when we get back. If the witches haven’t burned the place to the ground, that is.”
His words hit Evie like a splash of icy water. “See for myself?”
He looked up at her. “What, did you think he left it behind when they sacked our kingdom? His most prized possession? It’s right there at the Academy in that little fortress he’s created for himself.” He threw the stick into the fire.
Evie’s mind began to whirl. The portrait had been right under her nose. She suddenly felt fidgety, like she wanted to jump on a unicorn and ride south past all the witches and right into Hossenbuhr’s keep to see the portrait with her own eyes. To finally put to rest all her questions about it. Or would seeing it only create more?
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he said, throwing another stick into the flames. “Let me ask you a question. And no tantrums.”
She looked over at him, but her mind was a million miles away with King Hossenbuhr and the precious thing he was protecting.
“What do I do if your mother and sister try to eat me? I’ll have to fight back.”
“They won’t, you incredible fool,” she said with exasperation. “Not with me there. Just leave your sword sheathed, and you’ll be fine. They’re very nice.”
He snorted. “Nice. They’re bloody dragons.”
“They’re nice bloody dragons. My mother is lovely. So is my sister. We’re a very happy family.”
“‘A person can be great or happy, but not both.’ That’s what my father says.”
“I suppose that makes us great, doesn’t it?”
Forbes chuckled. “Perhaps it does. He’s also fond of saying that all great leaders end up alone, so we must be two of the greatest of all time.”
Another unicorn sauntered between them on its way to drink from the lake, where the water lapped gently against the shore. I’m not alone, she thought. My family is with me. And soon I’ll be with them.
“Why don’t you ever talk about your mother?” she said. His eyes shot up. The grim look on his face unnerved her.
“My mother was killed by a dragon.” He snapped a piece off a stick and tossed it in the fire.
Evie’s mouth fell open.
“That’s why I enlisted. All I’ve ever wanted was to learn to kill dragons. Ever since the day I watched my mother get dragged off into t
he woods.” He paused as the horrible memory bubbled up. “I wanted to do whatever I could to help ensure that no other little boy would ever have to go through what I went through. And now . . .” He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m about to crawl to them for help.”
The fire crackled, and the creatures chirped in the darkness. Evie watched him through the flames, abashed. She had no idea what to say.
“I’ve never told anyone that. I didn’t want to give the dragons any more power than they already had. But it’s true. They killed her. They ruined my life. And yet I’ll still go along with you tomorrow because I believe what you said is true. She is still inside me, and they’re still inside you, and all of us are doomed without their help.”
The unicorns milled about, whickering and stomping. Evie and Forbes both stared into the flames and let the song of the crickets fill the silence.
“It’s odd, isn’t it?” Evie finally said. “How much we’d like to kill each other’s relatives?”
Forbes laughed. “Your father’s dead and mine is a monster. My mother’s dead and yours is a monster.”
That was the end of their conversation. The image of King Hossenbuhr’s sword striking Remington’s chest repeated itself in her memory. If not for the patch of stone Countess Hardcastle had put there, he’d be dead now. She looked up at the stars. What had happened after they’d left? What was happening now?
At some point, as the flames dimmed, Forbes began to snore. King Hossenbuhr’s portrait troubled her, as did thoughts of her friends. Had Demetra made it to the Blackmarsh and rescued her mother? Had Basil found the Water of Life for his cursed sister? Was Marline frozen in stone on the bank of the river near Marburg? And what about Maggie? Had the wall fallen or was it still intact? Her mind only touched on Remington and found the memory as sharp as the needle of a spinning wheel. The dragons must help us break the siege, she thought. No more adapting. Now we fight.
Despite her bone-deep weariness, her mind was whirring. Even if she and Forbes did make it to the cave and persuade the dragons to help save a place whose stated mission was the eradication of all dragons, and even if they did somehow make it back to the Academy before the fairies’ magical wall fell, and even if they did somehow turn back not only the army of witches encamped in the Dortchen Wild, but also three enormous, bloodthirsty giants, there were still great challenges awaiting. Even if all those things came to pass and the Academy was saved, she would still have to confront the horrible business with Beatrice. The Headmistress General, second in rank only to the Queen herself, was working with the witches.
Her mind spiraled around those various thoughts for the next few hours until Forbes finally woke and she collapsed into a heavy sleep. She dreamt of goblins, more specifically goblins’ teeth, and didn’t stir again until the morning sun had risen and a unicorn’s soft muzzle tickled her nose. Then she was jolted awake by a snort of hot breath in her face. She sat up, her sleep-addled brain mystified by the herd of unicorns.
“More arrived in the night,” said Forbes. He was hidden somewhere in the sea of white-haired bodies milling about the lakeshore. Finally, she saw him peering over them. He had found the two with the flimsy celerywood ropes Evie had made. “Let’s be off before they completely pack us in.”
He mounted his unicorn. Evie stood and stretched with a yawn. She picked up her knapsack, took a drink of water, then climbed onto hers.
“These things were like weeds in Diebkunst,” growled Forbes. “We couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. I found three in my bedroom once. Inside my bedroom.”
The rest of the herd stared up at her. Forbes spurred his unicorn forward, forcing the creature to push through the others, who filled in the sea of white behind him as he passed. Evie did the same. She followed Forbes up the hillside along the lake that had been too treacherous without daylight. The unicorns followed one by one, a stream of white hair and pointy horns. The going was slow, but the unicorns performed admirably. Within an hour, they had all crested the hill, the entire traveling party. Evie was reminded of what it had been like to journey with Demetra’s family and all their attendant servants and guards.
Another mountain stream crossed the slope in front of them. This one was wider, with less defined banks. Still, it didn’t look particularly deep.
“We might have trouble here,” said Forbes. “I don’t know if you noticed yesterday, but unicorns hate the feel of water on their hooves.”
“How do we get across?”
He spurred his unicorn forward. It stepped right to the edge of the crystalline water but began to whinny when he tried to lead it through. The unicorn jerked its head and neighed, staring at the river with wide blue eyes.
“Come on!” he said. He kicked the unicorn’s sides even harder, but the animal refused to budge.
“They won’t respond to that,” said Evie. As more and more unicorns joined them at the top of the hill, she gave hers a gentle tap with her feet. It stepped forward and stopped next to Forbes’s. “Come on, now,” she said in a soft voice. “I know you’re scared, but you can do it.” The unicorn touched the water with its hoof. Forbes’s continued to jerk its head and whinny in protest. “That’s it. Just take a step and you’ll see it’s not so bad.”
Forbes yanked on the rope, trying to get his unicorn under control. Several others snorted and paced unhappily. For once, with the gurgling stream in front of them, the rest of the herd was keeping its distance.
Evie’s unicorn put a hoof in the water. It shook its head in protest but took another step forward. The stream only came up a few inches on its leg. “Well done, well done. Keep going.” The unicorn continued on, even as the water deepened. Once it reached the unicorn’s knee, it began to shallow again. Before long, they’d reached the other side. “That’s it! Well done!”
Forbes, however, was struggling to calm his unicorn. Finally, it bucked onto its hind legs and threw him into the water with a splash. Evie broke up in laughter. He stood and sloshed angrily across the stream, while his unicorn trotted away and joined the rest of the herd.
“It appears I’m riding with you,” he said, wiping the water from his face.
“Not ’til you’ve dried off,” she said with a grin.
“Fine.” He gave her a dark look and began to stomp away.
“I’m only having a laugh. Climb on.” She offered him a hand. “But I’m driving.”
After leaving the herd of unicorns behind, Evie and Forbes continued north through the land of dragons. They crossed a chain of glass-still lakes called Griselda’s Tears at midday, then rode west. The mountains seemed closer to the sky here, the land more musical. Though clouds still stretched from one horizon to the next, the pine needles were greener and the air was more refreshing.
Evie was home.
“Watch for dragons,” she warned. “It’s possible there are some new ones here who don’t know me yet.”
He grumbled and shook his head.
As the sun moved toward the horizon, they rode straight into the heart of another thick beech forest. The thousand-year-old trees bloomed toward the sky with boughs as bent and craggy as water through a canyon. With darkness falling, wolves sang out all around them. They drew nearer to the cave, and Evie’s stomach became a swirling eddy. She hadn’t seen her mother or sister since she’d crept away under cover of darkness nearly a year ago. How would they react to her return? She thought that her sister might possibly understand why she’d left, but her mother would almost certainly not. Then she changed her mind and envisioned her sister in a rage and her mother appealing for calm. Or perhaps they would both be angry. She just didn’t know.
Finally, after hours on unicornback, her body sore and tired and wet, Evie saw something familiar from her childhood. Under the softly diffused light of the full moon, a huge sweep of green mountain rose up before them. It was dotted with hundreds of limestone boulders, some as big a
s cottages. From here, the cave would only be an hour ahead, possibly less.
Her anxiety grew with every hill they crested and stream they crossed. Everything looked familiar now. Finally, they broke through the edge of the forest and emerged at the base of another mountain range. Evie’s range. There, a few hundred yards ahead, the side of the mountain was broken away in what looked like a violent explosion of sun-bleached stones and shattered tree trunks. This was where her father had crashed trying to save her life. Seeing it again took her breath away. His blood was still there, splashes of black washed and faded by the elements. Greenish-yellow shoots sprouted up everywhere, new life growing out of the crumbled stone, the decaying trees, the churned earth. She dismounted and ran her hands along the broken wall. Forbes climbed off as well and waited behind her.
“What happened here?”
She didn’t answer. Her hands worked across the stone, hoping that perhaps there might be another dragon scale embedded there, something she could use to replace the one that had crumbled. A wolf howled behind them.
“Uh, Evie? Perhaps we should be going.”
She gave the cliffside one last look, then, stomach churning, she led the unicorn across the huge stone plates at the bottom of the mountain. Where she had expected some measure of joy at returning home, she instead felt only dread. Certainty and dread. Something life-changing awaited her up ahead. She knew it in her bones.
They came around the mountain and there it was, barely visible in the moonlight. The family cave. Its mouth was an empty black swoop in the mountainside. Water trickled down through stone teeth and disappeared inside. It looked cold and empty and dark.
“Is this it?” whispered Forbes. He slid his sword out of its scabbard.
“Put that away,” she hissed. “It’s like you want them to eat you.”
She tried to coax the unicorn forward toward the cave, but it had reached the end of its journey. It pulled against the celerywood rope until finally it snapped. Then, with snorts and huffs, it turned and ran back the way they’d come.
