Wednesday Briefs: Unicorn Quests Chapter 24

“Is that why he was stolen?” Londe asked.

“It was my fault,” Serai said. Her ears started to curl, and she rubbed her face against Tinn’il’s head. “My baby was taken from me.”

Squeaks broke out through the group, and the adults all looked up, fear writ across their furry features. Several darted back into their holes. I frowned, but the squeaks came again, this time from some of the young who were dancing around Marces’ hooves.

“It’s fine. We’re safe,” Tinn called.

“What you fear, it comes from the sky?” The mist… from the outside, I couldn’t see above it. But here, the sun was shining. The sky was bare above us. Something must have gotten in.

Something that could fly.

That Being. The one who hurt Colete.

“It shouldn’t have been possible,” Tera said. She’d sat on the ground and one of the older young was sitting in her lap. She was stroking its fur. “Many of my sisters had worked for decades to protect this place.”

“Why?” I had to know. This felt important, like the most important thing. But why would witches doing something like that?

Tinn spoke over Tinn’il’s head. “We are like… sponges. We can absorb magics, and once we have, it can be… spread to whoever wishes it.”

Absorb? Spread? Tinn’s large eyes were even larger, the rim completely surrounding the colored part exposed in a wide circle. He was spooked, speaking in a hushed voice. His ears were no longer erect, though they hadn’t curled. Serai was even worse. Her ears were completely folded, and she was trembling in his embrace as she whispered to Tinn’il.

Londe, ever blunt, cocked his head. “I take it you don’t survive the process?”

“No.” Tinn’s breath came short. “Someone was going to do that to my son.” Wicked claws flashed from the hand that wasn’t holding the young. “You saved him from that fate.”

“I am glad we could help him. I understand what it is like to have your magic stolen.” Magic. Soul. For me, it was one and the same, but I didn’t dare say that. I’d spent many nights staring up at the dark sky wondering if the pieces of myself I’d gifted them when they came into my life were what kept me alive. There was a hole inside me, a huge gaping hole, but those little tethers kept me here.

For them.

Londe stepped back, pushing his shoulder against me. I stood firm, pushing back. “But I never would have done anything to harm Tinn’il. I want my magic back, desperately, but the purity of my spirit would be sullied if I harmed an innocent to get it.”

I kept it to myself just how honest that statement was.

“What can we possibly offer you as thanks?” Serai asked.

“We did what any parent would do. Just protect him.” Londe gestured with his horn toward Colete and Marces. “As we protect them as they recover from the trauma they lived through.” They were playing with the locus young who had ventured back out. “Let them grow to be happy and healthy. He will too, if given the chance.”

Draping my arm over Londe’s withers, I squeezed him.

“You could stay,” Tinn offered.

“A rest where it is safer than the road would be nice, at least for a night. But we must get home.” Londe shifted at my words. ‘Don’t mention the map. They seem nice, but I don’t know that we can trust them. They lost a young so new he can barely speak.’

‘They love him. He was taken, they didn’t lose him,’ Londe objected. I felt his anger and a hint of guilt through our link.

‘Truth,’ I acknowledged. He was internalizing again, thinking I blamed him for the loss of our foals. But I didn’t. That was on me. ‘But I definitely don’t trust the witch.’

‘Agreed.’

We were welcomed by a locus elders and given a meal. Eventually, the young all collapsed in a heap. The older locus either were on watch, keeping an eye on the sky, or disappeared back in their warren. Londe and I found a shaded space under some trees that bordered the hill. Subtly, I pulled out the map.

Maize had said east and then south, which was a decoy for the humans listening in on our transaction. The dots moving in tiny motions on the map were still east of my symbol. She’d given me this map for a reason. ‘I think we need to go track down the others on this map.’

‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’

‘I don’t know. But we can’t go east anyway from here. These mountains are too steep. Maize gave them our southern direction. We can’t take the foals home yet safely in case we’ve gotten behind the humans who were trailing me. They could lay traps.’

‘So we go east. Toward the symbols on the map. I don’t like taking the young into more danger.’

I sighed and leaned back against Londe’s body. I folded the map, then rested my hands in my lap. There was nothing I could do. ‘Are they truly safe at home?’

His head sank down on the grass. ‘No,’ he said so softly, after such a long pause I almost missed it. ‘We’re safer together.’

‘Agreed.’ Which meant using this map that Maize gave me for some reason to help me. It was rare magic, valuable. It must be important.

“We’ll leave in the morning.”

“All right. Let’s rest now, while we can.”

“You have all the best ideas.” I curled sideways, resting my head against his sides, letting the rhythmic lift and fall of his breath take me away.

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Julie Lynn Hayes