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Darian sat atop his unicorn, Wildwing, and continued to stare at Sheila. "You're back," he said at last.
"How have you been?" Sheila asked, unsettled by this less than warm greeting.
"We've been very busy," Darian answered as he dismounted and led Wildwing to drink from a large bucket of water. He dropped his eyes from Sheila's questioning gaze, and pretended to be engrossed in unsaddling the unicorn "Campora was a shambles of a city. Rebuilding and reorganizing it has kept us all occupied. This is really the first time we've ridden out of the city as a group since the battle."
Sheila was confused. Darian wasn't exactly snubbing her, but he wasn't being friendly, either. After all they had shared and felt about each other, she hadn't expected this neutral reaction. What was wrong?
"When you're finished grooming Wildwing, will you tell me all about what's been happening?" she asked.
Darian gave her a sharp look and then turned away quickly. "I have some other chores and things to do,'' he said. "I don't think I'll have time."
"Darian!" Dian called from the spot where she knelt over a rolled fur-skin blanket. "Help me with this knot. I want to air this blanket cut."
"Sure," he muttered.
Sheila scowled as she watched him head off in Dian's direction. Dian was always so possessive of Darian.
A soft whinnying distracted Sheila from her thoughts of Darian and Dian. She turned, and there stood Morning Star. The unicorn pranced over to Sheila and bent her head low, nuzzling Sheila's shoulder affectionately.
"I missed you so much, girl," Sheila murmured, running her hands through the unicorn's black mane and petting her broad white neck. “I've been so worried about you." Sheila stepped back and studied the animal. She seemed fine.
She was better than fine. Morning Star was clearly overjoyed to be reunited with Sheila. In her exuberance the unicorn began circling around Sheila, occasionally kicking up her black-stockinged legs in a sort of welcoming dance.
"What a change in that sulky girl," commented Illyria, who stood watching the scene. "She has done nothing but mope around since you left, and has let no other ride her."
As if understanding Illyria's words, Morning Star stopped her dance right in front of Sheila. With a running jump Sheila leapt astride the unicorn. It felt so right to be sitting on top of her strong back once again.
Morning Star took off at a gallop. "Ya-haaah!" Sheila yelled as the rising sun warmed her back and the gentle breeze whipped her hair around her face. This was the feeling she had missed, the freedom and the wildness. She leaned forward, urging Morning Star on. Together they leapt high, soaring over a fallen tree that blocked their path. It was like flying.
Despite their separation, Sheila and Morning Star fell instantly back into the silent, intuitive communication they had shared from the moment they first met. Sheila had only to think of where she wanted to go, and Morning Star bolted in that direction. Finally they both decided to return to the center of camp and rest.
Exhilarated and filled with happiness, Sheila slid off Morning Star's back, "You haven't forgotten a thing," said Nanine, who had been watching Sheila ride. "Most riders who don't practice for six months grow clumsy."
"It hasn't been nearly that long in my world," Sheila told her. "And I've been riding horses at a stable at home. It's not the same, though, not the same at all."
"No, indeed," Nanine agreed. "A horse and a unicorn may look much alike, but they are very different beasts."
Sheila splashed water on Morning Star's coat as the unicorn drank from a bucket. She remembered the carrots she had brought and dug into her garbage bag to find one for Morning Star. The unicorn gobbled up the rare treat so quickly that Sheila instantly fed her two more.
"I almost forgot—I brought presents for everyone," Sheila said, "I want everyone to be together when I give them out, though. Where is Pelu?"
Nanine's dark eyes took on a somber expression. ''Listen and you will hear her,'' she said. "She's singing to the sick unicorns."
Sheila concentrated and realized that Pelu's song—the song from her dream which had drawn her here—had been in her head all along. She had simply been too distracted to pay attention to it.
Now she heard it clearly once again. It was coming from behind her, to the right of the encampment, beautiful and high, sad, yet soothing "It's lovely, but I can't understand the words," Sheila said to Nanine.
Nanine shook her head. "It is some dialect from the high northlands. Pelu says it's a song her mother sang her long ago.
Sheila followed the sound with Morning Star beside her. They made their way down a grassy slope, and suddenly Sheila felt as though she were almost in her dream. She was heading into a tree-ringed grove where many unicorns stood. She could hear Pelu's voice, but could not see her.
She soon found the healer sitting and brushing the coat of a maple-colored unicorn colt who knelt before her looking dazed and tired. The woman with the gentle face and ash-blond braids was singing to the animal as a mother might soothe a small child who had awakened from a nightmare.
Pelu looked up when she heard footsteps approaching and smiled the same warm smile Sheila had taken comfort from so many times before. She didn't seem in the least surprised to see Sheila, just glad. She stopped singing and reached out to squeeze her hand in greeting. "I have been thinking of you as I sang to these poor ones,” she said. "I never doubted that one with your magic would hear me.”
Sheila followed PeIn's gaze and saw the "poor ones" she referred to. All around her, standing and kneeling, were unicorns who looked very ill, their once-lustrous coats now dull, their wide eyes frightened and pain-filled.
"I did hear. I heard you and Morning Star both,” Sheila said quietly. She felt awed by the knowledge that they had in fact been calling to her. Her dreams were real. "What's wrong with these unicorns?" she asked.
Pelu sighed. "If only I knew, One by one they are losing their zest and growing increasingly weaker. It seems as if the very life were being drawn out of them. None of my herbs or root medicines has had any effect. I have tried everything that ever worked in the past, all to no avail. So I am reduced to sitting here and singing my song. It is supposed to ward off evil spirits. It is all I can think to do."
"Is that why you've been gone from Campora for so long?" Sheila asked.
"Yes. We can't just leave them here like this. So far not one has died, but the night before last I became so frightened for this one that I stayed up all night singing at the top of my voice and am almost afraid to stop." Pelu looked at Sheila, her blue eyes ringed red with sleeplessness. "I must stop sometime, though, for this is madness. I can't keep it up, and besides, I don't know if it is really doing any good."
"Why were you thinking of me?" Sheila asked.
"I was wondering if there was anything in your science magic that could help." Pelu smiled wearily at Sheila. "And I was missing your cheerfulness and good spirits at this hard time. I'm glad you're here."
"I am, too," Sheila told her. "But I can't think of anything to help you. I wish I were a vet."
"A what?" Pelu asked, still stroking the unicorn.
"That's what we call an animal doctor in my world. Maybe a vet would know what to do." But after a moment's thought Sheila decided it wouldn't matter much if she was a vet. She knew how powerful Pelu's homemade remedies were. If they couldn't do the job, maybe nothing could.
Sheila sat with Pelu as the healer resumed singing. The unicorns did seem comforted by her song. Even Morning Stat swayed her glistening black horn to its gentle rhythms.
Sheila looked up the slope dreamily and saw Zanara-Ki coming down toward them. She suddenly understood the mixture of curiosity and mistrust with which the other women had regarded her when she first joined their group. They were so tightly knit and interdependent that it wasn’t easy to accept a newcomer,
"What do you think of our newest member?" Pelu stopped her singing long enough to ask.
"I only just met her,'' Sheila replied.
"It's wise to reserve judgment," Pelu said. "Zanara-Ki's life has not been easy. She was one of twins. She and her sister were taken into slavery when they were only girls and grew up in the court of Ankzar in Queelotoo. Ankzar greatly prized them as lovely dolls, dressing them in identical golden garments. But under that gilt they were strong as iron. Those who would attack Ankzar would first have to overcome these unlikely bodyguards: both twins had been trained in the fierce fighting ways of the east at a very young age!"
"Why did he give Zanara-Ki to Dynasian?" Sheila asked.
"It seems that the twins hated Ankzar about as much as everyone else does," Pelu continued. "One night Zanara-Ki's twin got the idea to murder Ankzar. To hear Zanara-Ki tell it, the sister was the more gifted fighter of the two and could have ripped Ankzar's heart from his chest. Unfortunately, Anicrar was saved by his soldiers. It took ten to subdue her. The sister was put to death, and Zanara-Ki was sent off to Campora."
"This is her first taste of freedom, then," Sheila observed.
"That's true " Pelu agreed. "When Dynasian heard of her fighting ability, he kept her in leg shackles. She…”
Pelu let her voice trail off as Zanara-Ki approached them. "I have come to tell you that a meal is being prepared, should you wish to partake of it," the ex-slave said in her low, soft voice.
"Thank you. Why don't you sit with us a moment," Pelu invited the woman.
Zanara-Ki didn't answer her. She was looking down at the unicorn colt Pelu was stroking. She seemed transfixed, her eyes filled with horror.
"What is it?" Pelu asked, alarmed.
Again Zanara-Ki was silent. Her gaze remained riveted on the unicorn colt, Sheila noticed that the woman's hands had started to tremble, "I have seen this before," Zanara-Ki whispered at last. "That colt shows all the signs."
Suddenly, as Sheila and Pelu watched, panic-stricken, the colt before them began to glow. It then fragmented into tiny, shimmering particles of intense light.
"No, not here," said Zanara-Ki in a low voice, "It can't be happening again. Not here."
Sheila took a step back, clutching Pelu's arm in terror.
"What is it?" Pelu asked the woman urgently. "Tell us what is happening."
"Not now," Zanara-Ki muttered. "No time to explain, or this one will be lost." And turning from Pelu, she held her two arms across each other and raised them in front of her face. In a low, chilling voice she began a strange incantation over the glowing unicorn. The words were unfamiliar to Sheila, and a quick glance at PeIn's astonished face told her that the healer did not recognize them, either.
"Azu kama teba non," Zanara-Ki intoned, her voice growing ever higher with each strange syllable. "Son zinc keema yasay yasay." Zanara-Ki continued changing the mysterious words, her eyes growing ever wilder. She lowered herself into a squatting position over the unicorn, which continued to shimmer with a flickering light. But despite Zanara-Ki's efforts, the unicorn's glow was growing ever dimmer.
Placing her hands on the animal, Zanara-Ki shut her eyes, as if she were trying to suffuse the colt with her own life force. But the light continued to fade.
And then, in the blink of an eye, the unicorn disappeared. "No!" Zanara-Ki shrieked, her voice full of pain and anger. She raised her arms to the sky imploringly.
"No!"
Back To Chapter Listings!
Chapter 1: Haunted Days, Sleepless Nights
Chapter 2: Transported
Chapter 3: Return to Campora
Chapter 4: Into the Wilderness
Chapter 5: Reunion
Chapter 7: Spellbound
Chapter 8: Stops Along the Way
Chapter 9: The Hickorites
Chapter 10: Across the Unknown Sea
Chapter 11: Queelotoo
Chapter 12: In Ankzar’s Prison
Chapter 13: The Words of Reemergence
Chapter 14: Simi's Revenge
Chapter 15: Sheila’s Magic
Chapter 16: Homeward Bound
Email: Nikki