Darkwalker on Moonshae - Douglas Niles [156]
Cruel spurs of bone punctured Robyn’s skin, and the creature lifted her across the haunches of the stallion, noting with pleasure that she had lost consciousness at the horror of his touch.
But she still lived, and this was important. Laric would kill her, certainly, but in order to feast upon her essence as he did so, the killing must be very carefully arranged. For now, he would be content to place distance between himself and this scene of chaos.
The others in the courtyard, still riveted by the tableau before them, now heard the thundering of hooves across the courtyard, Those who turned saw the flash of a black horse and its red-cloaked Rider ducking under the half-raised portcullis. Any who looked quickly enough saw the motionless body of the maiden draped across the stallion.
And then Laric was through the gatehouse, racing like the wind down the castle road and across the open moors. Sparks flashed and smoke billowed where the black hooves struck the ground, and the surface of the earth lay black and ruined where the Bloodrider passed.
*****
Kamerynn turned his broad head toward the buzzing that approached from behind, almost as if he still had eyes. He heard a voice, squealing in excitement. A series of questions assailed the unicorn, far too rapidly for him to understand. He felt certain, however, that the strange visitor was not an enemy.
Newt blinked in agitation and despair as he looked at the once-mighty unicorn. Kamerynn had grown gaunt in the recent weeks. His broad ribs stood out clearly against the ragged, scratched pelt that had been his gorgeous coat. But mostly Newt noticed the unicorn’s scarred and pale eyes, and sensed the creature’s blindness.
Like all creatures of Myrloch Vale, Newt was aware of the unicorn as the benign son of the earthmother and protector of the Vale. Now, seeing the creature thus crippled, the little dragon was gripped by a sense of danger and despair. He desperately wanted to help the unicorn. But how?
Newt buzzed along with Kamerynn, thinking and talking. The unicorn obviously did not understand his speech, for the faerie dragon had asked many questions without getting an answer. Instead, he just kept plodding along the forest trail. How he found his way – albeit a very slow one – Newt couldn’t guess.
A small brook splashed across their path, and the unicorn slowed cautiously. Newt buzzed over the stream. Hardly thinking, he imagined a bridge across the stream – a casual gesture of his illusionary magic.
The bridge popped into view. It was a solid stone structure, much too large for the stream, but Newt liked it anyway. He turned his back upon the illusion, gleefully deciding to leave it there and hope something attempted to cross it before the magic wore off in a few hours.
Then Newt stopped, forgetting to buzz his wings in his astonishment. He saw, as he plopped lightly to the ground, the unicorn’s sightless eyes tracing the outline of his illusionary bridge.
The unicorn could see illusions!
Newt’s mind, normally rather undirected, leaped rapidly from this piece of knowledge to a simple deduction, and then to a plan, He knew how to help the unicorn!
Clapping his hands gleefully, and blinking again in his excitement, Newt cast an illusion before the unicorn – an illusion that precisely matched the reality of the path stretching before them. Kamerynn sprang forward in joy, tearing off at such a gallop that Newt had to buzz himself forward at top speed to catch up. Just as the unicorn reached the end of the spell’s range, Newt let go with another tidbit of magic, and another, and another.
Finally, the faerie dragon settled onto the unicorn’s head, then crawled forward to perch on the broad horn. Thus, with the dragon casting his spells, and the unicorn leaping over the ground magically duplicated before him, the pair