Darkwalker on Moonshae - Douglas Niles [167]
“Yes,” said Robyn, laughing, “I think we’ll find him soon.”
“Are you going to be his queen? He’s a king or something, I know, and, well, I think it would be just delightful if you two humans did what you do, you know, as a king and queen. You really should, you know!”
Robyn laughed again, and was surprised to feel her face growing red.
The unicorn stepped into a murky pool, wading through water that reached nearly to his belly.
Robyn’s heart pounded with anticipation, and she eagerly examined the fens before her. Kamerynn sprang onto a patch of dry ground, and crossed a sunlit clearing.
There she found her prince.
*****
“I guess we should move on,” mumbled Tristan. Giving a last look over his shoulder, he remounted Avalon and turned to regard the festering marsh.
“Wait!” said Daryth, holding up his hand.
Branches rustled and parted a hundred feet away. At first, the prince thought that a large white horse struggled from the woods, but then he recognized the unicorn and its rider, even through the sudden tears that threatened to blind him.
“Hi, guys! Boy, are we glad to see you! Hey, wait for us!” Newt chattered at them from the unicorn’s horn, as Kamerynn lurched out of the muck and trotted up the low rise toward them.
Tristan jumped to the ground and ran to the unicorn as Robyn slid from her mount, falling right into his arms.
“I can’t believe…” she started to say, but her own tears choked her.
The prince said nothing, just held on for dear life. He even refused to relinquish his hold on his Robyn when Keren and Daryth tried to give her warm, happy hugs.
Finally Robyn freed herself enough to turn and smile at Newt, and then she kissed the prince again.
The faerie dragon clapped happily, exclaiming, “I love a happy ending!”
Finally, Pawldo, holding the reins of the three horses, said, “Let’s get a move on. You two will have plenty of time for that when this is over!”
Tristan sighed and held Robyn for one more second before relaxing his arms. As the other men went back to the horses, he looked straight into her eyes.
“I had no idea how much I loved you,” he whispered, awe in his voice.
Reluctantly, he climbed to Avalon’s back. Choosing their path carefully, they entered the fens following the great moorhound. Canthus had no difficulty finding the trail even here, where it commonly entered a foul-smelling pool only to emerge from the opposite side.
They left the white horses and the unicorn in a bright meadow that somehow sprouted wildflowers in the midst of the fens’ decay.
Pawldo and Daryth now led the way, after Canthus, with Keren in the middle and Robyn and Tristan to the rear. As they forced their way into the thicket, following a narrow and tangled trail, Robyn heard a whimpering noise behind her. She turned to see Newt, left behind, perched upon Kamerynn’s horn, plaintively calling to her.
Suddenly, the little faerie dragon leaped to the ground and scampered after her, only to pause fretfully and dart back to the unicorn. Finally, he made up his mind and bounded into the forest, whimpering until he caught up with Robyn. She hoisted his shuddering little body to her shoulder.
And then the Darkwell lay before them.
“Can you feel it?” Robyn whispered, giving a shiver. She pointed at the center of the sludge-lined pond. “There!”
“Yes,” nodded Keren, removing his harp from its shoulder sling. “Shall I call to the creature? I suspect that the longer it stays down there, the more powerful it becomes!”
“Wait,” cautioned Tristan.
“I’ll get around to the other side of the pond,” volunteered Daryth.
“Good. We should all spread out,” suggested the prince.
“You, with the Sword of Cymrych Hugh, must get close,” said the bard. “The rest of us should try to distract it so that you can strike a free blow.”
Robyn looked at Tristan, her face pale, but she nodded with the rest of them.
They readied the attack. Daryth circled around the pond, concealing himself in the bushes on the far side. Keren strung his