The Unicorn Hunt - Dorothy Dunnett [370]
Then the curtain moved again, and Nicholas came out.
There was a child in his arms. Perfect in body, brown of hair, grey of eye – even by torchlight there was little doubt whose son he was. Then he smiled, and there was no doubt at all.
Across his head, the eyes of Nicholas held those of Gelis. Someone uttered an obscenity: Simon de St Pol, swinging round on her so that she flinched. Then he turned on his heel. His own boat lay just behind. The women had gone, but someone stood very still at the rail; a large man, wearing the mask of an owl. Then he vanished.
In the midst of the clangour about them they floated in silence. Trumpets stuttered. Fireworks crackled like distant artillery. Gelis suddenly held out her arms, her face running with tears, her gaze fixed on the child. He lay and smiled, but did not stir, who had known so many kind hands.
The bell of the Basilica spoke: a flat, harsh clang that deepened into a toll. The sound sank through the sparks in the air, down the walls with their torches; down the lamplit boats and the spiralling water, and wiped it all dark.
By due command of the bell, every light in Venice was extinguished, and all the noise stopped. The Serenissima lay plunged into darkness. Then, dimly, her other bells started to sound, hunting up, hunting down as they rang through their changes. Midnight had come, and brought a new order.
It was Julius who found a lantern, and tinder, and brought the light up on deck to where the others stood still. He walked to the side, to help Nicholas back. Where the little vessel had been, the water swirled, black and empty. The boat, the child, the woman and Nicholas, all had gone.
Canst thou bind the Unicorn with his band in the furrow?
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, when the apricots are here.
Reader’s Guide
1. For Discussion: The Unicorn Hunt
In this novel the House of Niccolò series arrives decisively in Scotland, to add to its portraits of leadership, good and bad, those of the Stewart ruling family. How does Dorothy Dunnett dramatize the nature, and possible consequences for the nation, of the relationships among James and Alexander, John and Margaret and Mary? What impact does Nicholas vander Poele have on these?
2. “Tired of living life as a victim,” Nicholas embarks in this novel on a complex set of “punishments” of the man he believes is his father. What do you think of this emerging side of him? Of the punishments themselves? Do his punishments hit only their target?
3. In chapter 26 of this novel Nicholas learns he has the capacity to “divine” where water is, or metals are: how unique do you think this kind of “divining,” or “dowsing,” is? Might you even be able to do this yourself? How is this human gift related to the more mysterious gifts, and roles, of figures like Dr. Andreas of Vesalia and Nicholai de Giorgio de Acciajuoli? Why do you think Dorothy links this gift in chapter 26 to the waking dreams, hallucinatory visions, scraps of insight from another life or realm to which Nicholas is also receptive?
4. “Walk over with me.” “Go alone. I have a child.” Probably the most intellectually complex and emotionally wrenching scene of the novel takes place at the top of a high mountain, climax of a pilgrimage, in chapter 41. What purpose does this scene serve its romance; the religious references (positive and negative) woven into it? What does Nicholas learn here? Why does he “free” Gelis after her response to his challenge?
5. Who, or what, is the “unicorn” of the title? Are there multiple possibilities? Several hunts? Some who occupy positions both of hunter and hunted? One version of the legend of the Unicorn requires a “virgin” as both controller and alter-ego of the unicorn—who could this description identify if anyone, among the characters of the novel?
Dorothy Dunnett was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. She is the author of the Francis Crawford of Lymond novels; the House of Niccolò novels; seven mysteries; King Hereafter, an epic novel about Macbeth; and the text of The Scottish Highlands, a book of photographs