Chapter 5          Chapter 7

Chapter 6

They set out on foot the next day, heading west to the logging villages Tam had been investigating. Tam had gotten his hair re-dyed the night before, and kept checking it in reflective things until Flairé rolled his eyes at the mere glimpse of water, glass, or metal.

They travelled to villages, talking to relatives of those who had disappeared. There were nearly a dozen people missing. Their families couldn’t say much; the people were all different, and the only thing they seemed to have in common was that they had been in the woods, alone. One pair had vanished together.

Tam and Flairé did a lot of frowning and head-scratching, but nothing seemed to explain it. Tam was loathe to bring up the Black Unicorn until there was more proof that it wasn’t something else. There were plenty of knights and an unusual number of unicorns around at the first couple of villages, giving the villagers peace of mind that they wouldn’t be in the woods alone and defenceless.

Many voiced the theory that it was the work of unusually active wild animals, perhaps unable to find their regular food. But there was something afraid in their eyes.

Tam did seem more touchy than usual, snapping over little things and getting angry, especially at himself. Flairé frowned, but his friend refused to explain his behaviour.

The sixth village, on the tenth day out, seemed to be all a-bustle with excitement. “What’s the matter?” Tam called out to a passerby.

“Oh, some found a boy in the forest all alone. It’s very exciting, seeing as so many people have disappeared! Come and see!” they cried cheerfully.

“Well, doesn’t this sound familiar,” Flairé muttered sardonically. “I wonder which one he is?”

Tam clapped him on the back. “Well, two lost brothers in a couple months is pretty good odds. When do you think you’ll find the other two?”

Flairé raised an eyebrow at him. “I have hope that we will find them someday, but I don’t know when and I think it would be silly to guess. I haven’t the faintest idea. I don’t even know if this is one of my brothers. It could be someone else’s brother. I mean, I hope it is one of my brothers. I hope to stars it is…”

“Fair enough,” Tam said. “Ooh, hey, look over there!”

“Tam, we’re going to see something else…” Flairé said, smirking. “Just because you have the attention span of a chipmunk-“

“Oh, you wound me,” Tam cried, clutching his chest. “But I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t be long, dear,” Flairé called sarcastically.

“I won’t, darling,” Tam replied, equally sarcastic. They grinned at each other before parting paths.

Flairé was led into a grassy meadow in a clearing. Several people were already there, clustered around something.

They made way for him, and he went right up to the little boy with light brown hair and huge sky-blue eyes. He was a little smaller than Marteth-Hciristial.

The boy looked up at him curiously and laughed. “Hello!”

“Hi, there!” Flairé replied. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Mathaning, sir!”

“You don’t have to call me sir,” Flairé said. “I’m Flairé. Is your name really Mathaning?”

The boy looked confused. “That’s what they called me, these people. So I guess not. Eternal-laughter, I think it means. I don’t know why. Doesn’t everyone laugh?”

“They ought to, indeed,” Flairé said, sitting down beside the boy. “I like to laugh. What did your mother call you?”

“She just called me Kalma.” The boy’s eyes suddenly welled up with tears. “I lost her, I lost her in the forest, and I can’t find her. Have you seen her?”

“What does she look like?”

“She’s about two inches tall, and looks like a tiny person in a fuzzy ball of white light, dressed in cobwebs, and she has pretty wings that flutter faster than you can see when she’s flying…”

“Is she a pixie?”

“A what?” Mathaning asked, innocent as the dawn.

“A pixie is exactly what you’re describing. Tell me, does the name Zeastal mean anything to you? Or Idmwenn? Or Mui-ila?”

The boy thought carefully and long, before lifting his head again and smiling sweetly. “No!” He put his head on one side. “Why do you ask so many question, Flairé-sir?”

“I lost three of my brothers a long time ago, and I think you might be one of them.”

“Were those their names?”

“Yes.”

Mathaning thought some more. “If I’m your brother, then does that mean I can have another mother?”

“Yes,” Flairé said. “Though you might find her a little scary at first. She’s a bit fierce when she’s angry.”

“Then I won’t make her angry!” Mathaning chirped. “Here, since we’re brothers, I’ll give you this.” He reached inside his ragged shirt and lifted out a small tarnished silver necklace, kept with great care for a small boy, and handed it to Flairé.

Flairé’s eyes lit up. “Mui-ila!”

“What?” asked the boy, his eyes large and questioning.

For answer Flairé swung the boy into the air in a great big hug. “You’re my youngest brother, for certain. Oh, how glad I am to find you. And how glad the others will be!”

“Others?” the boy cried, laughing in delight.

“You have a mother, Zela, and a father, Flaer, and a sister, Flaria, and at least three brothers – Menad, Marteth-Hciristial, and me!”

“Hooray!”

“Touching,” Tam laughed from the edge of the crowd.

“Oh, and your eldest brother has some crazy friends. Don’t mind them.”

“What’s your name, Flairé’s friend?” Mui-ila called to Tam.

Tam looked surprised at being talked to so fearlessly. “I’m Tam.”

Mui-ila reached out, and Flairé carried him over until he was close enough to give Tam a hug too. Tam looked more surprised than ever, but returned it warmly.

“Cute kid,” he said, looking at Mui-ila from arms’ length. “He’s like your father’s mother.”

“I know,” Flairé said smugly. “So, what did you go raring off after?”

Tam held out his hand. “Shiny stuff.” He held a delicate cloak-pin shaped like a butterfly. “For you, if you want it.”

“For me? Why?”

“Because I already have a shiny cloak-pin, see, this gold and blue dragonfly, and you have a copper deer. I know that your mother gave it to you, but I thought you’d like this one too.”

“I do,” Flairé said, setting Mui-ila down and taking it. “It’s very pretty. Thanks, Tam.” He fastened it to his cloak beside the copper deer. “Now I look silly, with two, but whatever.”

“I think it’s pretty,” Mui-ila said beside him.

“Thanks, brother.” He frowned suddenly at Tam. “Does this have anything to do with your grumpiness earlier?”

Tam looked startled. “No, not at all.”

“All right, then. I’ll believe you. So,” he said, kneeling beside the boy, “do you want us to help you look for your pixie mother, or do you want to meet your other family?”

Mui-ila thought. “I do want to meet my family. But I want to find my mother. I don’t know… Can I do both?”

“Of course you can!” Flairé said. “We’ll get started on the looking tomorrow. We’re actually looking for something else in these woods, something dangerous, but we’ll keep an eye out for your mother. Does she have a name?”

“I don’t know,” said Mui-ila anxiously.

Flairé patted his shoulder. “We’ll still do our best. Right, Tam?”

“Aye,” Tam said. “Or maybe yea. Something that means yes.” Mui-ila laughed.

Flairé took them all to the inn and asked them to keep Mui-ila safe until they came back. They slept, and at first light, Tam and Flairé crept out of their room without waking Mui-ila and set off into the woods.

“So where do we start looking?” Flairé asked, his breath misting in the cool morning air.

Tam pointed somewhat northwest. “Today I think we should head in that direction. It doesn’t smell right. I noticed it yesterday, but we were distracted by that – wonderful – kid so I didn’t want to say anything. Reunions should not be cut short.”

“Thanks,” Flairé said earnestly.

“Well, let’s get moving!” Tam cried, opening his mouth and pouring a stream of warm mist into the air before moving off at a quick pace.

They walked all day, and all day a sense of foreboding grew on them. It was raining lightly, not an infrequent occurrence in the temperate rain-forest of the Unicorn-land, but that had nothing to do with it. There was just an unsettled feeling on them.

Sundown came, and wind. They stopped for food in the hollow of an enormous tree.

They’d just finished, and were trying to build up their fire before resting for the night, when a slim figure, lit faintly from within, rushed past them, clad in tattered white.

“Hey, who are you? Do you need help?” Flairé called after her, half-rising.

Tam rose too and came to crouch beside his shoulder. “Do you think she was real?”

“I don’t know,” Flairé replied, still staring after her. “Let’s follow, anyway.”

“I agree,” Tam said, “though I wasn’t going to be the first to say it.”

“Why not?” Flairé asked as he grabbed his belt pack.

“Because I want you to take control,” Tam replied evenly.

Flairé felt sudden anger. “Why? Why has it always been because I am born to be a leader? Why is it that we are equals – until something big happens, and then you suddenly fade into the background?”

“All valid questions,” Tam said quietly, completely disarming Flairé’s anger. “I have no ulterior motives, Flairé, truly. All I want is to see you take the path that is rightfully yours, whatever you choose that to be. I know who I am, and I want you to know who you are. I don’t want to shun responsibility, nor do I want to put you on a pedestal. I understand that you are angry at my methods, and they’re not subtle, I know that. But I think they will help you.”

Flairé looked at the ground unhappily. “I’m sorry, Tam. I shouldn’t have said that in anger. Thank you for helping me.”

Tam smiled and clapped his shoulder. “What are friends for? Now, are we following that spectre or not?”

“So you’re certain she’s not real?” They took off running after the distant light.

“I’m pretty certain she’s running as fast as you or I could, and much smoother. That smacks of unreality to me.”

Something large was in the distance. Flairé found it hard to breathe properly, and he could hear that Tam was having trouble too. He checked his sword and sniffed the air. It was cold, and smelled of wet pines.

The large thing, as they slowed and crept up cautiously to it, was a medium-sized manor house, just like they would find in the Unicorn-land city. Wooden steps led up to an ornate double door, and pleasantly-lit windows were dotted evenly around the front. Flowers bloomed from every possible corner. The woman who had run past them was standing at the top of the steps, facing outwards, her rags contrasting starkly with the pristine house she stood in front of. The whole clearing appeared illuminated, though the light came from nowhere.

“What is that?” Flairé asked in a whisper.

“It’s not real,” Tam replied, also in a whisper. “It’s too perfect. It doesn’t match the ground. And it smells of death.”

“You’re right,” Flairé whispered, green eyes wide in horror. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Tam replied. “Black Unicorn?”

“There could be other illusion-causing monsters in the woods,” Flairé said, but not very convincingly.

“Shall we go out there?” Tam asked, his normally strong speech slurring.

Flairé frowned at him. “I think perhaps it already knows we’re here. It’s affecting us already.”

“But,” and Tam’s mismatched eyes widened in uncharacteristic panic – Flairé’s speech, too, had not been as clear as usual – “unicorns are only telepathic with other unicorns, and maybe dragons! The only other things they can do are shine light, and heal wounds and disease, and make a sort of disintegrating beam-thingy! It can’t affect us!”

“But those things are mashic…”

“It’th limithed! It shouldn’t be able to do thihcs…”

“I’mg goink,” Flairé said determinedly, and stepped out into the clearing to face the girl and the house, and Tam followed him, nodding, a hand on his lance.

“Greetings,” said the girl, before Flairé could say anything. “Prince Flairé of the Land of the Moon, and Knight Tatamkanai of the Land of Unicorns. Welcome.” And she began to laugh, horribly and shrilly.

Flairé shuddered and tried not to show it. “Who are you, and what is this place?” His voice was back to normal again, but he felt something else, like something pulling on his mind.

“You know already,” the girl said, whispering, smiling mysteriously. “This is your doom, your fate, your mind-“

“Wait, what?” Tam perked up, a facade of his usual cockiness back.

The girl didn’t seem perturbed. “Your mind. This is where you will stay for the rest of your days. And they shall be long.” She smiled more. “Don’t worry, they will be comfortable.”

“Why must we stay?” Flairé asked.

The girl melted away, and in her place a half-decayed horse corpse stood. Flairé tensed, stilling another, bigger, shudder. Tam’s face was set like stone. “Because I command it. My partner commands it.”

“Who is your partner?” Tam demanded grimly.

The corpse was suddenly a little closer to them, though they hadn’t seen it move. “My partner…” and it moved again, and got a little bigger “is not one…” and again “of this earth.”

Flairé resisted the urge to back away, although the corpse was now the size of a large griffon and its skull was only a few feet away from him.

“What are you?” the prince asked, his voice steady and strong.

The house vanished, and the huge corpse blurred and faded, leaving behind a much more delicate creature, beautiful, and black as coal.

“The Black Unicorn,” whispered Tam, absolutely calm. It looked straight at him with ruby red eyes, ignoring Flairé for the moment.

“You, Tatamkanai of the Land of Unicorns… You came here, looking for those others who found me. I watched your scrabbling in the wood, both before, and now. And now you have found me, leading your young friend and prince with you. And now you both share the fate that I dealt to them.”

“Flairé, you might want to think about getting out of here,” Tam whispered out of the side of his mouth.

Flairé gave a slight nod, though his mind was screaming “I’m not going without you!”

“Neither of you is leaving without the other,” the Unicorn said softly. “Because neither of you are leaving.”

Tam took a step forward, and suddenly the pull on Flairé’s mind became stronger.

“I know what you are doing,” Tam said. “Your magic has been twisted along with your being. You will take our sanity and our souls and give them to your master.”

“I have no master!” roared the Unicorn. “There is no master! There is only death! The world will die!”

“Run, Flairé!” Tam shouted, whipping out his lance, only to have the head of it evaporated by a beam of light from the Unicorn’s horn. Flairé found he physically couldn’t move, and could feel himself sinking into a pool of gibbering despair. Tam seemed unaffected, and gave him a heavy shove in the stomach. Flairé reeled, one hand grasping his head, his eyes staring pleadingly at Tam.

“Tam, come with me,” he whispered, unsure whether he meant to run away together, or to go mad together, unsure whether it was his own mind using his mouth.

“RUN!” Tam shouted, his face glorious in his defiance. He turned to face the Unicorn, feet planted firmly on the ground, arms wide in valiant acceptance, his face turned upwards to the stars, his eyes half-closed.

Then he let out a scream, a horrible scream that pierced Flairé’s ears and soul, and crumpled, clutching his head in madness.

Flairé sobbed and did as he was told, sprinting away from the horror as fast as his feet would carry him, trailing shreds of his soul behind him.

Chapter 5          Chapter 7