Chapter 10 #2
Twisting as much as she safely could, she strained to see Jeros, to make sure he and the sweet mare weren’t left behind.
The silvery glow of his mount and the mare’s shimmering color barely gleamed through the storm’s shadows.
She had no idea where they were, but being outside the boundary of Sevenrest concerned her.
Jeros could be in danger. The Fifth Kingdom would surely seize any opportunity to capture the Crown Prince himself and hold him for ransom.
Pegasus halted, and his horn went dark, its glow dissipating like mist. He grumbled with a soft whicker, tossed his head, and stomped his right hoof.
Why he didn’t think to her, she had no idea.
Far be it from her to question the alpha unicorn.
Lexi assumed that whatever they were searching for was up ahead to the right, and they needed to take care not to be discovered.
She slid off the noble beast’s broad back and dropped to the ground.
As Jeros joined them, she went to him with a finger pressed to her lips, willing him to be quiet.
He nodded he understood, dismounted, then gently but firmly drew her behind him as he took the lead in heading in the direction she showed.
She rolled her eyes but didn’t fight him.
Now was not the time to argue that she had just as much right to lead the way as he did.
Besides, it was kind of nice that he was protective of her.
It seemed as though they moved through the murky darkness forever, struggling to avoid brambles, saplings, and branches that snapped like angry whips when pushed aside and then released.
Lexi glanced behind them, reassured when Pegasus and the stallion, and the mare from Sevenrest were following with amazing stealth.
Soaked to the skin, she gathered her denim jacket closer, thankful for what little warmth it provided. It might be summer here in Jeros’s version of the Scottish Highlands, but it was chilly.
Then a faint glow up ahead shot a rush of adrenaline through her, and she forgot every discomfort. She strained to make out what it was, but couldn’t until they drew closer to the small clearing.
The three missing yearlings huddled inside an oddly glowing corral built with some type of thorny vines. To one side of them, a trio of large, gnarly figures huddled around a fire that sputtered and hissed, but was impervious to the rain.
Jeros pulled her down to crouch beside him at the edge of the thicket. “Sluagh na marbh,” he whispered, as if that should explain everything.
“What?” she mouthed with a shake of her head.
“Hosts for the unforgiven dead. Mercenaries hired by the Fifth Kingdom.” He spoke with his mouth pressed so close to her ear that the warmth of his breath made her shiver.
“The spell they placed on the bramble vines around the younglings drains all magical creatures of their powers. Even Pegasus, especially Pegasus, cannot touch it, and neither can I.”
She eyed the glowing barrier, then looked back at whatever Jeros had called those creatures around the magical fire. They reminded her of trolls, or ogres from one of the fairy tale books she’d often read as a child. “Why would the Fifth Kingdom hire them to steal the unicorns?” she whispered.
“Either to lure us out or simply nettle my arse,” Jeros said just as quietly.
“Those trolls seem more interested in staying by the fire than paying attention to the unicorns, and I don’t see any mounts for them to ride. If we freed the babies from the corral, couldn’t we get back inside Sevenrest’s boundaries before they caught us?”
“They are not trolls. They are sluagh, and they already broke through the wards once, ye ken? There is naught to stop them from crossing Sevenrest’s boundaries.”
“Couldn’t we strengthen the wards with unicorn magic?
I bet Pegasus would oblige us since we’re trying to help the yearlings.
” Never in her life would she ever have imagined herself talking seriously about trolls, unicorn magic, or supercharged rocks to keep the bogeymen away, but here she was.
“We can’t just let them have those babies.
They’ll probably eat them or something.” She didn’t even want to think about what those horrendous human-like creatures might do.
“The yearlings canna break through the barrier. The fence will not only drain them of their magic but also drain them of their life’s blood since they are so young and have yet to sprout their horns. None of us can breach that barrier, and the Sluagh know that.”
Lexi wasn’t about to retreat without those unicorn yearlings. “Do you have a knife?” She knew he had a sword and a pistol. Surely, the man had a dagger tucked in his boot or belt.
He glared at her as if trying to read her mind. “Why?”
“I am not a magical being. Their spell won’t affect me.”
His eyes narrowed and his head barely tilted to one side, reminding her of a dog taking in its master’s every word.
“I am not magical,” she repeated and held out her hand. “I know you have to have something I could use to cut those brambles.”
“It is not safe,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I am not leaving those babies here with those monsters.” She pointed at the far side of the enclosure, the side opposite the one next to the sluagh.
“I can cut through that side, coax the yearlings out, then Pegasus can take them back to Sevenrest while we ride our mounts. Those youngsters won’t disobey him.
I know it in my gut. He has to be like some sort of unicorn superhero to them. ”
“Unicorn superhero?”
“Never mind.” She tapped on her open palm. “Knife, please?”
“I am going with ye.” He pulled a dagger from his boot and placed the hilt in her hand.
She nodded, then backtracked the way they had come, pausing to whisper the plan into Pegasus’s ear, then the stallion’s and the mare’s. They moved as one, following her and Jeros to the far side of the deadly barrier that none of them could risk touching, none of them except Lexi.
She led the way, determined to succeed, and when they were safely back at Sevenrest Hall, she intended to give all the unicorns extra feed to comfort them after this ordeal.
As they approached the cursed fence of brambles, it glowed brighter, startling Lexi.
She motioned for Jeros and the unicorns to back away, and as soon as they did, the brambles returned to the glimmer of before.
Proud of herself for listening to her instincts, she gave Jeros a thumbs up.
He bared his teeth and shook his head with a hard jerk, obviously irritated that he couldn’t take the lead once more and keep her safely away and watching from the sidelines.
The young unicorns started toward her, but she shook her head and motioned them back.
Don’t let them know I’m here. Stay huddled up and act frightened like before.
She didn’t know if they could hear her thoughts until they did exactly as she asked.
Thank goodness Pegasus had marked her with his star.
After pulling her jacket sleeve down over her hand to protect herself from the brambles, she took the dagger and started sawing through the woody vines covered in long, spiky thorns.
She was concerned that once she cut the barrier, it would stop glowing and alert the trolls to a breach in their system, but it didn’t.
Even though the fence soon had a good-sized chunk, a unicorn-sized doorway cut out of it, it still emitted the magical gleam as if nothing at all was wrong.
Thank goodness for that. She backed away, motioning for the young ones to follow—slowly.
They eased toward the opening, occasionally glancing back at their captors, who were engrossed in absorbing the heat from the fire.
Apparently, trolls, or sluagh, didn’t like the chilly rain any more than she did.
As soon as they all slipped through the opening, they trotted over to Pegasus and the others, pressing as close as they could, obviously relieved to be rescued. And so was Lexi. They were almost home free.
But then the magical fence hissed and yowled like an enraged cat. Its severed ends sparked like fireworks.
Jeros jerked her to his side. “Run like ye have never run before, or the sluagh will feast on us both.”
So she did, heading for the unicorns, but somehow, the beasts had disappeared. “Where are they?”
“They left as ye bade them,” Jeros shouted. “Unicorns are quite literal. Ye must always specify exactly what ye want.”
“Now you tell me.” She pounded through the darkness, slipping and sliding on the wet leaves and fighting to stay on her feet.
The sluagh roared and wailed like angry ghosts as they crashed through the woods behind them. Their massiveness slowed them, and the wet forest floor bogged them down as well, but not by much and not enough to give Lexi any ease. This was the worst nightmare she had ever lived through.
“Where are we going?” she shouted, struggling to keep up with Jeros. “Don’t you have any magic you can use to make us disappear like the unicorns did?”
He grabbed her hand, yanked her into his arms, and shouted, “Domus!”
And then they were back within Sevenrest’s borders, just inside the barrier, beside the brightly glowing magical wards. Struggling to catch her breath, Lexi sagged forward, bending to suck in great gulps of air. “Why didn’t you do that first instead of telling me to run?”
“Because I didn’t know if it would work or not,” he said with a growl, holding his side and trying to catch his breath as well.
“My magic is currently weakened.” He spat the words as though they tasted bad.
“Were I my usual self, Domus would have taken us to the hall instead of merely inside Sevenrest’s borders. ”