Black Unicorn, Tanith Lee [famous ebook reader txt] 📗

to dig them out. And I repaired it. And Jaive’s magicbolt brought it back to life. And . . .”

If I don’t freeze, and live till morning, thought Tanaquil, I shall be fried alive by the sun.No, they’ll find me in the morning, or I’ll find my way to the fort.

In the cave entrance the moonlit ice shimmered.

A bright shadow came picking over it.

Tanaquil clutched the sleeping peeve. She watched, rigid, as the unicorn came down across the white dunes, over the silence, to the mouth of the cave. There it lowered its fearful head, and its eyes like coals flamed in at her.

Perhaps it will kill me. Then I won’t have to wait to freeze or burn.

Tanaquil’s teeth chattered.

The unicorn raised its head. Now she could only see itsbody, the hard slim greyhound curve of its belly and the long andslender legs. It pawed the stone floor just inside the cave. A shower of silver sparks littered through the air, and came in at theentry. They clustered on one of the dry thorny bushes growing inthe floor. For a moment the bush seemed full of silver insects. And then curls of smoke were creeping from it. The bush wasalight.

“Oh!” Tanaquil rolled the peeve from her lap. On her kneesin the low cave she crawled about, breaking off the twigs of thebushes to feed the blaze.

Like something taking flight, the unicorn lifted away. It vanished, and only the moon shone on the snow, and the hot fireon the floor of the cave.

Tanaquil dozed through the night by the miraculous fire,attentive so it should not go out. She fed in the sticks sparingly,

and the peeve lay luxuriously on a fold of her dress, stomachexposed to the warmth.

Nothing else came near for the remainder of the night, andshe might have accused herself of dreaming the unicorn, but forthe fire.

When the sky began to lighten, Tanaquil went out of thecave and scraped rime and snow off the top of the dunes, puttingthe sandy stuff in her mouth. She was not yet thirsty, but once the sun came she soon would be. The peeve did as she did,licking busily and congratulating itself.

Tanaquil tore off a third of her embroidered skirt, leavingthe bright blue petticoat to protect her legs. She fashioned a headcovering from the skirt, and bound her hands with strips of the material. She cursed her shoes.

The peeve became excitable as the sun rose. It bounded about the cave entrance. “Going? Going?”

“Yes. We’ll go and see if we can’t meet someone.”

The sky was a pale and innocent blue as they set off. It waspleasant at first after the harsh night. But they had to walk with the sun. Tanaquil kept her head down.

The going was hard over the sand, as always.

They went on for about an hour. Gradually the comfortingheat of the sand changed. It started to bake and blister. Each stepwas a punishment. The gong of the sun blared in Tanaquil’s eyesand beat just above her head.

Tanaquil thought ferociously of ice. Mountains of ice, scorch ing her with cold. They melted.

Another hour passed.

Tanaquil wanted only to lie on the sand. Eventually she hadto sit down. There was no shade or cover in any direction. Shecould hardly swallow.

“Mother,” croaked Tanaquil, “what are you doing?”

The thought came that Jaive imagined Tanaquil had rejected her. After all, Tanaquil had threatened to leave. Perhaps Jaivebelieved Tanaquil and the unicorn were accomplices. In that case,would Jaive renounce Tanaquil? Would Jaive abandon Tanaquilto the desert?

Tanaquil bit her lips. She wanted to cry, but shedding tearswould only make her thirst much worse.

Suddenly the peeve went flying off. Tanaquil croaked at it; ittook no notice, disappearing over the slope of some dunes to theleft. Had the peeve also abandoned her?

“She could have sent one of her demons,” whispered Tanaquilfrom her husk of throat. “She could have found me. She’s a sorceress.”

One tear came out of her right eye. She would have pushedit back if she could. Why should she cry at her mother’s neglect?Her mother had always neglected her. Tanaquil was a disappoint ment to Jaive, who had obviously wanted her daughter to beexactly like herself. They had nothing to say to one another.

“Confound her,” gasped Tanaquil. “That’s that.”

The sun was very high; time had moved quickly as she satthere in a stupor, and it would soon be midday. Tanaquil beganto scoop the scalding sand aside, making a burrow for herself. Itwas not deep enough, but she got into it and curled up, scrab bling back the sand. She felt as if she were being cooked, but thedirect rays of the sun were now lessened. She doubled the skirt toprotect her head and face.

I’ll survive. Something will happen.

She tried not to hope the unicorn would return. But she dreamed or hallucinated that it did so, and struck the sand with its horn, whereupon a stream welled out. Instead, it was the peeve licking her forehead and cheeks with a hot, sandy tongue.

Tanaquil attempted to embrace the peeve, but it insisted onthrusting something against her mouth. Tanaquil recoiled. Thesomething was a snake the peeve had hunted and killed over thedunes.

“Meal,” said the peeve.

Tanaquil looked at the snake dubiously. It had been attrac tive before the peeve attacked it. Now it was a broken piece ofraw meat she did not want. However, it would be sensible to eat some of it, and ungrateful not to.

“Thank you.”

“Welcome,” said the peeve. It commenced eating the otherend, showing Tanaquil how good the snake was by making noisesand screwing up its eyes.

Tanaquil managed to extract, chew and swallow some of thesnake. The flesh was cool, soothing her throat. But the fine skinupset her. Mirages swam before her eyes, gardens, and lakes with boats on them, such as Jaive had shown her in the mirror. She thought how Jaive always harped on about how badly made theworld was, and that there were others even worse, and one created perfectly. Evidently Tanaquil’s world was all wrong, aplace where you could only live by murdering other creatures.

Every