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

changed,” said Lizra. She had ceased being a princess. She was small and bleak, a frost child. “And you.”

“I haven’t changed. Something’s happened to me, that’s all.”

Lizra grew a little. Then she was fifteen again. She said, “I’ll have to show you. Anyway, you can’t go on in that dress.”

“What would you suggest instead?”

“The soldier’s shortish, and thin. His mail would fit you. Anyway, he’s all that’s available.”

They went over to the fallen soldier. He had come down on his back. His mouth was open and he grunted vaguely. The peeve’s toothmarks showed in his boot.

Tanaquil took off his boots and tried them. They were too large, but would do.

While the man lay unconscious they removed his mail, and left him in neat undergarments embroidered by some doting hand. Tanaquil draped the remains of her dress and petticoat over him to shield him from the sun until he woke.

“Keep the topazes,” said Lizra. And Tanaquil, hearing the words, heard behind them another phrase: A parting gift. She thought of the unicorn. That’s goodbye.

Angrily, she let Lizra help her dress in the mail. She bundled her witch-red hair up into the big helmet.

“Now what?”

“They’ve left my horses and chariot. How deliriously kind of them. Last time, on the platform, they ran off with those, too.”

They walked along the beach. The waves splashed on the shore, hard and bright. The peeve slunk to them, and drew away.

“What happened after my mother’s demon came for me?” said Tanaquil.

“Gasb and the soldiers turned somersaults and fled into the palace. I went to my father. I thought the unicorn had killed him.”

“It hadn’t.”

“Only taken the shells and left the scar.” Tanaquil held the fossils more tightly in her fist. She had not shown them, she hadnever let go. What the unicorn had given her was stupendous.She could not accept it as yet; probably there was some mistake.She wanted an ordinary memento. “My father needs me now,” said Lizra.

That’s goodbye.

“And you still feel vast loyalty to him, do you?” said Tanaquil,acidly.

“He’s my father.”

“Oh, has he remembered?”

“Yes,” said Lizra.

It was the chariot from the avenue, painted and gilded buttoday without any flowers. The small white horses perched in theshafts, alert, unpanicked. The two girls got in, followed by thepeeve, and Lizra drew up the reins. “Gallop.” And off they went, back along the beach road toward Zorander’s city.

Remember the sand castle. Where is it now?

“Why are we going to the city?” asked Tanaquil.

“Because the palace is there, and I want you to see.”

“What?”

“I want to show you, not tell you. That’s why we’re going.”

The hot mail was uncomfortable; it itched. Had the soldier had fleas? Abruptly Tanaquil felt pity for him. It was not his fault he had been driven to cast the spear .

They did not return into the city by the entrance they hadused before. Driving the chariot up into some groves above thebeach, Lizra brought them to the city wall and a large gatewaywith large stone lions at either side. Here there was a fuss, andthey were provided an escort. “Only this one lad stayed with you, ma’am? I never heard the like. Frightened by a beggar girlon the beach! I never did.”

The city did not seem altered. There was the old noise andactivity, the masses of people going about, the elegant shops andexotic market. Then, as they turned into the street of octopusesand camels, topped by the fifteen-story palace of the Prince, they were forced to a halt.

A crowd milled over the avenue, and had gone up the lanternpoles. In the middle of the roadway, a chariot lay spilled. Its horses were visible inside the crowd, thieved, being led off tonew lives.

“Clear the way!” thundered the escort’s captain.A parting appeared. As had happened on other streets, some cheers were loudly raised for Lizra. They moved forward slowly.

“That chariot is Gasb’s,” said Lizra. She drew on the reins. “Stand.” There in the crowd, she turned to a burly man in theapron of the vintners’ guild. “What is the meaning of this?” Atangle of voices answered. Lizra said, “One at a time. You. I addressed you first.”

“Honored, Highness. Twenty minutes ago, Counselor Gasbrode up, in a hurry. There were several chariots. Most turned back seeing the crowd here, but Gasb drove straight at us.”

“We were only waiting,” said a silk-clad man behind the vintner, “for news of the Prince, or news of the ceremony of placation that you, Your Highness, were carrying out.”

“It’s traditional for the people to have use of this road.”

“Yes,” said Lizra. “So Gasb rode at the crowd. And then?”

“And then, Highness,” said the vintner, “not to mislead you, some of us turned the horses and upset the chariot.”The silk man said in satisfaction, “We got him to dismount.” “Dragged him out,” added another one, helpfully.“He was pelted with eggs and ripe fruit from a handy stall,”

said the vintner. The men paused, looked at each other. The vintner cleared his throat. “Gasb wasn’t popular.”The silk man said, “Some of the rougher elements of thecrowd took him away, Highness. To reason with him, perhaps.” “My father will be informed of this,” said Lizra. There wasno resonance to her dramatic displeasure.

“Make way for the Princess!” shouted the escort captain.

“Good fortune smile on her!” cried the vintner, with espe cial fervor, to demonstrate he was not the right candidate for thesoldiers’ swords.

The palace gangs of the Flying Chairs were having a celebra tion. They sang out the name of Gasb, and went into fits oflaughter. The Chair rose without other incident, however. In thelong corridor the gold guards saluted, and nobody questionedtheir fellow soldier marching at Lizra’s back, nor the animal on an improvised leash.

At the landing of green onyx, the mad gang who acted as thecounterweight were just as Tanaquil recollected them. If they hadheard of Gasb’s fate, they did not dwell on it. Probably theinsanity of their existence had erased any idea of its author.

The Chair rose and the gang pounded down the stairs, whooping.

By the Prince’s apartment, the soldiers uncrossed