Unicorn Quests - 35. Chapter 35

I hefted Tinn onto Londe’s back, biting back the groan that wanted to erupt as the skin in my hands split further. He wasn’t the most steady, but he still helped balance Wenn in front of him. “You don’t have to hold on long, just until we can get you to a safer place,” I told him.

He nodded, his expression grim but determined. I checked the cloths I’d wrapped around each one roughly, tying off the knot with the help of my teeth as my fingers trembled with pain. They weren’t bleeding through yet. We needed to go, and I couldn’t take the time to rebandage them.

“I’ll go easy,” Londe said. Fortunately, no one could trot as smoothly as a unicorn.

I took the lead to track Balasamar and the twins. Fortunately it was easy to see their prints on the dirt of the forest floor. I didn’t even consider stopping, though my body ached.

Those two… what were they thinking? Didn’t they know what we had gone through to get them back? Marces, I could see him follow Balasamar. He was me all over again, heady and stubborn, always willing to rush forward into danger with a protective instinct a league wide. But his sister? Colette had suffered during their captivity.

She was a gentle soul. She embodied the purity of the unicorn race. Quiet, peaceful, never seeking to harm another Being, or even human for that matter. Colette shied away from violence and I’d found it hard to be close to her. As a battle unicorn, maybe my soul had already been tainted.

Maybe that was why I was still in this form.

Maybe it had rejected me.

Branches rustled as the wind picked up, cooling the sweat beading on my brow. I swept my gaze from side to side, frequently checking behind me. Londe easily kept up, but his passengers were drooping more than when we began.

We should be able to find them a safe place to hide. I searched more diligently, but there wasn’t much to see. Trees, bushes, dirt and grass. The tracks led me along in the forest, a straight line away from where we’d met Balasamar and his warlock, but I didn’t want to risk losing them.

‘There!’ Londe said.

“What? Where?” I said aloud. I’d gotten farther ahead of him than I should, so I circled back.

Londe had stopped by a tree with a dark hollow underneath. It was far enough off the path to not be noticed unless someone was looking for it. They’d be comfortable there, and hopefully safe.

“Tinn?”

He jerked his head up and gasped, listing to the side. I reached up and steadied him. “We found a place.” I gestured to the tree. “Is this okay?”

Peering over my shoulder, Tinn nodded wearily. “Yes.”

He was able to steady himself, clutching Londe’s mane while I slid Wenn’s limp body off first. I cradled him across my forearms and then maneuvered him into the hollow. Tinn was able to limp in himself after I got him down. Casting a quick glance around, I found some loose branches.

Piling them closer to the entrance, I disguised the hollow. “Head back to the tracks, Londe.” He left. “We’ll come back for you as soon as we get the foals,” I assured Tinn. We wouldn’t abandon the locus after all both of them had done to help us.

Tinn’s eyes glowed softly in the darkness. “Be safe. Good luck.”

“Thank you.”

Without the need to carry Tinn and Wenn, Londe insisted I climb on. We’d avoided this, for the most part, but I knew we needed to make up as much time as possible. I swung up on his back and held on with my legs, rocking with him as he loped.

Periodically I leaned forward, scanning the ground, when the trail grew harder to track. Once we had to backtrack and turn. How had they gotten so far ahead of us? It hadn’t been that long from the the short battle and when we’d discovered them missing.

Or it hadn’t seemed that long. My nerves jangled, and I stroked my palm over the hilt of my blade. With no wizard by his side, Balasamar would be vulnerable.

Finally.

The man was a menace. Wanted by many, he’d been scheming for power his whole life. Taking it from others, by deadly force when it suited him, he’d earned the death coming for him. If he’d hurt our foals any more than he’d already harmed them, I’d obliterate him in the most painful way possible.

At least three kingdoms wanted him.

They wouldn’t get him.

I would.

The tracks were changing. “They’re moving slower.” Londe didn’t slow his pace, but we switched over to our mental bond. We floated over the land, silent in the way only a unicorn could be, flitting through the thick stands of trees.

‘There!’ I spotted a flash of white. It was one of the foal’s tails.

Londe redoubled his efforts, agilely weaving in and out of the trunks to catch up. Then I spotted another flash of white. ‘I see them both,’ I said.

‘Me too.’

‘Do you see Balasamar?’

‘No. Let’s just catch up to them.’

Trying to catch our fleet-footed foals while not making a sound to alert the quarry they seemed to be hunted was a daunting task, but Londe was fast and smart. He was able to sneak up on Marces, coming at him from an angle, and cut him off.

I leapt off his back and lunged at Marces, clamping my hand over his soft nose to muffle his sound of startlement. Colette, always quiet, froze when she caught sight of us.

But all of that paled because I could see the human who’d tortured our family. He was struggling up a hill, bent nearly double, and his body had visibly aged. No wonder they’d slowed.