Splintered Mirror

by Morgan Hawke

  Corwin smiled. “Ah, but the prince isn’t—”

  “Stop!” Lightning fast, Alberic drew his sword and pointed it at Master Corwin’s throat. “Don’t say it, coachman. Don’t you dare.”

  Corwin eyed the blade at his throat and stepped back. “As you wish, your highness.” He bowed and melted into the shadows.

  Gabriella backed into the trees, her lips curled in a snarl. “If you want help with that...creature, don’t come looking for me!” There was a poof of sulfurous smoke and she was gone too.

  Alberic sheathed his sword with a hard snap and set his hands on his hips. “Shit.”

  I heartily agreed.

  There was a crunch of boots and a jingle of buckles then a pair of palace guards in blue and white dress uniforms stepped through the trees with their long bayonet-tipped muskets at the ready.

  One of them looked at my prince. “I heard a woman screaming...”

  The other looked at me, his eyes going wide. “Holy shit!”

  I freely admit I panicked. I turned tail and bolted deeper into the trees.

  My prince shouted after me, “Damn it, Julian, get back here!”

  ~ Fifteen ~

  Don’t ask me how I managed to gallop through a small forest of closely seated trees without ramming right into one or tangling my horn in their low branches even once. I have no clue. Rather, it seemed as though the branches and even the trees themselves moved out of the way, parting to make room for me. An illusion? A form of enchantment? I had no idea. What I did know is that I had no problem passing through spaces I wouldn’t have been able to fit as a far smaller human.

  Not even my gelding was able to follow me very far, and he did try. I clearly heard him neighing for me to wait for him. A certain flock, or unkindness, of ravens, however, had no problems following me. I could hear them laughing over the treetops.

  In what seemed only minutes, I was once again in my own campsite, not that it was much of an improvement. Completely at loose ends, I wandered about the tree-line of my campsite, confused as to what I should do. In the body I currently wore, I couldn’t very well sit down and have a cup of tea.

  I had to find that unicorn, preferably before some random noble found me. Obviously, the unicorn wasn’t on the palace grounds, or someone would already have found it. I would have to search the wider countryside. I had plenty of travel notes and maps for this country in my notebook.

  However, that notebook was most likely still on the ground by my torn clothing and knife belt.

  Crap! I turned to face the way I had come. The knives I could live without, they could be forged again, but the information that notebook held was irreplaceable. I needed that notebook, or rather, if I returned to human form, I would need it. I shook my head hard, my white mane flying against my arched neck. I would return to human form. How soon that would be was anyone’s guess, but I would definitely return to my own body. I had duties to perform, damn it!

  Pacing back and forth at the tree line of the campsite, I knew exactly where I wanted to go and even how to get there without stepping one foot...err, hoof out of the trees. Although, how I knew such a thing was beyond me. However, I wasn’t sure that going back to the birch copse was a good idea. Who knew how many people would be tramping through that very spot once the guards reported that a unicorn had been there? Did I really want to take that chance?

  There was faint hope my prince would pick up the book for me. Doing things for the convenience of others was not among his habits. If I wanted my knives and notebook, I would have to go back and get them. I scraped a cloven hoof in the dirt in indecision. My tail, however, snaked back and forth at its own discretion.

  A sparrow suddenly flew down from the dogwood tree I stood under to land on my horn and promptly screamed in my face. “Behind you, stupid!”

  Shocked by the absolutely clear meaning in the bird’s shriek, I turned to look behind me.

  Leaning casually against the trunk of one of the flowering dogwoods with his arms folded across his chest was a man. He wore no coat or waistcoat and his white, lace-trimmed shirt hung open from neck to waist, the tails only casually tucked into his pale silver-gray breeches. He looked as though he’d just stepped out of bed. Fully half his face and one eye was obscured by the long waves of his unbound silvery white hair. The other eye was deep blue-green and narrowed, though his pale pink lips curved upward on one side. “So, you can understand animal speak.”

  I was so surprised to see him there, I reared up on my hind legs and wheeled about to point my long horn at him with my ears flat back. “Who the hell are you?”

  The white-haired man snorted and his lip curled in sour amusement. “It was a given that a few of these noble idiots would enchant something into the form of a unicorn, but I didn’t expect one of them to actually bring a real one with him.” His gaze narrowed even further. “Certainly not a doe.”

  Doe? I shook my head and lifted my chin. “I’m not really a unicorn.”

  Every bird in the trees overhead started flapping their wings and screaming, “Liar! Liar! Liar!”

  I flinched in shock and looked up at the trees. “What the...?”

  The white-haired man burst out in laughter. “Great Mother, are you a newborn fawn?”

  Several small yellow and black chickadees fluttered down to land on the flowering branches directly over the man’s head. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Just hatched!”

  A chubby raccoon waddled out from the underbrush to sit by the man’s boot. “Approximately twenty-eight minutes old, your highness.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “Your highness...? Are you a prince?”

  The man’s chin lifted, but his odd, sourly amused smile remained. “King, actually, of this entire island.”

  King...? Both of my ears turned forward. “What happened? Were you enchanted?”

  The man rolled his blue-green eyes. “Newborn indeed.”

  My ears laid flat and I stomped a hoof. “What?”

  The man blew out a breath. “In brief, the humans took over this land without ever realizing that we already ruled here.”

  I blinked in confusion and tilted one ear to the side. “I don’t understand. Who are ‘we’?”

  The man straightened to stand with his shoulders back. A chime seemed to ring in my inner ear, and the world seemed to vibrate around me. The white-haired man blazed with blinding light and stretched upward, and then he was gone. In his place stood a silver-blue unicorn far larger than I was in both height and breadth.

  This was no enchantment; he was real. I could feel it vibrating in my bones. If I had still been in my human form, my mouth would have fallen open.

  The unicorn that stood before me scraped a split hoof in the grass. “Our kind ruled in all the kingdoms of this land long before the humans ever found it.” There was another chime in my inner ear, and another flash of light. The man was once again leaning against the gnarled dogwood, the waves of his silver hair wafting gently in the breeze, his lips curled in a sour smile. “However, humans do not have the eyes to see or the ears to hear us. To them, we are merely just another type of beast.” He waved an elegant hand. “So...rather than attempt to wipe out the human infestation, an impossible task since they breed so damned rapidly, we have taken it upon ourselves to combine our blood with their ruling classes.”

  I nodded thoughtfully. “Winning the war from the inside, so to speak.”

  The white-haired man smiled sourly. “Exactly.” His eyes narrowed and his lips twisted in a snarl. “And I had very nearly succeeded when this idiot human ruler decided to interfere!”

  I flinched back. “What did he do?”

  The man began to pace between the dogwoods. “I was well on my way to seducing both princesses when their idiot of a father tried to push one of them into marriage with a foreign ruler.”

  “Seducing...?”

  The man nodded. “Once one of them became pregnant, it would be a simple matter of stepping forward as the father of their child.”<
br />
  I flicked an ear back in annoyance. Apparently, this kingdom had the same law as ours; a pregnant woman had to marry the father of her child. However... “This is a royal house. What’s to stop the king from declaring someone else as the father of her child, someone he chooses?”

  The man smiled bitterly. “My fate is unimportant, as long as my child, my bloodline becomes acknowledged ruler of this land.”

  I tilted my head and one ear to the side. “That doesn’t seem very fair to you, your highness.”

  One silver brow rose. “Oh?” He took a casual step toward me. “Then you’re willing to assist me in my quest to become prince consort and heir to my own kingdom?”

  I stiffened where I stood, but my long, curling tail lashed from side to side. I could smell a trap in this somewhere. “Err...”

  He set his hands on his narrow hips and smiled with narrowed blue-green eyes. “Considering your physical maturity, fawn, I’m willing to bet that you had no idea what you were before you transformed.”

  Both my ears laid flat back and my head lowered. I couldn’t lie, though I wanted to. The birds and animals sitting in the branches around us had already proven how quick they were to tattle on me. “Yeah, so? What’s your point?”

  His smile broadened and sharpened. “You have no idea how to assume a human form, do you?”

  I hid my flinch by looking away, but my tail decided to snake itself shamefully between my legs.

  The white-haired man chuckled. “Fear not. You will discover it eventually.”

  I stomped a hoof. “I don’t want to wait for eventually!”

  “Is that so? Then how about this, fawn?” He tilted his head to the side. “Allow me to hand you over to the princesses, thereby winning their hand, and I will show you how to return to a human form. After that, you may escape as you please.”

  I backed away and laid my ears back flat. I didn’t like the sound of that one little bit, so I changed the subject. “I have a name, you know!”

  “Oh, do you now?” His sly smile didn’t change one bit.

  “It’s—!”

  “Julian!” The voice that called out was out of breath, masculine and painfully familiar.

  My entire body jolted with the sound. I looked sharply to my right.

  At the edge of my campsite was Prince Alberic. One gloved hand was pressed against the trunk of a leaning oak with the reins of his lathered horse and my equally lathered gelding fisted in his other hand. His coat and sash were utterly disheveled, with leaves and twigs caught in his mussed golden hair. There were scuffs and smudges of dirt on his boots. With his brows low over narrowed green eyes and his mouth tight, the jaw clenched, he glared at me, then nodded at the white-haired man. “We’ll take your offer.”

  The white haired unicorn smiled. “I was wondering when you would make your appearance, little cousin.”

  I tilted an ear to the side. Cousin...?

  Alberic smiled bitterly and gave a half-bow. “My apologies for not recognizing you, your highness.”

  He bowed? Both of my ears went up, and one knee lifted in utter surprise. My prince never bowed, not even to his own father. The best he gave anyone was half a nod, and only to those he truly respected. Well, and princesses he was actively courting.

  The unicorn nodded. “Imagine my surprise when I saw you paying court to the human princesses with this doe at your side.”

  I stomped a hoof in annoyance. “Did everyone know what I was except me?”

  The unicorn turned a narrowed glare on me and bared his teeth. “Who else knows?”

  I fully meant to hold my ground, but my body literally had a mind of its own. Despite my best efforts, my skittish body reared back, bumping my butt into a tree in the process.

  The birds overhead burst out in twittering laughter.

  “That would be me, your highness.” A large crow flew down from the branches overhead to land on the ground in front of me. It bobbed its black head, then in a burst of shadows and black feathers, abruptly materialized into the kneeling, winged and masked form of Master Corwin. He rose to his feet and drew the mask from his face. His wings folded back and settled into a tattered black cape.

  “Death’s coachman.” The unicorn’s blue-green gaze slid to my prince. “How interesting that yet another fey should be here.”

  Alberic’s mouth tightened into a scowl.

  Master Corwin lifted both hands and smiled. “I have no interest in either human princess, your highness.”

  The unicorn king lifted a brow at Prince Alberic. “And you?”

  My prince shrugged very casually. “Passing fancy.”

  Actually, it had been an order from his royal father. However, the birds in the branches above merely tilted their heads, and didn’t object. Apparently, his answer was close enough to the truth for them.

  The white-haired unicorn in human form nodded. “Very well, then...”

  High overhead, a hawk called out with a vibrating whistle, but I clearly heard, “They’re coming!”

  The unicorn king blew out a shrill whistle of his own. “Understood.” The king turned to look at Alberic and Master Corwin. “The palace conservatory, by the orange trees, this sunset.” He pointed at me. “You, come with me.” There was a flash of light, and the man was once more a silver-blue unicorn. He turned toward the trees.

  “What?” I felt a powerful urge to follow him, but I didn’t want to leave my disheveled prince behind. “Why?”

  The unicorn turned his long elegant head toward me. “There’s a large party of nobles on horseback headed this way, with dogs.”

  I blinked. “Dogs...?” That was stupid. They were trying to take the unicorn...err...me alive, weren’t they? Dogs had a nasty habit of killing the quarry before the hunters even got to it.

  The unicorn king lunged into the trees.

  Alberic snarled. “Fuck, they followed me!” He turned sharply to face me. “Go!”

  “But...?”

  Alberic swung his riding crop at my butt. “Now!”

  Startled by the swinging crop, I jumped and ended up leaping all the way across the campsite. I meant to stop and look back, but my body dashed into the trees after the king as though pulled by a string.

  ~ Sixteen ~

  I ran through the trees following the white flash of the unicorn king, but it seemed more like a dream. I didn’t feel the least bit tired, and the world around me seemed to be made of mist and shadow. There were trees, but they weren’t very distinct. Everything had softened edges, bushes, branches, the ground underfoot—err, hoof—as though they weren’t quite there...or we weren’t.

  Only a handful of minutes later, the forest changed around us, the trees became very tall, very slender and bone white. Not like birches with their white bark and green leaves, but entirely white; trunk, leaf and stem alike. The leaves didn’t rustle, they tinkled like glass chimes. The sky turned entirely gray with low-hanging swirling clouds as though a storm rolled overhead, but I heard no thunder and it did not rain. Even more alarming, the ground under my hooves disappeared under a thick layer of mist, erasing all remaining traces of natural color.

  All of a sudden, we emerged from the trees into a clearing of tall grass and white flowers. The sudden normalcy of green was actually comforting to my eyes. At the very center of the clearing on a gentle hill sat a golden dome upheld by pillars, each intricately carved with fanciful twisting vines. It had no walls. Instead, there were pearl-white sheets hanging between the pillars, wafting gently in the breeze. It looked more like a temple than a building.

  The king trotted up the three broad white marble steps and passed between the wafting sheets, out of sight.

  Not knowing what else to do, I followed him up the steps and beyond the wafting sheets. Blinded by the shimmering folds, they brushed against my neck and sides. I felt a pull against my flesh, as though some sort of skin was peeling from me. It wasn’t uncomfortable. Rather, it was like a weighted cloth was dragged off of me.

  I
blinked to clear my sight and took half a dozen steps beyond the floating cloth. I felt light as a feather. Directly before my eyes only a yard or two away, a tall oval mirror stood suspended in a frame of white branches. For the first time, I could actually see myself after my transformation. However, my reflection did not show a unicorn.

  To my absolute astonishment, my body had changed into to that of a deer, an almost blindingly white deer with tufts of fur around my hooves and at my elbows, though the snaking tail remained. My single spiral horn, however, had been replaced by a small pair of bladed antlers with a pair of very sharp points jutting out over my brow. I looked very much like one of the snow deer found in the far reaches of the northern wastes.

  “Now you know.”

  I turned from the mirror to look to my left.

  Lying atop a large oval cushion of opalescent white silk, one of many cushions scattered about, was a huge stag with a thick ruff of fur covering his throat and a massive set of bladed antlers crowning is head. It was the king. I could feel the hum of his power in my very bones. He spoke, though his mouth did not move. “This is our truest form, the form we wore when our kind first greeted humans.”

  I stepped lightly toward him. “We’re really deer?”

  A chuckle sounded and his graceful head nodded despite the enormous rack of antlers it supported. “The weight you felt lift from you when you entered is their collective assumption of our appearance.”

  Confused, I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

  “Humans see us as unicorns, therefore we look like unicorns.”

  I would have frowned if I could have. Instead, I tilted one large ear back. “You’re saying that their opinion of us shapes the way we look?”

  I had the strong impression of a shrug, though his body was clearly incapable of one. “To some degree, yes. We are...” He looked away briefly. “How do I say this simply? Hmm...” He looked back at me. “We are less earthbound than they. Our bodies are more fluid in form, so we are more easily affected by the flow of magic, which is affected by collective human belief. As their beliefs changed with the passing of the centuries, our bodies changed to match their views. In addition, their individual belief in what they consider real and not real also effects what form they see.”