by Sean Platt
But about the wings, Clint had a theory. Mayhap the unicorns had realized they didn’t need wings once they had riders. Mayhap they’d hidden them because they knew humans would forget as they always did — and because they wanted to wield yet one more secret over humanity’s head because unicorns were jerks.
So instead of asking his questions or raising his objections, Clint sat on the edge of the porch, and Edward stood nearby. They looked out into the crumbling void, knowing they couldn’t stay long. The worlds were ending, and The Realm marked its epicenter. Edward had said that in the days of the apocalypse, the most fractured lands they’d traveled through when Clint was younger would be the least fractured today. Clint had little to hold him here, save his wild bunch of fighters, and Edward had only his wife, Cameron. They were only biding time, and they both knew that time had an expiration date.
“So what comes next?” Clint asked.
“I don’t know.” He turned to look at Clint and then added, “For real this time.”
“You spoke of stories. Did the Sandman say yours was at its end?”
“That was a long time ago. It wasn’t at its end then, but it may be now.”
“We have to go. We can’t stay here.”
“Yar,” said Edward.
“But if we leave, where will we go?”
Edward looked over, but Clint didn’t need the unicorn to answer and Edward knew it. In their younger years, they’d wandered forever. They both knew a great truth, and it loomed over them like a dark cloud: a gunslinger didn’t need a destination in order to go where he needed to be.
Clint looked up and realized that a dark cloud was forming above in the black sky.
“You did that,” said Edward, watching it form. “Way to go, Mr. Triangulum Enchantem. Now it’s the end of the world … and thanks to your negativity, I’m also going to get wet.”
Clint thought of sun. Of the void. Of anything other than dark clouds, because the specter of the thunderhead in the otherwise dead and featureless sky was ghastly. But the cloud didn’t dissipate. It continued to swell.
“I’m not doing it,” said Clint.
The cloud began to form a vague shape — round at one end and pointed on the other — and Clint found himself recalling days spent in The Realm during his childhood, looking up into the city’s perfect, magic-enhanced sky, trying to make sense of the shapes in the great puffs of cotton above. And as it became like a great horned head, Clint realized that as had been the case with many parts of Edward’s story, he seemed to remember hearing something like this before.
“You’re doing it,” he said.
Edward looked from the gunslinger to the shape in the clouds. Before he could stop himself, the unicorn whispered, “Grappy?”
“I’m proud of what you’ve done, Edward,” said the shape in the clouds.
Beside Clint, Edward swallowed.
“And,” it added. “I’m proud of what you still must do.”
ALSO FROM REALM & SANDS:
A truth terrible enough to bury for a millennium…
A mysterious boy calling in her sleep…
A secret city that shouldn’t exist…
When Eila Doyle first sees the strange boy beckoning in whispers from somewhere deep in her imagination, she questioned her sanity. She was used to seeing strange things with her eyes closed — that’s what Eila did all day while strapped to the Blunderbuss, Building whatever the Ministry of Manifestation required — but never before have those images felt so real, or so dangerous.
Click here to get Book 1 in The Dream Engine series.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sean Platt is the bestselling co-author of over 60 books, including breakout post-apocalyptic horror serial Yesterday’s Gone, literary mind-bender Axis of Aaron, and the blockbuster sci-fi series, Invasion. Never one for staying inside a single box for long, he also writes smart stories for children under the pen name Guy Incognito, and laugh out loud comedies which are absolutely not for children.
He is also the founder of the Sterling & Stone Story Studio and along with partners Johnny B. Truant and David W. Wright hosts the weekly Self-Publishing Podcast, openly sharing his journey as an author-entrepreneur and publisher.
Sean is often spotted taking long walks, eating brisket with his fingers, or watching movies with his family in Austin, Texas. You can find him at [email protected].
Johnny B. Truant is the bestselling author of the Fat Vampire series and the co-author of cult hit Unicorn Western, the political sci-fi thriller The Beam, and many more. Over the past few years, Johnny has published over four million words, all produced on a keyboard held together by duct tape.
Johnny is a partner in the Sterling & Stone Story Studio. Along with partners Sean Platt and David W. Wright hosts the weekly Self-Publishing Podcast, openly sharing his journey as an author-entrepreneur and publisher.
Johnny and his family are thrilled to finally call Austin, Texas their home after far too many years of planning to move and complaining about life in northern Ohio. You can usually find him hanging out at [email protected].