by Kate Gordon
“Then let’s find somewhere!” Sasha hugged Sigvard’s neck again. “We have to!”
Chapter Seven
They leaned over the little tablet screen again, retracing roads to the different parks and discussing pros and cons.
The largest one looked most promising, but it was way over the other side of the main highway. It would take too long to get there on the ponies in the time Sasha and Chloe had available tomorrow morning, so they decided to check the biggest parks closest to town. Until they looked at them properly, they couldn’t be sure if there were trees to hide amongst or enough grazing to support the herd for a few days.
“We’re going to have to move again eventually,” Ambrosius said. “We just need this place to rest safely until Brökk has healed.”
“I wish we could get to that big park though,” Lily said again.
“We’ll look at it online tonight,” Chloe said. “That might be enough.”
Sasha yawned. “Thank goodness we’ve decided where we’re going in the morning, although how we’re going to stay awake to ride home tonight let alone do this search, I have no idea.”
“Forgive me for not thinking of this earlier. My mind has been otherwise occupied,” said Ambrosius. “Lily, Sasha, Chloe, step close to me and turn up your faces.”
He shook his long, silver mane and a pearly dust covered the girls.
Sasha giggled. “It tickles!”
Lily licked the pearly coating off her lips. “Oh, it’s kind of sweet and really yummy.” She smiled seeing her friends’ faces luminescent in the moonlight. Realising she must look the same, she laughed with Sasha.
“And how do you feel?” he asked.
“Wide awake, like I could stay up all night,” replied Lily.
“Wow, yeah, not at all tired,” Sasha added. “What if we want to sleep?”
Ambrosius chuckled. “You’ll be able to stay awake when you want to and sleep soundly when you want to.”
“That’s magic!” Sasha said.
Everyone laughed. Then she realised what she’d said and joined in.
“And there’s something else.” Ambrosius touched his muzzle to Sasha’s head. “It appears we have another believer in you, beautiful Sasha, if what Sigvard tells me of your connection is true.”
The muscular unicorn nodded as Sasha looked up at Ambrosius, her mouth open. “Is that what it is?” Her voice trembled. “Like Sigvard is the most important thing in the whole wide world?” She rushed to wrap her arms around Sigvard’s neck.
“It must be true, Sire.” Sigvard’s normally clipped voice was filled with emotion. “It’s the first time I’ve felt the connection with a human.”
“Ah,” said Ambrosius with meaning. “It’s rather special, is it not?”
Sigvard nodded his head again as much as Sasha’s arms would allow. “Very special.”
Lily looked from Sasha and Sigvard to Ambrosius. “Could you ever have imagined that two of us would have this special connection? I mean why us?”
“I have no idea why, Lily,” Ambrosius said in his deep voice. “Perhaps one of the ancients would know. But they have not been among us for many years. It’s never happened in our herd, I can tell you that much. But let us focus on practical things. The night is passing, and we are conscious you need to return. Shall we tend to some of the weaker foals before you depart?”
“I’ll just get the bucket and some more water.” Lily walked back to Brökk, who appeared to be sleeping. The bucket’s empty, so that’s good. She refilled it and came back to the others.
“Oh, come on, Sigvard,” Sasha was saying. “Take me for a ride around the paddock.”
The king’s lieutenant replied with a loud snort, making Chloe jump and drop the tablet.
“Where’s your backpack, Lil?” she asked. “I’ll put this away and carry it seeing as you’ve got the bucket.”
Lily handed it to Chloe and laughed at Sasha wiping unicorn snot off her jacket. “That sounds like a no, Sash.”
“Yuck,” she replied with feeling. “I guess it is, but one day, I am going to ride him.”
Sigvard snorted again and pranced off.
Lily laughed. “No offence, but I think Sigvard’s the one to make that decision.”
Still amazed at her friend’s determination to ride a unicorn, Lily walked with the others to a mare and a foal under some trees at the top of a steep gully. I don’t know if I could ever ask Ambrosius that. He’s too magnificent to have a human ride him. Maybe the good witch Celestina could ride him or Sigvard. Or perhaps she rides Guilio like her evil sister rides Guilio’s brother Galen. But with his permission, not like Abellona rides Galen because she forces him.
Ambrosius’ voice bought Lily back to the present. “This is Eva and her colt Lief.”
Lily held her hand out to the mare to sniff. “Is she okay with me touching her foal, Ambrosius?”
“You can ask Eva yourself, Lily. We can all speak to humans if we wish.”
“It still doesn’t seem possible.” Lily let the foal sniff her hand. “You, the whole herd don’t seem possible. I can’t believe I only met you for the first time last night.”
“This morning for Sasha and me.” Chloe stroked Eva’s neck. “Surreal is how I’m feeling, and now we’re all glowing with magical unicorn dust!”
“I know, right? Totally surreal.” The foal lipped Lily’s hair. “I guess we’re the first people he’s ever seen.”
“You are, but I told Lief not to be frightened,” Ambrosius said.
“He’s certainly not afraid,” Lily smiled as she gently pushed Lief’s nibbling teeth away from her jacket. “I’ll check Lief for bruises and injuries now, if that’s okay, Eva.”
“Ja, of course,” the mare replied calmly as Lily started running her hands down the foal’s spindly legs. He was nearly as tall as Rainbow, yet still a baby.
“Can I help, Lil?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, please.” Lily looked to where the unicorn king and Sigvard were grazing the lush grass a few feet away. “How many foals do you want us to check, Ambrosius?”
“Five,” he said, chewing hungrily.
“Sash, can you help too?” Lily measured out a half dose of the herbs and swished it into the bucket of water. “See if you can get Lief to drink a few mouthfuls, while Chloe and I apply salve to any hot areas.”
Working together, the girls met four more mares and their foals, applying the salves for burns or bruises where needed and offering the restorative tonic.
Walking back across the rolling paddock to Brökk, Lily said, “I think Lief was the weakest, but he seemed a bit brighter even as we came back past him.”
Ambrosius replied, “He is our youngest, so it’s understandable the journey was most difficult for him.”
“We’ll bring that hard feed when we come back tomorrow night,” Chloe added.
“Do you think that’s soon enough?” Lily thought. “I could leave some in a bucket by the forest gate when we get back tonight. Could you carry a bucket handle in your mouth?”
“Of course. I will accompany you back through the forest anyway,” said Sigvard, who had Sasha walking close beside him, her hand holding his mane. “Is it safe for me to come closer to where you keep this feed? Then I can bring it straight back tonight.”
Sasha replied cheerfully, “If anyone in Lily’s family is awake in the middle of the night and looking anywhere near the barn then we’re all in trouble anyway.”
Lily pulled a face at her friend. “You don’t sound worried if we were seen. I don’t even want to think about how much trouble we’d be in, being out at night like this.”
“I got to meet Sigvard and all the others,” Sasha responded. “It’s worth all the trouble I could get in at home.”
“Easy for you to say,” said Chloe as they approached Brökk. “Your mother isn’t threatening to sell your pony if you don’t pass your piano exams.”
“Oh, Chlo,” Lily rubbed her friend’s shoulder. “That’s
awful. But you will pass, won’t you? Because you’re very good.”
“I have to practice a lot.”
“So keep practising and keep your pony,” Sasha said in the blunt way she sometimes had.
“We’ll be fine,” Lily reassured her friend – and herself. “No one’s going to see us, and Sigvard can come up to the barn with us. It’s out of sight of the house.”
Ambrosius rubbed his cheek on Lily’s shoulder. “I apologise, Lily. By asking you to help us, we risk causing you problems at home.”
Lily stopped, running her hand down the unicorn king’s silvery face. “It’s okay, Ambrosius. We choose to do this, to help you. We’ll be fine,” she repeated. And crossed her fingers as she slipped her hand back in her pocket.
They found Brökk standing up, grazing.
“Are you feeling a little better?” Ambrosius asked the mage.
“I do seem to have an appetite,” Brökk replied between mouthfuls. “The grass here, it’s delicious.”
The king nodded. “Everyone is saying the same. You did well to bring us to this fertile land so far away from our own.”
“Hmmm,” replied Brökk, munching hard. “I’m glad I managed to direct the chasm to the coastline. It’s not a very big land mass to find from under the ocean floor.”
Lily and Chloe looked at each other, astonished to hear Brökk nearly didn’t find land safely. What would have happened to the herd if he hadn’t bought them up in the right place?
“Now give me some more of that tonic, young Lily,” the mage lifted his head. “I do believe it’s helped a great deal.”
Grinning with delight to see Brökk so improved, Lily ran to the trough to get more water. “Here you are.” She swished the measure of tonic around.
“Excellent.” He took a long drink. “Now Mikaela, where are you? You should have some too as I’m concerned your energies are depleted trying to boost mine.”
A fine-boned, dappled grey mare came towards them.
“Ah, good,” said Brökk. “Do drink up.”
“He’s like a different unicorn,” Chloe whispered to Lily while Mikaela drank.
“I know,” Lily whispered back. “He must heal up very quickly. Maybe it’s the magic inside him.”
“And isn’t Mikaela beautiful? Do you think I could touch her?”
The mare lifted her head from the bucket, water dripping from her dark muzzle. “You only need to ask,” she spoke directly to Chloe, who ducked her head shyly.
“Go on, Chlo.” Lily nudged her.
Stumbling over a grass clump, Chloe nearly fell at Mikaela’s feet. The unicorn dropped her head, giving Chloe a gentle push to help her stand upright.
“Oh!” Chloe leaned back. “That prickled.”
“Not another one,” Sigvard said with a groan. “Touch Mikaela properly.”
Unsure, Chloe looked around. “What do you mean, another one?”
“If you feel a connection with Mikaela, that’s three, isn’t it?” he replied. “Can you imagine the odds of this happening? You better touch her properly to be sure.”
Chloe reached out her hand to Mikaela’s cheek. “Oh, it’s warm, really warm.” The mare leaned into Chloe’s touch. “There’s that tingle again.”
“Do you feel it, Mikaela?” Ambrosius asked.
“From what you’ve described previously, Sire, yes, I do,” Mikaela replied in her velvety voice.
“Three girls, three connections.” Sigvard sighed.
“And the problem is?” Ambrosius asked.
“You know things always get complicated when we have active human connections.”
Sasha huffed in disbelief. “Gee, Sigvard, do you think your life wasn’t complicated until you met us? What’s not complicated about living in hiding from a mad witch or being captured to fight against your own kind, setting up diversions to avoid her and travelling through a magical portal to the other side of the world? And that’s just the stuff you’ve told us. How did Celestina get captured and things like that? Was that complicated in any way?”
Lily was lost for words, listening to the way Sasha talked to Sigvard – although she agreed with what Sasha said.
Sigvard dipped his head in acknowledgement. “You make a valid point.”
Sasha nodded, then hugged the unicorn’s neck. “I’m sorry that things are so difficult for you all, Sigvard, but I’m not sorry that it brought you here to me. You’re honestly the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
The king’s lieutenant huffed a deep breath over Sasha. “I do not know what will come of our connection, young one, but I find I cannot be sorry that we have had this opportunity.”
Chloe was leaning against Mikaela’s shoulder, her face pressed against the mare’s silky coat. Her voice was muffled as she said, “Maybe we’re a good kind of complication. Maybe there’s some reason why Brökk brought you here to our part of New Zealand, to the beach where you met Lily, some reason we don’t understand yet.”
“I know you like things to be logical, Chlo,” Lily said as she petted Ambrosius, “but I think you’re right. This is one of those times when you just have to believe that things have happened for a reason even if we don’t understand it.”
Lily paused, letting the thought sink in. It was all mind-blowing whichever way you looked at it – unicorns, them each having a connection to a special unicorn, finding a hiding place, the witch. She took a deep breath. Wow.
“Anyway, it’s time to get home now. Even though we don’t feel tired, we’ve still got to sleep.”
Chloe looked at her watch using Mikaela’s glow. “Oh, it’s after midnight. The ponies need a rest too.”
“Then let’s ask them to join us.” Ambrosius raised his head and whinnied.
Rainbow, Tommy and Angel lifted their heads and looked.
“Come on,” the unicorn king said quietly.
The three ponies trotted over to the group standing with Ambrosius.
“That’s pretty cool, Ambrosius, thanks.” Lily patted the unicorn’s neck and then her well-behaved pony.
Chapter Eight
The ride home through the forest was taken gently seeing as the ponies had another long ride through town in just a few hours.
Trotting beside Chloe, behind Sasha and Sigvard, Lily asked a question she’d been thinking about for a while. “Sigvard, do you know if the pearly dust Ambrosius shook over us would work on the ponies? So they aren’t tired either.”
“I don’t know, Lily. Perhaps he could try it tonight when you return.”
“Okay. I’ll ask him.”
“Can you make the same magical dust, Sigvard?” Sasha asked.
“No, Sasha, I can’t. It’s something Ambrosius inherited from his mother who was a strong mage much like Brökk.”
“So you can all make and control your light, but you can’t do anything more magical?”
“That’s right. I’m from warrior bloodlines and proud of it.” He snorted as if to emphasise his words.
Lily was intrigued. “How did Ambrosius become king, Sigvard? Is it some kind of fight like the stallions of a horse herd?”
“Not really, but it’s a long story, Lily, and one that Ambrosius should tell you himself. But he became our leader fair and square, and I follow him as our Sire with pride and respect.”
What does he mean? Why wouldn’t it be fair that Ambrosius is the herd’s king? Lily wondered how she and Ambrosius would ever have the time to ask and answer that sort of question.
“You know, the dust is still all over your face, Lil.” Chloe’s voice cut through her thoughts. “I guess it’s all over mine too,” Chloe continued. “How are we going to get it off so no one sees it? And how would you get it off the ponies?”
Lily rubbed her face, then looked at her hand. It glistened in Sigvard’s light. “I wonder if it only works when it’s on your skin, or now that it’s been on my skin, it will keep working even if I rub it off.”
“I think we need to try and rub it off any
way or it’s just going to end up on our pillows and clothes. Mum would not be happy to find it.” Chloe scrubbed at her face.
“No, nor would my mum.” Lily rubbed her forehead, and her hand was covered in the pearly powder. “Oh, heck.” She rubbed it on her jodhpurs, which then glimmered just as much. “Oh, that’s worse!”
Sasha looked back from where she was riding beside Sigvard and giggled. “At least we know not to do that. Glittery jodhpurs are not going to be welcome at any one’s home.”
Frowning, Lily replied, “You know it’s all over our riding helmets, our jackets, as well as our faces, right? I just hope it will brush off or it doesn’t glisten in daylight, or Mum’s going to ask questions!”
Sasha looked at Lily and Chloe more carefully. “You’re right about the helmets. I never noticed earlier. Let’s try brushing it off when we get back. Nearly there.”
Through the gate into the big horse paddock, Lily asked Sigvard to dim his magical glow.
“Of course,” he replied, and the light shrunk around him like a lantern being turned down.
She wondered if her mother’s horse Gracie would react to the unicorn, but thankfully she seemed unconcerned, and stayed grazing over by Kahurangi. Yawning as they crossed the paddock, she dismounted at the gate into the barnyard, the others doing the same. She was looking forward to bed. Still don’t know how we’re going to get this unicorn dust off everything though.
“Everyone keep super quiet now,” she whispered. “Let’s unsaddle here.” She slipped off Rainbow and unsaddled him quickly, careful not to make any noise. “Chlo, will you hold the ponies while Sash and I take the saddles up to the barn? I’ll bring back some brushes with the feed for Sigvard.”
The sooner the unicorn was gone from being near the barn, the better. Not that Mum or Dad are likely to see him, but we’ve still got to get back inside without being heard. Oh heck, what if Kuia is wandering around like she does sometimes in the middle of the night when she can’t sleep?
Crunch, crunch, crunch. Their footsteps on the gravel of the yards sounded enormously loud in the deep silence of the very early morning.