Queen of Unicorns

by Jennifer Ellision

  “We’ll fly,” he said by way of an explanation as we headed around the palace to the staviary.

  The thought of flying again wasn’t a pleasant one, but at least I wouldn’t be in labor this time. I’d done it once, I could do it again.

  “We’ll take Misty.”

  “Right-o.” I followed Jay into the staviary and threw open Misty's stall door. She stood quickly and nudged my pocket.

  “No peanut butter sandwiches today,” I said giving her a quick stroke on her nose. “I need a ride, but I promise I’ll get you as many sandwiches as you like once we are done.” She seemed to understand my words, lowering her front legs to I could mount her. I hopped onto her back and motioned for Jay to do the same.

  “Williamson, Avery,” I barked at the guards. They stood to attention, saluting me. “You'll have to follow on horseback. Take two of the horses.”

  They took off at a run to saddle up, no questions asked. My mouth curved. Despite mother's protection, at least no one here was questioning my authority in times of danger.

  “To the meadow, Misty,” I urged. “And hurry, if you please.”

  Jay clutched my waist as I gently prodded Misty with my heels. She cantered out of the stables and took to the skies.

  I craned my neck and looked back toward the staviary, catching sight of two chestnut stallions as they streaked from the stables below us and toward the meadow.

  A wave of nausea overcame me. Gripping Misty’s mane tightly, I took a few deep breaths to make sure my lunch stayed on the inside. I didn’t want a repeat performance of the other night, where I was sure I had thrown up at least once.

  My pulse calmed as Jay pulled me closer to him. His chin nestled upon my shoulder as his arms tightened about my waist, causing my stomach to flip far more than the height had. I leaned forward, bringing Jay’s body with mine so I was snug between Misty at my front and Jay at my back. He pulled his hands from around my waist and trailed them up my arms until he laced his fingers between mine, gripping Misty’s mane. Suddenly, the height didn’t bother me anymore. I was safe. I was protected. I was confused. Confused about how perfectly my body fit in his and how much I enjoyed the feel of him.

  “Do you know where the traps are laid?” I asked Jay, raising my voice so that he could hear me over the wind in our ears.

  I felt his nod against my cheek, which sent a shiver down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold air whizzing past us.

  “Where are they?” I shouted back, trying to ignore the heat in my cheeks that was rapidly making its way further south.

  His voice was tight. “Down the hillside... We should try to land in the trees. They haven't found any there. I don’t want Misty accidentally trapping herself as we come in to land."

  I nodded and looked out for a gap in the trees big enough for Misty to get her enormous wingspan through.

  “There, Misty.” I leaned forward, clutching her mane in one hand, and pointed to a small clearing with the other. “Come in slowly. I want to scan the ground.”

  She began to descend, and as she did, I scoured the ground beneath us. When I was sure it was safe, I told her to land.

  Jay scrambled off of her back and held a hand up to help me down.

  This time, when my hand took his, I managed to keep the blush at bay. Whatever I’d been feeling up in the air must have been produced by fear and nothing else. That thought made me feel a little better. I didn’t need to complicate my life further.

  “Misty, stay here. We’ll be back soon. If you sense danger, fly away.”

  She nodded her head in understanding.

  “It’s almost as if she knows what you are saying,” Jay marveled.

  “I think she does. She’s a smart unicorn. Now, where are these traps?”

  Jay jerked his thumb to the left. “I left a couple of men on the hillside at the edge of the woods. They can’t be too far away.”

  I looked to where he was pointing. Sunlight flittered through the canopy of leaves and, not too far in the distance, the edge of the woods was apparent.

  As we walked, a couple of unicorns came out to greet us. They watched us cautiously as we walked along a well-worn path through the trees. I stopped, holding my hand out to them. They moved toward me, and the larger of the two nuzzled my hand.

  “Have you seen any injured unicorns in these woods?” I asked, giving it a scratch behind its ears.

  The unicorn didn’t shake its head, but I could feel its answer. It wasn’t scared. It had nothing to fear.

  “They haven’t seen anything,” I said, turning to Jay.

  His eyes widened, and his eyebrows lifted. “How could you possibly know that?”

  I shrugged. “I just do. You head out to the men. I’ll make sure these two are safe.”

  “I’m not leaving you. Your mother would have my guts for garters.”

  I laughed at his choice of words. “Fine, I’ll come with you, but I think the unicorns might like to come too.”

  “The more, the merrier.”

  We ended up on the hillside, the city of Shipley below us in the distance. When we emerged from the trees, Williamson and Avery trotted over.

  “We wondered where you’d ended up, Your Highness. We found the traps.”

  Williamson pointed to a spot by the tree line where a couple of men were cautiously moving up and down through the tall grass, sticks in their hands to prod at the ground in front of them.

  “You should stay in the trees,” I cautioned the two unicorns. Jay took my hand as we walked over to the men.

  “We need to keep a look at where we are going too. Those traps could take our legs clean off if they shut hard enough.”

  I looked to Williamson and Avery, who jumped down from their horses and tied them to a tree.

  “How many are left?” Jay asked the two men, taking their attention from their job. They nodded their heads in a quick bow.

  The older of the two, a man in his early sixties with a flat cap, said. “I don’t know. This tall grass is murder. The trapper knew what he or she was doing. They’re bloody impossible to see before you stand right on ‘em, pardon my language, Your Highness.”

  “How many have you found?” I asked.

  “Bloody hundreds of the buggers, pardon my language.” He threw a long stick to Jay, who caught it in one hand.

  He glanced at the two unicorns who were peeping out of the trees behind us.

  “I think it’s best if you stay here and make sure the unicorns stay in the trees. I’d feel a lot safer knowing that you weren’t in harm’s way too.”

  “I’m on it.” That was why I’d been brought here. To make sure there were no accidents. I settled myself on a stump and watched as the five men worked.

  Every couple of minutes or so, I heard a loud snap, and one of the men would bring his stick up, metal teeth biting into it. Then they’d bring it over to me, un-spring the trap, and throw it into a rapidly growing pile. The unicorns left soon after I sat down, probably growing bored with the lack of action. My mind began to wander in the warmth of the sun and the unrelenting thwack, thwack, thwack. The man was right, there were hundreds of traps. I wished I’d brought something to entertain myself with.

  An hour or so in, something nudged my elbow from behind. My eyes shot wide in startling recognition as I met a pair of golden eyes that I’d looked into before.

  “It's you!”

  The baby unicorn’s mother. She nodded her head so I could stroke her snout. I was surprised to see her, but she was probably bored cooped up in the staviary just as I had been in the palace. “Baby's doing well,” I said encouragingly. “Her wound is almost entirely healed. The hostlers just want to give her a bit more time getting used to putting weight back on it, and we'll send both of you home to the meadow in just a few weeks.”

  She sagged in relief and let out a soft whicker.

  “Thank you.”

  “You're very welcome!” I cheerily said aloud—then froze.

  Oh
. My. Gods.

  My voice was quite squeaky when I spoke again. “Did you just...?”

  I’d sat out in the sun for too long. I understood the unicorns. I always had, but to actually have them speak to me in words, well, that was absurd. There was no way that the unicorn had spoken to me.

  “I did.”

  Her voice resonated in my mind but was accompanied by all the ordinary sounds that a unicorn could make. She huffed and snorted. I heard the sounds through my ears clear as day. But in my head... she sounded just as human as I did.

  I was going mad. I had finally cracked.

  “Don't get too hung up on this, human child. You are very well known around these parts. The unicorns far and wide have told tales of a beautiful princess. One we can understand. I wondered how long it would take you to understand us.”

  “No,” I said, looking round in case I was a part of some weird practical joke. Jay and the others were far down the hillside, all of them immersed in their task. “This isn’t real.”

  “Whyever not? You’ve always had an affinity with us. Not many humans would risk their own baby to save a unicorn baby.”

  “I didn’t know I was going to go into labor,” I said, wondering why I was pandering to this particular delusion and talking back.

  “Eliana!” Jay called from the line of traps. He threw his arms up in a question when I looked at him. “Who are you talking to?”

  “No one... The unicorn!” I shouted.

  He didn't need to know it was actually talking back.

  Beside me, the mother unicorn huffed as Jay went back to work. In the distance, there was another thwack of metal upon wood.

  I picked up another stick from a pile nearby, ready for when the one of the men came back. They’d gone through so many sticks that I could build a bonfire with the mangled wood sitting in a pile beside the traps. As I waited for the man to trek up the hill, a thought occurred to me. “Miss, er... mother unicorn...”

  “Zacarina, please.”

  “Zacarina, then... did you see the people laying traps?” If we had a witness and a description, we had a chance at catching the monsters behind this.

  Her eyes grew shifty, and she looked away from me. “Not people. A man. One man. And yet… not a man at all,” she said with a neigh. Her entire body shuddered as she spoke.

  A man and not a man at all... I'd unpack that loaded statement later. How did one man manage to do all this without being seen?

  “What did he look like?” I asked urgently, my heart pounding with excitement. We were going to catch him, whoever he was.

  The unicorn shook her head. “I don't know. I did not see. The forest felt strange, and I stayed well away.”

  I deflated. Then we had nothing.

  “But that doesn't mean I didn't hear him. He sang as he set about his gruesome work. And we heard him.”

  I frowned. A song wasn't much to go on, but maybe it would help somehow. If it was an unusual song or something that had been sung in taverns recently, perhaps we could pinpoint his origin or a place he might frequent. It was a start, at least.

  “What was the song?”

  “It had only one word repeating over and over again,” she said grimly.

  A feeling of dark foreboding washed over me.

  “Rumplestiltskin.”

  After the Happily Ever After…

  There is more to these stories. You want to know what happens next right? Fast forward eighteen years…

  Pick up book one now

  PREQUEL

  SLEEPING BEAUTY

  1. Queen of Dragons

  2. Heiress of Embers

  3. Throne of Fury

  4. Goddess of Flames

  LITTLE MERMAID

  5. Queen of Mermaids

  6. Heiress of the Sea

  7. Throne of Change

  8. Goddess of Water

  RED RIDING HOOD

  9. King of Wolves

  10. Heir of the Curse

  11. Throne of Night

  12. God of Shifters

  RAPUNZEL

  13. King of Devotion

  14. Heir of Thorns

  15. Throne of Enchantment

  16. God of Loyalty

  RUMPELSTILTSKIN

  17. Queen of Unicorns

  18. Heiress of Gold

  19. Throne of Sacrifice

  20. Goddess of Loss

  BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

  21. King of Beasts

  22. Heir of Beauty

  23. Throne of Betrayal

  24. God of Illusion

  ALADDIN

  25. Queen of the Sun

  26. Heiress of Shadows

  27. Throne of the Phoenix

  28. Goddess of Fire

  CINDERELLA

  29. Queen of Song

  30. Heiress of Melody

  31. Throne of Symphony

  32. Goddess of Harmony

  ALICE IN WONDERLAND

  33. Queen of Clockwork

  34. Heiress of Delusion

  35. Throne of Cards

  36. Goddess of Hearts

  WIZARD OF OZ

  37. King of Traitors

  38. Heir of Fugitives

  39. Throne of Emeralds

  40. God of Storms

  SNOW WHITE

  41. Queen of Reflections

  42. Heiress of Mirrors

  43. Throne of Wands

  44. Goddess of Magic

  PETER PAN

  45. Queen of Skies

  46. Heiress of Stars

  47. Throne of Feathers

  48. Goddess of Air

  URBIS - Coming soon

  49. Kingdom of Royalty

  50. Kingdom of Power

  51. Kingdom of Fairytales

  52. Kingdom of Ever After

  A NEW FAIRYTALE ANTHOLOGY

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  Fairytales include:

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  Snow White and Rose Red by Eileen Mueller and A.J. Ponder

  Beauty and the Beast by Beth Hale

  Aladdin by Zara Quentin

  Rumpelstiltskin by Craig Halloran

  Sleeping Beauty by Stacey O'Neale

  Wizard of Oz by Amanda Marin

  Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by Lacy Sheridan

  Red Riding Hood by May Dawson

  Rapunzel by Anne Stryker

  Sinbad the Sailor by Cassidy Taylor

  Robin Hood by Jacque Stevens

  Little Match Girl by Lee Ann Ward

  Twelve Dancing Princesses by Kit Winters

  Mulan by Charlotte Daniels and Charlie Daniels

  The Nightingale by IreAnne Chambers and Rachel McManamay

  The Girl without Hands by Daphne Moore

  Nix of the Mill Pond by Astrid V.J

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  A note from the author

  The Kingdom of Fairytales authors hope you enjoyed this new way of reading. We don’t think that a series has ever been set with one chapter a day thought a whole year before and we hope we did it justice.

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  About Emma Savant

  Emma Savant lives with her husband and cat in a small town in California, where she spends way too much time watching Star Trek and eating nachos. She loves fairy tales and once took an archery class in the hopes of becoming more Narnian.

  Emma is also the author of Glimmers of Scales, Crimson Daggers, Spinning into Gold and Glimmers of Glass.

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  About J.A. Armitage

  J.A lives in a total fantasy world (because reality is boring right?) When she's not writing all the crazy fun in her head, she can be found eating cake, designing pretty pictures and hanging upside down from the tallest climbing frame in the local playground while her children look on in embarrassment. She's travelled the world working as everything from a banana picker in Australia to a Pantomime clown, has climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and the bottom of the Grand Canyon and once gave birth to a surrogate baby for a friend of hers.