He tricked the lion! Tia shouted in my mind.
He sacrificed the power he had to offer a gift to the lion.
It’s a lie! It was no gift. The lion was deceived! Tia exclaimed.
“Tia, shh,” I said.
This is the part where the lion and the unicorn disagree, Nebu explained. It’s likely she will give you her own version of the story. The gift, he went on, which the lion attributed to furtive behavior on the part of the unicorn, was the seat of his power, his alicorn.
“Why would he offer that to the lion?”
He met the lion and confessed the truth: that he was as in love with the girl, as the lion was, and that he hated seeing her unhappy. He told the lion that there was great power in his alicorn, and that if the lion would take it from him, he could use it to change his body so that he could thrive on the grains, fruits, and vegetables that the princess ate and still retain his energy. In short, he would be imbued with strength once again.
“Then why would Tia say it was a trick?”
It is because of what happened next. The unicorn, not having the wherewithal to remove the horn himself, knelt down, and the lion, desperate to remain with the girl he loved, leapt upon the unicorn and used his sharp claws to sever the horn. Once it was severed, the horn lost its power, making the unicorn nearly as weak as a mortal horse.
“So it didn’t work? The lion wasn’t made strong?”
Oh, the lion was made strong again, but it didn’t matter, for he purposely caused harm to another creature for his personal gain. When the lion took the severed horn to the princess and laid it at her feet, she wept bitterly, for her fiancé was now lost to her. His heart was no longer pure. In despair, the lion cried out that he’d been deceived and insisted he had only done it so he could be with her.
The maimed unicorn went to the girl, asking her if they could now be together since they wanted each other so urgently. Though she loved the unicorn and sensed no malice in his heart—
Bah! Tia said.
—the girl hesitated. The lion insisted the unicorn had tricked him, and he petitioned the gods for help. A tribunal heard the case and determined that both creatures had acted selfishly and would therefore be rebuked. The lovely girl cried out, for her tender heart could not bear to see either beast she loved punished. She picked up the broken alicorn and plunged it into her heart. When she died, neither the lion nor the unicorn cared any longer about what happened to them. Their only wish was to reunite with the girl they loved in the Afterlife.
The tribunal, angry that love had wrought so horrible an end, did not grant their wish. It was decided then that all lions henceforth be banished to the human world. And to teach them a lesson, they would be forever at odds with mortals. Animals that die a mortal death do not ascend to the afterlife, so the lion would never see his betrothed again.
As for the unicorn, all unicorns would be forbidden to show themselves to mortals. Some have broken this law, but they are swiftly dealt with. Unicorns were given the gift, or curse, depending on your perspective, of immortality. We can never enter the Afterlife, and that particular unicorn would never see his princess again, though his love was truer than any love that has ever been or ever will be on Earth. For it was a love born of a pure heart.
Oh, please, Tia murmured.
I ignored her as Nebu went on. You see, the great love the unicorn had for his beautiful princess did not die and constantly seeks to be reborn. This is why unicorns have a difficult time resisting those with innocent hearts: they remind them of the girl who was lost. To make sure the unicorn remembered the lesson of the tribunal, all alicorns were taken. The power was completely stripped so that none remained, even in vestigial amounts. It is said if a unicorn accomplishes a completely selfless deed, he can earn back his alicorn, but so far, none ever has.
Now I understood why unicorns and lions didn’t trust each other. It was tragic . A terrible fate for all. Having found the one that my heart spoke to, I could understand the pain of separation. Obviously, I, too, was pretty much willing to do whatever it took to just be near Amon once again.
Finally, I said, “I’m sorry. I’m sad for both of you. You’ve both lost so much.”
The pain of it dulls over time, but I fear my heart will never be fully recovered, Nebu said.
“Wait. Are you saying…that was you? That was your story? You were the one in love with the princess?”
What does it matter if I was?
“But…you’re a father. You have children.”
Not in the sense that you believe. Unicorns are not born. We are created. I am simply the eldest of my kind. The younglings call me Father.
Tia? I thought. Do you think he’s the one? The one who really loved her, I mean?
If he is, she said softly, then his is a soul damned for eternity. I would not wish that on my worst enemy.
Copyright © 2016 by Colleen Houck. Published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Colleen Houck is the five-time New York Times bestselling author of the Tiger’s Curse series and Reawakened. She lives in Salem, Oregon, with her husband.
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