Rider (Spirals of Destiny) (2 page)

Part of him wished he had never staggered out of that western desert bearing wounds both physical and emotional. Pushing his hooves into the sand, he tried to enjoy that feeling and stave off the bitterness. Danella wouldn’t want to see him like this! Majherri noticed a sound that was almost hidden beneath the noise of the waves. It was the sound of a human female crying.

For once, could I go somewhere without these crying humans plaguing me?

Danella was made of sterner stuff. Rather than wait for a water maiden to come along with healing tears, she simply ripped an arrow out of her flesh, applied her flame to cauterize the wound, and rejoined the battle. Unlike her sister, Danella didn’t mind the scars and boasted that they proved she was alive.

Majherri now bore several scars of his own. He felt anything but alive. The unicorn debated the options available to him, but the human already was looking at him. He could just trot away. The girl was older than the candidates with blondish hair that looked like the harsh sunlight made it lighter than it should be. The garments she wore were nice by human standards. She seemed to be conscious of her grooming. It was a good trait, at least the unicorn supposed.

The girl isn’t one of my would-be suitors. At least I’m not the cause of her tears.

He somehow felt better with that knowledge as she wiped her eyes and addressed him.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she said. “I come here and just watch the waves when I’m sad.”

Majherri nodded and turned to look out into the horizon and watch the gulls circling in the distance.

“I’ll leave if you want to be alone,” the human put forward. The sniffle in her voice said otherwise, but since she was trying to be courteous, he looked back and moved his head sideways in a noncommittal gesture. If she kept talking, he might take her up on that offer.

A blissful minute of silence followed before the human spoke once more, “I watched the demonstration, but couldn’t bear to watch the selection. I heard the crowd cheer twice. I suppose it’s too much to ask that Rebekah Morganstern wasn’t chosen. She’s such a spiteful brat.”

The human is a fair judge of character.
He looked at her and tried to figure out how best to break the news. Unicorns understood the human language, but it didn’t work the other way.

“She was, wasn’t she?”

He nodded.

The young woman’s face flushed. Majherri guessed in anger. “She had the nerve to say that I shouldn’t be allowed to attend the festival and called me impure of all things! Oh, I’m sorry! You didn’t come here to listen to my problems.”

He nodded again. His hopes that she’d still her tongue were dashed as she took this as a sign that she should talk about him.

“You’ve been in a serious scrap haven’t you? I knew unicorns were tough! I bet your rider must be proud. What? What did I say? I’m sorry! Don’t go!”

She’d been standing on his right side and hadn’t noticed the scars, as he circled behind her, she saw his left side and gasped, “Oh no! You didn’t win that fight.”

Majherri couldn’t summon the strength to lie and avoided her gaze. Pathetically, he glanced out at the ocean and partly wished for a giant wave to come and drag him out to sea, finishing him. At that moment, he’d have welcomed the release. The noise he made was unnatural for a unicorn. It was a primal cry of pain. The human responded to it and threw her arms around his neck.

That’s when the magic inside him stirred. His bond to Danella had been a rising surge of magic. This was a violent release of pent up heat and energy; something restrained that finally snapped and broke free. To say he was both shocked and worried was an understatement.

“People of Helden, I bring you greetings from the Council of Kings. Today, we are here to see if any of your young maidens can bond with our remaining unicorns. They will judge you and if you are deemed worthy, you will be asked to join our elite ranks. If you are selected, your family will be paid two hundred gold coins for their permission to take you with us.”

Kayliegh Reese, packed into the crowd of people, watched in awe. There were so many unicorns all in one spot! Every few months, a scout would pass through Helden on patrol, and perhaps even stay the night at the inn. They were mesmerizing! Mother, lost in her latest sculpture, couldn’t be bothered to come see them and gave Kayleigh the impression that she shouldn’t be wasting her time either, but she’d never seen a demonstration before.

The lead battle maiden continued, “Even should you be selected, you will want to think long and hard on your decision. Becoming a battle maiden is not a choice one makes lightly. Some that are chosen will not be able to endure the rigors of training. The bond can break, never fully forming. It is painful for the girl and the unicorn. I can promise you the training will be hard, because I am one of the instructors. This is not for the faint of heart. Years of grueling physical and mental education will push you beyond your limits, but if you truly have an affinity for your unicorn, you will persevere, for yourself, your steed, and the magic that connects you!”

The warrior mounted her unicorn and readied an arrow on her bow. The target was an empty shell of scorched armor with a damaged shield placed in front of it. A brief moment of serenity crossed the woman’s face as she loosed an arrow. Kayleigh, along with every other set of eyes in the village square, followed the projectile. Just as it was about to hit the shield, it shimmered and splattered on the metal as if the contents of a bucket were tossed at it. The stream of water wrapped around the shield and solidified, burying the arrow deep into the breastplate.

Over the sounds of the cheers, the battle maiden announced the next demonstration and an earth maiden rode in front of the crowd demonstrating something called “Thunderhooves.” The ground shook violently like a full column of knights was rushing by. Many of the targets fell, but the woman rode by one of the few that still stood and smashed it with a mace leaving a massive dent in the breastplate.

Kayleigh clapped and shouted as an air maiden darted back and forth at unbelievable speeds and then hurled a spear from an impossible distance. It overshot the target, when it should have never gotten near it in the first place. The most remarkable thing was the air maiden didn’t appear to be a hulking bundle of muscles like the earth maiden. She was tiny and waif-like. The leader explained that all battle maidens can draw physical strength from their mounts as well as the elemental magic and that any one of them was the equal of two men.

To drive that point home, the water maiden asked for two volunteers in the audience to come lift a barrel filled with grain. Kayleigh scowled recognizing one of them was Morgan Jacobs. Her expression changed to a grin as he strained and failed to lift the item higher than his waist. The second man, Helden’s blacksmith, lifted it with considerable effort, but raised it triumphantly to his shoulder to the applause of the townsfolk.

Captain Lynch gestured to the youngest of the command and introduced her as Rider Annabeth Welsh, a fire maiden. She couldn’t be more than twenty – a scant four years older than Kayleigh! The brown haired woman walked to the blacksmith and asked him to give her the barrel. Old Gregory, scoffed, but the warrior insisted. She smiled and easily put the heavy load onto her shoulder and switched it to the other shoulder, effortlessly.

Kayleigh was speechless and could only clap as the woman dropped the heavy barrel and vaulted onto her mount. She drew a bent sword and trailed flames behind it, making short work of the few remaining targets. Circling back in front of the audience, the unicorn reared and his front hooves became encased in flames and it kicked outward several times, dazzling everyone. Those flames disappeared the moment the hooves smacked down on the ground.

The leader addressed the appreciative crowd, “I have talked at length of the benefits of joining our ranks. Now, let me remind you of the hazards. We are warriors. There is a reason that the High-King turns to us when there is trouble in the realm. When we fight, it is not some immobile target or hay-stuffed dummy that suffers our wrath. Sometimes, we mourn our lifelong friends when we bury our fallen.”

Whisking hair from her face, she finished, gradually beginning to smile. “That I say for you parents, brothers, and sisters of the candidates. It will be up to you to speak to them, should they be selected. One look at them tells me that nothing I can say would dissuade them. I see a warrior’s spirit in each of these maidens before me and hope that one or more of them will join our sisterhood.”

Gesturing to the two wagons and the dozen or so young women standing next to their unicorns, Captain Lynch said, “Over there, you see those already chosen from the settlements south of here. I have four unicorns that have yet to select a rider. I hope that in a few hours, I will have none. Good luck to you all!”

Kayleigh considered staying, but her gaze strayed to Rebekah Morganstern and her friends standing up and waving to the crowd.

A little over an hour before, she’d encountered Rebekah and some of the other candidates.

“That’s a lovely dress, Reese,” Rebekah had said with a less than pleasant smile.

“Thank you, Rebekah. Your dress is very pretty as well.” Kayleigh waited for the insult from the wealthy merchant’s daughter. She was not disappointed.

The short brunette with her hair plaited down her back put a finger to her own chin. “It reminds me of something. Oh yes, I know what it is. We use something like it as a tarp on one of father’s wagons.”

The pair with her laughed. Kayleigh simply continued walking, refusing to let the biting words get to her.

“Why Kayleigh, I would think you’d be the last person to want to see the unicorns.”

“Should I care what you think, Rebekah?”

“Unicorns are symbols of beauty and purity. Since you are neither, why don’t you avoid the town square today, lest your presence spoil someone else’s chance? Perhaps you should wait down by the docks for some of the sailors to get back from setting the crab pots and see if you can earn some coins, whore!”

“I’m not a whore!” Kayleigh screamed.

“From what I hear, like mother, like daughter,” Rebekah answered bluntly.

“Morgan Jacobs is a liar and my mother is an artist!” The boy had offered Kayleigh coins. When she slapped him and ran off, he boasted that she had taken his money and gave him something in return.

“Who only ever has men for clients, why is that?” Morganstern was clearly enjoying herself at Kayleigh’s expense.

“That’s not true and you know it,” Kayleigh fired back. Her mother had female clients at times, though a majority of them were men. She could have countered Rebekah’s words with comments about the girl’s father being one of her mother’s clients, but it felt useless to even try. Everything felt so useless!

Rebekah sneered and delivered her final blow, “In that case, answer this one question and I’ll apologize for everything I’ve ever said about you. Who is your father?”

That was enough to make Kayleigh flee to the cruel laughter that dogged her steps. She hid in an alley and cried before regaining her composure and making her way to the demonstration. Morganstern be dammed! Kayleigh wanted to see unicorns.

With the demonstration over, Kayliegh quickly walked away and headed for the beach. Everyone would be at the festival planned for after the selection. The beach would be all hers.

Looking back up at the unicorn that was every bit as startled as she was, Kayleigh said, “What just happened?”

She stood and squirmed in her now wet cotton dress. It was dyed a deep blue, a simple affair, made for warm weather. The slight chill in the air was already getting through the damp material. She wouldn’t be able to wear it much longer, but it was something she and her mother made.

This makes no sense! I was tested when we lived in Laurent. I tried every feather, clump of fur, and even a few things I didn’t want to touch. Not a blasted thing happened. How could this happen now?

“Are you okay?” She asked, while scolding herself. If he wasn’t okay, what exactly would I be able to do about it?

If a unicorn could look confused, this one certainly did. He backed away from her slowly, staring at Kayleigh like she was a threat. A second unicorn, this one a saddled female, trotted over and Kayleigh watched as the two shared what must have been a meaningful nonverbal conversation. The newcomer kept motioning with her head towards Kayleigh and seemed very excited. The male was suddenly skittish. Kayleigh stood brushing the sand off of her skirt and felt very self-conscious. She was used to people ignoring her in a conversation and saying things about her as if she wasn’t there, but this was the first time the participants were not human.

The female goaded the male to approach again. Kayleigh held her hand out to him and he brushed his head against it. The jolt was still there, but with both expecting it this time there was no repeat of the prior awkwardness. His coat was coarser than she’d imagined.

A sensation of warmth replaced the power of the jolt. It was much like what Captain Deros once described to her class. The old fisherman had brought in his albatross familiar and discussed how the two would use the weak magic they could generate to sense where the fishing was good. The old man always had full nets and traps when his ship returned.