The Hunter's Prey (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 5) (8 page)

Well then.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, and then she looked closer at me. Her eyes widened. Her lips parted. “Come in, come in, Morgan le Fay,” she said.

Was this a trap that one of the hunters had laid? Her face was much too trusting. Her words too welcoming. I closed my eyes and searched for any magic and spells around me. A few weak and protective spells lay scattered around her house. And there, imperfectly but sweetly applied, I sensed an invitation that would let me through.

Then I felt, from somewhere to the east, sly magics creeping toward me.

“You probably don't recognize me,” the woman said. “It was a wild night, wasn't it, the night at the blessing of the full moon. The best and the worst night of my life!”

The night when my old enemy Guinevere had shown herself as she sought to draw out the life force of hundreds of women in order to fight me. I frowned at the memory. “You were there.”

“I was, and you saved my life. You saved a lot of our lives, and there are many Wiccans who have been practicing, in a real way, ever since that night. Ever since it was proved to us that the craft is real. I never thought I’d actually get to meet you. Come in, come in! I’ll show you some of my spells. You don’t mind if I invite a couple of the girls over, do you? Oh, are you worried about my protection spells?” she asked.

Whatever was stalking me came closer.

“I made the spells to be sure they would let you in: that my house would always be a place of safety for you, not that you need it, but there are a lot of us in this city who are indebted to you. Come in!”

I smiled at the woman. She might wish me safety, but I could only repay her in bloodshed. “Thank you for your warm hospitality.” I said.

Before she could speak another word, I turned and stepped away from her house.

The world shifted and blurred around me.

“
Diogelwch
,” I murmured as my foot stepped down and I stood in Gasworks Park. I took another step, and another, hoping this time the spell would take me someplace where there was not only a will to keep me safe, but also an ability to do so. I saw the silver tree in the sculpture park. I saw skyscrapers. I came face to face with another door.

I let out a long sigh and pressed my forehead upon the door that was inked, embedded, and carved with a hundred protective spells and curses. I needed rest, I could admit to myself now that I was here. I needed a dozen restorative spells to bring me fully back to myself and everything I needed was behind this wonderful door that led into Morgan’s Ephemera.

I knelt, carefully took off the boots, and then opened the door and entered my shop. My center of magic. If anywhere could keep me safe, it had to be here.

For a brief moment, as I shut the door behind me, I felt hopeful. Then the wafting scent of a summer's day full of buttercups and roses hit me, so sweet it left the taste of sugar on my tongue.

I raised my palms, a dozen spells ready to fight whoever was in my store. But I spoke none of them out loud when
he
appeared.

From behind my row of zines and hand-written spell manuals stepped a unicorn. His silvery white mane shone brightly in the store, though none of the overhead compact fluorescents should have given it such a sheen. The creature’s eyes were the deepest, richest brown and I had the thought, that everyone everywhere has whenever they see a unicorn, that I was in the presence of a miracle and I should do anything to protect and serve this noble creature. I dropped the seven league boots and began to walk with slow steps toward him.

Clever trick, that initial compulsion spell, I thought as I made myself slow my steps. As I forced myself to think and not merely react to this creature. Unicorns were beasts of treacherous, trickster magic. In point of fact, that was likely how he’d gotten into my store in the first place: by convincing every spell I had laid out that he was noble and could not possibly harm anyone. With a growl, I made myself stop moving toward him. I let the magic of my store seep into me and strengthen me against the unicorn’s charms.

If I survived this day, I would need to make a new protection spell on the store barring anything that seemed too sweet and kind.

The unicorn stood staring at me as he pawed the ground and moved his head around, all the better for his horn to shine in the light.

I sucked in breath, marveling at his beauty, and put a hand out to steady myself by touching one of my rowan bookshelves. I felt the steady pulse of my magic come to me from all directions. The creature took a step toward me. I glanced behind me at the boots. They were five steps back, not too far, but it would take far too long for me to get them back on.

“That's near enough, horse,” I said, facing him. Facing my fate.

The unicorn nickered and lowered his head as though about to drink from a forest's cold water stream, all the better for me to admire the length of his neck. The beauty of his
…
cracked horn? I peered closer. Indeed, a hairline fracture wound through the swirling cone of the creature's horn.

“How'd that happen?” I asked and pointed.

The unicorn raised his head and gave me an innocent and liquid look. Come closer, every part of him beckoned. Circle me in an embrace and jump onto my back. Tame me and make me yours. We will ride together through the fair fields of Camelot
…
.

“Camelot?” I laughed loudly, though my mouth was dry and my eyes could not seem to leave his. “You'll have to try harder hijacking my subconscious than that, mule. I am plenty glad that the days of Arthur and his dreadful Knights are gone. And who would want to ride the muddy and gray grounds surrounding that damp castle anyway? Tell me. How'd you crack your horn?”

He blinked slowly, all the better to see the long, fine eyelashes that bespoke of a tender creature who would be my friend, who would be my trusted steed, forever and always. Together we could have such adventures, we could leave this planet and explore the far edges of space and time, we could….

I swallowed. I bit the inside of my cheek, hard. “Outer space is a bit lacking in air for me, pony. And I am fully aware that you are capable of speech. Your horn?”

He sighed gracefully, flaring his lovely nostril. His voice was melodious and high, and didn’t come from his mouth but rather filled the air around him.
The horn was a tragic and misguided accident from a virgin who also happened to have a black belt in Karate.

“Virgins these days,” I said. “You can't beguile them, skewer them with your horn, and bathe in their blood quite so easily as in yesteryear.”

Precisely! Exactly!
he agreed.
But do not concern yourself over the sad fact of my horn, fair maiden. Soon enough it will be repaired by the hunt master. Come! Jump on for a magical ride! I will take you places you cannot imagine.

“Of that I am sure,” I said. My mind's eye pulsed with visions of riding rainbows across a candy-cloud sky. Of us skipping over pastel colored oceans and riding toward a sunset dripping with honey. So sweet. Too sweet. My eyes slipped closed and I lived inside that dream: I felt how close this future could be, how this unicorn could make all of my problems disappear. Life would become the most terrific of adventures. “Terrific?” I said and managed to pry my eyes open. “I am not a sixteen-year-old girl, donkey.”

The unicorn stood closer to me. Still far enough away that his horn, his beautiful horn, couldn’t touch me. A unicorn can't smile, but he can smirk, somehow. His smell was even more enticing now that he was closer. And his eyes… those eyes.

“
Eglurder
,” I managed to say, and I wasn’t able to look away from the mythical beast, but I knew a spelled crow feather was rising up from the pen jar next to my register and beginning to float through the air toward me. It was a reality spell, and once I held it, it would dampen the unicorn's plentiful and noxious charms.

Though why would I want to be free of those charms, of this dream of freedom and riding that was so near to being my new reality? I could not remember.

The unicorn stomped one foot, and flames erupted at the edge of my vision. I turned to see my spelled feather bursting into flames. The brightness of the fire distracted me, and I could breathe a little easier. I could think. I spoke quickly, before the unicorn could beguile me again with his voice, his scent, and every other part of his being. “Tell me, will you take your tracker out before you deliver me to Agnes Stonehouse? It seems a clever thing to just leave behind.”

Tracker?
the unicorn asked. He sounded confused.

“Tracker,” I repeated with a dull sense of dread. I felt it move inside of me. I sighed as thoughts of fields of bluebells, a warm summer's breeze, and the feel of a silvery unicorn between my legs, galloping as I twisted my hands in his softer than silk mane filled me and began to swallow me up.

The unicorn stepped closer. I smiled and reached for him.

And that might have been the end, were it not for the fact that the door to my store burst open.

11

Old Friend

The monster who stood on the other side of the door was a thing of legend and nightmares, with dozens of long and pointed legs jutting out at wrong angles from her oily carapace and abdomen. She scuttled in, squeezing her massive spider body through the doorway. With a flick of one leg, the door slammed shut behind her. I did not have to ask this one if she was the one who had sent the tracker, for I felt the thing lodged deep within me jump around and spin at her mother’s proximity. With it came a small hope. Yes, this monster must have been at the gathering of hunters in the palace. But what were her intentions right here and now?

“Hello, Shin Harawa, great spider of Pindaya,” I said and bowed my head toward her.

Her black eyes, bubbled, smooth, and entirely black, fixed themselves on me. She bowed her head back. “Fair Morgana of the Isle of Apples, friend to the under creatures near and far. Daughter of magic. It has been long since we've walked together, old friend.”

“Old friend,” I repeated, and my small hope grew. The great spider would make a powerful ally.

The unicorn made an uneasy nickering sound and took a step away from me and the spider. The insidious daydreams of riding him across the world had faded, I noticed. The spider’s own magic must be cutting right through it.

“A strange day for a reunion,” the great spider said.

“Strange indeed, Shin Harawa. Sister Arachnid,” I said. “Almost as strange as the day we met.

I had met her on the day I saved her life, long ago and far away in the land now called Burma. The usual band of peasants with pitchforks and fire were after her, a more persistent lot than most and led by some kind of local hero. She had been smaller and younger back then, and for all her ferociousness, had possessed a tender heart and had sworn to me that she never ate humans, for what kind of monster would eat the sentient? She solely dined on sheep, fish, insects, and tea leaves. After we escaped the peasants, we had spent a few pleasant days traveling together through the countryside, with me casting an invisibility spell on the both of us, and her eating huge wasp nests and making soft beds out of us the silk she pulled out of her body with her spinnerets.

I took a step closer to her. “And might I assume that when you found out today the hunted was your friend, that you changed your allegiance and decided to help me?” I tried to keep a pleading tone from my voice.

“Alas, old friend,” she murmured with her hissing voice that filled every corner of my store. “Would that I were here to help you, but I cannot.”

I stood up straight as her words hit me. “You mean you choose treachery over friendship,” I said, biting into each word. “You choose to hunt the one who saved your life. Who put herself in harm’s way that you might live. You choose to sacrifice me, you insect. You choose to throw one of your children into my heart to track me. Would that I had let your own hunters tear you apart.”

She hissed, long and loud. “Human, do not pretend to understand why I must do what I must.”

Sweet Morgan. I would never hurt your heart,
the unicorn said.

I glanced at him and saw that his words were so true. He would only be my truest and most trusted friend and stead. He would only ever—

I wrenched my gaze from his. “Until you skewered it through with your broken horn,” I said, reminding myself what he truly was. “That is your nature, after all. But you, great spider, you have fallen far.”

The spider hissed and moved her insectile head from side to side, tasting the air. “We have all fallen.”

“At least tell me why, Shin Harawa. What makes you willing to sacrifice my freedom? My life, most likely.” She had once been a noble beast. Perhaps the centuries had evolved her into a true monster. Perhaps not.

“It weighs heavily, Morgan. Know that and take some small comfort with it. To join the hunt was not a journey taken lightly. To know that I must find and fell an innocent, and then to hear it was you.” Her legs made a skittering sound on my floor as they shifted with discomfort. Her mouth pincers opened and closed. “Do you remember how, when you rescued me, how I spoke to you of how few of my kind there were left? How we were a waning species?”