The Unicorn Thief (5 page)

Chapter 10

With his sword, Ben pointed to the human boot prints ground into the cedar-red dirt. He shivered and pulled his cloak tighter around him, over the coat Mrs. Murley had given him.

“They're too small for Merrill, and they follow right alongside the unicorn,” Ben said.

“Someone's taken him to Terracornus,” Twig said. “Who? How?”

Wonder neighed her impatience.

“We're going, Wonder,” Ben assured her. “We're going to find out.”

But Twig held Wonder back. “I can't just disappear in there, Ben. What about the Murleys?”

“Twig!”

Ben whirled around at the cry. It was muffled by the hemlock branches, but soon a crashing followed, and a small body hurtled through and skidded onto the patch of cleared earth around the passage tree.

“You have to go!” Casey cried, still prone on the ground.

“Casey!”

Through the branches, a hand appeared, groping for Casey's. Taylor. Janessa trailed behind her, clutching her hand. Then Regina and Mandy. A chain of girls tumbled into the secret heart of the island, wincing at their scrapes and crawling through the shadows, trying to find their feet.

“All of you?” Twig said.

Oh no. Not all of them
. Ben groaned. He turned to Twig. “They cannot be here. I've broken the herders' trust.”

“Maybe,” Casey said a little guiltily, a little hopefully, “we could all be herders too.”

“No!” Twig said. “No way. How could you do this? I trusted you.”

“Don't yell at her!” Regina cried. “We wanted to see! It isn't fair, hearing all the stories and not even getting to see.”

“There isn't really another world, is there?”

That was Mandy, the blond one who was constantly frowning at Ben. Twig said she was always like that, but he wasn't so sure.

Mandy narrowed her eyes at him. “That's why you don't want us here.”

You
have
no
idea
what
I
would
give
for
you
not
to
be
here right now.
He'd rather face the famous rider and tournament champion Reynald the Boy King than the scrutiny of these girls. He wanted to take Indy and just ride. Ride away from all of these people who wanted something from him. Even the herd. He imagined Indy gallop-gliding, away from everything, out of the trees and over the rocks along the shore, right off the island, right on top of the water. There was a wider world out there. There must be somewhere for a unicorn to go. Somewhere to just be. Twig and Wonder could come, but—

It didn't matter. Indy was missing. There was no escaping that.

“No one is supposed to be here.” He ground out the words.
This
place
is
mine
and
my
father's
. It was a secret. Ben had been so alone without him and then so glad to have Twig. But this was too much. He didn't have Indy, and it was too much.

“We don't have time for this,” Twig said. “I don't know how you found us, but you're all going to have to find your way back.”

“But we followed you,” Taylor said. “And it's dark.”

“And this mist is creepy!” Regina hugged herself against its chill.

“It's definitely
not
normal,” Mandy agreed.

“Twig.” Ben gestured for her to shine her flashlight on the bark of the ancient red cedar, the passage tree, so he could find the hidden keyhole quicker.

Ben pulled the key out from under his shirt, where he kept it on a chain. He reached out to unlock the door, and he stared at the tree, stunned. He dropped the key.

“Casey, keep back. You're blocking the light!” Twig was oblivious to what Ben had seen.

The key swung against his chest, safe on its chain, but his hand trembled as he reached for a white square of paper pinned to the passage tree. He pulled it off and held it in Twig's flashlight beam.

“What's that?” The girls shushed each other and crowded around him.

He needed more light. He grabbed Mandy's flashlight and illuminated the message.

Taylor peered over his shoulder and read it aloud. “‘The fate of one is the fate of them all. Now you know what it is like for those of us who still care about
all
unicorns. If you want to see your unicorn again, keep your oath and go to the queen.'”

“Is it a note from Merrill?” Janessa said.

“It's not from Merrill,” Twig said, taking a peek. “That's not his handwriting.”

“And it's signed ‘The Unicorn Thief'!” Taylor said.

“Who's that? What does it mean?” Casey said.

Twig just shook her head. Her eyes asked Ben the same question.

“I never made an oath to go to the queen!” Ben pulled himself together. “Forget the note. What matters is that Indy's in there for sure. He's gone through the passage.”

Taylor put her hand to the cedar trunk. “This tree is the passage?”

Twig touched Ben's arm. “We'll find him.”

But Mandy said, “It's a trap.”

“Don't go, Twig,” Taylor added.

And Janessa said, “Mandy's right this time.”

“It's up to Twig. She's Wonder's rider. Her life and Wonder's will be at risk.” Ben fought to keep his voice steady, his heart from bursting, his terror from bringing him to his knees. He had no right to ask Twig for this.

Wonder sniffed and pawed away at the dirt. She whinnied her fear and yearning. That was her father in there.

“We are
not
going to leave Indy in Terracornus all by himself,” Twig said. “Besides, there's no deciding for me to do. If we don't let Wonder through the passage tree, she'll dig it up by the roots.” Twig turned to Ben. “She hates coming here, but she didn't fight it, the whole way. She wants to go in. She knows something. She can smell it.”

“Twig—” Ben began to protest.

“Didn't you and Merrill tell me to trust my unicorn?”

“Wait,” Regina said, “why would anyone try to trap Ben? They already have Indy.”

“To get Wonder too,” Casey said.

“But how would anyone over there know about Wonder? Unless—” Mandy gasped and clamped a hand over mouth.

“What?” Twig said.

A new chill shuddered through Ben. “Merrill.” His old friend's name barely came out. His mouth felt so dry.

Mandy nodded. “Your herder friend's been hiding from the cops over there with that unicorn he's not supposed to have.”

“Cops?” Another Earth Land word Ben didn't know.

“The authorities,” Taylor explained.

“What if they caught him and…” Twig couldn't finish.

But Regina said, “Tortured him or something. Do they do stuff like that there?”

Ben felt strangely numb. This couldn't be happening. What if he lost Merrill too?

“We'll make sure Merrill's okay before we go in. But,” Twig warned the girls, “even if he isn't okay, that doesn't mean we're not going. Ben, call Emmie. Casey, you go back with the others and get Rain Cloud. Ben will need a ride.”

Of course. They wouldn't get far in Terracornus on foot. Wonder was only a year old and not strong enough to carry both of them.

“What about Feather?” Casey suggested.

Twig shook her head. “We can't take Mrs. Murley's horse.”

“That would be like stealing,” Janessa agreed.

“You would know,” Regina said, making a jab at Janessa's past.

Ben didn't know why all the other girls were living with the Murleys, but for some reason Janessa had confessed her thievery to him. She'd been proud to add that she hadn't taken “a darn thing” in over a year.

The girls kept bickering. “That's enough!” Ben's numbness blew off in a blast of anger. “Stop picking at each other. You're family!”

The girls exchanged skeptical glances.

“You're all you have anyway. More than I have!”

Twig's flashlight glow glinted off her eyes, strikingly blue, shining with tears. “You have us, Ben,” she whispered. “You have us too.”

“We're sorry,” Janessa said. They all nodded and murmured their agreement. Mist-damp heads bowed.

Ben ducked his head and rubbed quickly at his eyes.
Crying
. For pity's sake, standing here crying in front of all these silly girls.

Twig reached for Ben's arm. “Indy—he's not all you have now, Ben. But he
is
a lot. We're going to get him back.”

Yes, he
is
all
I
have!
Ben wanted to shout.
He's all I want. He's never let me down
.

But what if Indy
had
let him down? He'd gone quietly back to Terracornus. He'd left Ben sleeping in the hollow. He'd gone with someone else, without a cry of protest, without a whinny of good-bye.

Chapter 11

Wonder hesitated at the open door to the passage, then sniffed again and plunged through the tunnel of the hollowed-out tree so fast that Twig had to release the reins in order to get out of her way.

Rain Cloud plodded after Wonder. He shook his head in disapproval at the dark, narrow space. It had taken Ben and Twig and all the other girls—and ultimately Wonder's pleas for the old pony to follow her—to get Rain Cloud through the low-hanging hemlock boughs that encircled the passage tree. Ben wrapped Rain Cloud's reins around his wrist. He returned the pony's gaze of near terror with one as close to confidence as he could muster.

The girls stood there five in a row, hand in hand, faces lit by the faint beam of Mandy's flashlight. They'd made it back to the passage with Rain Cloud, without any run-ins with the herd. Ben gave them a wave good-bye and shut the passage door, then locked it.

After about an hour, Emmie had found Merrill and returned with a hastily written reply; he was going to meet them at an old herders' outpost not far from the passage. He urged them to stay off the road, to stay hidden as much as possible.

Ben led Rain Cloud through the passage, into Terracornus. The misty air surrounding the Terracornus side of the passage filled Ben's lungs—a different air than that of the island. Heavier, thick with the fragrance of new silverfire leaves. It would grow even more pungent with the warmth of day.

He'd loved that smell when he was younger. The smell of being with Father, with his herdsmen in Silverforest. Working hard, yet free. He used to long for it every day on the island. Now the aroma of peace had become the scent of fear. The leaves whispered of freedom gone. When the wind blew, the forest groaned for what it wanted to be again. Morning dew dripped from the leaves—tears for the distant cries of unicorns, carried by the wind from the battlefields and training grounds beyond the forest where they toiled and bled. Would the trail of Indy's scent lead them there?

***

Wonder carried Twig through Silverforest, head bent in determination. Every now and then, she paused to sniff at the ground or the brush, and Rain Cloud stopped to pant and bellow his protest at being pushed so hard.

Purple blossoms covered some of the smaller trees. Fallen flowers formed patches of mauve carpet, softening the forest floor. New leaves were unfolding overhead, bright, pale green in the glow of the sunshine. It was hard for Twig to imagine Terracornus being a place unicorns would want to escape. Hard to believe it was a dangerous, warlike place.

Wonder circled back and nipped at Rain Cloud to try to get him to pick up the pace. Emmie swooped overhead, cooing down at them as though she too were urging Rain Cloud to hurry.

Rain Cloud showed Wonder his teeth and dug in his heels, refusing to be pushed.

“Twig, can you not get her to stop doing that? She's only making things worse.”

“I'm trying.”

“They're both impossible!” Ben snapped.

Rain Cloud's eyes were wide with fear. Twig could tell he wanted nothing but to run, to flee back home. He neighed for Wonder to go with him, but she whinnied her refusal.

Emmie settled on Ben's shoulder, her bright green plumage contrasting with the white feathers in his quiver. She pecked sympathetically at his cheek, but he had no smile for his faithful bird. Twig had never seen Ben so on edge like this.

They turned a corner, and a little grassy clearing came into view. The rocky, weedy road faded into the clearing. A low building squatted in the middle of the yard, a tiny square of rough-hewn stones nearly overtaken by the weeds that had risen up around it and taken root on its roof. A pair of dangling, rusty hinges hinted that it had once had an actual door that shut.

Stone posts, covered in a patchwork of moss and fitted with iron rings, poked out of the grass. Tethered to one of these was a donkey, chewing on the grass with a look of bored distaste. Wonder called out to the donkey, anxious, pleading. The donkey seemed to give a halfhearted little snort of recognition.

“Franklin knows Indy,” Ben said. “He smells him on Wonder.”

Twig slid down and stretched her back while Ben dismounted.

Wonder hopped over to Franklin, the donkey. She danced around the animal in tighter and tighter circles.
I
need
to
find
my
dad. Where's my dad? You know him, don't you?

Rain Cloud pretended not to notice the donkey or Wonder's behavior until the unicorn got just one circle too close to Franklin. The donkey's hind legs shot out. Wonder bounced back, avoiding the kick. Rain Cloud darted between them and nipped a warning at Franklin.

Twig caught Wonder's reins, and Ben took hold of Rain Cloud.

“Hey now,” Ben said. “Both of you be nice to Franklin. Merrill needs him. He'd rather have his old Lion Heart, but there's no helping that, is there?”

Lion Heart had been Merrill's last unicorn, taken for the queen's army when the herders were disbanded. He'd died in a battle training accident. Merrill didn't like to talk about it.

Twig guided Wonder farther away from Franklin. “Maybe Marble will be well enough for Merrill to ride soon.”

“Could be.” Ben held his hand out to Rain Cloud. “You're a good boy. It's not easy trying to keep up with our Wonder, is it? I thank you for the ride.”

Rain Cloud grunted his acceptance and let Ben lead him away. He shot one last toothy warning at Franklin.

“Merrill!” Ben called.

There was a shuffle-thump inside the shelter, and Merrill appeared in the doorway. He filled a stone trough next to Franklin with fresh water, then kept the donkey out of the way so the unicorn and the pony could drink.

“Best tether Wonder behind the shelter, Twig. Just to be safe,” Merrill advised.

Twig nodded to Ben. “Rain Cloud too. He'll help keep her quiet.”

“We cannot stay long,” Ben said. “We cannot afford to lose Indy's trail.”

“Just a short rest,” Merrill assured him. “And a moment for me to think if there's a thing I can do to help. Then I'll give you what you need and send you on your way.”

Once they had the animals settled—as settled as Wonder could get—Merrill said, “Well, come inside, the two of you, where it's warm. The fire's going fine.”

Flames glowed in the shadowy interior of the shelter, inviting even in its barrenness. Merrill had spread his familiar thick woolen blanket near the hearth on the dirt floor. They all sat down, and a heavy, quiet sadness filled their little circle.

Emmie fluttered into the doorway. She hopped tentatively to Ben and rubbed her head against his arm. He took a pinch of seeds from his pocket, and Emmie jumped onto his lap.

“Well,” Merrill said, “better tell me what happened, Ben-boy, so we can find your Indy.”

Ben blinked. Twig knew that look. If he opened his mouth, he was going to cry. Dependable, unshakable, brave Ben. So Twig told Merrill everything she knew.

“And then there was this.” She drew the note out of her pocket and passed it to Merrill. “It was pinned to the passage tree.”

Merrill scanned the note. He drew in a sharp breath. “The unicorn thief has access to the passage. And he wants something from you, Ben.”