The Black Unicorn

A Hidden Magician

Everything was slow. The world moved by with the flap of a butterfly's wing. Propelling it through the air in a lazy hover. Someone could count every strand of grass in the entire kingdom before we could get to our destination.

No matter how fast Malicia thundered over the hills, the distant village never seemed to get any closer. It's almost out of sight entirely structures remained as small as ever.

Now that was not really true. We were in fact getting closer at an almost breakneck speed. The grass trailing behind the black unicorn in her rush turned black as the energy she emitted burned it and caused it to shrivel up into a husk.

Asher and Varem's horses could not hope to keep up. If I were able to look behind me I might not even be able to see them. I could not turn around though. My sights were set dead ahead. That and Ambrose was also leaning against my back.

The seconds ticked by with every heartbeat. With every clomp of Malicia's hooves. It was all happening so fast in reality, but to me, it would never be fast enough.

My master had once transported me from the castle to my village through a pool of water. If only there was a pond or something close by. Then maybe Malicia could do that and just get us directly to my old house in a second.

We would have to stop and look for one though, and that was precious time that could not be wasted. The only for sure way of getting us there as fast as possible was the current track we were already on.

Then there was the other problem at hand. Malicia claimed that if it was true that my mother trained under a magician, then she herself would be a magician even if only slightly. However, I had never once seen her use an ounce of magic ever.

If she did have magic then why didn't she ever use it to make our crops and tonic plants more bountiful? I did not really know truly anything about magic. Except that there were so many variants of it. If my mother was a magician or a spell chucker, then there was a possibility that her magic had nothing to do with plants. If then though why didn't she move to a profession that would let her use her power?

If she was a magician, did my father know about it? Did any of my family know about it other than her? What if she was not a magician at all and she really did only learn Tonic making from the wizard?

She was our last hope. If she had no way of healing Ambrose then he would die. He did not have much longer as it was. I could feel the blood coming out from his chest wound soak into the back of my dress. I could feel it dripping down my shoulder from his mouth and nostrils.

I was not disgusted by being practically bathed in his blood. I did not recoil from it in any way. The feeling of his warm blood all over me made me feel two emotions.

Complete and utter rage. If that warrior was still alive then I would gladly have thrown myself on him and raked out his eyes with my nails for what he did to my Master.

The second feeling was a heart-ripping sadness that left an aching feeling in my chest. As if someone had cracked apart my ribcage and was currently busy cutting out my heart and lungs.

Tears left my eyes and were blown away with the wind. It hurt so badly. After all this time... I had convinced the prince's that he was not the enemy, even if he was not really the ally either. I had uncovered a buried truth of corruption that could get us to stop the hunting of innocent people. And I had just gotten my love back, only for him to be possibly taken away from him before I could even properly kiss him.

My mind flashed back to when I gave him the kiss on the ground. Before we got him up on Malicia's back and started on our race against time. How his lips were cold but the blood on them was warm. I did not want that to be the last time I kissed him.