“She has a newness,” he said. “Everything is for the first time. See how she moves, how she walks, how she turns her head – all for the first time, the first time anyone has ever done these things. See how she draws her breath and lets it go again, as though no one else in the world knew that air was good. It is all for her. If I learned that she had been born this very morning, I would only be surprised that she was so old.”
-The Last Unicorn
She was a tiny thing, and so very still. Hellion had nearly passed her by, tangled there in the roots of one of the skeleton trees, until the moonlight had glanced off the golden blazes on her sandy hide. Scared thing; she wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Who are you?”
She regretted her tone almost immediately. The mare didn’t whimper, only bowed her head lower, iridescent mane flowing over her eyes like a mantle of water. Hellion noticed then that she was trembling.
I shouldn’t care. The mistress would not approve of such weakness. I should drive her out, make sure she does not trespass again. I should –
Wind blew and the brittle branches snapped like old bones. The mare cried out and it was a sound unlike anything Hellion had heard before. Not startled, not spooked, but terrified. As if she had never known that sound till now. As if – as if she were a newborn…
Hellion’s ears flattened against her skull. Enchantment. Now that she was aware she could sense it like a shroud around the young one. It wasn’t safe for her to be here; Mistress was drawn to magic, like a moth to a flame. And surely, if she found this one –
She would not survive the Mistress’s keep.
Her eyes were gold, shimmering like stars, imploring. Hellion chanced a look around, then stepped closer, her voice urgent and commanding. “Come.”
The mare did as she was told, quickly. Too trusting, came the voice in her head, but Hellion ignored it. Now was not the time. As she had suspected, the other was unsure on her feet; her legs were scarred with evidence of falls. Still, she moved with a kind of timid, wild grace that echoed the movements of deer or gazelle. She stumbled trying to keep up, but she still moved more beautifully than Hellion could ever hope too.
Strange, golden-eyed youngling…Hellion had bare time to wonder what moved her to want to protect her, even less to care.
They moved with haste, too fast for the girl but Hellion couldn’t afford to wait. She caught her when she faltered and pushed her on. Never once did she question, only shot her shy glances and followed close on her trail. She would follow, I think, even if I led her into the sea. The moon blazed high overhead, and Hellion noticed that she glowed in the light, like a candle. No doubt they would be seen if they lingered much longer.
Faster, faster…
The night would not hide them forever.
“I could think of no other place to bring her.”
Cedar was cold to her still; Hellion could see it in a veil across his eyes. Still, she held his gaze, and kept her tone firm. “She needs a place to stay.”
The stallion said nothing, but his eyes flicked to the mare. She had attached herself to Hellion’s side the moment she has caught his scent; she cowered there now, shrinking under the weight of his gaze. Hellion snorted, drawing the attention back to her words.
“Just let her stay long enough to meet Sive, that is all I ask.”
She let the anger creep into her voice, like the blade of a sword. Cedar once again met her eyes, met her challenge. Even though his voice was soft it still sent a shiver down her spine. “You never ask anything of me, Hellion.”
She bit back a hiss and closed her eyes. A lifetime ago, it seemed, in this same spot – the touch, the taste of the forest in her mouth like a breath of summer – there could be no better place for the girl than here. She opened her eyes and was an adult for the first time in her life.
“What passed between you and me was a different life, you know this, know it as well as I,” she caught the shadows in his eyes and drew them to her. “Do not punish her for this. She belongs with Sive, and you are the only one who can protect her until that time…”
She stepped forward then and touched him, her face to his cheek like nothing had changed at all. “Please.”
He didn’t draw back, didn’t shove her away, but he didn’t forgive her either. The distance was still there between them, like the most fragile wall of glass, but she knew she had won. His voice was a whispered warmth in her ear.
“Why Sive?”
Why me?
Hellion smiled a bit bitterly, a bit regretful. Her voice was the dying whisper of a lost chance. “Because you have a way with lost things, Cedar – something that they need. And this one, she has golden eyes. Eyes like Sive’s.”
Silence, and then he stepped away and the divide swallowed the might-have-beens as if they never were. He was looking at the girl again, and timidly she returned his stare. “Hers are far too young – she has seen nothing, she knows nothing.”
Dawn was coming now, coloring the cave in gold and earth. Hellion turned toward the rising sun, her smile crooked in the light. “It does not matter to you, never has. You’ll take her, the same way it was with me. Teach her to see – see what she is.”
Sun felt foreign on her skin – she quickened her step to reach her Mistress’s lands. Then came the voice, a shuddering song like the unfurling of a butterfly’s wing, weaving words that hung like a bell about her heart.
“You saved me...thank you. Thank you...my lady."
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