Lord of Raven's Peak by Catherine Coulter

Author:Catherine Coulter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 1994-12-12T23:00:00+00:00

“ ‘I do not think I like your brothers,’ the unicorn said. ‘What do you wish to do, Rolf?’

“ ‘I wish to speak to you, to learn who and what you are. I have never before seen a creature like you. Who sent you?’

“ ‘It’s true I am magical,’ the unicorn said. ‘But I am also more. I am also your former slave, the one you smote with your sword.’

“Rolf stared at the creature. He drew his sword for he was certain the beast would try to kill him. He’d come back for revenge. He stood there, his sword poised in his hand, and the unicorn did nothing, didn’t gallop away from him or attempt to protect himself in any way. Rolf raised the sword, then slowly, very slowly, he lowered it, and said, ‘I cannot do it. When I killed you before, I knew such horror at myself that I came here to the forest to die. But you found me instead. Tell me what to do, for I wish to atone for taking your life. If you choose to kill me, I will make no move against you.’

“The unicorn nodded his beautiful white head, the golden horn glistening in the bright sunlight. Then, quite suddenly, he seemed to fade into nothing more than shadow and light, until Rolf knew he could see the sunlight through the creature’s body, so pale had it become. He knew terror such as he’d never known. He fell to his knees, and clasped his arms around himself, waiting to die. But then as the unicorn was disappearing, something else was coming together and gaining darkness with the light and substance with the shadows. It was the slave he had smote with his sword. He held out his hand to Rolf and lifted him up. He said, ‘The gods have granted us both another chance. Come with me, Rolf, and we will journey together back to my family, for they miss me sorely. Come.’

“Rolf’s two brothers never saw him again. They mourned him even as they believed him to have lost his wits, for surely the unicorn had killed him, and he’d trusted the beast, trusted him, and look what it had gotten him.

“But then there came a story into Vestfold told by a very old skald, toothless and scrawny, with thin bowed legs. All doubted he had anything worthwhile to say, but when he opened his mouth, all fell under his magic. He told about a man called Rolf the Viking, a man who was strong and fierce, a man to be trusted in all things, a man splendid of body and of face, and a man who was wiser than most men should be at such a young age. All honored him, all knew they could trust him, for it was known that once Rolf had been tested and had finally learned the way to true honor and worthiness.

“And his brothers wondered, even as they shook their heads in disbelief at their thoughts.

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