The Secret Of The Unicorn Queen - Swept Away by Josephena Sherman

Author:Josephena Sherman [Sherman, Josephena]
Language: eng
Format: epub

11

Campora at Last

As the troop of warrior-women rode on, the scent of the sea grew ever stronger. If Sheila listened carefully and the wind was right, she was sure she could make out the dis­tant sound of waves. And surely those birds soaring by overhead were gulls, just like the ones at home.

Home. With a pang of guilt, Sheila realized she hadn’t thought about her own world for days. This was the real world now; that other one of homework and softball games, that place without magic where she was only Sheila McCarthy, schoolgirl, seemed more and more like a dream.

But just then Morning Star gave a nervous little buck jarring Sheila out of her bewildered thoughts. “Hey, easy, girl! Nothing to be afraid of.”

Morning Star wasn’t alone. All the unicorns were growing more and more uneasy with every step they took.

“They’ve caught the scent of their captive friends,” said Nanine. “And of Mardock and his evil sorcery, I think.”

Illyria nodded. “Even Quiet Storm is nervous. I doubt the unicorns will let us ride them much farther.”

“Well, we’re not that far from the city now, are we?” asked Sheila.

“Not far at all.” Myno’s eyes were dark with memory. “I should know,” she added under her breath. ”I escaped from Campora over these hills.”

Sheila winced at the bitterness on the ex-slave’s face. Poor Myno! How she must have suffered! “Well,” Sheila said with forced cheerfulness, “we could hardly ride the unicorns right down Campora’s main street, anyhow.”

Myno only grunted. Sheila tried to think of something else to say to rouse the woman out of her unhappy memories. But just then Morning Star reached the top of one particularly steep hill, and everything Sheila was going to say went flying out of her mind. All she could do was sit her unicorn and stare.

The land fell sharply away from where they paused, sweeping away to the rolling sea which glittered sapphire blue in the sunlight, a blue sea dotted with ships bearing wide sails of bright white, and yellow, and red. At one point the land curved in to form a wide harbor. And there, where sea met shore, stood a city that could only be Campora.

Sheila gasped. Maybe the capital of the empire wasn’t as large as New York or Chicago, but—oh, how beautiful it was! Campora was a confusing mixture of sweeping walls and elegant palaces, graceful towers, domed pavilions and buildings with so many columns that they reminded her of pictures of Greek temples she had seen. All the city seemed to be made of marble, or at least of some type of smooth, sleek stone that gleamed white in the sunlight. Ornamental traceries of gold reflected the bright light back again, till Sheila, dazzled, had to blink and look away.

“It-it’s like something out of a fairy tale!” she breathed.

Muttered Myno grimly, “From up here. Down there, thanks to Dynasian the usurper, that pretty fairy tale turns into a horror story.

Sheila stared at her. “What do you mean?”

Myno shrugged. “Where do I start? Only those with a lot of gold live comfortably there.

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