The Good Queen's Daughter by Sylvie Vadimsky

Author:Sylvie Vadimsky [Sylvie Vadimsky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sylvie Vadimsky
Published: 2022-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter fifteen

The Girl Looking for Fairies

When Fell and I awoke, Nerikki was sitting on the ground with the unicorn’s head in her lap. She had a sharp-looking knife carving away at the small, ruby horn. The poor creature looked distressed. Her flank was stiff, her legs flailing as she tried to get away. She’d snort and try to buck at Nerikki to get her off. The two were making a fuss.

“What are you doing?” I asked, horrified by the sight I was seeing. Nerikki looked up and into our gawping faces. Kazue was snorting and neighing in distress, struggling against the wizard’s hold. Fell looked angry, his green eyes narrowed to slits. He obviously didn’t appreciate what Nerikki was doing.

“Cutting off her horn.” Nerikki replied smugly, and went right back to doing it. “Fell, we won’t catch a rabbit with this noise. D’ya think you can shoot a pigeon or something for us? If not, we can buy something in town. We’ll get a pretty penny for this ruby.” She grunted against the unicorn’s strength. “Hold still now, love. It’ll all be over soon.”

Fell shrugged and went off to shoot a pigeon. Having nothing to do, I stood still and watched the two beings struggling against each other. All the while, Nerikki never minded, holding steady and keeping to her business. Kazue was frightened as anything, her eyes wide and her ears back.

“We’re going into town?” I asked. “What town?”

“Oh, some town,” Nerikki shrugged it off, groaning in pain as Kazue kneed her in the stomach. “That’s why,” she gasped breathlessly, “I’m trying to cut off this by-our-lady horn! Miss Kazue is being a devil about it, is all.” The unicorn drew back and snorted, which Nerikki must have understood as language for she replied to it, “Well, I’m sorry about it, but it has to be done. You’d be easy to spot with your horn, even if it isn’t as big as all that.” Kazue exhaled loudly and laid her head in the wizard’s lap, still and docile. It seemed that she had given up.

After a few moments, Nerikki had successfully severed the unicorn’s horn. I should note that the knife against the horn sounded like Nerikki was carving bone. But Kazue merely stood up and shook herself, lifting her head to taste the leaves of the trees above her. The wizard began to polish her prize on her numerous skirts and smiled, obviously proud of herself. Fell returned empty handed, and greeted Kazue by stroking her muzzle.

“Not a good shot in the air, huh?” Nerikki giggled, seeing Fell’s empty hands.

“Afraid not,” Fell chuckled.

“No matter.” Nerikki held up the ruby horn. “This will fetch a good price. Rubies are prized by royals.”

When we reached town, the first thing Nerikki did was start hawking. “C’mon! Who wants a ruby?” She was shaking the unicorn horn furiously in her hand, her arms and fishy features concealed. “Going fifty? One hundred? Now then! A pretty ruby for your master?”

The town was the busiest place I’d ever been.

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