Unicorn Saga - The Unicorn Peace Part 35

'You communicated?'

'Oh indeed.' Irritation and amused tolerance mingled

190 t JOHN LEE

in the thought. 'He wanted to know everything that had happened since you left and all about Marianna. though there was precious little that I could tell him about her.'

'The poor man must be feeling lonely,' Jarrod thought back, trying to suppress his own feelings on the subject of Marianna.

" Yes and no,' Nastrus replied. 'The Guardian has pro- vided him with another Marianna. but it seems that she does not equal the original in his mind.'

'Ah.' Jarrod didn't know what to think.

'Yes, he wanted me to bring him back to Strand with me.'

Sudden panic welled up in Jarrod, much to the uni- corn's amus.e.m.e.nt. 'You didn't, did you?' His anxiety was plain to see.

'Don't worry. The Guardian has imposed a ban.'

'A good thing too,' Jarrod said, relieved. 'Itwould cre- ate terrible complications here.'

'Especially now that you have tupped her,' Nastrus said slyly.

Jarrod gave him a warning look. 7 suppose he still looks like me?' he asked for want of anything better to say.

'Outwardly absolutely, but I can tell you apart. You think the same way, but the patterns are different.'

'Well, I'm glad you had a good time. I just hope that you are rested, because we have an important job ahead of us,' Jarrod said, changing the subject. 7 really need your help with this one.'

'Yes, I know,' Nastrus returned smugly. 'Your thoughts are full of it.'

'D'you think that you can do it?'

'I can't say. It's never been done before, has it?'

'No, it hasn't, and it is a ma.s.sive undertaking,' Jarrod admitted.

Nastrus produced the equivalent of a sigh. 'You 'd bet- 191.

ter let me deeper into your mind,' he said. 'It 'II be quicker that way.'

Jarrod closed his eyes in acquiescence and felt the thrust and the uncomfortable sense of fullness as Nas- trus went through his memories. It was a relief when the unicorn withdrew.

'Can you do it?' he asked, half fearful that the answer would be no.

'If I had enough time,' Nastrus replied, 'but it's you humans that are the problem. There isn 't enough fodder for you in those mountains. Now, if you were sensibly constructed and could eat gra.s.s, there would be no prob- lem, but as it is .. .'He let the thought die out.

Jarrod's shoulders sagged and he went and sat on the edge of the water trough. All that effort for nothing.

All the designs, all that planning, all those materials, all wasted.

Nastrus moved over to him and nudged his shoulders with his muzzle. 7 may be the only unicorn on Strand,'

he said, 'but I'm not the only unicorn. I have colts, well, most of them are full-grown, who just browse their way around the territory waiting for the next rut. The part of me that loves to explore and try new things just doesn't seem to have transmitted itself to them. It would do them good to get off the Island. It's time that they contributed something to the Memory.'

Jarrod looked up, hope flaring.

'First thing we have to do,' Nastrus continued, 'is to get that pile of stuff that you 've acc.u.mulated to the proper place, with food at the bottom of the mountain and at the place where you intend to build. No animal flesh, mind. I suppose I shall have to transport the three of you, but then I'll go and fetch my idle foals and we can get to work.'

'You really think they'll come?' Jarrod asked hesi- tantly.

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'Just you leave that to me,' Nastrus said. Tm a very successful sire'-there was no way the pride behind that statement could be ignored- 'and I've got a considerable number of offspring to choose from.'

'I'm enormously grateful,' Jarrod said.

7 know you are, and you have every right to be.' Nas- trus replied, leavening the statement with a trace of hu- mor. He turned and ambled back to the hay rack and began to munch.

The transfer began before dawn the following mom- ing so that there would be no onlookers. Jarred rode Nastrus out through the Causeway at the Stronta Gate, surprising the guard, but provoking no challenge. Once the light from the lifted lantern disclosed a Mage and a unicorn, they were hastily waved through. Rank, Jarred thought, has its advantages.

They took a wide, circling approach, and the gallop through the numinous dark left Jarrod exhilarated and anxious to Make the Day. Once the rite was over. Jar- rod suspended the warding and then concentrated on his memory of the terrain revealed in ha dream. The fear that he had felt that night had left a clear imprint of the surroundings, but it had, after all, been a dream.

Better, he thought, to check it out than risk losing all the carefully acquired, not to mention expensive, ma- terial stacked behind them. It was one thing to use it as a destination for stone, but quite another when it came to human beings.

Tm prepared to risk it if you are,' Nastrus answered him before he had posed the question.

Jarrod remounted and the unicorn turned to face the Alien Plain. Jarrod concentrated fiercely on the remem- bered area at the base of the foothills before the grey of Interim extinguished all thought.

'Come on, wake up, wake up, wake up. We've work to do.'

193.

Nastrus' insistent sending roused Jarrod. He sat up slowly and looked around. The foothills and the peaks above them were as he had hoped they would be, that was clear to him even in the weak light and early- moming haze. It had been something more than a mere dream then. He felt a sense of relief. He had thought as much but, as one not given to visions, he had not been certain. He peered up the mountain slopes expecting to see a spectral outline of the castle, a castle far more solid since his work with Greygor on the plans, but there was nothing.

'If you're finished eating, I'm ready to go back,' he thought out at Nastrus.

'Just be patient,' the unicorn responded. 'There won't be anything decent to crop on the other end and there's a great deal of stuff to be moved.'

'Well, while you're doing that, I'm going up to see if there really is a proper place to build,' Jarrod said be- latedly,

'It will be quicker if I take you. Just give me a little while longer,' Nastrus replied, blunt teeth ripping up the gra.s.s.

It took them an hour to find the place. It would have taken Jarrod more than a day. When they came upon it, it was obvious that this must be the place, though there' was no overt indication. They explored thor- oughly and found a cave that led through the cliffs at the back into a broad valley with a lake in the center.

The water was sweet and they both drank thirstily. Sat- isfied, they returned to the Causeway and began trans- ferring the material and supplies. That took them two more days, and though Jarrod only used his mind, he felt, when he crawled into bed at night, as if he had used every muscle in his body. When it was over, he took two days off to do nothing but eat and sleep, much

194 to the consternation of his Duty Boy. On the sixth day, he rode into town in search of his partners.

"Well, gentlemen," he said after finding a cat-free chair and accepting a mug of chai, "the task is finally upon us. I've already sent the material over, together with food, tools, cooking pots and whatever basic ne- cessities I could think of." He smiled. "I was relieved to find that most of the stone from the Giants' Cause- way that Nastrus had sent in that direction did, in fact, land close enough to be used. We rearranged it as best we could. Now it's your turn. You have a day to pack, one saddlebag each, and be sure to wear as much warm clothing as you can for the trip through Interim,"

"I can't say as I like the idea of this voyage through nothing," Yarrow grumbled.