Unicorn Saga - The Unicorn Peace Part 37

"And Nastrus would b&this one closest to us," Grey- gor said. He smiled apologetically. "It's difficult to tell.

They all look alike to me."

Nastrus, reading the statement in Jarrod's mind,

200 snorted. 'They're nothing alike. Only two of them come from the same dam and one of them is white and the other cream. Quite different.'

'Make allowance for the fact that they're humans,' Jar- rod said.

Nastrus harrumphed and trotted back to his brood and Jarrod turned his attention back to the other two.

"So, what do you think of my site?" he asked.

They looked around, taking note of their surround- ings for the first time. What they saw was a broad and uneven hemisphere of gra.s.s, dotted with yellow flowers.

The cliff loomed tall at the back and tapered down as it approached the edge of the plateau. The area en- closed was about half a mile deep and three quarters of a mile wide.

"Plenty of room for a castle," Greygor said.

"Doesn't seem to be a water supply," from Yarrow,

"No need for a curtain wall and, besides, it would block off that extraordinary view." Greygor.

"Machicolations wouldn't be a bad idea if we could anchor them, but how are they going to feed people?

You can't lug everything up from the plain." That last from Yarrow.

Jarrod's head was going back and forth from one to the other. It's like talking with the unicorns, he thought, everything comes at once. He held up a finger. "That's my next surprise," he said. "There's a cave at the bot- tom of that cliff." He pointed toward the back wall.

"You can't see it now because the unicorns are in the way. It opens into a big cavern and there's a pa.s.sage out of there that gives onto a fairly substantial valley that runs east-west. The main mountain rises directly from the other side. There's a big lake-that could be stocked with fish someday-and there's enough land for fields and grazing. We can have a look later, but now I'd rather like to get something to eat." He pointed 201.

again. "The supplies are over there, up against that low part of the cliff."

It took a sennight to get organized. The outlines of the central building and its two forward-slanting wings were drawn in the earth, slabs of stone were selected and moved by the unicorns from the plain to the pla- teau. Procedures were discussed, first between the hu- mans, then between Jarrod and Nastrus and lastly between Nastrus and the other unicorns. Finally the day to start the actual building came.

Jarrod breakfasted on an infusion of simples that he had brought with him. They would ease the strain of the constant lifting he would do. They made him feel confident and clearheaded- The rows of stone across the front of the plateau were made up of blocks of roughly equal size. Once the blocks were lifted, each unicorn knew exactly where to deposit them, or at least that was the theory. Now they would see how well it worked in practice.

Jarrod took up his position behind the first block of stone. The younger unicorns were ranged behind him, their father off to one side. Greygor and Yarrow stood in the doorway of the lean-to that served as their sleep- ing place. The architect kept unrolling his plans, peering at them and letting them roll up again. The Magician closed his eyes and girded his concentration. The potion made it easy. He opened his eyes and the first block lifted into the air. It flew to its appointed place and settled gently between the lines. The second rose and, almost immediately, settled beside the first. Jarrod moved on down the line and, as he did so, the first unicorn peeled off, trotted behind his kin and Joined the far end of the line. They kept it up for four hours, long enough for the first course to be laid, with gaps for the doorways and circular protrusions for the tow-

202 t JOHN LEE

ers at each comer and either side of what would be the central door. The only thing the unicorns had trouble with were the footings for the towers, and that was soon corrected.

As soon as the unicorns went off to graze, the two builders hurried to inspect the work. Jarrod walked slowly back to the hut and drank a dipper of water. He wasn't tired, but he was hungry and thirsty and he wanted to sit down for a while. The two men came back to where he sat.

"Very neatly done," Yarrow commented. "The blocks are snugly b.u.t.ted."

"It looked very strange," Greygor added, "all those great big chunks of stone floating around, but I must say that they're all right between the lines." He turned to his companion. "How long, d'you reckon, Moresby, it would take you to get an outline of this size laid?"

"With a good crew, and everything going right, about four days. Mind you, that'd include the mortar."

"And you did it in four hours, Jarrod. Quite remark- able."

"Let's remember, Chatham, that I had some very effective help," Jarrod said with a smile-

"Aye, that's the pity about all this," Yarrow re- marked. "Here I am, Master Mason for an important project, one of the largest buildings in the last hundred years, and I've got a crew that no one would believe if I told them, and the building itself won't be seen for another hundred years, like as not."

"We'll leave an inscription, cut so deep that it'll be clear reading in five hundred years. 'Chatham Greygor, Architect; Moresby Yarrow, Master Mason. They made this place with the help of unicorns,' " Jarrod said with a laugh. "But in the meantime, Chatham, would you put a small pot of water in the embers? I'm going to make myself another potion."

203.

The work resumed in about an hour and it went faster than before. By evening there were three tiers of stone.

The next day added another three and they could have started on the seventh row, but Jarrod called an early halt. Greygor came over, worry in the lines of his face.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Oh, yes. It's just that I'm going to perform a ritual tonight. Tomorrow I intend to perform some magic."

"I see," Greygor's mouth twitched into a crooked little smile. "I confess that I thought that the whole thing was going to be done in an instant. You'd study my plans, stand out there with your arms raised, say a spell in a voice that rolled like thunder, and presto"- he waved his hands-"a castle."

"Wouldn't that be nice," Jarrod said. "Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Magic has a strict set of laws and, contrary to popular opinion, there's a limit to what it can do-at least all at the same time. No, tomorrow I'm going to try to solve Moresby's mortar problem.

It'll be tricky and it will need a lot of control." He shrugged his shoulders. "I can get power from the uni- corns, but the control has to come from me."

"Is there anything that Moresby and I can do?"

"Not a thing. It's a rite of purification and I've done it dozens of times."

"Pity," Greygor said succinctly. "There doesn't seem to be anything we can do these days."

"Just you wait. Who d'you think is going to fit the joists when we get to them? And lay the floors, and of course there's the hammer-beam ceiling to the Great Hall."

Greygor threw up his hands. "Enough. I'd better start taking some of those potions."

That evening, as he had done so many times before, Jarrod laid out the lines of a double pentacle, prepared the three beakers, and spent the night, naked, en-

204 tranced, in the middle of the inner pentacle. When he emerged from his suspended state in the velvet dark, the lines of the pentacle were still glowing, their light turned into rainbows by the prisms ofdewdrops. Jarrod extinguished the faery glitter with his mind and made his way back to the remnants of the fire to retrieve the third beaker. The liquid was still warm and it dispelled the chill in his bones. He felt strong, vibrant and cleansed.

When he returned to the shelter after Making the Day, he found the other two men up, despite the fact that first light had yet to bloom. The fire, made from some of the beams that had been damaged in transit, blazed merrily.

"Morning, Jarrod," Yarrow said. He eyed the Ma- gician's robe that Jarrod had donned for the first time since leaving Stronta and added, "Or should it be 'Morning, Mage'?"

The Magician smiled. " 'Jarrod* will be fine." He took a mug of chai from Greygor and sipped it apprecia- tively. The other two stood and watched him. "You want to know what I'm going to do, don't you?" They nodded, "Well, we're up to the level of the first set of windows, arrow slits really since the ground floor is to be used for storage and workshops and stables and ought to be easily defensible, so I thought it was time to see if I could fuse the stone so that the walls will be weathertight. I shall need to be looking down on the whole thing so that everything comes out as level as possible. So, when the light is good enough, I'm going to climb along the top of the cliffs until I find a decent vantage point. The unicorns have been told to stay well back and the same applies to you. I can't afford to have anything distracting going on down here."

"You can rely on us," Greygor said.

At the seventh hour, Jarrod shucked his sandals, 205.

hitched his gown up, secured it with the rope that served him as a belt and climbed up the short face of the cliff at the point nearest the edge of the plateau. From there he made his way on all fours along the crest, working his way backward and upward. The sun was to his right, and that made it difficult to see what lay to the east.

Below him, to his left, Nastrus kept pace and provided him with a running, and occasionally ribald, commen- tary on how he looked from below. Finally Jarrod reached a spot where a portion of the cliff face had split away, leaving a broad ledge. He scrambled down to it and turned to face the enclosed region beneath him.

He felt strong and secure. The final potion was swirl- ing pleasantly through him, buoying him up. He looked down and saw that portions of the foundations were in shadow. It would make no difference; the outlines were clear enough. Seen from above it was obvious that it was going to be an impressive building. He would need to project himself over the center to be sure that the work was uniform, but that should be no problem. He would not need Nastrus' support for that part, but some extra power would be helpful.

'I'm here whenever you need me,' the unicorn reas- sured him. 'The colts are over by the lip watching, but they won't get involved-they don't know how.' Nastrus was proud of the ability that experience had brought him and pleased that he had a talent that the younger generation lacked. It brought a smile to Jarrod's lips.

He banished Nastrus from his mind and stepped to the front of the ledge. With the potion fortifying him, he felt none of the twinges of vertigo that occasionally bedeviled him and stared down at the outline with equanimity, imprinting it on his mind- He began to breathe deeply in and out. He began the chant for the accession of power, and his hands rose automatically as the energy rose within him. By the time his arms were