CALLING THE UNICORN
copyright 1999 by Nora M. Mulligan
"Come on, Elisa, tuck your skirt around your legs, just like that,
yes, beautiful," said Lady Green, fussing around Elisa. Elisa was about ready
to scream.
"Now, now, don't make that face, dear," said Lady Rose. "You know
the unicorn won't come for you unless you have a pretty face. Smile, dear,
yes, a nice smile, just like that."
If they knew why I'm smiling, Elisa thought, they wouldn't be so
happy. She was imagining the unicorn running wild, chasing the Ladies of
the Hunt all over the meadow, poking them in the butts with its horn. She
imagined their squeals, the way they would trip over their long skirts.
Lady Azure took Elisa's chin in her hand. Uh-oh, thought Elisa.
This is the one to watch out for. "You are not thinking proper thoughts,
Elisa," she said sternly. "I can tell by looking at you."
Everybody knew that Lady Azure was the smartest of the Ladies of
the Hunt. Elisa forced the image of the unicorn out of her mind. "I'm trying,
Lady Azure," she said.
"Try harder, Elisa. This is your Day, you know. You have been
training for it for the last five years. You must concentrate, and think
the proper thoughts. You know perfectly well -- "
Elisa knew what was coming. She rolled her eyes and dropped into
the same singsong tone Lady Azure used. The other Ladies all chorused with
her.
"The Quality of Our Thoughts Calls the Unicorn," they all said together.
Lady Azure frowned. "I am concerned about you, Elisa. Are you
certain that you drank the potion this morning?"
"Oh, yes, Lady Azure." It had tasted vile, Elisa thought, like
dandelions mixed with dog droppings. She almost vomited it up.
Lady Azure released Elisa's chin and turned to Lady Green. "She
didn't have any side effects, did she?"
"Not that I noticed, no."
"Hmm." Lady Azure did not look encouraged. "All right, Elisa,
this is your opportunity to show us all the quality of your thoughts. Remember,
your whole future depends on your ability to call the unicorn. No man will
want a girl who could not lure a unicorn to her by the purity of her thoughts."
As if that's the only thing that's important, thought Elisa. She'd
seen the boys of her cohort, and she couldn't imagine marrying any of them.
In fact, she could hardly stand working with them now. It would be worse
when they were bound for life. The very thought made her shudder.
"Are you cold?" asked Lady Rose solicitously. "You could move a
little into the light, though not too far. You don't want to have another
incident, you know."
"It wasn't an incident. I got some natural color in my cheeks for
a change!" She'd forgotten, on purpose, to wear the special cream when she
and the other maidens had gone for one of their walks six weeks before.
She could still remember the horror of the Ladies when they saw the red of
her face. Idiots, thought Elisa. They'd keep her wrapped in cotton wool
all her life if they had the chance.
"Still, this is your Day," said Lady Rose, her tone a bit disapproving
now. "You want to look your best, you know."
You want me to look my best, thought Elisa. I couldn't care less
about how I look. She didn't bother to say it. They would be shocked, of
course, and sometimes that was kind of amusing, but right now she just wanted
them to leave her alone. Get this stupid charade over with, once and for
all, she thought.
Lady Green adjusted Elisa's flower garland so that it just rested
above her ears. "There," she said. "Perfect."
Lady Rose tilted her head, looking away from Elisa. "They're starting
the music," she said. "Hear it? Elisa, you need to concentrate on the music
and think light, happy thoughts. The unicorn has been seen in the wood."
"Along with monsters," Elisa said. So much for my resolve, she
thought. I should have kept my mouth shut.
"Don't think about the monsters," said Lady Azure peremptorily.
"Your thoughts are heard, you know. Think about the unicorn. Show the virtues
of your years of training."
My five wasted years, thought Elisa. Five years of listening to
ninnies like Lady Rose talk about gentleness and virtue and yielding. Five
years of making daisy chains with the other girls, and trying on clothes,
and practicing hairstyles, and meditating on those stupid stories. When Elisa
thought of all the things she could have been doing during those five years,
all the adventures she could have had, she wanted to throw things at everybody
in the castle.
"You're not concentrating." Lady Azure's slightly stern voice cut
through Elisa's reverie. "Listen to the music, Elisa. Pay attention. You
will not get a second chance."
That was the only good thing, as far as Elisa was concerned. She
didn't even know what happened to maidens who couldn't call the unicorns.
Probably they disappeared. What was a maiden worth if she didn't have a
unicorn bonded to her? She could only do magic with her unicorn companion,
and since nobody wanted a maiden who couldn't do magic, her life would be
ruined.
Elisa thought her life had already been ruined. Thinking now of
the years ahead, of the constant care she would have to give the unicorn,
protecting its delicacy with her own, performing magic for her husband and
her family all the time, she shuddered again. There had to be a way out.
Even disappearing was better than that prospect.
"Elisa!" Lady Azure's voice was as sharp as Elisa had ever heard
it. "Concentrate on the unicorn and stop this nonsense. Now, we will start
the chant before we leave."
That was the one thing Elisa had feared. Once they started the
chant, she would fall into that trance state. There was nothing she could
do to stop herself. And once she was in the trance state, she knew that she
would send out her deepest desires, and the unicorn was bound to hear them
and respond to them. She was trapped. She tried the technique she'd been
practicing when she should have been studying. Sometimes she could block
out the effect of the chant that way.
No, it wasn't working. The old language, which she didn't understand,
worked its way into her ears. Probably that potion she'd taken that morning
had reduced her willpower, or her strength, or something. She could feel
herself joining in, her mouth forming the sounds. A small part of Elisa
still protested, but she couldn't stop herself. Her eyelids felt immensely
heavy. Surely she could just close her eyes for a second, and she would feel
better. The sound of the Ladies drifted away. The sun dappling through the
branches of the trees felt cooler on her skin. She was sinking, sinking.
Now she saw the color of her desires floating away from her, like a cloud
with her at the center. It was just the way they'd always claimed it would
be. Of course, she couldn't remember any of them saying that the color would
be dark red like that, but they might not have thought it important. She
watched, through closed eyelids, the waves of color. Yes, she thought drowsily,
it's a strong, powerful color. I'm glad it's not pastel.
She wasn't even surprised when the other color tinged the outer
edges of her color. A response, she thought dimly. My call is successful.
I suppose that's a good thing. At least the responding color was also red,
and not pink, or lavender. She watched the new color wash through hers, and
she thought she could hear the faint sounds of music, like kettledrums, perhaps,
or bass notes. It wasn't exactly what she'd expected a unicorn's call to
sound like, but perhaps she hadn't been paying attention in class.
The two colors had blended, and the new red, more orange than red,
had begun to seep towards Elisa when she heard the sounds from far away.
The Ladies had, she knew, been watching from a distance, as they always did.
She had been able to tune out their sounds before, but now she heard them.
The tone wasn't right. She thought someone was screaming. How very odd.
The touch of the unicorn broke through her trance, a gentle nudge
on her knee. That would be his muzzle, she thought. She sighed resignedly.
I should have known better than to try to fight all that tradition, she told
herself. Then she opened her eyes to see her unicorn.
It crouched on the ground before her, its front legs folded under
its chest, its great head tilted down so that it could look into her eyes.
Elisa caught her breath in wonder and delight. She gazed at its broad,
leathery wings, its magnificent claws, the scales that covered its body like
a snake's, the way its color changed with the dappling of the light. Its
eyes were deep and red, and Elisa could swear they looked at her with amusement,
and a touch of mischief. Thin tendrils of smoke curled out of its nostrils
as it regarded her.
Elisa stood up. The Ladies were screaming from their blind with
the musicians, but she didn't pay any attention to them. She knew they wouldn't
approach. They would be too afraid that her beast would attack them.
"Why are you here?" she asked the creature.
It laughed, showing large, pointed teeth. "You called me, Elisa.
No one of your kind has ever called a dragon before. I had to come. We
are of one essence, you and I."
She reached out and stroked its long, sinuous neck. The dragon
had given the first part of the formula. She merely had to complete the task.
"I bond with you. You are like to me, and I to you. I will care for
you for the rest of my life."
The dragon laughed again. "Actually," it said, "we don't require
too much care. There's nothing delicate about us."
"That's just as well," said Elisa. She felt light all over, as
if huge weights had been removed from her limbs. "I'm not good at ministering
to delicate creatures anyway."
"I knew that. Come, Elisa. Shall we fly?"
She had already begun scrambling up on its back even before it voiced
the invitation. Her dress got in the way, so she hiked it up. Much better.
Her thighs rested on the warm, smooth skin of the dragon. She sat comfortably
just ahead of its shoulder blades, and she wrapped her arms around the base
of its neck. "Absolutely," she said.
As her dragon lifted into the sky, Elisa looked down at the little
clearing, where all the Ladies jumped up and down, shouting at her. The
wind rushed past Elisa's face, blowing the garland off her hair. So long,
suckers, she thought. As they shrank into insignificance, she turned all
her attention to her dragon, and the new life before her.
THE END
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