Rachel Golden and the Retriever of Sin (12 page)

The unicorn reared its head and shook its mane. ‘The Dark Ones are a last resort. They are extremely dangerous and unpredictable. The Overlords have run out of patience now. That’s why they sent the lawyers to serve you. Now they can send Dark Ones.’

Rachel shivered. She really didn’t like the sound of these Dark Ones. And from the looks on the others’ faces, neither did they. ‘So what do we do?’ she asked the unicorn.

‘You run.’

CLOUDS PASSED OVER THE AFTERNOON SUN AND RACHEL SHIVERED. All the color had drained out of the Altworld, and it made the unicorn’s warning all the more ominous. She reached into the bag and found a fleece with a trainee nametag on it. Ros snickered as she pulled it over her head. ‘What are you laughing at?’ she asked, not really in the mood for Ros’s humor.

‘Nothing,’ he said, and whispered something to AC. The little man fell over laughing. Rachel sighed.

‘Come on. Out with it.’

‘It’s just that, you’re wearing a fleece.’ He looked at Rachel expectantly, who stared blankly back at him. ‘So, you know, so that makes it a “Golden” fleece. Geddit?’ Rachel rolled her eyes.

‘Good one,’ she said, and was annoyed to catch Kel trying not to smile. She turned back to the piebald unicorn. ‘So where are we supposed to run to? We’re on a mission. We have to go to the castle.’

The unicorn neighed and shook his head. ‘Go where you must, but don’t let the Dark Ones take you there. As I said, they are extremely dangerous. And not too concerned about details, like whether they take you there alive or not.’

‘Wait a second,’ Kel said, ‘our brief was to track the unicorns, and find out where they were going, and why. But we already know where they were going. Why were all the unicorns summoned to the castle?’

The unicorn shook his head. ‘We do not know. I told you, we work at the castle. We were already there. We were given no call. And I doubt the other unicorns know either. We do not ask questions when the Overlords command us.’

‘So where do you suggest we go then?’ Rachel asked him.

The unicorn raised his head and sniffed at the wind. He was looking off to the west, seemingly deep in thought. ‘There is one,’ he said, ‘who may be able to help you. His name is Crabtree. He is human, and not originally of this world. He lives on the ocean.’

Rachel was confused. ‘The
ocean
? Are you kidding me? We’re hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Ros said. ‘The further we get from the portal, the less this Altworld will resemble your world. There could be oceans, or deserts, or mountains. The continents are probably nothing like yours. Wait. What do you mean “on” the ocean? Like on a boat or something?’

The unicorn snorted. ‘You will see. Right now, I think he is your only hope of escaping the Dark Ones. We cannot outrun them, but we may be able to get you to the ocean safely. After that, we will have to take our own chances.’

Rachel frowned and looked at the sky. The afternoon shadows were getting long. ‘Will we make it there before dark? Maybe we should camp and wait for the morning.’

‘That would be suicide. The Dark Ones do not stop for night. When people talk of the worse things that come out at night, they are most likely speaking of Dark Ones. They are born of shadow and fear nothing in this world.’

The others looked at each other nervously. ‘So… anyone else vote we go to the ocean then?’ Ros asked, holding his paw in the air. Kel and AC also raised their hands. The ocean it was.

***

At the castle, El was standing on a stone bridge that joined the rampart to the castle proper. Below him, two feral unicorns were tied to a large wooden wheel, the axel of which was lifting a heavy iron portcullis. An Overlord guard was whipping them by way of encouragement.

When the gate was halfway open, two massive black unicorns charged under it. They were even more fearsome in the daylight, and El was thankful to be so high up. The creatures were at least twice the size of regular horses. Their black flanks were rippling with muscle under coats that glistened with sweat. He had to admit, the were impressive and fearsome creatures.

The red eyes in their heads spun with madness, manes and fetlocks blowing in the wind as they broke into a gallop. As they passed the two feral unicorns that had opened the gate, almost as an afterthought the Dark One closest to them flicked his head in their direction. His black, glass-like horn caught the unicorn under the shoulder and flicked it through the air. The panicking animal screamed as it was tossed a good 20 feet before crashing to the ground.

El winced. ‘Gosh. Rather excitable chaps, these Dark Ones, aren’t they?’ The Overlord next to him said nothing, but watched as the two beasts thundered out of the castle walls. Even up here on the bridge they could feel the ground shaking with the rumble of massive hoof beats.

As the two black unicorns rounded the corner of the castle wall, one of them clipped it with his flank. Huge stones smashed and fell away in its wake. The Dark One didn’t even seem to notice that he’d just broken down a three foot thick stone wall. He reared his head and shot flames from his nostrils.

‘What makes them do that, anyway?’ El asked. He could buy the existence of unicorns because they were just animals, after all. But breathing fire? That seemed a little… unlikely. Was it some kind of magic?

‘They eat wild unicorns,’ the Overlord said, watching them charge into the distance as the sun got lower in the sky. El didn’t get it. The Overlord sighed, like this human was incredibly stupid for not getting the perfectly simple concept of a fire-breathing mammal. ‘The wild unicorns eat garbage. It produces large amounts of methane gas in their stomachs. The Dark Ones eat the wild ones, stomachs and all, and belch out the methane. Sometimes pieces of metal that the wild ones have eaten catch in the Dark Ones’ throats. Sparks and methane equal fire. Rather impressive, don’t you think?’

El nodded despondently. ‘Impressive’ was not the word he would have used… ‘So how are they going to find the girl?’ he asked. ‘Surely by the time they get to where we saw them, they will have moved on.’

‘Fear not, my fat little human,’ the Overlord said, turning to go back into the castle. ‘All they need to do is get close and they’ll pick up the scent trail. And they should have worked up quite an appetite by then. Hopefully the wild unicorns will suffice, and they won’t be tempted to eat the Golden girl as well.’ His hooves echoed off the stone walls as he walked away and El swallowed hard. He hoped the Overlord was joking. The Retriever of Sin was the key to his plan, but he wanted Rachel alive too. For now.

***

Rachel whooped loudly as the wind whipped her hair about her face and tugged at her clothes. Riding a wild unicorn was the most exhilarating thing she had ever done. At a gallop, she guessed they were going about 50 mph. The wind blew tears streaming across her cheeks but she didn’t care. She threw her head back and laughed with sheer pleasure.

Kel, on the other hand, didn’t look like he was enjoying it so much. He and Ros were riding the dappled gray unicorn, and they both had their eyes screwed tightly shut. Ros was sitting in front of the Safeguarder, his front legs either side of the unicorn’s neck, and Kel gripped the creature’s mane tightly on either side of the dog.

Assorted Colors looked to be enjoying himself too. They had flipped a coin before they set off, to see who would ride with whom. Rachel had called heads and got AC and the backpack; Kel had got Ros. Assorted Colors was standing on Rachel’s shoulder, his arm wrapped around a lock of her hair, and was brandishing his shiv and shouting battle cries. Rachel looked at him and grinned. Normally she would be nervous of having AC so close to her neck with his razorblade, but she was just too blown away by the ride to care. She could now die happily, and knew that nothing would ever compare to this moment.

They had been riding for almost three hours, and the unicorns showed no signs of tiring. The sun was almost setting when they began to slow, and the salt smell of the ocean filled their nostrils. The view was breathtaking. The fat orange sun threw its long reflection over water that was flat as glass. Thick, lazy waves broke on the shore, hissing and raking the pebbles on the beach. Rachel breathed in deep and smiled, closing her eyes to a sun that made her world red. She was more relaxed and happy than she’d been since they left her own dimension.

There was a yelp and a thud followed by a lot of swearing. She looked over and saw Ros on his back on the ground, and Kel struggling to dismount his unicorn. Despite how angry she was with him, she couldn’t help smiling. She lifted one leg across her own unicorn’s back, and slid neatly to the ground, shaking blood back into her numb legs and butt. She stretched.

‘Are we here?’ she asked.

‘Yes. This is as far as we can take you,’ the unicorn replied. He nodded towards a small speck in the water, just off the cliff face on the edge of a spit of land. ‘That is where you will find Crabtree. Hopefully he can help you. Thank you for your kindness, Rachel Golden. We wish you every success. But we must go. The Dark Ones will not be far behind us.’

‘Wait,’ Rachel said, as the unicorn turned to go, ‘How do you know my name? I don’t know yours. Will you be okay?’ Her heart was pounding at the thought of their two friends being caught by the Dark unicorns.

‘We have heard of you,’ the piebald unicorn said, tossing his mane. ‘And we do not have names. At least not in the way you think of names. And we can take care of ourselves. The Dark ones are looking for you, not us. They have an excellent sense of smell, and with any luck they will continue to track us, not you and your friends.’ He looked back in the direction they’d come and sniffed at the air. ‘But I wouldn’t count on it. Now go.’ He reared up on his hind legs and galloped away with his dappled gray partner. The Hero party watched them go, sadly. Rachel hugged her arms around herself.

Kel hobbled over to her, seriously sore from the ride. ‘They’ll be okay, Rach,’ he said, and put his hand on her shoulder. ‘It’s us we should be worrying about now.’ Rachel nodded, and knew he was right. They turned and looked at the little shack in the ocean, standing tall out of the waves on wooden pilings. ‘Let’s go and find this Crabtree guy, and see if he can help us.’ They started down to the beach, trying not to think about what would happen if he couldn’t.

It was almost dark when they reached Crabtree’s house. Or rather, the beach in front of it. The house itself was maybe 50 feet out in the water. Yellow lights burned warmly in the windows. Just as they were wondering how to get out to the shack, a silhouette appeared on the deck, waving to them. Crabtree? The shadow untied a rope from the deck rail, and a small wooden rowboat began lapping toward them on the incoming tide.

Apprehensively the four got in, and the man from the shack began to pull them out to sea by the rope attached to the boat. Despite her Golden fleece Rachel was cold, and looked back at the dark shore anxiously. They had never been away from a fire this late at night before, and she felt sure there were strange creatures on the beach. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her, but every shadow seemed to jump.

The boat bumped against a wooden pile that made the foundation of the shack. They had stopped just below a rusted metal ladder, leading up to the deck of the shack, and down into the black water below. As the heaviest, Kel volunteered to go first, and the ladder creaked and shuddered with each step he took. When he was safely up Rachel loaded Ros into the backpack (which helpfully grew in size to accommodate the dog), and with AC on her shoulder ascended the ladder also.

At the top Kel was standing next to an old man, looking awkwardly like he didn’t know what to say. Crabtree—she presumed—looked like a fisherman from a hundred years ago, dressed in oilskins and a thick woolen sweater. His bushy gray beard had a pipe sticking out of it. ‘Hi,’ she said, a little breathlessly after her climb.

Crabtree puffed on his pipe and squinted at her in the gloom. ‘Playing it a little dangerously, eh Hero girl?’ he said gruffly. Rachel looked at Kel, not sure what the old man meant. ‘Awfully late and dark to be running around these parts,’ he added. Rachel was about to explain that they’d come as quickly as they could, but Crabtree had turned was hobbling through the open door of the shack. She wondered if a wooden leg was causing his limp. It would be somehow fitting. Unsure of what to do, they exchanged more glances and followed the old man inside.

It wasn’t until the door was closed behind them that they realized how cold and dark it had been outside. A pot belly stove was hissing in the middle of the room, with a kettle bubbling away on top of it. Soft yellow light from several oil lamps made the shack seem very cozy and welcoming.

Crabtree lifted the kettle off the stove and filled a teapot on the table. Rachel noticed that there were three cups, one bowl and one egg cup already set. Had the old man been expecting them? He gestured for everyone to sit, and Rachel and Kel did so. Ros hopped up onto a chair, and Assorted Colors jumped down from Rachel’s shoulder onto the tabletop. The tea Crabtree had poured for them was hot and strong.

Kel was staring at a jug of what looked like lumpy yellow milk. ‘Help yourself, lad,’ the old seaman growled. Kel reached out a hand automatically, out of politeness, but hesitated. ‘What’s the matter?’ Crabtree asked. ‘Never seen walrus milk before?’ Kel’s face turned the same color as the milk. ‘Better for you than cow’s milk,’ he said. ‘Tastier too.’ He slopped a few lumps of the greasy milk into his cup. Kel and Ros both shook their heads and Rachel’s stomach did a little somersault. Unsurprisingly, Assorted Colors poured a healthy slug into his egg cup.

The shack was remarkably comfortable on the inside. It reminded her of a beachcomber’s shack she had seen in California. Or rather, on the Discovery Channel. But it had been in California. The walls looked like they were made of driftwood, and probably were. Buoys and other nautical items hung from the walls. There was a large wooden ship’s wheel, a barometer, shells and nets and ropes. With the smell of fish it was almost like being in a Red Lobster.