Chapter Twenty-One
After the five minutes of silence from the king, the only response that he gave was one single nod. That singular movement seemed to take everything out of him and left him completely drained. He sank back in his seat and closed his eyes. Justin wondered if he did that to keep the tears from falling. When he began massaging the bridge of his nose and then under his eyes, he was sure of it. Looking at Art, he pointed toward the door and took a step toward it.
The mage understood right away what Justin wanted, and he nodded and beckoned the other mages to follow Justin out of the room. Art was the last one to leave, slowly closing the door behind him to give the king and his daughter some privacy.
Justin was unsure what to do next. He felt that loitering around in the hallway outside of the library would not be wise, but this wasn't his home, and he didn't want to go exploring without Maggie. Lucky for him, Oaklie saw the uncertainty on his face and suggested a solution. "Would you like to go see the unicorns?"
Justin couldn't say yes fast enough, even though a small part of him wanted to wait and go with Maggie; he knew that it was more important for her to spend time with her father. He would wait until they could meet up to ask her about her mother and sister. He understood from the seriousness in the room next door that it was a conversation that needed to come from Maggie or the king himself.
While he had the mages to himself again, he wanted to ask them some more questions. "If you don't mind me asking, did y'all honestly not know about the maiden angle?" All 4 mages shook their head and looked genuinely sad. "If we had known, we would have used that method to bring them to the palace. We did not want to be inhumane, as the king said, but we did not know another way. Well, that is not entirely true. There is a record of a unicorn once having gotten its horn stuck in the trunk of a tree after it charged a hunter who jumped out of the way at the last moment. We considered trying to recreate that scenario, but even if it did work, it would have most likely damaged the unicorn's horn, and we most definitely did not want to do that. A lot of the power they possess and provide lives within their horns." Art's voice became quiet as though he just realized what he said.
"You never did tell me what type of magic the unicorns provide?" The slight widening of Art's eyes told Justin that Art had indeed realized he had said too much. The sheepish look he gave said he knew that Justin knew, and there was no way out but to tell the truth.
"Art, I need you to be honest with me if I am going to be able to help you. If you know something that I need to know, tell me. If it is something only the king or Magdalin should tell me, just tell me you can't, and I will ask them. But if it comes from them, I can't guarantee that I will know the right thing to say in response to their answer when the time comes."
Art looked thoughtful before he spoke. "And what if it is something that neither the king nor I has the ability to tell you?" Justin was not expecting that response, but an answer came to him quickly enough. "Then you'd better hope that our solving the problem doesn't hinge on me knowing it." At those words, Justin turned and started walking back down the hall. He didn't know if he was going in the direction of the stables, but he felt like standing around waiting for a response to that statement would be anticlimactic. Of course, being called back and told he was going the wrong way would be anticlimactic and embarrassing.
***
Justin was sure that if he was ever going to find his way around the castle and its grounds on his own, he would need a very detailed map in full color. If it wasn't for Art leading the way, he would have been hopelessly lost.
After he had said his peace, he was relieved to hear 4 sets of footsteps following behind him. Within a few seconds, Art had walked up next to him, nodded once, and then proceeded to walk in front of him. The journey seemed to drag on forever as Justin's excitement grew at the prospect of seeing an actual unicorn. Try as he might, he couldn't get the image of the completely white creature out of his head. He knew that not all unicorns were depicted as white, but try as he might, that is all he saw in his mind.
When they reached the outside, it was still a short walk to get to the stables. It was then that Justin wondered how the horses were handling having magical creatures in the same area as them. When he asked Art, the mage let out a light laugh and scratched his chin.
"Funny you should mention that, Justin. It is a smaller problem that the king wants us to eventually address. We have had to remove the horses from the surrounding stalls three deep and put them with the knight's horses. The king didn't want to risk the horses upsetting the unicorns, but the guards had been grumbling about the tight quarters for their horses.
Justin had to laugh at what was clearly a problem of the exceedingly rich. That issue was at the very bottom of his list of things to solve. He was so lost in his own musings that he almost ran into the back of Art, who had come to a complete stop outside of a large two-story building the size of a house. It was built out of stones like the castle wall and had a large arched wooden door easily big enough to let two horses and two men walk out side by side.
Even though Justin should have realized it, he was still surprised to see two guards standing outside the closed doors. After Art asked them to open the door, all 4 mages and Justin waited until the doors were completely open before venturing into the well-lit building.
Justin could tell from the entrance that there weren't any torches or candles on the walls. There were several windows that let in the afternoon sun. But the main source of light seemed to be coming from inside one of the larger stalls. Without even thinking about it, he made a beeline towards it and came up short when his eyes fell on the creatures inside.
Beautiful was too simple a word to describe the creatures before him. Ethereal, mythical, magical, and real. They were actually real! It took everything in Justin not to shout with excitement. Instead, he focused on memorizing every inch of the animals. The male unicorn did have the white body of unicorns in the myths that Justin studied, but his mane and tail were a rich, deep gold. The female was unlike anything he had seen depicted in books. She had a butter-yellow body with a daffodil-colored mane and tail. Both had eyes the color of milk chocolate.
The mages stood behind Justin in silence, allowing him the time he needed to take it all in. When he did finally speak, his voice was hoarse and full of emotion. "I will do whatever I have to do to save these creatures."