But he couldn't help wondering why, if Shalkan knew what was coming, the unicorn was trying to get him to safety… Did Shalkan owe a debt to the Wild Magic? Or was this just another instance of some poor innocent bystander being dragged into his problems?
Like Perulan…
Shalkan flicked an ear back in his direction again and suddenly seemed to quiver all over. 'The Hounds have been released,' he said abruptly. 'They're behind us somewhere, running free. I can feel them. The question is, which of us will reach the border first?'
A few moments later, the unicorn had resumed his headlong bounding gait to the west.
KELLEN WAS ALMOST used to the way that Shalkan bounded through the forest by now; he was beginning to get the rhythm of it and move with it. They'd left the deep forest behind a few hours before and were now in an area that was—well—mountainous, if the descriptions in the proscribed wondertales he'd seen in the Great Library were anything to go by, with jutting granite outcroppings, sheer drop-offs, and pocket canyons. The mist had either lifted, or they had passed out of the region where it lingered, and the sun shone down on them with a cheer that was all out-of-keeping with the grimness of their situation. Here the trees grew in thickets, easy to avoid, and they rode through bright cloudless daylight. In full sunlight Shalkan was even more dazzling than he had been by moonlight and morning mist: his thick white fur had the same crystalline dazzle as the winter's first fall of snow, and his spiral horn had the prismatic fire of polished crystal. Yet Shalkan was undeniably as much a palpable living creature as Kellen was: real and earthly (though obviously magical), and not an illusion that might vanish at any moment. And not much like that little silver-plated mascot Kellen still carried, except as to general shape. The heat of the day intensified the spicy scent of the unicorn's fur, making Kellen's stomach rumble and causing him to think longingly of bakeshops and plates of fried sweet cakes.
More bells—as the City he had left reckoned time—passed as they fled, and as they continued to climb, Kellen was able to look back and see the hills spread out behind them; thousands of acres of land that seemed to be completely uninhabited—at least by humans.
Yet Shalkan said it was all City lands, and undoubtedly the unicorn was right.
Why did the City claim so much territory? The two of them must have covered hundreds of leagues in their escape, or at least it seemed that way. They were heading almost directly west, and they still weren't out of reach of the Outlaw Hunt.
'Why?' Kellen said aloud.
'Why what?' Shalkan responded, dropping back to a trot. The unicorn was looking from side to side, as it had been since midmorning, as if it were searching for something specific. A landmark?
'Why does the City claim so much land?' Kellen asked, repeating his thoughts aloud. 'The farmlands, okay, I can see that—we need the farmlands for the crops, but this isn't farmland—'
'Because they're greedy idiots,' the unicorn said bluntly.
Kellen flinched. He knew he shouldn't care. The City had condemned him to death, after all. He was an Outlaw. But at this time yesterday he'd been heading down to the docks, with no real idea any of this was going to happen. And somehow he could not help but feel obscurely guilty that his former home was so cordially disliked as to evoke that sort of response from the unicorn. Fine, it wasn't Kellen's fault, but he still felt guilty, tainted by association.
Shalkan sighed. 'Kellen, I'm sorry. You deserve a better answer, and I don't have one. Ask me something else.'
'How long until we reach the border?' Kellen asked.
There was a long silence, and from it, Kellen could already read the answer that Shalkan didn't want to give.
'The Hounds will reach us first, won't they?' he said quietly.
Shalkan stopped and looked back at him. 'They're about an hour— four chimes—behind us. The border is… farther than that. We need to find a place to make a stand. That's what I've been looking for. I'm sorry, Kellen, but it's going to come to a fight after all.'
Shalkan turned back to the trail and put on a burst of speed then that surprised even Kellen, who dropped his makeshift rein and went back to clinging tightly to the unicorn's neck with both arms in order to hold on.
At last the unicorn stopped again, so suddenly that Kellen's whole body was flung forward against his neck.
'Here.'
