The Unicorn Thief (16 page)

Chapter 33

Twig and Ben fired arrow after arrow, until the water was still and the last of the swamp lizards had retreated. All the while Ben kept glancing at Griffin and battling his disgust. It really
was
all Griff's fault. Everything. And now Griffin had Indy under his control.

Griffin dismounted and handed Stone Heart over to Reynald. Reynald took the reins gratefully. He turned his full attention to his beloved Stone Heart.

“What is that thing?” Twig whispered to Griffin, casting a glance at Reynald. But Reynald's face was buried in Stone Heart's mane.

“A unicorn whistle. It was my father's. Passed down from another herder who mentored him.” He stroked the wood. “One of a kind. A secret few herders knew. He kept it closely guarded, seldom used.”

“Because it isn't right!” Twig hissed. “Controlling them like that—it isn't right.”

“Wake them up,” Ben said stonily. “Bring them back.”

Ben pretended not to see the tear cutting through the grime on Griffin's face. His brother blew the whistle, moving as though to music. Music none of them could hear. The unicorns stirred. They whinnied and sniffed and pawed at the ground. They realized where they were and neighed anxiously again, but this time there were no swamp lizards to send them into a panic, and their riders took control.

A strange smile curled Reynald's mouth. He mounted Stone Heart and headed down the boardwalk, toward his flag.

“What's he doing?” Twig said. “Does he still want a fight?”

“Let him go. Even if we fought him for it and won, it wouldn't be ours.” Ben glared at Griffin. “We broke the rules.”

Griffin stood there alone, his unicorn gone. He held the unicorn whistle out to Ben. “He'd want you to have it. You were the one he trusted.”

Not with this secret. His father had never said a word about it. Neither had Merrill. Why? Couldn't something like this have helped them deal with Dagger? Couldn't it have saved his father's life?

Ben shook his head at Griffin's offering, feeling sick.

“He didn't give it to me.” Griffin looked beyond sick. “I'm sorry. I took it, and I never got to tell him I'm sorry. I saw him use it when I was little. Before everything changed. When all I ever wanted to be was a herder just like him. He used to practice on a little flute. An ordinary one that made music we could hear. Don't you remember, Ben? Don't you remember the songs?”

“He played music,” Ben said, “by the fire. To pass the time.”

“No, not just to pass the time. When I saw him use this on a crazed unicorn, I recognized the pattern. Even though I couldn't hear a sound, I recognized the movement of his fingers, the tune. I knew I had to have it. I could be a great herder if only I could use it.”

“So you
stole
it?” Twig said.

Ben jumped down from Indy. He advanced on Griffin. “When? How long have you had this?”

“About ten years.”

Ben swallowed hard over the realization. “He never mentioned it because there was no point. It was gone, and we had to deal with Dagger without it. He's dead! He's dead because you took it!”

Twig leaped between them, and Ben realized his hand was clenched around his knife.

“Darian died because of Dagger,” Twig said. She grabbed Ben's cloak and looked into his eyes. Hers were full of tears.

Ben pulled away. He looked down at his weapon. At his hand, white with the fierceness of his grip—of Dagger's grip on him still.

“Dagger killed him, and no one else. It was wrong, Ben, what Griffin did. It was wrong, but you have to forgive him.”

Indy whinnied his concern. He nuzzled Ben's back. Ben tossed his dagger into the swamp. He turned his back on Griffin. “I cannot.” He put a hand on Indy's neck, but he couldn't even look into his unicorn's quicksilver eyes. The eyes that would draw him back. He was far away. He wanted to be far away from everything.

“He's right, you know,” Griffin said to Twig. “It's my fault. So many things are my fault. This. You being in this swamp. It's my fault.”

“Griffin,” Twig said. “Your mother wanted you to wait by the boardwalk and take Reynald and Ackley out, didn't she?”

“She only agreed to this because I was supposed to take one of the side passages near Eastland's entrance,” Griffin replied. “I was supposed to sneak up on Reynald and take care of him before he ever set eyes on Ben. We'd get the flag, and Ben would have no choice but to come out of the swamp with it. My mother would get rid of Reynald, and Ben would get what he wanted—the truce with Eastland upheld—and he'd still be alive. She cannot stand the thought of losing Ben.”

“And you couldn't either. That's why, when you realized we'd be going through the swamp by boat, you came anyway.”

“My mother told me there was nothing I could do about Ben trying to boat through the swamp. She wanted me to stick with eliminating Reynald. She wouldn't risk having both of her sons killed. She told Neal to go with me.” He turned to Ben. “But I wanted to find you. To protect you. I broke away from Neal as soon as I could—when we ran into a nasty nest of swamp lizards. I don't know what happened to him.” He shook his head. “After that, the swamp had its own ideas about which way I should go. When I couldn't find you, and I realized I was near Eastland's entrance, I cut through to the main boardwalk. I knew that Reynald would be there waiting. He's not the only one who has spies. I was afraid I'd be too late.”

“Unfortunately,” Ben said through gritted teeth, “you weren't.”

“Ben,” Twig said.

It was just a whisper, just his name, but it stirred another whisper in Ben's heart.
This
is
how
you
honor
your
father. Forgive.

Ben turned around to face Griffin. Griffin saw Ben's face and crumpled to his knees on the rickety boardwalk. He stared at the water as though he might as well just fall in.

“You started this whole thing by taking unicorns. You let her think it was Eastland.”

“I never thought Eastland would be blamed! I was trying to save the unicorns. To start rebuilding the herds—and building up the power to resist what she's been doing. What could I do?”

“You could've told the truth,” Twig said. “Once you found out Ben was going to pay for it.”

“I tried to stop him. I—”

“You took Indy!” Ben said. “He didn't need saving. None of that is true!”

Griffin's eyes snapped up—blue like their mother's. “I took him to bring you back. One of Father's tunnels goes under part of the swamp. I took him through it, to my hideout. I thought you'd go to Mother, not track him there! I needed you here. I'm supposed to be king. Next year, I'm supposed to be king.”

“So?”

“So do you really think she'll let that happen? Didn't you ever wonder what would happen to me? To all of us?” Griffin shook his head. “Tell me you care about more than that island. Your herd. There are unicorns here who need you. People who need you. I needed you to care. I had to make you see. Make you face it. I knew you wouldn't care unless you realized it would affect you too, that your island wasn't immune.”

“What are you trying to do, Griff?”

“I thought once she saw you…I thought Father would come with you, of course. I didn't know…how could you not tell me?”

“How could I? You saw what happened when I told Mother! What could I have done? Put it in a letter?”

Griffin's expression softened. “You don't put something like that in a letter.”

“You don't keep it from your brother either,” Ben said quietly. He sat down next to Griffin. “He loved you, you know. He wanted you with us. Every time he taught me something new, I could see it in his eyes. He was remembering teaching you.”

“You're everything he wanted you to be, Ben. Everything he was.”

“Not everything.” Ben rose and held a hand out to his brother. Griffin took it, and Ben pulled him up, and then Griffin pulled him into a hug. “I'll forgive you, Griff. Somehow.” Not just because it was what Ben knew his father would want, what his father would do, but because it was the right thing to do.

Chapter 34

Twig eyed the swamp-filled gap in the boardwalk. “Should we try to get back up on that side of the boardwalk and head back to Westland?”

“No. We owe Eastland an apology. Griff.” Ben gestured for his brother to ride behind him, and they headed toward the Eastland entrance.

They'd survived the Death Swamp, and something even darker had been uncovered amid the muck and the rot—secrets that should never have been. For Ben, new pain on top of the old. And for Twig, painful old memories, bubbling up again. If Griffin had only told Ben what he wanted…

Ben never had a chance to know who his brother really was. And Twig was keeping the same kind of secret from her dad. But what choice did she have?

At the end of the boardwalk, Reynald was waiting. Waiting, and holding the flag of Eastland. “Come with me,” he said.

They followed him out of the swamp. The Eastlanders and Westlanders had swapped sides to wait for their duelers to emerge. The Westlanders called out and clamored and pointed as they appeared. Among them, a large, muddy figure stood out—Neal had made it out of the swamp alive after all. Twig almost felt sorry for him, having to come out of the swamp and tell the queen both of her boys were still in there, missing. His hair was scorched, his clothing in shreds.

Twig saw the queen's anxious expression melt into relief at the sight of her sons. But soon she took on the confused look of all the others. What were both duelers doing here? Why did Reynald have his own flag and not Westland's?

In front of the onlookers, Reynald rode over to Ben. He held out the flag. “Take it,” he said.

“But I didn't win.”

“You saved my life. You earned this flag. I'll best you some other time—or, even better, in a few years, I'll best the new King of Westland.”

A glint of new malice burned amid the gratitude. “But perhaps that's not fair, Griffin. You are a son, first and foremost. I suspect you were just doing what you were told.” Boldly, he turned the glare right on the queen.

“I don't know what you're saying, but I do know you are not to be trusted. Your people stole from me—straight from my stable, even while you were a guest in my country, supposedly negotiating to extend our treaty!”

“Mother,” Griffin said. “It was me.”

“What was you?”

“I am the unicorn thief. I took Night Spark and all the others too.”

“But…why?”

“I needed to be ready. To have my own forces for when I come of age.”

“You thought I would oppose you?”

“Once you found out what I plan to do when I'm king, yes.”

“And just what are you going to do?”

“Keep our defenses strong but avoid provoking war. Allow those who wish to do so to go back to herding.”

“There are no unicorns left for them to herd.” She waved her hand dismissively, as though that had nothing to do with her policies, as though it were unchangeable. “The war unicorns aren't suited to the wild.”

“Eventually, some of them might be if the right people work with them. But there
is
one last herd. On Lonehorn Island. If they were protected, some of those unicorns might flourish again in Terracornus. Their numbers could build back up.”

“I see.” The queen smirked, but Twig wasn't buying it. She was scared and trying to hide it. The queen turned to the crowd. “And which of you support this?”

There was silence. Such a long silence. Twig wanted to grab Ben—and Griffin too—and run.

Ben opened his mouth to answer. But it just hung there. Open. He pointed behind Twig. She turned to see a group of riders approaching at a gallop. Two men on unicorns took the lead, and another rider on a larger mount was just behind them, followed by a row of five smaller figures and one riderless pony.

Rain Cloud.

Mr. Murley rode Bounce right alongside Merrill and Marble. Twig couldn't help beaming with pride, even as she worried what he would say, how angry he would be. Mr. Murley didn't ride with Merrill's ease just yet, but he was a good, strong rider. Another Murley, riding a unicorn, in Terracornus.

Mrs. Murley rode Feather, who couldn't quite keep up with the unicorns, and Rain Cloud just about kept up pace with her, urging the other ponies to hurry—Taylor and Chatterbox, Mandy and Sparkler, Regina and Celeste, Janessa and Gadget, Casey and Story.

The girls of Island Ranch formed a circle around Ben and Twig.

The queen turned to Ben. “Who,” she said with a mocking smile, “is this?”

Rain Cloud snorted. His nostrils flared, and his ears pinned back.

Merrill cleared his throat and was about to introduce them, but Casey said, “Your Majesty, we're the people of the island. The island you wanted to forget.”

The queen's face went white with rage. Her anger was a cold anger. So different from Ben's temper.
Oh no, Casey. Please, God,
Twig prayed,
don't let her say anything stupider
.

But it was the queen who spoke next. “Then you do not belong here.”

Neal drew his sword, looking all too eager to take out his anger over being left in the Death Swamp on someone.

“Hey, now!” Merrill said.

“Yes we do belong here!” Casey shouted. “We're Twig's family, and Ben's too!”

To Twig's astonishment, the girls all cheered. Ben lifted his fist and cheered too.

“And one day we're going to be unicorn riders! All of us!”

Oh, Casey. Casey with her crazy stories. Twig looked into those big brown eyes. Full of dreams, yes. But full of determination too. The kind of determination that could make such dreams real.

This time, Twig was the first to shout. She raised her hand for Casey. “Riders!”

“Riders!” the others cheered. Ben too.

Mrs. Murley laughed out loud, a warm, teary laugh.

“The riders of Island Ranch,” Mr. Murley agreed.

Casey dismounted and threw her arms around Twig. Before she knew it, she and Ben were in a huddle of hugs and prayers. Rain Cloud poked his nose in and made sure he got a hug of his own.

“I got your message,” Merrill said to Twig. “That you were going into the Death Swamp with Ben.” He shook his head. “I would've stopped you if I'd been here. I was delayed. Detained by the queen's men until they could verify my pass. By the time they let me go, Emmie found me. I knew it was too late to stop you, and I owed it to your family to tell them what was going on.”

“Oh, Twig,” Mrs. Murley said, “you're too brave for your own good.”

“You all came,” Twig said.

“We're in this together,” Mr. Murley said. “We should've been all along.”

Ben turned to the crowd. The queen's inner circle. Her finest soldiers. “And we should be too. Together, for the well-being of the unicorns. I faced the Death Swamp for all of us. For who we really are. You remember the days. You remember what it was to ride free. To watch over your herd, doing the same. You were herders, and Westland was free. We can be who we were—who we still are in our hearts—again!”

“I stand for Griffin. For the return of the herders!” Pete, Merrill's nephew, stepped forward.

“What's going on, Twig-girl?” Merrill said.

Quickly, Twig whispered an explanation. Merrill joined Pete. Then, one by one, many of the onlookers did the same. They were split, half left by the queen's side, half with Griffin.

“Well then,” the queen said, “it seems the court of Westland has spoken, and they are divided.”

“The
herders
of Westland have spoken,” Griffin said. “They are not divided.” He turned to his supporters. “I am humbled and honored. I don't deserve your allegiance. But with your help, when I am king, Westland will become a land of herders again.”

“Perhaps, Griffin. We will see when that day comes.” Though the queen smiled, the threat in her tone was undeniable. Her bright red tunic swished around her embroidered leggings as she turned her back on them. She cocked her head over her shoulder. “Go, Ben. Go back to your island with these people. With your father's people.”