Sword and Sorceress XXVII (18 page)

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It took forty-five minutes of coaching,
but Cluny finally got Crocker to cast a spell that connected to the aethercom
at his parents’ house. “I know I should’ve checked in earlier,” he told the
butler who answered. “But I wanted to let folks know I’ll be bringing Lady
Hesper as my guest.”

The cloudy image of the butler floating
over the desk seemed to shiver. “The unicorn, Master Terrence?”

His nod got them put on hold, Crocker
muttering, “Mom’s gonna kill me for this...”

But when a female human voice burst from
the spell, the face blonde and sharp and exactly everything Crocker’s face was
not, she exclaimed, “Terrence, darling! I’ve been meaning to call, but with all
the wonderful things we’ve been hearing about your progress, I didn’t want to
disturb your studies! You and your familiars and Magistrix Hesper will be most
welcome! Dinner’s at six tonight! Till then, darling!” And the clouds dispersed
with an audible pop.

“Well!” Cluny cleared her throat. “She
seems...perky.”

Crocker nodded. “She’s that way with ev’ryone
but horses.”

“Indeed?” Shtasith let out a chuckle. “One
wonders if she will react to Lady Hesper as an equine or a non-equine?”

Cluny rolled her eyes. “We’re not
conducting experiments.”

“I dunno, Cluny.” A little color had
come back into Crocker’s face, but not much. “Seems to me we’re trying to see
how much pressure it takes to pop my head off.”

And while that didn’t happen, Crocker
did
spend the rest of Friday packing and repacking his suitcase while Shtasith
dusted every inch of the room in preparation for Hesper stopping by. Master
Gollantz appeared to issue his usual dire warnings about how much damage it
would cause if anyone should learn the truth of Cluny’s situation, but then he
smiled thinly and hoped they would have a lovely weekend before vanishing.

For her part, Cluny spread Crocker’s new
sophomore robes over the desk and spent the time sewing a pocket on the front
with the kit her mother had given her. She could’ve used magic, of course, but
she needed to keep her paws busy, especially when Crocker started fretting that
the robes might be too formal. “Formal is good,” she told him, biting the
thread instead of flying across the room to sink her teeth into his jugular
vein. “Formal’s likely the only way we’re gonna survive this.”

So Cluny was more than ready when Hesper
danced out of the air just as the clock tower across campus chimed five. “I’ve
never had a chance to see actual horses close up!” she gushed.

That made Cluny smile, and she flared
her claws, sent the robes sailing across to wrap around Crocker. “Alas.”
Shtasith sighed a gust of steam. “I continue to hold that black leather and
lace would be more in keeping with the ‘powerful but insane’ image we are
attempting to create for our simian.”

Cluny leaped to the floor. “You were
outvoted, Shtasith.”

“Thank the powers.” Crocker grabbed his
suitcase, Cluny scrambling up him to her pocket, Shtasith settling across
Crocker’s shoulders. “I’m not even gonna ask if I can teleport us: I already
feel like I’m broken into pieces....”

A golden glow sprang from Hesper’s horn.
“Never fear, Sophomore Crocker. As the faculty advisor here, I shall do the
honors.” The light whooshed to surround them like mist, and when it cleared
seconds later, Cluny almost forgot to make a note of the spell’s primary
characteristics, she was so taken aback by the gatehouse in front of them, the
ivy-covered stone walls on either side of it stretching out to be lost in the
August evening shadows of the woods they were standing in.

It wasn’t that the gatehouse was huge or
threatening, but it wasn’t warm and inviting, either: like an old soldier or a
firmly-rooted tree, it gave her a feeling of strength in repose, of solidity
and competence, the sort of gatehouse that would make a guest feel comfortable
and an intruder feel nervous.

Crocker’s father, she realized, was a
very good architect.

Movement at the gate itself drew her
attention from the structure to the seven armed and armored humans lined up in
front of it, the royal crest filigreed in gold over their cuirasses. One of
them turned, folded his arms to display the silver chevrons along his
gauntlets, and said, “I’m guessing you’re the son from the wizard school and
his party.”

“We are, indeed!” Hesper trotted forward
and literally beamed at the man, the air around her sparkling. “And thank you
so much for being here to meet us, captain!”

 Cluny heard a yearning sigh from one of
the soldiers, and the captain smiled, bowed with a flourish, everything about
him suddenly congenial. “Might I offer you an escort? Your Highness is touring
Lady Crocker’s stables at the moment.”

Hesper tossed her mane, and Cluny almost
sighed herself. No glamour spell ever devised could match a unicorn simply
being a unicorn. “Quite all right, captain.” She glanced at Crocker. “Surely
you’ll be able to guide us, Sophomore Crocker?”

Crocker’s head gave a spasmodic jerk
that was nearly a nod.

“Good!” Hesper bowed to the captain. “Thank
you again!” She cantered toward the line of soldiers, and the way they shrank
away, Cluny imagined a bunch of kids staring at a soap bubble they were afraid
of popping. “Come along, sophomore!”

For an instant, Cluny thought she might
have to jab a claw into Crocker’s chest to shock him out of his stupor, but all
at once he lurched to life and stumbled after Hesper. “Right!” he yelped. “Yes!
Thanks, ev’ryone, y’know?” Then they were passing through the gate, crossing
the stone floor of the gatehouse, and stepping out under the evening sky again
on a tidy flagstone walkway that wound away through trees carefully tended,
Cluny could tell, to look untended.

With a sigh, Crocker shook his head. “Royal
guards at the front gate. I’ll bet Dad’s strutting around like one of Mom’s
horses. Speaking of which—” He pointed to a grassy knoll ahead where the path
split. “We bear right here, and that’ll take us back to the paddocks.”

Peering from her pocket as Crocker
strolled along, Shtasith on his shoulder and Hesper trotting beside him, Cluny
had to smile. A few low buildings showed between the trees and hills to their
left, the air soft with jasmine and hyacinth, orange blossom, honeysuckle, and
lavender, and Cluny felt Crocker’s jangled power smoothing, the flow of his
magic more normal than it had been all day. “Ev’rything OK?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah.” He sounded surprised. “I mean,
my folks are great when they’re able to control ev’rything and make it perfect.
Like when Mom’s with her horses and when Dad’s doing—” He waved his hands. “Doing
all this.”

“And it
is
perfect.” Hesper’s
horn glowed. “The effort that’s gone into maintaining this place, it almost
feels like magic.” She cocked her head at Crocker. “I begin to see where you
get some of your more interesting qualities, sophomore.”

Crocker blushed, and they came around
another hill to see several wooden corrals and a sprawling stable, the earthy
scents and snorts of big animals washing over Cluny like a sudden mudslide.
Hesper gasped, her head swiveling, one front hoof drawing up to her chest, and
all the horse sounds coming from the stables cut off like someone had thrown a
switch.

The air went slippery, Hesper flashing
across the empty dirt to the nearest of the stable’s open windows, and Cluny
could only stare as a big black horse peered out, a little white around his
eyes, his nostrils flaring. Hesper didn’t make a sound, her whole body smaller
than just the horse’s head, but she seemed to be vibrating like a struck gong.
The horse looked down, andShtasith gasped, “My Lady!”

“It’s OK,” Crocker said. “Wanax is
number one on all Mom’s teams, so he’s, like, the smartest horse in the world.”

Sure enough, the two just held each
other’s gaze while Crocker hurried to the spot, Cluny not wanting to break the
strange silence. But then Hesper whispered, not looking away from Wanax, “Of
all hoofed folk—the horses, the antelopes, the pegasi, the gazelles, the
zebras, the hippogriffs—we unicorns alone exhibit true sapience.” She stretched
her neck, reached her horn up as far as she could, Wanax lowering his head—

“I will have answers, Jonah!” a female
voice exclaimed inside, and Crocker froze: his mother, Cluny realized. “I’ve
never seen them like this!” A large door a few yards away swung open, a half
dozen humans stepping through. “And if I’ve not seen it,” the whip-thin blonde
woman was saying to a taller man beside her, the man looking like he wanted to
be anywhere else, “then it doesn’t happen to horses! So perhaps you could—!”

The two other women in the group, both
of them dark-haired and younger than Crocker’s mother but dressed in the same
sort of crisp black, beige, and crimson riding togs, gasped together. The
unmistakable power flowing around the taller of them made Cluny sure she was
Beatrice Elaro, top of her class at Huxley four years ago and now the princess’s
personal sorceress and bodyguard. The shorter, of course, was Crown Princess
Alison herself, Her Highness’s eyes wide with wonder and staring straight at
Hesper. “Lady Crocker?” Her Highness said. “I may have found the source of the
disturbance.”

Lady Crocker turned, and a smile as
sudden and phony as someone slipping on a mask blossomed forth. “Terrence!
Darling! You’re here!”

The rest of the group was looking their
way by now, the other two males bearing a slight resemblance to each other and
to Crocker, the older man with gray sprinkling his dark curls, the younger tall
and trim in a way Cluny couldn’t imagine Crocker ever would be. A smile curled
this younger man’s moustache, too, and Cluny recognized the mix of humor and
chagrin there: she often got that same look from her own brothers. “Always making
an entrance, huh, Terry?” he asked.

Crocker shrugged. “I’m a born
troublemaker.” He bowed to the princess before Cluny could jab him. “Your Royal
Highness, Mom, Dad, Lionel, Jonah, lady I don’t know.” He gestured to the
unicorn, still gazing up at the horse. “This is Lady Hesper, and these are
Cluny and Shtasith. Sorry about the—”

“Oh, now, Terrence!” Lady Crocker
laughed like she wanted the people back at the main gate to hear it. “I’m
simply overjoyed that you and Magistrix Hesper could join us!”

“Magistrix?” Mistress Elaro bristled. “Lady
Crocker, Hesper is no more a magistrix than the creature she’s nuzzling.”

Shtasith hissed, but Hesper’s laugh
chimed through the air. “Quite right, Beatrice!” She did her half-trot,
half-dance toward Lady Crocker. “I would certainly hate for anyone to dress me
in borrowed robes, as they say.” She bowed to Crocker’s mother, the woman’s
smile becoming almost genuine. “Lord and Lady Crocker, thank you for allowing
me to escort your son here. Dressage fascinates me completely!”

Lord Crocker pulled himself up
straighter, the greasy scent of a self-satisfied ego humming over Cluny’s
whiskers. “You honor our humble abode, Lady Hesper,” he said, but Cluny could
hear the sentiment behind the words: his house was the finest in the realm, and
Hesper was only confirming it by her visit.

“Indeed!” Lady Crocker’s face lit up. “We
were going for a turn before dinner, Lady Hesper, if you’d like to—” Her smile
faltered. “Accompany us?”

Mistress Elaro snorted, and when Hesper
laughed this time, Cluny could hear her teeth grinding. “It’s true, Beatrice,
that my current duties seldom allow me time to stretch out and run, but I’m
fairly certain I can keep up.”

“Lovely!” Lady Crocker turned to her
husband. “Lawrence, you and the boys head back to the house and get Terrence
and his familiars settled, then we’ll see you all at dinner!” She started into
the stables. “ Your Highness? Magistrix Elaro? Lady Hesper? This way, please!”

The stableman trooped after her, and the
princess followed, Mistress Elaro ignoring Hesper so pointedly, Cluny was
surprised she didn’t draw blood. The unicorn, though, fell in easily between
the two and began chatting about what a lovely day it had been, the princess
gazing down at her with the enraptured smile Hesper always seemed to cause.

Lord Crocker waved a hand. “Well, you
heard your mother. You boys get back to the house and get ready for supper. I’ve
a bit of landscaping I need to see to.” And he moved off toward the path back
to the main gate.

Crocker’s brother snickered. “I’m
remembering how we used to race to the kitchen garden from here.”

“
You
used to race.” Crocker
started along the side of the stable. “
I
used to stumble over rocks and
crash into trees.”

That snicker again, Lionel falling in
beside Crocker, and they reached another flagstone path. The man was in his mid
20s, Cluny guessed, a good five or six years older than Crocker. Was that usual
between human siblings? Or—?

“So.” Lionel’s eyes darted sideways, met
Cluny’s gaze, blinked, moved away. “I hear you saved your school from the queen
of the Ifriti or something.”

Shtasith’s intake of breath made Cluny
glance up at him, but Crocker spoke before the firedrake could: “It wasn’t like
that exactly.” He poked his brother’s arm. “I hear you’re gonna marry the
princess or something.”