Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

'What stories?'
    'The stories about him and mother, of course. They say he loved her. They also say ...'
    King John lifted his hand to strike Harald across the face, and then slowly lowered it again. Harald didn't flinch, but his eyes were wary and watchful. The King sighed quietly.
    'Harald. . .'
    'Yes, father.'
    'You've the makings of a good King, Harald. You know politics and intrigue and law. You even understand the paperwork, which is more than I ever did. But you'll need more than that if the people are to support you. Oh, you've charm enough, when you choose to use it, but ... I don't know where your heart really lies, and I doubt if anyone else does either. Sometimes I worry about you, lad. You're my son. My blood and kin. Yet I swear you're as much a stranger to me now as the day you were born.'
    'I'm what you made me,' said Harald, and then wondered why his father flinched at the words.

    The main stables stood dark and abandoned on the far side of the courtyard. The doors gaped open, unattended, and the horses and the grooms were gone. Inside the stables, a single lantern shed a golden glow over the end stall as Rupert saddled his unicorn. All around them small sounds were magnified strangely in the quiet, and echoes seemed to whisper on for ever. The still air was thick with the smells of dirt and hay and horse dung. Rupert knew he should find the abandoned stable disturbing, but somehow he didn't. If anything, he rather liked the quiet. It felt good to get away from everything and everybody, even if only for a while. Outside the stable doors, the constant babble of voices rose and fell like the dim, faraway pounding of surf on a beach, something too far away to have anything to do with him.
    Rupert settled the unicorn's saddle comfortably into place, and then set about the many dangling straps.
    The unicorn looked a lot better than the last time Rupert had seen him. His wounds had been cleaned and roughly stitched, his mane and tail had been cleaned and combed, and there was even a little barley left in his feeding trough.
    'So how are you feeling?' asked Rupert.
    'Bloody awful,' said the unicorn. 'If I felt any worse you'd be making glue out of my hooves. I can't believe we're actually going out to fight the demons again. Whose bright idea was that?'
    'Mine, actually,' said Rupert.
    'I might have known,' muttered the unicorn.
    'There's no need to be like that. Just once more into battle, and then it'll all be over.'
    'That's what I'm afraid of. Isn't there something else we could try?'
    'Like what?'
    'Running away leaps to mind.'
    Rupert laughed tiredly as he tightened the cinch strap. 'Where could we go? The darkness is everywhere now. No, unicorn, we either stand and fight, or wait to die. There's nothing else left to us.'
    For a long while, neither of them said anything. Shadows pressed close about the lantern's golden glow, and the air grew steadily colder. Rupert finished readying the unicorn, and then sank wearily down on to a pile of dirty straw. An hour at most, and then he'd have to go out and face the Darkwood again. Face the demons and the darkness and the horror of the endless night. Rupert yawned, and leaned back against the side of the stall. He was too tired to be really scared. The unicorn snorted suddenly, as though in response to some inner argument, and turned his head to stare at Rupert with calm, blood-red eyes.
    'Rupert ...'
    'Yes?'
    'You once asked me my name. I told you then I 'd swom never to use my name until I was free again, but now. . . well. It seems to me that if I don't tell you now, there might not be another chance.'
    Rupert shifted uncomfortably under the unicorn's steady gaze. 'You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to.'
    'You're my friend,' said the unicorn. 'My name is Breeze.'
    Rupert got to his feet, and hugged the unicorn's neck tightly. 'Breeze,'he said, and then had to stop.
    When he felt he could trust his voice again, he let go of the unicorn and stepped back a pace so that he could meet the unicorn's eyes. 'Breeze, if by some miracle we actually survive this mess, you're free. I swear it, by Blood and Stone. I'll check the records to find which valley you were taken from initially; some of your old herd might still be there. Perhaps we could ... go and look for them. Together.'
    'Yeah,' said Breeze. 'I'd like that, Rupert.'
    'You don't believe we're going to survive this one, do you?'
    'No, I don't.'
    'All right, then. By the authority vested in me, by