Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

in the way. I'll keep the vest, I'm not entirely daft. Did you say something, unicorn?'
    'I wouldn't dare.'
    Rupert sniffed, and walked back to the unicorn, readjusting his sword belt.
    'Feeling better now?' asked the unicorn.
    'Much,' said Rupert.
    'Then perhaps you'd like to tell me just what you think our chances are of coming out of this mess alive.'
    Rupert looked away from the unicorn, and shrugged tiredly. 'I don't know, Breeze. We've got the High Warlock on our side, if he sobers up in time. And the Infernal Devices should make quite a difference, if we can keep them under control. Our own chances. . . aren't particularly good, but we've beaten long odds before, haven't we?'
    'In other words,' said the unicorn quietly, 'we're going to die out there.'
    'It looks like it,' said Rupert finally. 'We've pushed our luck as far as it will go, my friend. Only a miracle will get us out of this one. Still, at least this way we have a chance to take some of the demons with us.'
    'Then that will have to do,' said the unicorn.
    'Rupert ...' Julia's voice was quiet, hesitant. 'I need to talk to you.'
    Rupert looked round quickly. Julia was standing half-silhouetted in the stable doorway. She moved slowly forward into the lanternlight, and Rupert didn't know whether to smile or bow or turn and run. In her old familiar clothes, she looked just the way she used to be, and he didn't want to be reminded of that.
    'I'm busy right now, Julia. Can't this wait?'
    'No,' said Julia. 'It can't.'
    She studied Rupert in silence, taking in the dark bruises of fatigue beneath his eyes, and his watchful, wary stance. There was a grim, defeated look to him that she'd never seen before, and for a moment it was like looking at a stranger. The moment passed, and Julia smiled suddenly. When in doubt, go to the heart of the matter.
    'I love you, Rupert.'
    He flinched as though she'd hit him. 'Of course you love me. That's why you're marrying Harald.'
    'No, Rupert. They can threaten and plead, and they can drag me kicking and screaming to the altar, but they can't make me marry him.'
    'Sure.' Rupert couldn't seem to raise enough strength to be angry, he was too tired to be anything but bitter. Julia reached out and put a hand on his arm, and it seemed heavy even in its gentleness.
    'Rupert, I don't want you to go off into battle believing a lie. I don't give a damn for Harald, or being a Princess, or anything but being with you.'
    'I saw you in the Court,' said Rupert thickly. 'I saw you with Harald
    'I was angry,' said Julia. 'I wanted to hurt you, to make you jealous, because . . .oh, Rupert . . .'
    She moved forward and took him in her arms. He clung to her desperately, like a drowning man, his face buried in her neck. She hugged him fiercely back, not flinching even when his strength hurt her.
    'Don't leave me,' Rupert said hoarsely into her neck. 'You're all I've got left.'
    'I'll never leave you,' Julia promised him quietly. 'Never again, my love.'
    'Me neither,' said the unicorn, butting them gently with the side of his head. Without looking round, Rupert reached blindly out with one arm and hugged the unicorn's neck.
    After a while, Rupert regained control of himself and straightened up. Julia immediately let go of him, and brushed at his clothes and pulled his chain vest straight, so that she wouldn't have to see his face while he composed himself again. Rupert was funny about things like that.
    'How long before they open the gates?' she asked, her voice carefully calm and steady.
    'Not long now,' said Rupert. He smiled at Julia as she fussed over him, and then frowned suddenly as he caught sight of the leather-bound swordhilt standing up behind her left shoulder. 'Julia, where did you get that sword?'
    Julia heard the tension in his voice, and stepped back a pace so that she could face him squarely.
    'The King wanted me to have it. He said you'd turned it down.'
    'That's right, I did. I wish you had too. '
    'It's only a sword, Rupert.'
    'No it isn't! That thing on your back is an Infernal Device, an evil so great my ancestors kept it locked away in the Armoury for over five hundred years rather than risk using it.'
    'How can any sword be that evil?'
    Rupert looked at her steadily. 'According to legend, the swords are alive. And they corrupt the souls of those who bear them.'
    Julia shook her head impatiently. 'A sword is a sword. All right, it feels . . . wrong, somehow. But as long as it kills demons, I'll have a use for it. Anyway,