Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

and danger hadn't gone away, but she had to sleep--she had to. Just a few hours of rest. Then, if he was still here when she woke up ... well, she'd think of something.
    Opal was already pulling a sleeping bag from the closet and unrolling it.
    Both girls turned to look at Will. He was fast asleep.
    Tessa dragged the puffy flowered comforter from her bed and tiptoed over to him. She covered him gently. She crawled into bed and reached over to adjust the alarm clock. Then Tessa burrowed her face and her fisted hands into her pillow and slept.
    And dreamed.
    She lay helpless where she had fallen, her ankle twisted and throbbing with pain.
    The huge animal fell to its knees beside her and laid its head in her lap. Leaves and small twigs clung to the tangled mane, and blood seeped from a gash in the sleek jaw. Her velvet dress was stained with the dark, sticky fluid. She put out a tentative hand and touched the unicorn's side. She could feel the animal's shallow breaths. Her eyes widened as she saw her own hand stained with blood. The smell was thick, nauseating.
    The weaver woman approached and bent over her. Her wizened face was lit with eagerness as she looked over the unicorn. "You've done well, child. It will be over soon."
    "No!" she cried. "Don't kill it! It's not a monster. It didn't kill Will de Chaucy. Its eyes--I think it's him. "
    "Clever girl," snarled Gray Lily. She glanced at her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill him."
    Men came. They put a cuff of dull gray metal on each of the unicorn's forelegs and fastened them securely. "Iron will quell your spirit," Gray Lily said. "And hold you." She then took a small yellow stone from her pocket and pressed it to the unicorn's chest.
    Awful sounds filled the air as Gray Lily chanted strange words. And then something impossible happened.
    The girl watched as a curling, silvery thread drifted up from the unicorn's chest like a wisp of smoke. The unicorn shuddered and its eyes shot open, huge and dilated with fear. But it didn't move. The thread spun away, faster and faster. The unicorn's substance faded and finally disappeared. The silver thread drifted on the air.
    Gray Lily held a tapestry. The unicorn's silver thread undulated through the air and traveled toward her as she spoke. As the old woman worked her magic, the thread wove itself into the tapestry. It looked like streaks of light rippling through dark water. Gray Lily closed her eyes and spoke again, and this time the words rang out clear in the stillness of the wood.
    " Spirit transformed, I call thee .
Magic enclosed, I capture thee .
Through warp and weft, I bind thee .
Let your power be mine for eternity .
The tapestry is complete. "
    The unicorn was in the tapestry, frozen in a pose of wild torment. Its eyes stared out with a piercing sadness. His eyes.
    The girl screamed. The men staggered back, muttering oaths. Several ran away in terror.
    "You see? Isn't he fine?" said Gray Lily. She straightened, and she was no longer old but youthful, with thick fair hair and a lissome figure. "I told you I wouldn't kill him," she drawled. She ran her hands over her supple body with a smile of delight that was almost obscene. Then her small, dark eyes flickered up. "Now, you, on the other hand ..."
    She pulled a dagger from her cloak and advanced....
    Tessa moaned in her sleep. Her arms thrashed against the twisted covers. Open your eyes . It was dark. Strong hands gripped her arms. "Wake up." Will de Chaucy leaned over her, the darkness shadowing his features.
    "I had another dream," Tessa rasped from her dry, constricted throat. "I saw Gray Lily. I saw what she did to you." And what she was going to do to me .
    " Another dream?" he asked. His voice was so gentle. Just like the touch that brushed her tousled hair back.
    "Yes," she whispered, suddenly very conscious of how close he was. "I've been having the strangest dreams ever since I first touched the tapestry. And now even if I'm not touching it. It was so real. It was like ..."
    "You were there," he finished. He straightened, drawing away.
    Tessa sat up. "We have to do something. I can't go on this way."
    "Agreed," said Will de Chaucy in a low tone.

Chapter 18

The next morning the bell on the door of Brody's Books jangled and a man entered. He was heavily built, with a thin salt-and-ginger-colored fringe of hair around a balding, freckled scalp. His dark gray suit looked rumpled, as if he'd slept in it, and he carried a worn leather attache case. Tessa