Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

come to be here?"
    "You are not my brother." Hugh breathed the words, but he didn't back away. He reached up and pulled Will closer to inspect his face wonderingly. "My brother is dead," he said at last, blinking as if the sight of Will stung his red-rimmed eyes. "He was killed by a unicorn."
    Will shook his head. "It was only Gray Lily's conjuring and lies that made it seem so. She transformed me. I was the unicorn." A sharp moan of pain came from Hugh de Chaucy's mouth, as if he had been struck.
    Will lifted a hand to the fading scar on his cheek as the two men stared at each other. They were united in the memory of another encounter, one as distant as a fable yet as close as a fresh wound.
    "Will." Hugh's voice broke on the name. "I did not know. I swear it. All this time. I didn't know."
    "I know that, brother," said Will. Hugh straightened almost imperceptibly, and for a moment Tessa could imagine the man he had once been. Even his speech, the inflections of his voice, seemed to now hint at the heritage he shared with Will.
    "What did she do to you?" Will whispered, looking at Hugh de Chaucy's sagging, lined face and blotchy skin. The face that, Tessa could see now, must have once been robust and strong.
    Hugh's reply was curt. "What she does to all her victims. She took my life. Or at least a piece of it. In the form of a thread by which she can control me. I have served her for centuries, and she has twisted this old body so many times that I hardly recognize it myself."
    "You're one of the stolen threads," said Tessa. She went a step closer to the brothers.
    Hugh nodded a sober greeting to her. "Yes. But not in the tapestry. She has kept me by her side all these long years." The statement seemed to amuse him somehow, and he let out a dry gasp of laughter. "I have served her and she's kept me alive. But then you found the tapestry. And released the unicorn. Its loss has diminished her." He gave Will a grim look. "She'll do anything to get it back."
    "We should get you inside," Will said in a low, urgent tone. He made a movement to release himself from Hugh's embrace. But Hugh held on.
    "Hugh," said Will, staring at his brother.
    Hugh looked at his hands and an expression of twisted apology crept over his face. "I'm sorry, brother," he said softly. His fingers tightened.
    Will stared at his brother in confusion and tried to jerk away. "Let me go, Hugh. We'll raise the gate and bring you in."
    Gray Lily drifted up behind Hugh, as silent as a shadow. "Hold him," she muttered.
    "She kept you whole," he whispered to Will. "But me--she took my thread after the hunt was done. Sh-she keeps a piece of me in her pocket." Hugh choked out the words as he clutched his brother in a viselike grip. "I'm sorry. I have no choice."
    Tessa ran to Will and pulled as hard she could to separate the brothers, but Hugh's grip seemed superhuman.
    Gray Lily snaked her ringed hand through the bars and pressed it to Will's chest, even as he struggled to wrench away.
    Tessa screamed and held him, even as she began to feel the icy pain in her chest. Just like before.
    Will's face spasmed in panic and fury, and his voice cut into her like a blade. "Tessa!" he roared. Thick cords stood out from his neck as he strained against the pain. His tall, strong form arched back like a whip.
    But already the silver thread was being drawn. Tessa held him, enveloped in pain herself, and saw the beautiful thread wind away from his weakening body, drawn by Gray Lily. With what seemed like the last of his strength, Will pushed Tessa away from him, breaking the contact and lifting the cold ache from her. Will sagged in his brother's grip and his head slung backward. His eyes turned and fixed on Tessa. "Destroy the unicorn, Tessa. Kill it."
    She stood frozen; she couldn't look away. She kept staring into Will de Chaucy's eyes as they became transparent and disappeared. But his last look still burned through her.
    Hugh's eyes closed and his face grew red and wet, but he maintained his grip on his brother's body until it was gone and his hands clutched empty air. Gray Lily turned away, weaving the silver thread through her fingers and whispering.
    Tessa crumpled to the ground. It felt as if everything inside her had been ripped out. Slowly she pushed herself up and saw Gray Lily standing on a small hill of grass some distance away. A silver cloud of smoke seemed to gather around her as her hands worked the thread of Will's life.
    As the smoke cleared, Tessa saw