Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

the unicorn: a living dream, strong and graceful and proud. It tossed its head as it came nearer, and its mane made a line of tattered silk that rippled on the breeze. Its long spiral of horn rose from its sculpted head. As the unicorn came closer, Tessa could see his eyes. Warm golden brown fringed with dark. Will's clever, beautiful eyes.
    The unicorn reared up against the sky, tearing the air with its hooves. As Tessa and Hugh watched, Gray Lily's body grew taller, straighter. Tessa stared as comprehension came to her: Gray Lily had woven Will's thread into the form of the unicorn while he was here, inside the tapestry--so now she had her youth again. Will's youth.
    Gray Lily tossed back her head, sending shiny blond hair flying. Her delighted peal of laughter rang out.
    "God help me," Hugh de Chaucy said, staring at Gray Lily and the unicorn. "It was Will. All these years I truly believed he had been killed by the unicorn. That's why I helped her. I thought she had trapped the monster that murdered my brother. She has been the monster all along."
    "But now?" Tessa whispered. "Hugh, how could you do it?" She lifted her tearstained face to him. "To your own brother?"
    "You still don't understand." Hugh said wearily. He leaned against the bridging bars as if they were holding him up, as if every particle of strength had left him. "Her power is absolute over anyone whose thread she holds. No will is strong enough to oppose her. She can twist the body, the mind, the form. She is as a god." He hung his head.
    "I don't believe that," said Tessa. She looked through the heavy gate at Hugh's sagging, lined face. "Help me, Hugh. Tell me how to get him back."
    "You can't get him back," Hugh said. "We are lost. She is too powerful."
    "No," Tessa said. "She has something that makes her powerful. What is it, Hugh? What is the key?"
    Hugh made a fist and let it fall against the iron bar closest to him. "I don't know."
    "You must have noticed something," Tessa insisted. "Is there a piece of wood or a rock that she carries with her, or wears?"
    "No. There's nothing like that." He hesitated, frowned. "Only that silver ring she wears. It never leaves her finger." He suddenly backed away from the gate, as if he had been jerked on a leash. "If you do as she says, she will send you back to your world," he said, his words rushing out. "Do it, Tessa Brody, and forget this terrible story. For that is what it will become in time, just a story. And you'll remember us only in your dreams."
    "It's too late," Tessa said. "I love him."
    There was silence for a moment before Hugh spoke. "So do I," he said. His gaze seemed to shift inward as he turned away. "Perhaps she will allow me to stay here with him. There might be some peace in that."
    In the distance there was a whinnying cry. Tessa covered her ears--she couldn't bear it. Gray Lily strode toward the castle gate once more. Tessa stared. The witch's figure was curved and supple beneath a clinging, sheathlike garment of green silk, covered by a lavishly embroidered robe. But her eyes were the same, and Tessa shuddered as they flicked over her. Like those of a snake sizing up its next meal.
    "It is done. What a relief." Gray Lily ran her hands over her bosom, and down her waist and hips. "I feel wonderful," she said with a long, stretching roll of her shoulders. She looked at Tessa. "Come out of there, girl."
    Tessa backed away from the heavy metal bars that separated her from Gray Lily. Somehow they seemed impossibly flimsy, not nearly protection enough from the creature on the other side.
    "Why?"
    Gray Lily raised a finely arched brow. "Because I have what I want. My unicorn is returned." She gestured to the castle, the sky. "From the outside, the tapestry will have been restored and will show the unicorn as before. He lives within the tapestry once more, and his eternal youth is mine. Now," she said briskly, "we must leave. I'd like to be in Rome for breakfast." She gave Tessa a sly smile. "And you don't belong here."
    "No one belongs here!" Tessa cried. She threw her arms up. "It's not real. It's not life. You can't put people in here, trapped like ... specimens . It's evil, don't you understand?"
    "I didn't put you here, pet," snapped Gray Lily. "Somehow you did that yourself. Remember? The fact is, I want you out of my tapestry. You cause far too much trouble. And as for evil," she said with a sneer, "my tiny machinations are nothing. Not compared to the bloody carnage those three