Page 33 of Heir of Autumn
Sylvain stepped up to join in the gawking. He made a very good show of looking unsurprised. Namirah came up as well, a delighted smile on her face. I could tell she was laughing on the inside, and I knew why. How didn’t any of us put the puzzle pieces together?
But then Evander Skink approached.
“Oh. Wow. Okay.” He pinched the bridge of his nose like he was staving off an imminent headache. “Hold on. No. Wait.”
“Evander,” I said through clenched teeth, hoping it was enough of a warning. “Shut it.”
The narwhal raised her head and her great horn, blinking at each of us with twinkling black eyes. The look on her mouth registered as a grateful smile.
“Thank you for saving me, heroes,” the unicorn said, her voice markedly different from her sisters, yet somehow sweeter. “I came here in search of something, I think, a way to prove to my sisters that I was every bit as good as them. But Vanessica was right. I really am just a foolish foal. A silly filly.”
“And we went through all the trouble of rescuing you, too?”
Evander was getting huffier and huffier by the second, his arms crossed as he looked coldly down at the narwhal. So maybe he was expecting to meet a unicorn. Well and good. So were the rest of us. But this was still no reason to behave so badly.
His mood hardly seemed to affect the narwhal, her eyes as black and twinkly as ever, wet like polished stones from a riverbed, shimmery as a night sky.
“Sometimes,” she said, “even the strongest among us can find themselves in need of extra help. Is that not what you’ve learned as summoners both? But it seems that only one of you is deserving of my friendship.”
“No skin off my back,” Evander said, looking at his fingernails with a scoff.
“You really can’t be helped, can you, Evander?” I shook my head, a bitter chuckle lodged in my throat. “Gods, you really are such an asshole.”
Namirah went down on her knees to take a closer look, her fingers gripping the edge of the rainbow bowl. “Sorry, just to clarify. Are you suggesting that you’re interested in forging a pact with Locke over here?”
“That’s correct,” the narwhal said, batting her eyelashes. “If there are no objections, of course.”
I beamed. “None whatsoever. It’d be an honor. But where are my manners?”
Names were important, after all, whether for the deep magic of forging pacts between summoners or eidolons, or the simplicity of common etiquette. I introduced myself, then the rest of our group to the narwhal. Yes, even Evander, because he was still a person, even if he was a terrible one.
“Well met,” the narwhal said, smiling. “It is good to know the names of my saviors. And I am called Swimberly.”
I grinned. A perfect name for a magical narwhal, and one that worked well alongside her sisters.
“Forging a pact with a narwhal,” Evander said. “Now I’ve seen everything.”
“A magical narwhal,” Namirah said. “And don’t be so rude, Evander. Gods, you’d think this was your first day outside your kennel.”
My lips drew back as I prepared to spit out something truly abhorrent, a string of words so cutting and abrasive it would slice Evander open, shut the door completely on any chance of us ever being friends. Who needed friends like him, anyway? But before I could make a single sound with my mouth, the sky above the beach hummed and wavered.
The clouds parted to herald a distant neighing, the clop of metallic hooves. A rainbow touched down from the heavens, scattering a cascade of light and color across the sand. The unmistakable approach of horses grew louder and louder.
But I knew we weren’t expecting a horse, of course. Three unicorns with gleaming white coats sped down the rainbow, using it as a bridge from wherever it was they called home.
“Exactly like the sticker from Headmaster Cornelius,” I breathed, awestruck.
“Ah,” Swimberly said, raising her head in acknowledgment. “My sisters. They come.”
One by one the unicorns crashed onto the beach, powerful hooves kicking up the white sand like puffs of softest powder. Their rainbow manes and tails streamed in the soft breeze.
Namirah rose to her feet, hands clasped over her mouth like she was repressing a gasp. Sylvain bowed low, always aware of how to be charming and polite in the right circumstances. Satchel waved his arm in a huge arc, calling out with a friendly “What’s up, ladies?”
And Evander Skink fell to his knees. The three unicorns heard him dunk on Swimberly. They must have.
“Swimberly,” said Vanessica, the unicorn with the golden horn. “You’ve been quite the misguided mare.”
“I only wanted to prove that I could be as strong as any of you.” Swimberly sniffled. “I’ve always known that I’m — well, different. But I see now that I only made you worry, and wasted the precious time of these kind people, too.”
