“Tell no one I have gone,” she said, striding to the door. “Any of you who follow me does so at your own peril.”
The blackness of her cloak shielded Queen Anahid and the princess as she made her way through the corridors of Palace Var, unseen save by the roses, which turned their faces away and said not a word. She slid from shadow to shadow. Woven enchantments whirled in endless grasping fingers everywhere she turned, but these Anahid had long ago learned to see and to elude.
But all paths from Arpiar led past the unicorn.
The queen stood in the darkness of the courtyard, breathing in the perfume of roses, gazing at the gate that stood between her and the empty landscape. She felt the tiny beating heart pressed against her own and gnashed her teeth. “Would that he had been devoured on the shores of the Dark Water!” Then, closing her eyes and bowing her head, she called out in the voice of her heart, a voice unheard in that world but which carried to worlds beyond.
“I swore I would never call upon you again.”
An answer came across distances unimaginable and sang close to her ear in a voice of birdsong.
Yet I am always waiting for you, child.
“I ask nothing for myself, only for my daughter. She does not deserve the fate the king has purposed for her.”
What would you have me do?
“Show me where I can take her. Show me where she may be safe.”
Walk my Path, sang the silver voice.
There in the darkness of Arpiar, a way opened at the queen’s feet. The one Path that the unicorn could not follow. Anahid stepped into it, full of both gratitude and shame, for she had vowed never to walk this way again. But she had no other choice. She followed the Path to the gate, pushed the bars aside, and stepped into the plains beyond.
The unicorn did not see her. She passed beneath its gaze, her heart beating like a war drum against the bundle on her breast, but the unicorn was blind to her passage.
Queen Anahid strode from Palace Var without a backward glance, her daughter held tight in her arms. As she went, the silver voice sang in her ear, and she found herself responding to the familiar, half-forgotten words:
Beyond the Final Water falling
The Songs of Spheres recalling
Won’t you return to me?
She followed the song across the hinterlands of Arpiar, speeding along the Path so quickly that she must have covered leagues in a stride. She came to a footbridge, just a few planks spanning from nowhere to nowhere. But when she crossed it, she stepped over the boundaries from her world into the Wood Between.
The unicorn felt the breach on the borders of Arpiar. It raised its head, and the bugle call of its warning shattered the stillness of the night. Anahid, even as she stood beneath the leafy canopy of the Wood, heard that sound across the worlds. She moaned with fear.
Do not be afraid. Follow me.
“It will find me!”
I will guide you. Follow me.
“Only for my daughter!” the queen cried. “Only for my daughter.”
Her feet, in dainty slippers, sped along the Path as it wound through the Wood. She could feel the unicorn pursuing, though it could not see her. But the nearness of its presence filled Anahid with such dread, she nearly dropped her burden and fled. But no! Though she had come so far, she was still too close to Arpiar.
“Please,” she whispered. The silence of the Wood oppressed her. “Please, show me somewhere safe.”
Follow, sang the silver voice, and she raced after that sound. Her feet burned with each step. How long had it been since she’d followed this Path? Not since she was merely Maid Anahid, a lowly creature unworthy of a king’s notice. She had not known then and did not know now where it would lead. She only knew the unicorn could not catch her.
It may have been days; it may have been minutes; for all she knew, it may have been centuries. But the Path ended at last, and once more the forest grew up around her. The queen stood with her heart in her throat, straining her senses for any sign of the unicorn. Panting from her exertion, she struggled to draw a deep breath and almost gagged.
“The Near World,” she said. “I smell mortality everywhere. How can my daughter be safe here?”
Follow me, sang the silver voice.
“Will you not accept her into your Haven?”
Follow me.