Luna Brightwood's Arc

Chapter 18 of 22

Silvain slid the second collar mark into his belt and stood. The cloaked man lay still in the grass. Sunrise was hours off, but the hut door was open and the eight small unicorns were already picking their way into the field, pink manes and white manes together, silver and pearl wings folded tight. Silvain pointed at a low gap in the trees. "That way. Stay in the open. I'll walk the line." He drew the light-blade again and started along the treeline, sword low, eyes on the pines. Luna slung her white shoulder bag across her chest and knelt to count the babies. Eight. She lifted her camera out of habit, then let it fall against her collar. Not now. She started walking the unicorns toward the gap. The silver wyrm coiled overhead in a wide, slow ring. The smaller white wyrm dropped low and slid along the grass beside the herd, tail trailing a thin silver glow. She saw the movement because she was looking for a shot she couldn't take. A dark shape shifted between two trunks at the edge of the pines, thirty steps from her right shoulder. Horns. Low head. It had not made a sound. Silvain was forty steps the other way, past the hut corner, his back to her. "Silvain," Luna said. Not a shout. A flat, hard word. "Right side. Treeline." He turned at once. He did not ask. He started to run, but the beast was already moving, and it was closer to her than he was. Luna pushed the nearest unicorn behind her hip and lifted her camera. She hit the flash. The white burst punched across the field. The Shadow Hornbeast flinched mid-stride, head jerking sideways, hooves skidding in the wet grass. One heartbeat. Two. The small white wyrm poured off the ground and struck it across the chest. The silver wyrm came down behind it in the same breath and pinned the horns with a foreclaw. A bar of pale fire cut the grass between the beast and the unicorns, black and smoking. Silvain reached them a step later. He drove the light-blade down through the collar at the beast's neck. The mark broke. The body went slack. Silvain wiped the blade on the grass and looked at Luna. "You saw it first." "Flash bought us the second," she said. Her hands were shaking. She tucked them under her arms so the unicorns would not see. Silvain checked the sleeping man once, then the sky, then the gap in the trees. "Move," he said. "Before he sends the next one from where he sleeps." Luna guided the eight small unicorns into the pines. Behind her, the hut stood empty for the first time since the eggs had hatched. She did not look back.