“Ian, assure the guard I will help them regain their energy in a short while. First I’ll search for our enemies. Do you think all of them are Jinn?” Gaelyn didn’t look at him for the answer. Instead she peered through the wavering purple air above the wall of Dr’gon Fire guarding the circle.

“I think they must all be Jinn,” Ian said, standing next to her, his eyes also searching for danger. “It was all chaos when the attacks began. We’d been trying to move the children out of harm’s way while some of the Guard fought. But why would an army of Jinn attack? They wouldn’t.”

Gaelyn ignored his question. It was the same one she had, and she had no energy to try to find the answer. “How many Elm are still alive?”

Ian shrugged. “We moved the fight from the Chambers to out here. I haven’t been back.”

Gaelyn sent out the Wave, a surge of psychic energy that should bring back echoes from living Elm Fae. The echoes were slow in returning; Gaelyn grew more anxious. The echoes were so weak, she couldn’t be sure she still detected survivors, even hidden ones, any longer.

Keeping her perceptions open as far as she could spare the energy, she examined the fighters here, male and female. She recognized many of them as among the warriors her uncle most valued. But there were so few, only the dozen. Gaelyn wanted to renew her psychic search, but her energy stores were fading. Because she had a difficult and complex spell ahead of her in order to give this tiny army the strength to stand up to the Jinn, she let the scan go.

Frustrated that she had used up energy to find Elm Fae that she hoped were hiding and safe instead of restoring energy to the Fae Guard who must still fight, she berated herself. “Wrong! I did it wrong!”

Ian turned to her, eyebrows lifted in question. The rest of the Elm kept their soldier stares focused outward from the circle. “I should have restored energy and then searched for the enemy instead of looking for Elm survivors. I can’t think. I’m too tired to do two more spells.” She slumped to her knees and dug her hands into the mossy dirt.

Around her, the guards turned. While showing much emotion was rare for most Fae, there was concern in most of their furrowed brows. Ian knelt and put his arm around her. “Don’t worry. You’re fine. We’re here. Take the time you need.”

Ian had always been this way. Faithful and true. It was why he stood firm, defending Elm Court. Ironically it was also part of why Winter Queen’s jealousy had been so extreme that she had forced her sister Summer to be rid of him or face an all-out attack. Not having a son and one day consort for a future Queen, Winter could not stand that her sister had this special advantage. Winter threatened a long and bloody war if Summer did not rid herself of her son. But in an unusually sentimental move, Summer had decided Queen’s Justice could be satisfied by handing him over to Elm rather than putting him to death as Winter had demanded.

All his days Ian had been Elm’s most stalwart defender. Why hadn’t he called her during the first attack, before Uncle Firth was slain? As the Elm, she should have been there.

The memories of her childhood with Ian were fresher at this moment than her memories of Wiz-Tech. She thought back to when she and Ian had been young. A sunny day, like most of them here in Elm Court.

She and Ian had ventured outside Elm territory. The sequoia wood that lay between Elm Court and Summer Court was an enchanting place filled with bird song and peaceful shadows. Ian, the Summer princeling, and Gaelyn, an orphaned princess whose parents had died in a battle against Winter, were more like siblings than distant cousins. They grew up under the sometimes forgetful eye of her Uncle Firth.

Her uncle was a busy ruler. So, it was easy enough for Ian and Gaelyn to slip away from their tutors for the adventures they craved. In the middle of a race between the two of them, Ian had tripped over a log covered in slippery wet moss. He was on his back silent with embarrassment. Mad at himself, Gaelyn knew.

She trotted carefully up to the log, stopping short so that he did not see her or she him. To save his dignity, she asked, “Ian, are you hiding in the shadows again?”

She heard his breath, as she always did, but then a heavier sound came from behind her. She whirled around. Never before had she seen anything but birds and small creatures in this forest.

“What?” was all Gaelyn managed when the pearly unicorn stepped from behind a tree. It was the most beautiful creature Gaelyn had ever seen.

She held out a hand to the turquoise-eyed unicorn. The unicorn stepped close, sniffing at her.

“Aren’t you a pretty! Do you want to come home with me?” Gaelyn dropped her left hand into a pocket in her tunic. She’d saved an apple from lunch. Pulling it out, she held it toward the unicorn. Stepping a pace closer, Gaelyn reached her other hand to touch the unicorn’s glowing white hide.

The beast was as smooth as the pearl she resembled. When Gaelyn touched the unicorn’s hide, her heart beat a little faster. She wanted nothing more than to get on the unicorn and ride. The unicorn had no wings, but she was sure the beast could run on the wind.

The unicorn munched on the apple as Gaelyn ran her hands over its back. Leaning close to the velvety muzzle, Gaelyn whispered, “Will you take me for a ride?”

The unicorn stopped chewing. Its eye rolled back to Gaelyn, and for a second there was a spark of red in the green and blue. “You want me to ride, don’t you?” She grabbed the unicorn’s mane and got ready to pull herself up. As she flexed her knees to jump up, she thought she heard a heartbeat—one that sounded familiar, but she couldn’t think why. She stopped, but all around her there was silence except for a low hum from the unicorn.

Springing onto the unicorn’s back, Gaelyn leaned down to tell the creature to run, but as she did, an arm grabbed hers and pulled her back off. She landed on her back, the breath knocked out of her.

Facing the unicorn, Ian stood between her and the creature. He shouted, “Get away. Get away from my cousin!” He waved the dagger Uncle Firth had given him for his last birthday. It seemed a small weapon in front of a creature who now looked much larger and fiercer than a moment before.

The unicorn reared back and tried to stomp Ian, but he dodged. The unicorn pivoted and aimed its hooves at Gaelyn. She was still too winded to move. Ian rushed over and again got between Gaelyn and the unicorn before the beast could land on Gaelyn. The unicorn knocked Ian down, but he scrambled to his feet. This time the unicorn backed up, lowered its horn and charged the pair.

Gaelyn finally stood and tried to think of a spell from her small store of Earth Magick. Anything to stop the unicorn, to save them both from being gored or stomped. Remembering how Ian had slipped on the moss, Gaelyn conjured up wet moss under the unicorn’s feet. It worked, and the creature struggled, its hooves slipping out until it fell to the ground.

Ian stood over the beast as its eyes rolled at him. “I’ll kill you!” he yelled.

“No!” Gaelyn shouted. “We trespassed. We’re the ones who shouldn’t be here. Let’s just go home.”

“The beast will chase us and get one or both of us,” Ian said, his knife held firmly over the unicorn’s chest.

Gaelyn thought of the tall trees and the creeping vines that made swings for the pair to play on. “No. I’ll bind its legs in vines. It’ll take a while to get free, but we’ll be gone, and ... no harm will be done.”

Ian agreed reluctantly, and Gaelyn cast the spell. The unicorn watched without moving. When the binding was enough, they ran toward home swearing to each other never to let anyone know what had happened. Especially her uncle.

But of course when they got home, Uncle Firth knew. He’d known all along about their excursions and had sent guards in secret to keep a watchful eye. This time the guards had gotten lost. Perhaps the thick redwood trees had confused them. Perhaps it was the doing of the unicorn. This time Uncle Firth decided to do something besides keep watch on them. This time he had to do something drastic to make sure Gaelyn was safe.

He declared Gaelyn needed Dr’gon Magick to enhance her Earth Magick. He refused to discuss why the unicorn had wanted Gaelyn, but she heard rumors that it was an old, old enemy of Elm Court. She wondered if what had killed her parents was not a battle with Winter Queen, as she had always assumed, but with this unicorn.

Uncle Firth’s final words before she left had been, “You must be where that unicorn will never find you.” That made Wiz-Tech on the Dr’gon plane the perfect place. No one, not the Summer or Winter Queens, not a unicorn, would guess she’d be someplace where Fae were banned. No one would know she was there learning to be a strong Queen complete with Dr’gon Magick to protect her Court.

It had been so long since Gaelyn had thought about any of that.

She looked around her at the small group of Elm warriors who had survived. They faced a different enemy than the ones Uncle Firth had expected.

She took a deep breath and smiled. “I know what to do.”