Page 41 (1/2)
The Highest Justice
By Garth Nix
The girl did not ride the unicorn, because no one ever did She rode a nervous oatcolored palfrey that had no name, and led the second horse, a blind and alo had been called Rinaldo and was now simply Rin The unicorn sometimes paced next to the palfrey, and sometimes not
Rin bore the dead Queen on his back, barely noticing her twitches andflesh that seeped out through the honey- and spice-soaked bandages She was tied to the saddle, but could have snapped those bonds if she had thought to do so She had beco since her death three days before, and the intervention by her daughter that had returned her to a semblance of life
Not that Princess Jess was a witch or necro woin, and she believed the old tale of the kingdoendary Queen Jessibelle the First was still alive and would honor the codom’s need
The unicorn’s secret na ht fro ripple in answer across the surface of the earth’s companion in the sky
An hour later Elibet was in the tower She was somewhat like a horse with a horn, if you looked at her full on, albeit one made of white cloud and , of less familiar shape, made of storm clouds and darkness, the hornsun
Jess preferred to see a white horse with a silvery horn, and so that is what she saw
Jess had called the unicorn as her asped out her final breath The unicorn had come too late to save the Queen, but by then Jess had another plan
The unicorn listened and then by the power of her horn, brought back some part of the Queen to inhabit a body from which life had all too quickly sped
They had then set forth, to seek the Queen’s poisoner, and mete out justice
Jess halted her palfrey as they came to a choice of ways The royal forest was thick and dark in these parts, and the path was no more than a beaten track some dozen paces wide It forked ahead, into two lesser, narrower paths
“Which way?” asked Jess, speaking to the unicorn, who had once again mysteriously appeared at her side
The unicorn pointed her horn at the left-hand path
“Are you sure—,” Jess asked “No, it’s just that—”
“The other way looks more traveled—”
“No, I’ heart—”
“I know you know—”
“Talking to yourself?” interjected a rough male voice, the only other sound in the forest, for if the unicorn had spoken, no one but Jess had heard her
The palfrey shied as Jess swung around and reached for her sword But she was too late, as a dirty bearded ruffian held a rusty pike to her side He grinned, and raised his eyebrows
“Here’s a tasty htly, and no tricks”
“Elibet!” said Jess indignantly
The unicorn slid out of the forest behind the outlaw, and lightly pricked him in the back of his torn leather jerkin with her horn The man’s eyebroent up still farther and his eyes darted to the left and right
“Ground your pike,” said Jess “My friend can strike faster than any man”
The outlaw grunted, and lowered his pike, resting its butt in the leaf litter at his feet
“I give up,” he wheezed, leaning forward as if he ht escape the sharp horn
“Ease off on that spear, and take me to the sheriff I swear—”
“Hunger,” interrupted the Queen Her voice had changed with her death It had beconificantly less human
The bandit glanced at the veiled figure under the broad-bririm’s hat
“What?” he asked hesitantly
“Hunger,” groaned the Queen “Hunger”
She raised her right arh cantle snapped with a sharp crack A bandage caround in a series of spinning turns, revealing the mottled bluebruised skin beneath
“Shoot ’em!” shouted the bandit as he dove under Jess’s horse and scuttled across the path toward the safety of the trees As he ran, an arro over his head and struck the Queen in the shoulder Another, co behind it, went past Jess’s head as she jerked herself forward and down The third was struck out of the air by a blur of vaguely unicorn-shaped motion There were no more arrows, but a second later there was a scream from halfway up a broad oak that loomed over the path ahead, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the ground
Jess drew her sword and kicked her palfrey into a lurching charge She caught the surviving bandit just before he ed to slip between two thorny bushes, and landed a solid blow on his head with the back of the blade She hadn’t rasp He fell under the horse’s feet, and got traed to turn about
She glanced down to make sure he was at least dazed, but sure of this, spared him no more time Her mother had broken the bonds on her left ar off the veil that hid her face
“Hunger!” booh even for poor old deaf Rin to hear
He stopped eating the grass and lifted his head, ti he didn’t like
“Elibet! Please … ,” beseeched Jess “A little longer—we must be almost there”
The unicorn stepped out from behind a tree and looked at her It was the look of a stern teacher about to allow a pupil some small favor
“One more touch, please, Elibet”
The unicorn bent her head, paced over to the dead Queen, and touched the wo her with a subtle niht in the shadowed forest Propelled by that strange light, the arrow in the Queen’s shoulder popped out, the blue-black bruises on her arms faded, and her skin shone, pink and new She stopped fu with the veil, slumped down in her saddle, and let out a relatively delicate and hu snore
“Thank you,” said Jess
She dismounted and went to look at the bandit He had sat up and was trying to wipe away the blood that slowly dripped across his left eye
“So you give up, do you?” Jess asked, and snorted
The bandit didn’t answer
Jess pricked him with her sword, so he was forced to look at her
“I should finish you off here and now,” said Jess fiercely “Like your friend”
“My brother,” muttered the htful type, I can tell Take me to the sheriff Let him do what needs to be done”
“You’re probably in league with the sheriff,” said Jess
“Makes no odds to you, anyways Only the sheriff has the right to justice in this wood King’s wood, it is”
“I have the right to the Middle and the Low Justice, under the King,” said Jess, but even as she said it, she kneas the wrong thing to say Robbery and atteh Justice
“Slip of a girl like you? Don’t be daft,” the bandit said, laughing “Besides, it’s the High Justice forto the sheriff”
“I don’t have time to take you to the sheriff,” said Jess She could not help glancing back at her mother Already there were tiny spots of darkness visible on her arns of mold on bread
“Better leave me, then,” said the bandit He sinning to appear upon his weather-beaten face
“Leave you!” exploded Jess “I’ to—What?”
She tilted her head, to look at a patch of shadow in the nearer trees
“You have the High Justice? Really?”
“Who are you talking to?” asked the bandit nervously The cunning look re
“Very well I beseech you, in the King’s naht to rob me, and perhaps worse, and told his companion to shoot”
“Who are you talking to?” screaered to his feet as Jess backed off, keeping her sword out and steady, aiuts
“Your judge,” said Jess “Who I believe is about to announce—”
Jess stopped talking as the unicorn appeared behind the bandit, her horn already through the , then his mouth fell open and he looked down at the sharp whorled spike that had seerasp it, but halfway there nerves and muscles failed, and his life was ended
The unicorn tossed her head, and the bandit’s corpse slid off, into the forest mulch
Jess choked a little, and coughed She hadn’t realized she had stopped breathing She had seen men killed before, but not by a unicorn Elibet snorted, and wiped her horn against the trunk of a tree, like a bird sharpening its beak
“Yes Yes, you’re right,” said Jess “I knoe must hurry”
Jess quickly fastened her ed the veil beforeher palfrey It shivered under her as she took up the reins, and looked back with one wild eye
“Hup!” said Jess, and dug in her heels She took the left-hand path, ducking under a branch
They cahtfall It had been a si had built a large wooden hall at its center, colass s, the whole of it topped with a sharply sloped roof of dark red tiles
Lodge and fort lay in the , which was currently lit by several score of lanterns, hung froh it was e was, after all, her father’s favorite trysting place The lanterns would be a “ronificant mistress
The guards saw her conized the palfrey Two cae, swords drahile several others watched fro was not well-loved by his subjects, with good cause But his guards ell-paid and, so long as they had not spent their last pay, loyal
“Princess Jess?” asked the closer guard “What brings you here?”
He was a new guard, who had not yet experienced enough of the King’s court to be hardened by it, or so sickened that he sought leave to return to his family’s estate His name was Piers, and he was only a year or two older than Jess She knew hiht know a servant, for her o advised her to reuards, and make friends of them as soon as she could
“Oh, I’estured to the cloaked and veiled figure behind It was dark enough that the guards would not immediately see the Queen’s bonds “It is ”
“Your Highness!” exclaimed Piers, and he bent his head, as did his coh his name was Brian and he was not that old “But where are your attendants? Your guards?”
“They follow,” said Jess She let her horse aside “We ca ient matter She is not well”
“His Majesty the King ordered that he not be disturbed—,” rumbled Old Briars
“My mother must see His Majesty,” said Jess “Perhaps, Piers, you could run ahead and warn … let the King knoill soon be with him?”
“Better not, boy You knohat—,” Old Briars started to say He was interrupted by the Queen, who suddenly sat straighter and rasped out a single world
“Edmund …”
Either the King’s naely by the Queen, or the desperate look on Jess’s s and stand aside
“I’ll go at once,” said Piers, with sudden decision “Brian, show Their Highnesses into the hall”
He laid a particular stress on the last word, which Jess knew meant “Keep the had undoubtedly already retired to with his latest mistress, the Lady Lieka—who, unlike Jess, actually was a witch
They left the horses at the tu had not bothered to rebuild that As Jess untied the Queen and helped her down, she saw Brian working hard to keep his expression stolid, to uards what he was, the outer guards usually did not want to see anything If they did want to watch, or even participate, they joined his inner retinue
The Queen was h herspices and scent
“Ed-mund … ,” rasped the Queen as Jess led her to the hall “Ed-mund …”
“Yes, Mother,” soothed Jess “You will see him in a moment”
She caught a glih the great oaken door of the hall Piers aiting inside, and he bowed deeply as they went in He didn’t notice the unicorn strea as she passed