Ūnicornis Read online



  Ūnicornis

  By Skye Garcia

  Copyright © 2015 Skye Garcia

  Chapter 1

  Lucerna was dreaming. A small circle of dry land was all she had to stand on. The ocean of night sky swept in, and she was afraid it would wash her away. The waves lapped ever further towards her; she could see the stars chasing through the collapsing bubbles. Even the moon was out there, a silver glimmer tossed on the galactical tide. If I could only destroy the sky, she thought, then it couldn’t wash me away.

  “Nothing to fear… nothing to fear…” sighed the starry waves. Lucerna panicked. She couldn’t trust the sea, it was lying. Of course there was something to fear, she would drown! Then she looked up into the atmosphere, and noticed that the ground was a landscape of flame. I will drown, or I will burn, she thought desperately. And then she tripped over something. She crouched down to pick it up. A lamp. A glowing lamp, and written around the top were the words: so turn water to silver and fire to gold, lies to truth and new to old.

  Lucerna lifted the lamp. The beam shone out, a ray of darkness with a shadow of light. The sky-water smoked away, and plunged into the land above, quenching the fire. Left alone in a misty grey fog, Lucerna held the lamp ahead of her and walked across the desertion. The ground was metal, but at least she hadn’t been swept away. And now there was nothing to sweep her away…

  Lucerna woke abruptly, soft grey light reaching through the window to snare her out of sleep. The images were still replaying in her mind, and the misty early morning was eerily like the dreamscape she had just left.

  “Lilian!” she screamed to her serving girl. The timid, round-faced Lilian opened the door and asked tremulously if everything was all right.

  “Fetch me some breakfast, and send for my horse. I am going to the town at once.”

  Lilian decided that action spoke louder than words and saw to the request.

  When Lucerna arrived in the town of Stellaria, she had written out her dream on a roll of parchment and went to the stone hall of the dream counsel. They greeted her with enthusiasm, because most of their customers turned up with vague, doubtful recollections of their dreams and a moth-eaten dream catcher and expected it to be untangled for them.

  It was in the interest of the dream counsellors to give positive feedback, knowing that most people wanted to hear good news and would be more likely to return if they heard what they wanted to hear. And they wanted to hear that their dreams meant they would have health, wealth, and happiness in abundance forever. In truth, the dream counsel were also working on a narrow time frame, because to really analyze what any of the stuff meant would take a long while, longer than most customers’ patience. The result was a brief, incorrect, and censored analysis that sounded wise, professional, and full of incredible future prospects.

  As is human nature, people usually took this with a pinch of sugar rather than salt, and swore by it as the gospel truth. They would leave with their untangled dream catcher and the promise of success, fortune, adventure, and life long contentment. It was mostly a placebo effect, but sometimes they were right by accident.

  This time was no exception. Lucerna wanted to believe this dramatic dream she had had was an omen of extraordinary and wonderful things for her. So she was very pleased when the counsellors told her “It is a foretelling of great upheaval. You are likely to discover a misdeed or lie and be the first to tell the truth of it. You will have a chance to make great riches and have a good influence on people. You may become a leader and shine the truth like a lamp, guiding others where they are afraid to walk.”

  Lucerna trotted back on her lovely black horse with an air of self-importance. The morning had simply confirmed her innate sense of entitlement and she felt determined to make herself powerful. Of course, she thought. I’m not stupid, like Lilian. I was meant for better things than that.

  Her mother and father had been merchants who had left her the estate she now lived on, and she was very comfortable staying there. She did not, however, like the idea that if any trouble occurred there was a possibility she might have to downsize, and imagine living on twenty acres instead of sixty! If any trouble occurred, she might not even be able to afford a servant. Imagine having to wash clothes yourself! It couldn’t be countenanced.

  Whatever made her powerful would also have to make her rich, and vice versa, because it was more secure to have both. She thought and thought and then, in one swoop of utter brilliance, the idea fell into place.

  ***

  The book was published. It had taken her quite a long time to write it, and she was impatient to get it into the scope of general reading so that she could execute her plan. She pondered on how to begin the whole process, and decided that going back to the dream counsel and presenting the book to them was a good way of exposing it to customers and therefore potential candidates for her plan.

  She visited the stone hall again with the same air of smugness she had left with last time, and when she stated she had a business proposition rather than another stupid dream to interpret about the end of the world and stuff, they were all ears. Within reason. Dream interpretation did get boring after not very long.

  They went through the book and listened to Lucerna’s idea with glee, because they were business oriented themselves, after all, and they could see this might get them more money than ever before if they said the right things.

  They said as many of the right things as they could – would Lucerna like to use the dream counsel hall for these meetings she planned? Would she like to send them more books so they could sell them? Perhaps they could explain it all persuasively to their customers? And perhaps, given all this brilliant marketing they were going to do for her, they might get a small percentage of the profits?

  Lucerna agreed.

  The following week, Lucerna began the first meeting at the stone hall. Quite a lot of people turned up. Stellaria was a notoriously tedious place to live, due to the general attitude of those who lived there and a somewhat isolated landscape. So they tended to take any line that was thrown just to make things more interesting.

  Most of them had bought books, and were all rather impressed by Lucerna, dressed convincingly in a long cream coloured robe and reading chapters from the book with great authority. She was tall and imposing, and the audience happily donated their cash at the end under the impression that it was necessary to keep this Deity, the Deus Curo, happy too. They were told that the Deus would look after them and help them to achieve things, if they were dedicated and paid up, but that they might be left out or even punished slightly if they didn’t. They had to place their donations in front of a large eye painted on the wall of the hall; it had been there for ages anyway, but it was a great symbol to hijack. This eye, said Lucerna, would watch them all the time. It would be seen exactly who was dedicated or not.

  “And this is not new, friends,” Lucerna reminded. “This is an ancient truth that has been forgotten and denied for many years. If we are to save ourselves from the power of the Deus, we must give generously.”

  Lucerna privately laughed at how non-ancient six months was. But they didn’t need to know that.

  “The more a follower should give, the more they will receive. But if they should fail to give, and revolt against the true word of the Deus, they will experience the terror of the Deus.”

  This surprisingly successful first meeting was enough to inspire the dream counsellors to convert the hall to accommodate the dedicated followers of this highly profitable belief system. They embellished the painted eye with the words ‘Deus Curo’ and Lucerna hired the counsellors as marketers. She gave them half the payout, which seemed a lot to them, but Lucerna was happy – they had to share and she didn’t.

  The second meeting had m
arkedly more people than the last; it seemed families and the community at large were delighted to latch on to this scheme to give them something to define themselves by. They solemnly nodded in agreement of nearly everything Lucerna had to say. Because it was nice for them to believe in something, especially something that would purportedly reward them later.

  “For the word of the Deus Curo is the one way, the only way. It is the life, the death, the ascension. To achieve ascension you must put aside all other ideals and temptations and devote your belief purely to the Deus Curo.”

  The audience were only too willing, because they had nothing else they believed in anyway.

  Between the meetings, Lucerna would talk to the former dream counsellors about what they should do next to make this venture sustainable.

  “They will not believe blindly forever,” said one. “We must prove it to them.”

  Another said critically, “but we cannot really stage fantastical happenings. Whatever can we do to convince them?”

  Lucerna spoke up sharply. “You are both right. But I have a solution. We have ample opportunity for convincing – two words: punishment, and reward.”

  The rest of them were silent.

  Lucerna walked around the Hall.

  “Say,” she began thoughtfully, “say somebody might contribute something particularly valuable,” she paused to place five gold coins on the table, and separated four from one. “The usual suspects-“ she tapped the single coin, “will notice that the less guarded purses-“ she tapped the group of four coins “receive…benefits…blessings…rewards. And then, of course, somebody is bound to slip up. And then they will – pay – for it in kind. But it won’t look like anything to do with me.”

  She slipped the coins back into her pocket. “Reward,” she said, “and punishment. Proof.”

  The first counsellor blinked. “Incentive,” he stated, “reinforced by fear. I like it. I like it a lot.”

  “You wouldn’t, if it was you,” said Lucerna. “But you’d play along anyway, because you wouldn’t know any better.”

  The counsellor frowned. “But I do know better,” he claimed.

  The second counsellor tutted. “Yes, but they don’t. That’s the point.”

  Lucerna interrupted. “I will tell them that a message has been sent to me, after much divining, from the Deus Curo. A plea for a more generous gift, and whoever shall show the most devotion will be rewarded.”

  “And how shall we reward them?” enquired another counsellor.

  “With the junk I need to clear out my loft,” Lucerna supplied absently. “Lots of old bits of armour, shields, stupid things like that. Most commoners seem to like such garbage.”

  The first counsellor waved a hand and thumped it on the table. “Done,” he asserted. Then he added, “ouch.”

  ***

  “Miss Lucerna?” Lilian asked anxiously, standing in the doorway of Lucerna’s study, wringing her hands.

  Lucerna looked up from her writing, raising her eyebrows. “What?” she said distractedly. Lilian cringed with awkwardness. She was very shy.

  “Um,” Lilian began; Lucerna’s irritation was tangible, almost an object in it’s own right. Lilian found her words, apparently on her shoes. Addressing her left shoelace all the while, she said, “I have to – confess to – reading some of your most excellent book, and I would be honoured, Miss Lucerna, if I could attend your meetings too.”

  Lucerna gawped at Lilian. “You can read?” she said incredulously. She was exaggerating on purpose, to make Lilian feel even more uncomfortable.

  Lilian nodded. “Yes, Miss Lucerna,” she replied, wanting to say something subtly defensive and forcing herself to remember that it wasn’t an option.

  “Well, let me think,” Lucerna said, taking up her quill and waving it like a fan. It was quite warm, as it usually was in Stellaria. She considered. At last, when she’d had her full enjoyment out of Lilian’s embarrassment, she replied, “don’t see why not. Just don’t expect special treatment.”

  “No! Of course not, Miss Lucerna. I thank you extremely, I-“

  “It’s nothing. Keep the book. You’ll need it.”

  Lucerna knew the importance of keeping people in debt to you when you needed them to do what you wanted.

  ***

  Lilian sat in her room in Lucerna’s house, where she lived as part of her job description, and read through some more of the book again. She had been right the first time. This was not real or ancient; it was some rubbishy scheme Lucerna had dreamed up to make herself lots of money. And if Lilian knew anything about Lucerna, to make herself something of a celebrity as well.

  Worse, though, was that people obviously believed this stuff, or Lucerna wouldn’t have written the names of about a hundred of them that had turned up to this meeting she had held. Lilian was informed of Lucerna’s movements only by her absences and all the stuff she wrote down. It was lucky that Lucerna seemed to obsessively write down everything about anything that had the slightest thing to do with her. Even things that didn’t have anything to do with her. And lucky that she left everything on the desk in her study without a thought. And lucky that she was too lazy to clear up anything whatsoever, so Lilian was called upon to clear up Lucerna’s desk as well.

  Maybe all that would change now Lucerna knew that Lilian could read.

  Of course, it was possible that once she’d made enough money out of this, Lucerna would give up and everyone would be left in peace again. But Lilian had a feeling it wasn’t going to be quite like that; some of the things written in this book were deeply sinister and manipulative. She knew she would be able to tell if she went along to the meetings for a bit. Then she would be able to see how far Lucerna was really taking this…

  The first meeting she went to, Lilian arrived after Lucerna, so nobody would think they were connected in any way. Lilian was terrified of embarrassing Lucerna. So much so that she left it almost too late, hurrying into the Hall at the last moment with silent apologies. She sat and obediently followed everything, glancing around to see what everyone else was doing, and copying them.

  Just before the end, Lucerna made her announcement.

  “Now that it is time to pay our debt to the Deus, who brought us all we have, built our world and wealth and health, I must share the vision I was just last night given. Our Deus demands a token of dedication, from one here tonight. The Deus expects the usual donation of devotion from all of us; however, one of you will have the privilege of being rewarded for a more generous gift. Who shall it be?”

  Nobody moved. Then a man called Crowther, another merchant – Lucerna thought she might remember him having made a deal with her father – boldly walked to the painted eye and placed a great sack of coins in front of it. Lucerna spoke, as he did so, “this believer will surely be rewarded by the Deus for his faith. Take this as an example of a true believer.”

  The rest of the congregation paid up, Lilian having to frantically ask anyone if they had some spare change.

  “Once again, we shall meet here in seven days time,” announced Lucerna. Then they were filing out; the believers, the debtors, the faithful.

  And Lilian, who belonged in none of those categories.

  Chapter 2

  Names. Numbers. Notes.

  Lucerna had cleverly made it mandatory to write about yourself in the visitors’ book if you attended a meeting at the Hall. Thus she knew quite a lot about them all now. Their relatives. Their addresses. Their birthdays. Their careers.

  Which meant she could say the right things to the right people at the right time to ensure she could upkeep the appearance of being all-knowing. She liked to write everything down, she was enjoying profiling all these people.

  Still, she asked herself, it might get stale for them, mightn’t it? She would have to think of some new captivating plan to keep them interested. They would all be pleased when they saw the bronze shield Crowther had been sent. She’d had the dusty old thing brought out of t
he loft and sent to be propped against Crowther’s house wall. That would convince them all…

  Then she remembered that she’d seen one or two younger people at the last meeting. Perhaps she could… send them on a field trip. No, one of them. One, because isolation made someone more likely to comply. If there were more than one, they might see sense and not do what they were told.

  She turned over a fresh sheet of paper and began scribbling some more plans.

  ***

  Lilian didn’t know where Lucerna kept her money. Lilian didn’t really mind, either, because stealing it was out of the question. She had no doubt Lucerna knew precisely how much she had at any one time – it was probably all written down somewhere.

  Lucerna might think Lilian was stupid, but Lilian would have to be very stupid indeed not to realize what the ‘Priestess’ was up to. Lilian had served Lucerna for several years now and knew more about her than Lucerna would probably have liked. She knew about the best friend, Tessinika, that Lucerna had fallen out with. She knew about the tortoiseshell cat that had vanished into the forest after Lucerna tried to put a collar on it. She knew about the ‘junk’ in the loft and the swords in the cellar. She knew about the lists and plans and charts and documents. She knew and observed and considered and watched and waited and acted as though she was an idiot.

  In short, Lilian was not stupid.

  Which was the reason she had decided to take part in the visits to the Hall, because she didn’t like the way this was going at all. Whatever Lucerna’s motives, it was a thoroughly twisted thing she was doing, and Lilian rated this venture as the most twisted thing she’d seen Lucerna do yet.

  All the same, she was struggling to comprehend why nobody else had seen through the whole thing. But then they were all the same around here – uptight, moralistic, well-to-do and precious with their reputation. They were not like the people in Lilian’s home country at all. She originally came from Felixia, a big beautiful island on the edge of the Calidus Ocean. It had the most wonderful landscape: warm sea, mountains, emerald green forests and rivers with water so clean you could see every pebble. There wasn’t loads of people on it, but all of them that Lilian had ever known had been friendly, welcoming, respectful of the land and each other too, not nosy and competitive. And she was fairly sure none of them would have fallen for Lucerna’s stupid scheme in a million years.