Question Quest by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

can't tell us, of course, but maybe Uland would take you there.”
    “But—” I said, and at the same time the unicorn stallion snorted.
    “Now stop that, both of you!” MareAnn said severely. She had the typically femalish talent for spot severity. "You don't want to ride, Humfrey, and Uland doesn't want to show you where the spring is. But we can work this out.”
    “He knows where it is?”
    “Yes. Didn't you see Uland twitch his ear yes when I mentioned it? But unicorns don't share secrets with our kind, for which I can't blame them.”
    I hadn't seen. I would have to learn the equine signals! “Maybe we could give Uland a bottle, and—” But I saw that it wouldn't work. The unicorn had no way to hold the bottle.
    “Look, Uland,” MareAnn said. "It would really be a big help to Horntense and me if we could get some of that healing elixir. We're both in pain, even if we don't make a big thing of it. Suppose Humfrey swears never to reveal to anyone else where the spring is; would you take him then?”
    Uland flicked his tail.
    “He wants to know whether you are to be trusted,” she translated.
    “Well, I don't know,” I said. “I mean, yes, I keep my word, but I don't know how he would know that.”
    “He can tell. But it's dangerous.”
    “Dangerous?”
    “When a unicorn tests someone, it's pass or fail. You either pass, or you're dead.”
    I was dismayed. “I don't want to die! Suppose he makes a mistake?”
    “Unicorns don't make that kind of mistake. So if you agree to be tested—”
    I gulped. “Well, all right. But I hope he knows what he's doing!”
    MareAnn slid down off the unicorn's back. She hopped to Horntense and braced against her. “Okay, Uland.”
    The stallion advanced on me. I stood my ground, not at all bravely. He lowered his horn so that it bore directly on my chest. With one shake of his head he could stab me through the heart!
    “Now make your statement,” MareAnn said.
    “My what?”
    “Your agreement not to reveal the location of the spring to any other person.”
    Oh. “I will not tell or show any other person where the healing spring you take me to is,” I said, somewhat awkwardly.
    Uland thrust his head forward. The horn plunged through my heart.
    Then it was out—and I stood there, feeling nothing. Except a burgeoning dose of panic. But it was too late for that. I was done for so fast I had never felt it.
    “Uh—” I said, even more awkwardly than before. I made ready to collapse with whatever dignity I could muster.
    “You're not hurt,” MareAnn said.
    I stared down at myself. There was no wound, no blood. “But-”
    “You spoke the truth,” MareAnn said. “If you had lied, that horn would have felt solid to you. Only truth blunts it.”
    Now I understood. Weak-kneed, I resolved never to depart from the truth in anything.
    “Get on Uland,” MareAnn said. “He says it isn't far. We'll wait here.”
    “But I don't know how!” There was another truth.
    She hobbled over. “Bend your leg at the knee.”
    I stood beside the unicorn and bent my left leg, as she had. She took hold of it. “Now throw your right leg over as I heave.”
    She heaved, and I lifted my right leg up and over the back of the unicorn. Suddenly I was up there, precariously perched. Her hold had been like a ladder, lifting me up. Now I understood how she had mounted with my help. It wasn't magic, but it was so neat a trick that it might as well have been. “Uh, thanks,” I said.
    “You're welcome,” she said, and smiled up at me.
    I felt dizzy. She was so lovely when she did that!
    Then Uland was moving. Hastily I grabbed a handful of his mane and hung on. That seemed to be what was required.
    I was riding, to my amazement. The unicorn was running like the wind, and this was no cliché; his feet seemed to be striking on air, and he was going right through the forest as the wind does; I saw leaves flutter with our passage. Yet it was perfectly smooth on his back; I might as well