“The problem is,” he said to the mammoth, “that I always have to see things to believe in them. But, after all, I have seen unicorns, two of them. I have seen them, there-fore I can believe in them.”
The mammoth reached with its trunk to touch, softly, the boy’s cheek. In his mind’s ear Sandy seemed to hear, “Some things have to be believed to be seen.”
“Unicorn!” he whispered, and the mammoth slipped its trunk into the palm of his hand. “Unicorn, please tend to life. Please tend to be.”
Against the darkness of the tent came a starburst of light, and a unicorn stood, trembling, beside him.
“Oh, you are!” Sandy cried. “Oh, thank you!” He held out his hand. The unicorn came to him with silver steps, folded its delicate legs, and lay down, putting its head in Sandy’s lap, so that the light of the horn flowed over the scraggly little mammoth, who lifted its head gratefully. Sandy fondled the silvery mane, soft as moonbeams. “Now what?” he asked the two disparate creatures.
The light of the horn glittered, but neither unicorn nor mammoth answered him.
“If I could fall asleep,” Sandy mused, “or stop believing in unicorns, then you would lose your tendency to life and go out, and take me with you, the way you took Dennys. The problem is that now I believe in you. And as long as I believe in you, you’ll continue to be, won’t you?”
The unicorn nuzzled him, as affectionate as the mammoth.
“As long as I stay with you,” Sandy whispered, “I think I’m safe, because I’m absolutely certain that Tiglah couldn’t come near you, or her father or brother. But if they try to, and you go out of being, will you take the mammoth and me out of being with you? If we don’t take the mammoth, they’ll hurt him again. So will you take us?”
It was a rather intimidating thought. He had asked Dennys how it had felt the two times he had gone out with the unicorn, and Dennys had answered that it hadn’t felt at all. But perhaps, Sandy thought, that might have been because Dennys had sunstroke and a high fever. Then he remembered Grandfather Lamech—or was it Japheth?—telling him that unicorns never lost anybody.
He put one arm about the unicorn, the other about the mammoth, and waited. This was a far better plan than going with Tiglah, or trying to cross the desert alone.
“You see,” he said to the two creatures, who pressed confidingly against him. “When the time came for me to do something, I knew what to do, and I did it.”
He held unicorn and mammoth close.
The nephilim gathered. Proud. Arrogant. Flickering in and out of their hosts as they spoke.
Rofocale the mosquito said, “I have put an illusion around the tent. It is on the edge of the desert at the farthest end of the oasis, but the illusion makes it took as though it is surrounded by flocks and groves.”
Ehlis the dragon/lizard asked. “Are giant twins worth this much trouble?”
Rofocale answered, “I think they know something we do not know. When I questioned the one that Tiglah caught for me, he gave evasive answers.”
Ugiel the cobra said, “There is danger in the air. The stars are drawing back. I am concerned for my baby.”
Naamah the vulture went “Kkk. We chose to be silent with El. We chose never to hear the Voice again, never to speak with the Presence.”
Ertrael the rat said. “We could ask the seraphim.”
“Never,” said Estael the cockroach.
“But they still speak with El,” Ertrael said. “The stars still talk with them.”
“I do not care to listen to the stars,” Eisheth the crocodile pronounced.
“They might tell us,” said Rumjal the red ant, “whether or not we are in danger.”
“How can we be in danger?” Eblis asked. “We are immortal.”
“And the one we caught,” said Rofocale, “told me that he is mortal. If he is to be believed.”
Naamah the vulture clacked his beak. “I smell that there will soon be much for us to eat.”
“HowP” Rofocale demanded. “What is going to happen?”
Eblis the dragon/lizard asked, “Will someone tell me what Noah is building?”
“A good question,” said Rumael the slug.
Rofocale gave his screeching laugh. “A boat! That is what my Tiglah tells me. He is building a boat!”
“A boat?” Eisheth the crocodile demanded. “Why on earth would he build a boat?”
Rugziel the worm asked, “Could the twin giants have told him something that we do not know?”
Rofocale said, “We need to get rid of the twin giants. Everything has been different since they came.”
“Noah reconciled with his father. Kkk,” said Naamah the vulture.
“And Lamech has died,” Estael the cockroach agreed.
“My lovely Yalith prefers the young giants to me,” Eblis said “They must have some strange power, to make her turn from me to such soft-skinned, wingless creatures “
“And Noah is building a boat,” Rofocale added.
“And Matred weeps,” said Rumjal the red ant.
“We should find out,” Ugiel suggested, “whether or not they—the young giants—are truly mortal or not.”
Rofocale screeched again. “Tiglah’s father and brother will find that out for us.”
Higgaion finally found the tent where Sandy was imprisoned, because the unicorn was there. Rofocale’s power of illusion had indeed made the tent seem to be in the middle of the oasis, had indeed altered Sandy’s scent. But the unicorn had come to the tent after the illusion was set. Higgaion sniffed. He smelled silver, and he smelled light.
He nudged Japheth excitedly.
Tentatively, Japheth pushed open the tent flap. Enough of the late-afternoon light came through the tent hole so that he could see Sandy and the unicorn, their heads together in affection. The abused mammoth was only a dark shadow under Sandy’s arm.
“Sand!”
Sandy opened his eyes. “Jay!”
The young man started to rush forward to embrace him, then stopped short as though held by some invisible barrier. The unicorn’s light brightened.
Higgaion followed Japheth into the tent, sitting back on his haunches in surprise as he saw the mammoth who pressed closely against Sandy, blinking fearfully.
Sandy’s protective arm tightened. “It’s all right. Nobody’s going to hurt you.” Then: “Jay, how did you find me?”
“Are you all right?” Japheth asked anxiously.
“Oh, I’m fine, but Tiglah’s father and brother want to kill me …”
“No.” Japheth touched his fingers to his tiny bow. “No, Sand.”
“And look what they’ve done to their mammoth,” Sandy said indignantly. “They’ve nearly starved him, and they’ve broken his tusks.”
“All right,” Japheth said hurriedly. “We’ll take him with us. But we’d better get out of here before they come back.”
“I think I’m safe as long as I’m with the unicorn,” Sandy said, “because they won’t be able to come near.”
Japheth smiled. “I can’t, either.” He stared at boy and unicorn. “Sand. Do you remember when I first met you and the Den in the desert, and we called unicorns. and the Den went out?”
“Of course I remember.”
“Can’t you go out with the unicorn now?”
Sandy sighed. “The problem is, Jay, that I believe in the unicorn.”
The mangy mammoth suddenly pricked up its ears and started to whimper. Higgaion pushed himself up onto his feet, and Japheth swung around to see the tent flap open violently. Two small, chunky men came in, carrying spears. Tiglah’s father and brother.
“Auk! What have we here?” the older man demanded.
“A unicorn,” the younger man exclaimed. “And one of Noah’s sons. Well, well.” He moved toward Sandy and the unicorn, then drew back with a sharp intake of breath.“You, young giant!” he shouted. “Come along! We want you.”
“Sorry,” Sandy said. “You can’t have me.” He looked at Japheth and the two men from Tiglah’s tent and wondered anew at how small they were. Tiglah’s father was made even shorter by his bowed legs. No wonder they had used the poisoned dart on him. In a fair struggle, they would never have captured him.
Japheth’s pleasant features were distorted by anger.
“You’ve done enough harm. Get out of here.”
The tent was so small that the three little men were close together, with Sandy, his arms still about unicorn and mammoth, near enough to draw back at the odor of the men from Tiglah’s tent.
“Auk’s nuts to you,” Tiglah’s brother said.
Japheth glanced swiftly at Sandy, then in a reflex so swift it hardly seemed motion, he drew one of the darts from his quiver and jabbed it into Sandy’s arm.
The two men from Tiglah’s tent shouted in surprise and anger. Tiglah’s father roared, “What happened?”
Where Sandy and the unicorn and mammoth had been there was only a pile of filthy skins.
Japheth replied calmly, “They went out with the unicorn.”
Both men roared in frustration. “Call him back,” the bowlegged man said.