Chapter 25

Naomi’s tumble from the saddle startled Stomper and Geoff. The stable master quickly handed the horse off to a stable boy and went to Naomi’s side. “Are you all right?”

Naomi winced and took his offered hand to pull herself up. “I think so. A spider startled me. Sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize for, milady. How about we call it a day?.”

Naomi nodded and hobbled back to her rooms without Yula, having dispatched the woman to get her some wine and cheese.

“Mr. Squibbles, are you still somewhere on my person?”

“Right here,” the mouse said climbing out from under her hair. Naomi picked him up off her shoulder and set him down on the table.

“You better not have left me any presents up here,” Naomi warned, combing her fingers through her hair.

The mouse snorted and began to clean his whiskers.

“I’m not learning how to ride so I can ride a unicorn. I’m learning to just know. Tell me more about unicorns.”

“Not till the servant gets back.”

Naomi sighed and puttered around the room. She found a thimble and held onto it to use with the mouse. She hoped Tavik didn’t stop by again for lunch. She wanted to get the mouse stuffed and drunk and learn everything she could about unicorns.

Soon Yula returned with wine and cheese. Naomi thanked her and said she would be fine on her own for the rest of the morning. Naomi set the cheese and wine on the table. Mr. Squibbles scampered forward to begin his feast, but Naomi smacked her hand down on the table between him and his goal.

“I ask the questions, you answer them, and then you get a piece of cheese and a little wine.”

Mr. Squibbles’ whiskers twitched at Naomi’s demands, but the little mouse nodded in agreement.

“Where can I find unicorns?”

“The best place to look is in the northern plateaus. A small herd is supposed to still run in those parts.” Naomi set a piece of cheese and a thimble of wine down before the mouse.

“How can I catch one?”

“You can go the regular route of hounds and horses, or you can use the traditional method of baiting a trap with a virgin.” Naomi decided to be as equally generous and set two pieces of cheese before Mr. Squibbles for his two pieces of information.

“How does the transportation magic work with the horns?”

“Unicorns can go wherever they want. They simply think it, and they are there.” He gobbled down his new piece of cheese and drank his wine.

“Can a unicorn be told where someone wants to go and take them there?”

Mr. Squibbles sipped from his thimble. “A unicorn can understand the words of the virgin but no one else.”

Naomi dwelled on the fact that all this unicorn lore required a virgin. Naomi hadn’t been one since her high school prom.

“May I ask your interest in unicorns?”

“I accidentally got brought here by a unicorn horn and now I’m stuck. I want to go home and the only way to do that is with another unicorn horn. I don’t want to kill a unicorn or anything. I just want to get home.”

“Maybe I can take you to someone who can help,” Mr. Squibbles hiccupped. He’d drunk five thimbles of wine. “There is a witch in the woods, mad as a hatter but capable of working strong magic. She might be able to help you.”

The mad as a hatter comment rang a bell in Naomi’s head. It was a warning bell. “Do you mean Agatha?”

“So you’ve met?”

Naomi wasn’t buying it. A talking mouse just happened to scamper into her room, knew about unicorns, and Agatha? “She sent you, didn’t she?”

“She’s not the boss of me! So I made one mistake. It was an accident! Treats me like an apprentice. Fetch this, Squibbles. Don’t touch that, Squibbles. So I turned myself into a mouse! Big deal! I’m still an educated wizard. I know the difference between mudwort and bloodroot.”

“If you’re supposed to help me, what was all that about with the wine and cheese for information?”

“Because I wanted wine and cheese! Were you going to offer me any otherwise! No, because nobody ever offers proper refreshment to mice. Assume we’ll find it for ourselves. You’d have given a laconic cat a saucer of milk or a chatty dog a ham bone, but mice always have to forage for ourselves.”

“You have issues. Oh God, I have issues. If Tavik finds out he’s going to kill me. He does NOT like her.”

“The feeling’s mutual. Now are you going to make me EARN the rest of my refreshments or not?” Naomi pushed the rest of the cheese and poured more wine as she wondered how she was going to sneak away from the castle and see Agatha. The old woman had kept her promise. Things were looking up, sort of. She turned to ask Mr. Squibbles how they were going to get away from the castle but found him passed out in what was left of the wine. She tucked him into her pocket for safe-keeping. Naomi sat in her room and thought about possibilities.

Yula came back to Naomi’s room with lunch and suggested they spend the afternoon in the gardens. Naomi nodded her head as she surreptitiously fed a piece of apple to Mr. Squibbles who had finally roused and sat hidden in her lap.

They took a basket with them to pick flowers and put on straw hats to protect them from the afternoon sun. Naomi felt like a girl from some old Flemish painting. As they cut flowers, Yula told Naomi their names and if they had any special uses other than being pretty.

As Yula sat down and enjoyed the sun, Naomi wandered off for a private convo with Mr. Squibbles. She opened her pocket and peered into it. “Mr. Squibbles, are you awake?”

“Oh, my head. Why is the world swaying?”

“You’re in my pocket. Don’t you dare get sick.”

The mouse rolled into a sitting position. He appeared to still be drunk. “You have an unhealthy concern with my bodily functions. You know that?”

“It’s because you’re bodily functions could end up on me. How are we going to leave the castle without anyone noticing?”

“Leaving at night will probably work best. No one will notice you’re gone till sunrise, unless Lord Tavik visits you regularly at night?” Mr. Squibbles asked, and Naomi wasn’t sure, but she thought the little mouse was leering at her.

“No, he’s not supposed to visit me at night.”

“Guards?”

“I haven’t noticed. I don’t think he has posted any at my door.”

“What about the old woman?”

“She sleeps in her own room.”

“A nighttime escape it is then. I know a secret way to get out.”

“A secret way?”

“A secret passage between walls. I don’t think anyone living knows about it, except mice.”

“How do we get to it?”

“Well, you see that is going to be the fun part. The entrance is in Tavik’s room.”

“What!”

Continue to Chapter 26.