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    Unicorn Seasons
    Unicorn Seasons
    Unicorn Seasons
    Ebook62 pages1 hour

    Unicorn Seasons

    By Janni Lee Simner

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    About this ebook

    A unicorn for every season.

    From a mythical time before the winds were fixed to the corners of the earth to a present-day forest where unicorns are not—quite—extinct, this collection by acclaimed fantasy writer Janni Lee Simner brings together four magical tales about unicorns and the humans who are forever changed by them.

    In Lost or Forgotten, a unicorn sacrifices his mortality for the woman he loves, leaving their descendants to mourn the loss. When sisters Sara and Amelia hear the trees calling to them one spring night, they have to decide whether to take on an ancient sorrow—or accept an ancient magic.

    In Unicorn Season, Megan’s small-town summer turns more interesting when a local boy offers to help her find unicorns in the nearby mountains. But why is Josh so interested in the elusive creatures? Megan may not know as much about unicorns—or Josh’s motives—as she thinks.

    In Tearing Down the Unicorns, Stacey is furious when her older sister tears the unicorn posters from their walls. Then she sees a real unicorn dancing in the autumn night, and she discovers there’s more to the mythical creatures than those rainbow-and-butterfly bedecked pictures show—and more to herself, as well.

    In Windwood Rose, Miranda has been haunted all her life by strange music and uneasy dreams. When a unicorn appears in the snow one winter afternoon, it may have the answers she longs for. But will it be willing to give her all that she seeks?

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Excerpts

    From Lost or Forgotten:

    The year she turned sixteen, Amelia stole out into the night. She waited shivering beneath the trees, at the edge between forest and town, for a boy who didn’t show.
    As she waited the trees whispered, “Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is truly lost.” For the first time, Amelia understood their words. She laughed with joy, all thoughts of the boy gone. From the corners of the earth the winds reached out, tugging at her ankles, urging her to run. Amelia lifted a foot, feeling as if she were balanced between earth and air, light enough to fly away.

    A hand gripped her shoulder, pushing her down.

    “What are you doing?” Sara demanded.

    “Nothing,” Amelia lied, as the wind died and the trees fell silent.

    “Good. Let’s go home.”

    Amelia heard the fear in her sister’s words, and because she loved her sister—because she didn’t want to frighten her sister—she followed Sara away.

    Back in their room Sara shut all the windows, drew all the shades, turned her music so loud Amelia couldn’t hear the trees.

    Sara relaxed a little then, for with the windows closed and the music on, she couldn’t hear them, either.

    From Tearing Down the Unicorns:

    Flickers of flame trailed behind it, leaving gold sparks in the air where it passed. Dry leaves crackled beneath its feet. My palm still burned. Any moment I expected the leaves to catch fire and burn, too. My heart pounded hard in my chest.

    Yet I kept watching. The unicorn was the wildest, most frightening thing I’d ever seen—but also the most beautiful. Soon I realized there was a pattern to its running, one that kept it from ever taking the same path twice. It wasn’t just running. It was dancing, a fiery dance like nothing I’d ever seen before.

    The burning in my hand spread through the rest of my body, dulling to a smoldering ache as it did. Something about that ache urged me forward. I wanted, more than anything, to follow, to dance with the unicorn.

    I watched it for a few seconds more, memorizing its pattern, learning the steps of its dance.

    Then I took a deep breath and ran after it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJanni Lee Simner
    Release dateFeb 23, 2015
    ISBN9781311589804
    Unicorn Seasons
    Author

    Janni Lee Simner

    Janni Lee Simner lives in the Arizona desert, where the plants know how to bite and the dandelions have thorns. In spite of these things—or maybe because of them—she believes she lives in one of the most stunning places on earth.Her post-apocalyptic Bones of Faerie trilogy is set after the war between the human and faerie realms has destroyed the world, leaving behind a land filled with deadly magic. The first book, Bones of Faerie, was dubbed, “Pure, stunning, impossible to put down or forget,” by World Fantasy Award winner Jane Yolen. School Library Journal describes the second book, Faerie Winter, as, “A hauntingly exquisite portrait of a postapocalyptic world.”She’s also the author of Thief Eyes, a contemporary young adult fantasy based on the Icelandic sagas; of the kids’ adventure story Tiernay West, Professional Adventurer; of the short-story collection Unicorn Seasons; and of three more novels and more than 30 more short stories, including appearances in Welcome to Bordertown and Cricket magazine.To learn more about visit her online at www.simner.com.

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      Book preview

      Unicorn Seasons - Janni Lee Simner

      Dedication

      For all those who never stopped looking for unicorns, not really, not for good.

      Contents

      Spring: Lost or Forgotten

      Summer: Unicorn Season

      Fall: Tearing Down the Unicorns

      Winter: Windwood Rose

      About the Author

      Also by Janni Lee Simner

      Copyright

      Spring

      Lost or Forgotten

      Long ago, before the trees could speak, before the winds were fixed to the corners of the earth, a unicorn loved a maiden.

      He came to her, as she sat by his pool in the forest, and he laid his head in her lap. She stroked his silver mane, looked into his silver eyes, and knew that she loved him as well.

      Yet he was an immortal unicorn, and she a mortal child.

      * * *

      Not so long ago, a young man loved a young woman.

      He came to her, at the university they attended, beside the lake where she studied, and he rested his head in her lap. She ran her fingers through his unruly hair, looked down into his brown eyes, and she, too, fell in love.

      Because they were both mortal children, they lay together that very night, and many nights after. When she conceived, halfway through their final semester, they decided to marry. The day after graduation they spoke their vows with joy beside the lake, while the winds blew warm from their fixed places and the trees whispered their names, in voices no mortal could hear.

      * * *

      The unicorn left the maiden and ran through the forest, chasing the winds. Each breeze he caught said the same thing: You must run farther still. Another has the answer you seek. At last he stood at the very edge of the world, where the furthermost wind told him, There is a way. Do you truly wish to take it?

      With a single nod of his head, a single glint of sunlight reflecting off his horn, the unicorn said, I truly do.

      * * *

      The young woman bore twin girls, with silver hair that shimmered beneath the hospital lights and silver eyes that stared wide at the world. As the young man held them, he felt a shiver of fear beneath his joy. Yet still he named them, as he and his wife had decided: the older Sara for her recently buried grandmother; the younger Amelia for the sister he'd lost long ago.

      * * *

      The unicorn returned to the maiden, wearing a young man’s form. Yet still the maiden knew him. I would always know you, she said, for in those days knowing was not yet bound to any one name, any one shape. She drew the unicorn close and they lay together, amid the silent trees. When the dawn broke, she was no longer a maiden.

      When the dawn broke, he was no longer an immortal beast.

      * * *

      The young man’s daughters grew swiftly. Amelia turned into a smiling, dreaming girl, forever gazing out windows. She heard the trees whispering to one another, and while she didn’t understand their words, the joy behind them was clear. She told her mother, and her mother nodded, encouraging without understanding.

      Sara turned into a scowling, angry girl, forever slamming windows shut. She too heard the trees, but when she told her father, fear flashed across his features, and Sara grew frightened as well.

      As the girls moved through the years, the young man’s fear only deepened.

      * * *

      The unicorn had known the price he would pay and accepted it.

      But the woman had not known and did not accept. She loved the unicorn still, but now her love was darkened by grief. That grief never left her, not even when she bore first a son, then a daughter. As the years passed she watched lines deepen the unicorn’s face, watched his silver hair fade to gray, and she knew all those years were nothing, beside what the unicorn had lost.

      Do not grieve, the unicorn said. He only found his wife more beautiful with the changes of each year. Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is truly lost.

      That may be comfort to a unicorn,

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