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Description

The King knew unicorns existed. He saw one while he waited to meet his arranged soon-to-be Queen. The creature was of unparalleled beauty with a vibrant color-changing coat and a horn spiraling from its forehead. From the parlor window, he could only marvel at this proud and glittering being that barely acknowledged him.
Rare and unique, the horn was said to cleanse impurities and poisons from one's food. With it, he would never again need to hire a servant to taste his food for him. He would have this rare animal one way or another.
To commemorate their betrothal and wedding, the Queen had coincidentally commissioned tapestries with a unicorn’s likeness. When asked the reasoning behind it, she smiled coyly, said something about the myths being close to her land, and then diverted the topic by saying the package was to arrive within a month. On impulse, the King began to order things that resembled the magnificent creature as well. Sending a small group of scouts out to hunt one down was not the only secret he had purposely kept from her.
To keep her off the scent, he disguised these items as gifts and gave them to the Queen. She knew how to show them off to the public, having been raised a minor noble. While this briefly raised the people’s opinion of him, it didn't last very long. His subjects didn’t like that he bought things from other lands and taxed his own people into poverty, but they were much too afraid of his unpredictable wrath to say anything.
It wasn't long after he had taken the throne that his people learned of his love for the gallows. He thought it a kindness and the most practical way to solve just about any problem. Not that the Queen had any say at all. She tried to urge him to be more lenient and generous, but the King would simply roll his eyes, wave whoever was asking for something off to their death, and tell his wife she didn’t understand his people the way he did. She would either learn soon or face death herself. Finding a new wife wouldn’t be hard.
The duchess turned Queen was the nicest to look at out of those to choose from nearby lands. Her family also owned the only selenite mines in the country, which was a nice addition that he didn’t care to really get involved in. Just one more thing to profit from while she delegated their tasks. Let her think she had more to do than she really did.
The Queen had taken to decorating her ears with the smaller items she'd had fashioned into earrings. They were the most obvious of his “gifts” as the long pieces dangled into spikes; all too reminiscent of a unicorn horn. Now and then, he would catch her wearing the necklace. A flat crown was the centerpiece and the chain was lined with beads almost the exact color as the horn from his sighting. Only the tiny portable looking glass she appeared to adore was anywhere near as obvious.
They were all better suited to a shrine, to him.
Unlike his commissions, hers were things she had intentionally ordered to celebrate their marriage. All in all there turned out to be ten tapestries and each one was lovely but none truly captured what he had observed that day. He just stared as, one by one, they were revealed. The King absently stirred another sugar cube into his tea and wondered when his scouts would be back with his unicorn.
It turned out to not be long at all. The King had been expecting to see a horned steed stationed next to the man, but there was none.
What one had found, though, was sufficient.
As the King gazed upon the moon-like spiraled spike, he knew he no longer needed to call for the creation of glittering wallets or jewelry. It was the only thing a king who had everything could possibly need.
He then accused this scout of murdering the unicorn against the King’s wishes and condemned him to be hanged with those who had returned with nothing in order to get out of paying him for his services.
Anyone who said drinking something potentially poisoned from the horn was the only way to remove any potent additives, had never actually seen a unicorn horn before. True unicorn horns were not hollow and the real way was to stir suspicious drinks with the mystical object prior to ingestion.
The King and Queen were only close to the public eye when, in reality, they didn’t even dine together. This allowed him to hide the horn from her. He was sure she would just try to steal it from him. Using the horn became such an obsession to him, it rivaled his religious practices after a single month. The issue was that he refused to let anyone else handle it. Not even a servant was allowed to test his food before or after the King purified it. His attachment and faith in it was unhealthy for his position, but he was far too mad and greedy to accept that. He was the King which meant he could do anything he wanted.
Several weeks passed before he saw the unicorn again. This time it was from the window of his dining room as he sipped his morning tea. But this instance was much different from the first.
There was a malevolence that seeped in and settled in his stomach. This was the only unicorn he had ever seen, so he was sure it had to be the only one around. He stared at the horn sitting next to his plate and slowly lowered his teacup. If there was only one unicorn in the world, then how was this one alive while he possessed the horn? How had the scout been able to trick him so?
Sharp footsteps echoed down the hall, slow and deliberate. They could only belong to one person: The Queen. She came to a halt in the doorway and smiled, unsurprised by the sight of the creature’s presence or her King’s agony.
Of course, the horn was not magic. It was a fake made from the stone from her family’s mines. She had allowed him to get comfortable with himself. The only part he couldn’t figure out now was how she had managed to poison him without ever being in the room or handling his tea.
The uneasiness became a burning and he grasped his middle, now eye level with his cup. His mouth was as dry as cotton when he staggered to the marble floor. When had it begun to move? Why didn’t he have the strength to stand?
Through blurred vision, he was just barely able to make out the Queen offering something small, cube-shaped, and white to the unicorn; sugar cubes. She had laced the sugar cubes in his bowl with arsenic. By then he couldn’t see but he could hear her say the last words that would ever reach his ears.
Long live the Queen.

Copyright © 2018 JM Steele. All Rights Reserved.

Description

The King knew unicorns existed. He saw one while he waited to meet his arranged soon-to-be Queen. The creature was of unparalleled beauty with a vibrant color-changing coat and a horn spiraling from its forehead. From the parlor window, he could only marvel at this proud and glittering being that barely acknowledged him.
Rare and unique, the horn was said to cleanse impurities and poisons from one's food. With it, he would never again need to hire a servant to taste his food for him. He would have this rare animal one way or another.
To commemorate their betrothal and wedding, the Queen had coincidentally commissioned tapestries with a unicorn’s likeness. When asked the reasoning behind it, she smiled coyly, said something about the myths being close to her land, and then diverted the topic by saying the package was to arrive within a month. On impulse, the King began to order things that resembled the magnificent creature as well. Sending a small group of scouts out to hunt one down was not the only secret he had purposely kept from her.
To keep her off the scent, he disguised these items as gifts and gave them to the Queen. She knew how to show them off to the public, having been raised a minor noble. While this briefly raised the people’s opinion of him, it didn't last very long. His subjects didn’t like that he bought things from other lands and taxed his own people into poverty, but they were much too afraid of his unpredictable wrath to say anything.
It wasn't long after he had taken the throne that his people learned of his love for the gallows. He thought it a kindness and the most practical way to solve just about any problem. Not that the Queen had any say at all. She tried to urge him to be more lenient and generous, but the King would simply roll his eyes, wave whoever was asking for something off to their death, and tell his wife she didn’t understand his people the way he did. She would either learn soon or face death herself. Finding a new wife wouldn’t be hard.
The duchess turned Queen was the nicest to look at out of those to choose from nearby lands. Her family also owned the only selenite mines in the country, which was a nice addition that he didn’t care to really get involved in. Just one more thing to profit from while she delegated their tasks. Let her think she had more to do than she really did.
The Queen had taken to decorating her ears with the smaller items she'd had fashioned into earrings. They were the most obvious of his “gifts” as the long pieces dangled into spikes; all too reminiscent of a unicorn horn. Now and then, he would catch her wearing the necklace. A flat crown was the centerpiece and the chain was lined with beads almost the exact color as the horn from his sighting. Only the tiny portable looking glass she appeared to adore was anywhere near as obvious.
They were all better suited to a shrine, to him.
Unlike his commissions, hers were things she had intentionally ordered to celebrate their marriage. All in all there turned out to be ten tapestries and each one was lovely but none truly captured what he had observed that day. He just stared as, one by one, they were revealed. The King absently stirred another sugar cube into his tea and wondered when his scouts would be back with his unicorn.
It turned out to not be long at all. The King had been expecting to see a horned steed stationed next to the man, but there was none.
What one had found, though, was sufficient.
As the King gazed upon the moon-like spiraled spike, he knew he no longer needed to call for the creation of glittering wallets or jewelry. It was the only thing a king who had everything could possibly need.
He then accused this scout of murdering the unicorn against the King’s wishes and condemned him to be hanged with those who had returned with nothing in order to get out of paying him for his services.
Anyone who said drinking something potentially poisoned from the horn was the only way to remove any potent additives, had never actually seen a unicorn horn before. True unicorn horns were not hollow and the real way was to stir suspicious drinks with the mystical object prior to ingestion.
The King and Queen were only close to the public eye when, in reality, they didn’t even dine together. This allowed him to hide the horn from her. He was sure she would just try to steal it from him. Using the horn became such an obsession to him, it rivaled his religious practices after a single month. The issue was that he refused to let anyone else handle it. Not even a servant was allowed to test his food before or after the King purified it. His attachment and faith in it was unhealthy for his position, but he was far too mad and greedy to accept that. He was the King which meant he could do anything he wanted.
Several weeks passed before he saw the unicorn again. This time it was from the window of his dining room as he sipped his morning tea. But this instance was much different from the first.
There was a malevolence that seeped in and settled in his stomach. This was the only unicorn he had ever seen, so he was sure it had to be the only one around. He stared at the horn sitting next to his plate and slowly lowered his teacup. If there was only one unicorn in the world, then how was this one alive while he possessed the horn? How had the scout been able to trick him so?
Sharp footsteps echoed down the hall, slow and deliberate. They could only belong to one person: The Queen. She came to a halt in the doorway and smiled, unsurprised by the sight of the creature’s presence or her King’s agony.
Of course, the horn was not magic. It was a fake made from the stone from her family’s mines. She had allowed him to get comfortable with himself. The only part he couldn’t figure out now was how she had managed to poison him without ever being in the room or handling his tea.
The uneasiness became a burning and he grasped his middle, now eye level with his cup. His mouth was as dry as cotton when he staggered to the marble floor. When had it begun to move? Why didn’t he have the strength to stand?
Through blurred vision, he was just barely able to make out the Queen offering something small, cube-shaped, and white to the unicorn; sugar cubes. She had laced the sugar cubes in his bowl with arsenic. By then he couldn’t see but he could hear her say the last words that would ever reach his ears.
Long live the Queen.

Copyright © 2018 JM Steele. All Rights Reserved.