In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

on the impromptu mob forming behind him, he could make it across the line into Sekhmet Territory. Not the safest place in the world to be, but safer than here, as it was unlikely any posse would follow him there. The Shahen had given orders; entering Sekhmet territory was forbidden. No one wanted to re-start the raiding again, and the Sekhmet tribes would undoubtedly see any group of armed men as breaking the treaty. Single riders entered at their own risk, and with a little luck, might be ignored.

From ahead of him came the pound of running hooves and a wild screeching yell. Perhaps a mob coming in late off a Jamboree? If so, it suited Hammer Smith’s needs just fine.

He checked the unicorn and faded off to the side, stopping under a kaleidoscope tree about twenty feet away from the road. The moon flecked through the shiny, semi-transparent leaves, causing light and dark shadows blended with Blackfeather’s coat making the unicorn practically invisible.

A more cautious man would have taken the opportunity to scuttle out of there quick. But Hammer Smith was not a cautious man. Grinning, he watched as the mob from town ran full tilt into the celebrating drovers.

Chuckling, he started Blackfeather around the tree and to the north at an easy lope, heading into a forest of more kaleidoscope trees. In the melee behind him, he heard the snap of air guns as some fool started shooting; he knew everybody soon would be doing the same.

Karma has a way of catching up with a man. He paid a price for the inattention caused by his unholy amusement. In the darkness, he never saw the tree branch coming that dealt his head a smashing blow; stunned, he blacked out. Only his instinctive riding ability and Blackfeather's superb gait kept him from falling off. Several times, Blackfeather shifted stride and course to ensure his rider stayed in the saddle. Puzzled at being given no other signals, Blackfeather continued to travel west, taking the easiest route.

The sun was just coming up when Hammer Smith awoke. Blackfeather had slowed to a walk. Muzzily, Hammer Smith peered around. His head hurt and he was having trouble focusing his eyes. Blackfeather mounted the top of a small rise and started down toward a creek gurgling below.

Hammer Smith blinked harder to focus his eyes because he was sure he was seeing things. The loveliest girl he had ever seen knelt by the water washing her face. Straight black hair fell in a curtain to the ground around her, some of the strands floating in the water.

Blackfeather stopped at the edge of the creek and lowered his head to drink. The girl lifted her head to stare back at Hammer Smith out of the clearest gray eyes he’d ever seen. She stood, pulling her hair back over her shoulders. Her crimson night robe clung to the swell of her breasts and hips, making a bright splash of red against the green plants growing on the bank of the stream.

Hammer Smith was beyond appreciating nature’s decorating schemes. The whole world was unreal. There was no one in it but him and the girl, and never would be. He nudged Blackfeather across the stream and stopped beside her.

She looked up at him with no sign of fear. He stared down at her. It seemed as if her eyes grew enormous and he was diving into a huge pool of gray water. This time, he did fall off his unicorn.

Rebecca tried to break his fall, but since he outweighed her, she ended up on the ground with him on top. Awkwardly, she sat up, wriggling out from under his weight. His head lolled back against her breast.

"Gosh!" exclaimed her sixteen-year-old brother Owen, "where did he come from?"

"Over the hill," Rebecca said absently, looking at the dark face. He wasn’t bad looking; of course, you couldn’t tell much with that beard...

"What’s the matter with him?" demanded Owen’s twin, Catrin. Like Rebecca, she was still in her nightclothes.

Rebecca had found the caked blood matted in his hair.

"He’s been hurt," she said. "One of you go and get Grandpa."

"Gosh!" said Owen again. "That’s a funny place to get hurt. Do you suppose somebody whacked him?"

"Maybe."

Blackfeather nudged Hammer Smith curiously with his soft grey nose. Why was he so still? Absently, Rebecca patted him.

"He’ll be fine," she said to the unicorn. Blackfeather snorted gently and wandered off to crop some grass growing by the bank.

Pulling up the straps of his suspenders, Lewys Mabinogion, awakened out of a sound sleep by Catrin, hurried up to them. His sharp old eyes took in the situation at a glance.

"Owen, unsaddle his unicorn and take care of it. Catrin, go fix up a bed in my wagon."

As the two hurried to obey, he knelt beside Rebecca.

"He’s got blood on his head. Owen thought maybe he’d been whacked in a fight," she said.

Gingerly Mabinogion turned Hammer Smith’s head, running a finger in the gash on the top of his head and forehead.

"You’ll make it bleed again," protested Rebecca.

"He’s out like a candle. Doesn’t feel a thing. We’d best get him in the wagon and his wound dressed before he wakes up."

Unobserved by Rebecca, Lewys Mabinogion looked pensively down at the lovely visage of his eldest granddaughter, who was looking down at the face of the young man resting in her arms. It had been months since the incident at Joppa, and in all that time his beautiful Rebecca had not voluntarily let any man touch her, flinching even whenever Owen or her Grandfather came close to her accidentally. Yet she held this stranger against her with no sign of shrinking.

They put the unconscious man to bed in the wagon Owen shared with Lewys. As Lewys cleaned and dressed the wound, he thought about what he had learned in the village yesterday, and a plan formed in his devious mind. Only if the young man proved worthy of course...

Twenty minutes later, dressed in a grey cotton shirt and