"Sweet Shipri, preserve us!" muttered Lalo, realizing whose blood was coloringthat obscenity on the wall. His hand darted forward, again was stopped before ittouched the plaster; for if this was his own blood, what would happen to him ifthe picture was destroyed? What was he doing, meddling with this kind of power?He needed a professional!

And still the eye of the unicorn mocked him, as Gilla had mocked him when hewent through the door, or like a more familiar mockery that he had seen in amirror once in a face whose mixed good and evil frightened him all the way intothe land of the gods. But he had embraced the good, and surely the evil wasgone! Desperately, Lalo ransacked his memory for visions of the beauty of thegods.

But there was only darkness and the wicked eye that enticed him more surely thanthe eyes of the sorceress Is-chade, because it was his own.

Closer and closer Lalo came; his right arm hung nerveless at his side. "/ alsoam your soul," whispered the unicorn. "Give life to me, and you shall have mypower. Did not you know?"

Lalo groaned. The breath of his lungs hissed out and stirred the charcoal dustupon the wall. The red eye of the unicom began to glow.

Lalo saw and choked, trying to withdraw his breath again. Wedemir clutched athis arm, but Lalo shook free and swiped wildly at the wall, recoiled as a waveof heat blasted him, and fell back into his son's strong arms.

"No!" he gasped, "I didn't mean it! Go back where you came from-this isn't howit's supposed to be!" Men muttered around him; someone swore as a tremor shookthe floor.

"Wizard's work!" exclaimed another. Men began to back away. Shadowspawn spat andslipped quietly out the door.

Coughing, Lalo snatched up his tankard and flung it at the wall. Red as blood inthe lamplight, the liquid splashed off a solidifying flank and splattered acrossthe floor.

Wedemir made the sign against evil; Cappen Varra's fist closed around the coiledsilver of his amulet. "It's only a picture; a picture can't hurt you-" mutteredthe harper, but Lalo knew that wasn't true. With every second the Thing on thewall gained substance. The trembling in the floor increased. Lalo took a stepbackward, then another.

One-Thumb launched himself down the staircase, roaring questions, but nobodypaid him any attention. He was calling for Roxane, whose powers, if she hadcared to exert them, might perhaps have stopped what was happening now. But thisnight Roxane had other matters in hand. She did not hear.

And then, with a groan that burst at once from Lalo's lips and the wall, theBlack Unicorn shuddered free of the plaster that had imprisoned it and leaped tothe tavern floor.

Abruptly Lalo remembered the astonished delight with which he had watched hisfirst creation soar through the azure air. That joy was the measure of hishorror now.

Alive, the thing was even worse than it had been on the wall-a desecration ofthe concept of a unicorn. It paused, stamped with hooves like polished skulls,and the posts upholding the upper floors trembled like trees shaken by a wind.It reared, and staggered forward with Minotaurlike lumberings, then dropped backto all fours, and almost casually plunged its horn into the chest of the nearestman.

The victim screamed once. The Unicorn shook its head, and the body flew free toland with a soft sound like a falling sack of meal on the other side of theroom. Blood spiraled down the wicked hom. The Unicorn grew.

Its head came around, red eye fixing on the girl who had been serving the ale.She tried to run, but the monster was too quick for her. Her body was still inthe air when Wedemir seized his father's arm.

"Papa, quick-we've got to get out of here!"

Cappen Varra was already slipping toward the door. The Unicorn wheeled, herdingtwo men contemptuously across the room. Fresh blood smeared the old stains onthe floor.

"No-" Lalo shook his head uncontrollably. "It's mine, my fault-I have to-" Hefelt his son's strength suddenly as Wedemir seized him, pinioning his arms, andhalf-dragged, half-carried him away.

Three men pelted after them into the night; then there were no more, only thescreaming from inside the inn that continued as Wedemir dragged Lalo afterCappen Varra, terror lending them its own protection until they reached theharper's dingy room.

The secret hours between midnight and dawn drew on. The Black Unicorn, havingfinished with the tavern, shouldered out into the street, blotting the nightwith a deeper darkness, and began to forage through the Maze, emptying thestreets more effectively than Imperial order or Beysib curfew had ever done.

On Cappen Varra's dusty floor Lalo dozed fitfully, struggling through dreams offire and darkness lit by a distant shimmer of crystal wings.

In the luxury of his estate on the east side, Lastel, furious and smarting withpain from a gash across his belly, took a long snort of krrf and waited forRoxane. One death or a dozen in the Vulgar Unicorn did not trouble him unduly,but his alliance with the witch ought to protect him from any other sorcery, andwith that Thing that had come off the wall of the Unicorn loose in the city,every mage in Sanctuary would be after his hide. Had the little dauber reallydone it? Who was using him? Lastel struck at the slave who was trying to bandagehim and sniffed at the krrf again. Roxane would know what to do....

The sorceress Ischade lifted herself from silken pillows and the enraptured faceof the man beneath her, midnight eyes searching graying shadows. She could feelpower eddying in the damp air; the wards she had set between herself and theNisibisi witch quivered like taut wires in a sudden breeze. Was Roxane movingagainst her? The disturbance came from the direction of the Vulgar Unicorn, butthere seemed no purpose in its meanderings. A word to the black bird perched inthe comer sent it heaving into the musky air in a flurry of nightdark wings."Go," she whispered, "bring back word to me...."

Enas Yorl saw the fragile structure of the spell he was working begin to rippleas the dimensional distortion reached it, and extinguished it with a swift Word.What had happened? The power he sensed was at once alien and shockinglyfamiliar. Automatically he summoned his familiars and sent them scurryingthrough the twisted streets. Then he began to robe himself, but even as his handclosed on the rich velvet he saw it changing. Swearing in frustrated agony, thesorcerer subsided in a transformation that took from him even the semblance ofhumanity. By the time Wedemir banged on his brazen door, there was only theblind servant Darous to answer it with the enigmatic assurance that the sorcererwas not at home....

Lythande, lost in timeless contemplation in the Place That Is Not, felt theindefinable tremor and sent her trained awareness winging back to the austerechamber in the Aphrodisia House where she had left her physical form. Yes, therewas a new power in Sanctuary, but it was no threat to her, thank the gods. Shehad already rested here too long, but even as she contemplated her next journey,the Adept of the Blue Star had to suppress a professional curiosity regardingwho had created the thing, and why....

And the Black Unicorn, having killed two mercenaries and a beggar at the edge ofthe Maze, as the sun rose began a destructive foray through the busy streets ofthe Processional. Terror depopulated them as rapidly as they had filled, and theUnicorn turned, its darkness staining the bright day, and began to slash its wayup Slippery Street toward the Bazaar.