"A plan?" Cole said while still running as fast as his tired legs would carry him. "Yeah, I've got a plan. We outrun those guards, get to the stables, get some horses and ride as quick as we can to Macula. The rest is just details."Still ahead of the guards, but not by a distance that really could be considered comfortable, they reached the stables and threw the doors open. "Okay! Quick! Get a horse! We don't have time to saddle up so figure out how to ride bareback real fast and-"
"What has happened?"
Cole jumped and whirled around at the sound of the woman's voice. Someone was here! But where? Who-? There was no one but them!
"Has something happened?" the female voice repeated. Searching quickly for the speaker, Cole suddenly realized she was right there, practically in front of them the whole time, looking directly at him with concern in her large eyes
"Uni?" Cole asked in mild surprise. She couldn't be "talking," exactly, which meant she either she had the power to speak telepathically, or else he could somehow communicate with her through the Stone, just as he had spoken to the robin before. "Uh, yeah, something happened. All us Outworlders are under arrest because they say Kryschenn went berserk and killed a bunch of people while we were gone. But I don't think it can be quite that simple," he added earnestly, then looked back to see if the guards had arrived to capture them yet. They'd be in serious trouble for running, there'd be no chance of talking their way out of this one...
"What about Bobby?" Uni demanded.
"I think he was arrested, too," Cole explained quickly. "I didn't see."
"Then we have to help him," the unicorn said, starting for the barn doors of the stables.
"There's not much we can do unless we want to get arrested," Cole said, while wondering if anyone else could "hear" Uni's thoughts. "We're going to Macula to get help, if we can get past those goons and get there."
Pausing, Uni seemed to chew her lower lip for a moment as she heard the guards getting closer. Finally, she made up her mind. "I will take you there to find help. I know where the town is. Quickly, get on my back."
"Get on Uni!" Cole repeated, just in case no one else was hearing her. "Are you going to teleport us?"
"I cannot teleport all the way to Macula," Uni told him, "but it should be far enough to escape those guards."
Climbing up on Uni's back, hoping the others hurried to do the same, Cole drew the Stone of Zarpathos from its pouch. "What if you used this?"
Uni seemed to sense the power within the Stone as she regarded it. Tossing her head, she said, "We'll see what happens. Touch it to the tip of my horn."
As Cole leaned forward to do so, six guards burst into the stables.
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