I Never Really Told You
That is Why
She was gone, off in a sliver of silver starlight to gallop eternally through his mind. He'd told her of the love he'd held for her, though of course, she'd already known. She'd known since they first met, she'd just chosen to ignore it completely and choose the fair prince instead. It was understandable. They were well suited for the leads.
But still, he'd always feel that twinge of jealousy at Lir. Yes, Molly was the greatest of companions, but even great companions pale in comparison next to the love of a unicorn. And King Lir, who had but so recently, and still in the Magician's eye, retained the mind of a small child, had won her heart. A heart she ought never to have given. For no unicorn ever had.
This was all of course Schmendrick's fault. Because he had dared his magic to aid her, and it had succeeded beyond his wildest of expectations. A human! A girl! A woman with such bewitching, radiant beauty that every time Amalthea had floated by, whether he, Schmendrick, had been dreaming or otherwise, it had stolen his breath and taught his eyes to burn bright.
He could sometimes feel the intensity of his green leaking out at her, trying desperately to cajole the pale, wayward woman into forgetting of this false reality and her impudent prince, and recall her forest and her trees, her animals and her immortality. But she never would pay him the time. For all he suffered for her, she never took notice, or if she did, she was as unappreciative as a rock may have been, and indeed far colder.
And in her moment of shining triumph, and consequently the re-birth of his own mortality, she had chosen to bestow her greatest of gifts on the shallow naïve fool. Not, as is probably thought, the touch of life she had given him, though to be sure, it was some gift, and more powerful magic, Schmendrick would never possess. No, it was the second touch, the one entirely for her, that he felt the most betrayed.
In all his long while of knowing her, through all their adventures and companionship, she had never once allowed him to touch her, and had never once been inclined to offer to him a glance, a touch, even a friendly kick for all he cared!
Surely she must have known that he was wise enough to love her and as sure enough in his love to do right by it. Perhaps that is why…she had never reciprocated. For how could a unicorn ever truly love a mortal? And all along, she had known that he was destined to control his magic and return from eternity an accomplished wizard.
Still, he wished that he could have really told her how the depths of her eyes took him to strange green lands he wished to roam, and how the white of- whether it be her skin or coat, made no difference to him- was the one fabric he hungered more than any other to taste, and how that quiet wisdom of hers was the most beautiful music he had ever chanced upon.
But it made no difference. She was gone, and he would be remembered eternally by her, though not in the way he wished, at least remembered. And the crux of their great journey that would most haunt him- it would be the lingering suspicion that he had never really told her how much he loved her.