"Schmendrick, who am I?"

He closed his eyes tightly, praying that she would forgive him for what he had done. He looked into his friend's face and hung his head in shame.

"My lady, years ago I did you a great wrong. I didn't realise it at the time, but I let it happen. Lir, Molly, and I." He stopped and blinked back his tears. Amalthea gently cupped his chin in her hand and lifted his head. She offered him a small, comforting smile, despite the sinking feeling she had.

The wind picked up and her brushed her hair away from her face. She felt a cold chill in her heart and she looked back towards the castle.

'Molly's been in on it too?' She felt betrayed by her friends and husband for whatever it was that they had done; yet her heart went out to Schmendrick and Molly. Molly, who more often than not had a sad look to her eyes, even when Aurora was trying to get her to play a game. She thought back to the times when she had seen Molly looking at the sea from the terrace as she was hanging laundry. She would catch Amalthea watching her, and then say that a cloth had blown away. Even on a windless afternoon.

Schmendrick continued. "The tapestry in your drawing room, the unicorn on the hill-"

"Overlooking the sea, yes. Aurora loves it so much I was thinking of having it placed in the nursery. But I don't understand what it has to do with me." Amalthea was puzzled. He knew about her past and all he wanted to talk about was a cloth hanging? A small part of her mind let the details of her strange, recurring dream come back to her in a moment of near clarity. "Schmendrick, did I know a unicorn? Did she bring me to you? I have dreams sometimes about one. She wanders through towns and countrysides, and then ends up in some sort of carnival. A very large and hideous bird attacks her, and then turns on a very old and ugly woman. The unicorn just walks away. Can you imagine that? She wanders away like a child during a festival. I would think she would have run like mad."

"You must never run from anything immortal. It attracts their attention." Schmendrick said distantly.

Amalthea looked startled at his words and he looked at her, hopeful. "Those words. They sound so familiar. (a.n- probably because it's a direct quote.)"

"That's because you said them. The night we met."

"Schmendrick. I don't understand. I've never been to a carnival. I've always hosted the Hagsgate summer festival though."

"As a mortal, no. But once you were a unicorn. Molly stitched you that tapestry, hoping you would remember yourself."

Amalthea looked incredulous at her friend. "I know you are not ill, dear friend. It's not possible. Unicorns don't exist and I'm human, I always have been."

He didn't even acknowledge her voice. He kept talking. "You left your forest 6 years ago because you over heard a pair of hunters talking near the borders of your forests. They spoke of you being the last unicorn and you left to seek out the others. The witch I used to work for, Mommy Fortuna, found you asleep by the roadside one night as we were traveling. She saw what few humans still saw in you. To Rukh, the other man who worked for her, you looked like a white mare. But Mommy Fortuna saw that it was a unicorn that lay sleeping by the road. She didn't realise that I knew who you truly were as well. She cast a spell that put a false horn on you so that people would recognise a unicorn. She put you in her Midnight Carnival, which oddly enough was never opened after dusk. It was filled with all kinds of creatures. Cerberus, a satyr, a dragon, a manticore, and many more, all enchanted to be shadows of the truth. They were really a mangy old dog, a lame monkey, a harmless little snake, and a poor old lion. There was not one true creature in the carnival until you came. With the exception of the harpy Caleno, that is."

"Harpy. That bird from my dream, and the witch. They're from my dream." Amalthea murmured. Memories and images flooded back to her.

"I took the keys to your cage from Rukh and used them after trying to free you magically. I wasn't very good back then. Once you were freed you broke the locks on all the cages, and against my advice, even the harpy. She flew out and attacked you. Foolishly, Mommy Fortuna came out and attempted to catch her again, at least I think. Caleno turned her attention away to her and killed her. I tried to run but you stopped me. She lost interest in us and flew off into the night."

Flashbacks flickered through her mind at lightening speed and overwhelmed her. She put a hand to her head and reached out to hold onto Schmendrick's shoulder.

He caught her before she fell against the sand.