Ano do unicórnio
É o primeiro livro do Ciclo de Hallack, conjunto de Andre Norton em sua série Witch World .
Longe da casa sitiada de Simon e Jaelithe, em Norsdale pacífica, encontramos Gillan, que deseja deixar sua vida monótona em uma abadia rural isolada. Mas quando o desejo dela se torna realidade, ela encontra mais do que uma pequena aventura. Como ela se aventura, não só a sua vida está em perigo, mas também o poder que está dentro dela, esperando para ser descoberto. ~ GoodreadsDoze mais uma noivas foram prometidas pelos senhores de High Hallack, que lutavam desesperadamente para libertar sua pátria dos Hounds of the Alizon para um grupo misterioso e poderoso de feiticeiros em troca de sua ajuda:
Shape-changers, warlocks, sorcerers...rumours had it they were all that and more. But also when they spoke upon oath they held to that oath-taking and were loyal. Thus they would fight, under their own leaders and by their own strange ways, yet for the right of High Hallack.
he promises of the Riders had been two: that they would come to the support of the Lords; and then, they would ride out of the wastelands, withdrawing from the land they had helped to cleanse, leaving it to the humankind alone. And the other side of that bargain-the payment the Lords of High Hallack had sworn dire and binding oaths to render? That was to be in their own blood, for the Riders demanded wives to carry with them into the unknown.
Os pilotos tinham exigências bem específicas que se qualificam como noiva:
Twelve and one maids they asked for-maids, not widows, or those who had chosen to live beyond custom’s bonds. And they must not be younger than eighteen years of age, nor beyond twenty. They were also to be of gentle blood, and well of body. Twelve and one to be found and delivered on the first day of the Year of the Unicorn at the borders of the waste, thereafter to ride with their strange lords into a future from which there would be no return.
Quando a história começa, a guerra é vencida e a procissão com as noivas prometidas chega à Abadia de Norstead, onde mora Gillan, uma garota refugiada de uma terra distante da qual ela escapou quando criança. Gillan, para fugir de sua vida monótona na abadia, troca de lugar com uma das noivas:
Thus it went as we had hoped. When Lord Imgry, who had avoided me heretofore, came to lead me forth, I went bent and weeping, so I hoped, in a piteous fashion. The last test came as we knelt for the Abbess’s blessing. She gave each the kiss of peace and for that I needs must throw back my veil for a moment. I waited tensely to be denounced. But there was not a flicker of change on the Abbess’s face as she leaned forward to press her lips to my forehead. “Go in peace, my daughter-“ She spoke the ritual words, but I knew they were truly meant for me and not Marimme. Thus heartened, I was aided by Lord Imgry into the saddle and so rode out of Norstead for ever, after some ten years of life within its never-changing walls.
Gilian possui a visão verdadeira e pode ver além das ilusões tecidas pelos feiticeiros:
And then he leaned a little towards me and asked, more sharply than he had yet spoken: “What lies about your shoulders, Gillan?” “A cloak of grey and brown and fur-“ It was as if he caught his breath in a swift gasp. “And in me what do you see, Gillan?” “A man young and still not young, wearing chain mail and furred clothing, with a belt about him buckled with silver and milk white stones, with black hair on his head-“
... o que complica sua situação já difícil, já que os feiticeiros não gostam das pessoas que resistem à sua magia:
Who are you?” His demand came with some of the same heat as Lord Imgry had shown at our night meeting. “I am Gillan, beyond that I do not know.” The truth I gave him because even then I knew that the truth was his right. “A war captive from overseas, fostered among the Dales of High Hallack, and come here by my own will.” He had dropped the veil into the mist, now his fingers moved in the air between us, sketching, I believe, some sign. There was a faint trail of light left by their moving so. But the smile was gone from his mouth and now he wore a battle-ready face. “Cloak-bound we are-and there is no chance in that, only destiny. But this I ask of you, Gillan, if the double sight is yours-see with the outer eyes only for this while-there is danger in any other path.”