Gold Unicorn - Tanith Lee

Tanith Lee's Gold Unicorn is as brief as its prequel Black Unicorn. In Gold Unicorn Tanaquil is still travelling, more than a year after the events already narrated. She is visiting some nobles who have fled from a war that is now taking place, instigated by the Empress Veriam; they take her to see a local sorcerer by whom Tanaquil is unimpressed. He promises that she will have to learn some lessons, and shortly afterwards she encounters three of the Empress' soldiers who, it appears, have been on the lookout for Tanaquil. When Tanaquil meets the Empress she discovers that Veriam is someone whom she met more than a year ago. Veriam has decided to conquer to the world in order to ensure that it is properly run, and to this end some of the members of the Artisans Guild from her home town have created a gigantic unicorn of iron overlaid with gold plate. It is a mechanical monstrosity, powered by steam, and Tanaquil is required to make it work because it doesn't at present. With grave misgivings, Tanaquil acquiesces and the gold unicorn is set to work to persuade towns and cities to surrender to Veriam. Unfortunately there is something rather odd about the unicorn - people who pass under its belly disappear never to be sen again. Tanaquil discovers for herself that the gold unicorn is a portal into another world, but rather than a kind of Heaven, it leads her and her companions (including Veriam) into a kind of Hell.

I confess that I am surprised that Tanith Lee didn't just combine the three narratives of the Unicorn trilogy into one longer book. Such a longer book would still have been under 600 pages (assuming Red Unicorn is as short as its predecessors - I'm waiting to see if the Library can get hold of a copy for me).

[Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday - a migraine wiped me out and staring at PC screen was simply impossible.]