{"product_id":"2940013215184","title":"Thistledown","description":"Improved formatting and a new cover by Teddi Black from a painting by the author!\u003cbr\u003eAn orphaned unicorn.  The pig-keeper’s son, reckoned as witless as he is     speechless, but far more than he seems.  The runaway heiress who knows nothing of the world but what the minstrels have sung of on endless winter nights.  A proud Duke and a blue-eyed dog.  In 1991, my novella “Thistledown” appeared as part of Once Upon A Time, Lester Del Rey and Rissa Kessler’s splendidly illustrated anthology of “modern” fairy tales.  The reviewer for Locus called it “one of the best unicorn stories since The Last Unicorn.”   I was suitably flattered, since Peter Beagle’s novel was a great influence on me as I began to write fantasy.  And I considered that my story, which was structured like a mini novel, would bear expansion to novel length. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e   Flax, orphan son of Ylowfort village’s pig-keeper and a silent witch, wanders the woodland by night as no sensible villager ever would, scratching out a meager living by gathering herbs and seeds.  No one has ever heard him speak a word—not that he village troubles over his welfare or even his survival.  Early one summer morn, he comes upon a strange white fawn.  When its mother fails to return, Flax carries the little creature to his hovel and attempts to find milk for it.  The fawn refuses the milk of cows, goats, horses—but on the point of starvation it at last finds acceptable nourishment, and Flax names it after the first food it eats—Thistledown.\u003cbr\u003e   Flax is well aware that Thistledown is no deer.  He has seen the single horn, already breaking through the silken skin.  He harbors a unicorn, and that it is a secret best kept close.  Flax would have no one to speak to even supposing he spoke, so he has no difficulty with that. And he is unaware that a magic mirror has shown both him and the unicorn to the wizard Corlinn and his blue-eyed dog, Mai.\u003cbr\u003e   The Lady Lowise has no interest in the advantageous marriage arranged in her infancy.   She has still less interest in the household management tasks she is expected to master.  Her young heart is given to the songbirds that fill her rooms, and it is Flax she relies upon to bring her the seeds they feed upon.  Her non-stop speech washes over Flax like birdsong, and he fulfills her slightest wish, often without direction. \u003cbr\u003e   They both come to grief when Duke Lothair, Lowise’s betrothed, arrives at his manor unexpectedly and accompanied by a retinue that includes a pack of hunting hounds.","brand":"Susan Dexter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079356498160,"sku":"2940013215184","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013215184_p0.jpg?v=1763578098","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013215184","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}