SCHMENDRICK: Schmendrick is with you! I'm sorry, but I couldn't get away any sooner.
UNICORN: There has never been a spell on me before. There has never been a world in which I was not known.
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, I know exactly how you feel. It's a very rare person who is taken for what he truly is.
UNICORN: Will you help me?
SCHMENDRICK: If not you, no one. You're my last chance.
UNICORN: Can you truly set me free?
SCHMENDRICK: Mommy Fortuna doesn't think so. She sees me as a clumsy fraud, a trickster. But I am Schmendrick the Magician! - the last of the red-hot swamis! And I too am real, like you, like her. Yes, I will help you.
UNICORN: Where is the other man?
SCHMENDRICK: Rukh? Oh, don't worry about him. I asked him a riddle, and it always takes that lout all night to solve riddles. And now... [Shara sineverel morlin sudai! Suni numira eddi subai!]

(The unicorn sees a forest with green leaves, and her forest creatures looking at her. But the mirage soon disappears, leaving the cage behind.)

SCHMENDRICK (embarassed): I-I'm sorry, I would have like that to be the spell that freed you. That's, uh, that's okay. Next one. Well, let's - try this one. Okay. [Urchulis sulai esumina gaminajo!] - This is a super-spell. Tha bars are now as brittle as old cheese, which I crumble and scatter, so! Whoouch!

(Schmendrick grabs the bars and they burn his hands. The hands are red and bloody. He shakes them, trying to get the pain off.)

SCHMENDRICK: Whoa, I must have gotten the accent wrong. It comes and it goes.
UNICORN: Try again. Once more. There's very little time left. Hurry!

(Schmendrick whistles three notes, then sprinkles some powder over the cage, which begins to shrink.)

SCHMENDRICK: [low words]
UNICORN: Stop the bars!
SCHMENDRICK: No, no, [uh, serenin perenin] - ugh! (the bars stop moving inwards.) I dare no more. The next time, I might not be able to-
UNICORN: Try again. The spell was wrong, but there was true magic in it. Try again!
SCHMENDRICK: My dear, you deserve the services of a great wizard, but I'm afraid you'll have to be glad of the aid of a second-rate pickpocket.

(Schmendrick procures a key ring, which he tries on the lock, which is shaped like a lion's mouth. One key turns inside.)

LOCK (in Mommy Fortuna's voice): (laughs) Some magician! Some magician!
SCHMENDRICK: Ah, turn blue.
UNICORN: Hurry!

(The lock groans as Schmendrick opens it.)

SCHMENDRICK: Step down, lady! You are free!

(The spell on the unicorn disperses as she leaps out of the cage. Rukh enters.)

RUKH: Okay, Schmendrick, I give up. Why is a raven like a writing desk?

(The unicorn leaps into the bushes; Rukh doesn't see her.)

RUKH: The cage. You have taken my keys. Why, you thin thief. She'll string you on barbed wire to make a necklace for the harpy!

(Rukh starts walking back towards Mommy Fortuna's wagon.)

SCHMENDRICK: Run! (He runs at Rukh and jumps him. They struggle on the ground. The unicorn goes around to the cages and opens the doors with her horn, freeing the animals inside.)
SCHMENDRICK (fighting with Rukh): You pile of stones! I'll set all your toenails growing in when you mess with me!
RUKH (comes on top and starts choking Schmendrick): (laughs) Some magician. You couldn't turn cream into cheese, you Schmendrick you!

(Schmendrick bashes the key ring into Rukh's head. Rukh lets go and falls off in a daze. The animals are free. Only the harpy remains as the unicorn faces her.)

SCHMENDRICK: No, she'll kill you! Run, she'll kill you if you set her free!
HARPY (voice only): Set me free. We are sisters, you and I.

(The unicorn touches her horn to the lock. The harpy breaks the cage with her wings and goes free. She lunges at the unicorn and misses. She circles around and lunges again - behind the unicorn, at Mommy Fortuna.)

MOMMY FORTUNA: (laughs) Not alone! You never could have freed yourselves alone! I held you! (She opens her arms as if to embrace the harpy's death lunge. She is struck down and the harpy settles down to feed on her body.)
SCHMENDRICK: Run, run, [can't hear this sentence] run, run away from here, now!
UNICORN: No. Come with me. Come with me.

(We hear the harpy cawing and Rukh screaming for a short second. Schmendrick winces.)

UNICORN: Don't look back, and don't run. You must never run from anything immortal, it attracts their attention.

(The harpy circles again but doesn't see the two walking away.)

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