"Eudoric's Unicorn " by L. Sprague de Camp (1976)

Originally appeared in Years' Best Fantasy #3 edited by Lin Carter for DAW Books 1976.

Plot: Eudoric expands his stagecoach business into the New Napolitanian Empire. To seal the deal he is offered a wizard's daughter's hand in marriage if he can procure a unicorn for the monarch to impress the Cham of the Pantorozians with. The girl is dumpy and Eudoric accepts for business reasons. Eudoric and Jillo return to their homeland to capture the beast. To do this they need a virgin. Unicorns are attracted to virgins, so they hire a witch to tell them who is actually a 15 year old virgin in the area. She proves less than useful when Jillo's younger brother deflowers her. In the end they use the old witch who also is a virgin. When Eudoric brings the unicorn to his charge, he finds the girl has fled with the Cham of the Pantorozians, who found her rounded figure to his liking. Eudoric doesn't care about losing the girl so much as the fifty per cent tax the Napolitanians want to charge his stagecoach line.

Monsters:

Unicorn - is actually a rhinoceros.

History: Very much a carbon-copy sequel of "Two Yards of Dragon". The plot follows the same arc and adds very little to what we already knew.

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