Unicorn Keep (15 page)

Yes.

Guilt
seized her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Do not worry.
It was Gwyn’s voice.
He left as soon as he sensed you. He was not looking for us.

“But he’s found you now,”
she protested.

If he could get through the unicorns
’ magical barrier to find her it wasn’t safe for her to travel with them. She glanced around trying to figure out where they were. Where would she go? Mage Brennah would search for her in her own village. She couldn’t go home. But maybe she could go to the city with Madelen and Wilm. But would she be bringing danger to them?

You will remain with us
. Gwyn’s voice was an order.

“But if he can find you through me.”

He was not looking for us.
Gwyn’s voice was more patient this time.
I know it is difficult for you to understand, but he is fixated on you not us. His concern for your safety was clear in the presence.

Bai snorted.
He should not have been able to find her so easily.

Such is the mind of humans.

Jiline tried to understand Gwyn’s cryptic remark, but the unicorn mare didn’t elaborate. Ginger reached down to grab several long stalks of grass growing beside the game trail. She had been right judging by Ginger’s satisfied crunching as she walked along, Ginger could eat a lot easier without the bit in her mouth.

****

Herrick sat on the floor in the middle of his room, still as a statue as his being slid back into his body. He slowly opened his eyes to test that the transfer was complete. A deep breath returned everything to normal. He had found her, and more importantly, he knew where she was. The unicorns were moving quickly for the weather, but since they were manipulating the weather up here it made sense that they would be manipulating the weather off the mountain to their benefit.

The tightness in his chest was al
most gone. He could check on Madelen without leaving the Keep physically. Make sure she was all right and safe. Knowing she was with the unicorns eased his mind. The unicorn colt beside her had felt his presence as soon as he’d found her. The warning of the colt had been clear. She was theirs now. They would protect her with their lives.

Confident he could now control the draw and the awful side
effect of the panic attacks, he rose to his feet to glance out his window. Yep, the unicorn-infused snowstorm was still going strong. He slid a small vial of the relaxing elixir in his pocket to be safe and let himself out of his room. He was halfway down the main stairs when he met up with his mother.

“Good morning, M
other,” he said and bowed his head. He had to be careful not to show the happiness that filled him.

“I was just coming to get you
. Come with me.” She turned and led him down the hall.

Mage Taika
waited beside the table. He bowed his head in respect and waited to see what his mother wanted to attempt now to locate the unicorns. The scrying mirror sat on one side of the table and he considered whether she had been successful in locating the unicorns.

His mother shut the door behind them and walked to
the table. “The unicorns still elude me.”

He nodded solemnly, but inside chanted yes, yes, yes.

“You gave me an idea.”

Well, crap.

“The weather spell you were looking at yesterday to understand what the unicorns had done.”

He nodded as if that was why he had looked at the spell.

“I dismissed it when I saw none of us were powerful enough to conduct the spell to the magnitude we would need to disperse the storm and melt the trails until they’re passable.”

His chest tightened and he breathed slowly from his nose. He would not have a panic attack in front of her.
Jiline was safe. As long as she was safe he could control it.

“It didn’t occur to me until now that together we might have the power to pull the storm off.”

Crap, she had the same thought he originally had. “What do you mean together?”

“We will cast the spell together as one, Ma
ge Taika agrees with me that it can be done. I know you might be nervous to cast a spell of this magnitude.”

Oh good, she thought his rolling emotions were
nervousness and he nodded.

“But we’ll take the bulk of it. You’ll just need to follow us.”

Could he somehow prevent the spell from working without them realizing it?

His mother smiled and stepped over to pat him on the back. “I know you can do this,
Herrick. It’ll be a strain, but I have full faith in you.”

He tried to smile back, but was pretty sure it was a pathetic one judging by the other pat she gave him.

“It will take me about an hour to set up. Go eat and meditate until then. Bring yourself up to full strength and I’ll call you when we’re ready.”

His body recognized the dismissal
and he turned to leave. The door opened and shut for him. He stopped just outside and leaned against the door. He didn’t consciously intend to eavesdrop, but something niggled within him.

“He’s holding so
mething back from you,” Mage Taika said.

“I know
. He has since that girl arrived, I didn’t understand it at first.”

“But now?”

“She must have fooled the other mages into believing she didn’t have magic. I think Herrick recognized what she was from the beginning, but she must have done something to him as well.”

“Do you think the unicorns sent for her?”

“I don’t see how they could, but even if they didn’t, they knew they could use her from the beginning.”

“We’ll need his full assistance for the spell to work.”

“Yes.”

“What if he holds back?”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t,” his mother’s voice drew closer.

He jerked away from the door and ducked into a keeper hallway just as it opened. She strode past his hiding place to the main staircase. He waited a few minutes before taking the long way around to the kitchen. If she didn’t find him in his room meditating
, he better be eating instead.

Throughout the
hour he thought long and hard on how to hamper the spell with them both suspicious of him. He admitted defeat when he left his room just before the hour was up and found the magical training room locked. That was what his mother had been doing when she’d left her own spell casting room. He went down the stairs, stopping at the base as his chest seized again. Pressing against it, he willed the panic away. He couldn’t protect her if an attack came.

“Back off,” he whispered under his breath. The pressure eased.

He had to consider what he would do if they were successful in casting the spell. He could protect her physically. The pressure eased a little more. If he convinced his mother he was holding nothing back her suspicions might be eased
, giving him just the opportunity he needed to reach Madelen first.

Mage Taika
and his mother stood at the table. Candles were lit and unlit. He recognized the configuration immediately considering how long he had stared at the instructions for the spell. He wondered briefly if they worried over the backlash of such a large spell as he had, but kept the concern to himself. He needed to appear to be gung ho.

He smiled confidently when they looked up at him and he strode to the table and looked around like he didn’t totally understand what was happening. “What do we do?”

Brennah’s shoulders relaxed and she smiled back before dropping into a stern frown. “Follow along with us. This is a very powerful casting. Taika and I will do the heavy lifting, but we’ll need your magical support.” She glanced briefly at Taika before looking back at him. “We discussed the best way and I think if we put you into a trance that will allow us to draw on your magic.”

Well, crap. He had no
intention of being unaware of what was going on, but he nodded as he considered an alternative which might suit his mother. “What if you need my help?”

“I don’t think we will.”

He stepped next to her and scanned the spell in the book. “You sure? It would be more powerful if we all cast it.”

Her
eyes narrowed. “Yes, it will, but you are inexperienced and could unknowingly cause a problem.”

He raised an eyebrow in challenge. “When was the last time I
unsuccessfully cast a spell.”

“
You’ve never cast a spell this large.”

“Neither have you,” he hurried to add, “on your own. But you said we would be working together. I know you’re worried we won’t be able to do it, but I won’t let you down.”

His mother tapped her fingers on the book. “It would be more powerful if we cast it as three.”

Taika
shrugged “If he actually casts it, yes.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He challenged her.

“As your mother said, you’re inexperienced. When you feel the magic well within you, you might back off. You cannot back off.”

“I won’t.”

His mother nodded. “All right, we’ll try it with you, but if it doesn’t work, we’ll put you under a trance to draw on your powers, agreed?”

“Agreed.” Disaster averted, he focused on the table and what had been laid out. It was a complicated spell, not just
dissipating the storm, but they would have to warm the air to such a degree to melt the snow which had already buried the Keep.

15.
VILLAGE 

Jiline must have been snoozing in her saddle. Because suddenly the herd was stopping and she didn’t know why. She glanced around, scanning for any danger. They were on the edge of some woods. The trees had begun to shift from the winter trees which kept their branches year round to the summer trees which were bare in the winter. Rolling hills faced them. There was no more cover for the unicorns to hide in.

Bai stepped alongside Ginger
. Jiline was so focused on seeing territory familiar to her own, that she didn’t realize the unicorns weren’t looking at the grassy hills, but on what was behind them. She glanced back, but couldn’t see anything but trees.

Everyone was completely still. She looked at Bai. His shoulder brushed Ginger’s neck as he edged closer.

“What’s wrong?” she barely whispered.

The mages are striking back.

She peered into the woods waiting for something to come upon them suddenly. But the woods looked as peaceful as they had before.

They have broken the storm.

She frowned not understanding. “What storm?”

The snow storm we called to hide our escape. It has been dissipated. The mages will leave the Keep and hunt for us soon.

Bai turned back and the herd was on the move. No longer walking, but at a slow canter.

She glanced over her shoulder again. “It was
Herrick wasn’t it?”

Bai gave a unicorn shrug.
My mother says no. I will have to believe she is right. No single mage could have caused the storm to have dispersed. It will be at least a day or more before they will be able to leave the Keep. The air is magically heating around it to melt the snow, but it will still take some time.

She shivered.

Do not worry. We are far ahead of them. Even if they left today they could not find us that quickly. The box will protect you.

She
hunched her shoulders. “I worry for you, not myself.”

Which was mostly true. She did occasionally worry over what they would do to her if the mages caught her, but mostly she worried over what would happen to the
unicorns. They wouldn’t just return. The mages would have to force them. In a battle of magic, how many would be hurt or killed?

None of us. A mage can not challenge a unicorn. They originally imprisoned us through treachery not a challenge. They are not thinking which is not surprising. We hid our escape not for our own protection, but theirs. They can not force us to return to the valley. Fearing for their loss of power they would most likely try and would die trying.

“Then why do we hurry?”

Gwyn’s voice
drifted in.
For your protection, Jiline. They can not hurt us. But they will kill whoever stands in their way. The Keep Mage will want to punish you for helping us. It is better to avoid a challenge until we can get you to safety.

Her throat dried at the prospect of Mage
Brennah hunting her down. “But where would be safe from her?”

Do not worry. You will be safe with us. Once we reach our woods, no mage can hurt you there.

****

Herrick
stood on the Keep steps and watched the snow melt before his eyes. Sweat coated him. He wondered if they had gone a little overboard with the high temperature.

His mother stood beside him a small smile on her lips. “We leave at first light.”

He nodded. At the rate the snow was melting, the trail would be clear in the middle of the night, but still very treacherous. Better to leave when you could actually see it. Which meant he would leave after first dark.

Her hand touched his arm and he turned to her, worried she had somehow read his thoughts.

“Thank you, son,” she said softly. “It might hurt my pride to say it, but Taika and I could not have cast the spell without your full cooperation.”

The full cooperation was the most important part of her words and he knew it. She was beginning to trust him again. Good for him as it would make his own
escape easier if she wasn’t still watching him like a hawk.

He had given
everything he had with the spell. It didn’t make sense to hold anything back now that his mother would cast the spell with or without his cooperation. That was when he had come up with the plan to leave before his mother would decree it safe. He had to get as many miles between him and them as possible. He knew what direction the unicorns and Madelen had gone in. The trick would be to cover his own tracks so his mother couldn’t follow him to find the unicorns and Madelen.

He knew she planned on going around the other side of the valley to try to pick up the unicorns
’ magical trail. That should buy him some time. He would head directly off the mountain and cut across the grass lands. He still hadn’t figured out how he would catch up with the unicorns, but he would be able to find them through Madelen.

Turning, he h
eaded back into the Keep and its relative coolness. It was also unbearably hot, but not as hot as it was outside. Mistress Marta looked wilted from where she waited by the stairs for his mother’s orders. He nodded briefly to her before climbing up to his room. Of course, heat rose and each floor was hotter than the next.

He already had his bag mostly packed and he pulled it out from under his bed where he had stowed it after the keepers
had returned. He considered each item. He would bring what he needed, but also had to keep the weight down to a minimum. It might be summer and blistering hot up here, but it was winter in the rest of the world.

The rivers would be rising from their forced snow melt. Treacherous to cross. Normally he wouldn’t bring an extra pair of clothes, but a visual of Mad
elen’s own dunking made him shove an extra pair of pants and shirt into his bag. The single cloak would double as a blanket. He shoved in a couple of small spell books which he always brought along with small bundles of the most basic herbs to help in casting a spell.

He didn’t know what he would need, but he made sure to include anything related to tracking and protection. A small dagger went in the bag. A longer one he would shove into his boot. He normally didn’t rely on weapons, magic being his weapon, but better to
be safe than sorry.

Finally packed
, he left everything on top of his bed, not worried about concealing it any longer. He headed down to the stables to see what preparations Keeper Brody was doing. He needed to make sure his horse would be ready to go now not in the morning. Eli surprised him when he walked into the stable. He hadn’t seen the keeper protector since he had stepped in the path of his mother’s magical barbs.

Eli nodded to him, but didn’t speak
as he groomed one of the horses in the stall. Herrick narrowed his eyes as he passed to reach his own horse. Of course, Eachann was in one of the stalls farthest from the door opening into the snowy meadow. He considered asking Brody to move him, but quickly shoved the words down. Way too suspicious.

Brody stopped grooming a horse when he saw
Herrick. “Can I help you, Mage Herrick?”

“I wanted to check on
Eachann,” Herrick said. “We’re leaving in the morning, you know?”

Brody nodded. “Marta told me. Eli and I are preparing the horses.”

The Keep didn’t house very many horses during the winter season. About fifteen horses total. There were that many trained keepers within the Keep not even counting the house keepers and trainees. He wondered briefly who his mother would choose to come along. Would she leave Taika to look over the Keep? It would make sense to bring her along unless she worried another mage might try to take it over. Marta couldn’t protect it from a mage.

It would
be practical to bring along the keeper protectors, but he knew she was still angry at Eli. He glanced at the protector. The unicorns had disappeared on his watch. Did his mother suspect Eli might have been involved? What of the other four keepers within the valley when they escaped?

Eachann
sighed with satisfaction at being groomed. Task done, he scratched the gelding under his chin. He would have rather hung out in the stable, but he didn’t want his mother wondering what he was up to. Nodding to both keepers, he left the stable to get some food from the kitchen. The cooks were busy and only spared him a glance as they prepared the food the group would take. Lots of hard biscuits and overly cooked meat. He raised an eyebrow at the contraption one of the cooks had designed to try to smoke the meat quickly. Ingenious, but he wasn’t sure he would trust the meat not to spoil since it hadn’t gone through the normal salting and smoking process.

He picked up an empty food sack and filled it with a canteen, biscuits, dried fruit, and meat he hoped was dried the right way. No one seemed to pay him any mind. He was the Keep Mage’s son after all. Suitably prepared, he headed back up to his room to wait for twilight.

****

The unicorn herd stopped at the crest of the hill.

Jiline.
Gwyn called her and she urged her pony forward.
Do you know this village?

A flash of excitement went through her and she dismounted to crawl up the rest of the hill and look down. Somehow, the lead unicorn was also escaping detection by crouching down onto his stomach and stretching his head out to look over. She hadn’t spoken to him before and
immediately noticed how sharp his horn was.

She dragged her gaze away from him to look down at the valley below. The village was larger than her own. Fields stretched out all around it and as far south as the eye could see. Dots of people moved about in their evening activities.
Darkness came sooner in the winter. The majority of the fields summer and fall crops had been harvested judging by the dark earth, but a few had winter plants blooming.

She shook her head and glanced back at Gwyn who waited with Ginger. She bit her lip and looked around again. Small houses dotted the landscape. If the village was anything like hers, she knew there would be people who didn’t live within the village or surrounding fields. There could even be a house behind them. She doubted the unicorns wou
ldn’t have noticed it, but the thought made her nervous. Glancing around them, she crawled back down.

“No, but there could be people in the hills around us and past the village,” she whispered.

Our woods are on the other side of the village.

Her spirits raised. “How far?”

Many days.

Her good mood
dropped back down. “We should try to keep a wide berth around the village.”

That will add time to our journey.
A voice she didn’t recognize said, stepping up to Gwyn.

She bit her lip. It was up to the unicorns to decide where they went, but she would have thought they would want to avoid being seen by humans.
The mages might not know where they were or where they were going at the moment, but all it would take was a single unicorn sighting to have every mage in the land converging on them.

Gwyn lowered her head slightly.
Not a lot of time. It will attract unwanted attention for us to go through the village. Do we want to deal with human hunters following us? A skilled hunter could take one of us down as easily as a dark creature.

The other unicorn didn’t move at first, but then walked to the center of the herd.

“Gwyn?”

We will go around the village.

The herd backtracked a short way before heading north through the rolling hills. They moved more slowly than they had before. And they did travel for what seemed to be over an hour before they started edging west. Trees dotted the landscape over here. Not a forest, but possibly what had once been a small one before the village had been erected and the trees cut down for the buildings. The sun was starting to set when they drew parallel to the village marked by smoke streams rising in the sky. Jiline pulled out her cloak against the chill now that the sun no longer warmed her.

She worried over
Wilm and Madelen. Because of what she had done, Madelen’s name was ruined. Jiline might be able to disappear, but Madelen and Wilm didn’t know what had happened. And Madelen’s family. She unconsciously glanced over her shoulder toward the mountains.

Once the snow had melted the mages would come looking for the unicorns and her. How long would it take the mages to discover her hand in their escape? They might have known
from the beginning that she helped the unicorns. Would they go to Ainsley right away? Would they do something to Madelen’s family? And what of her own if they discovered it was not Madelen, but Jiline who had infiltrated the Keep and freed the unicorns?

She had to find a way to warn
Madelen and Wilm first. They were supposed to stay in the city until she contacted them. The unicorns were traveling away from the city as sure as they were traveling away from the mountains. Jiline didn’t know exactly where they were, but from the map she had seen at the Keep she was beginning to get a general idea of their location.

She couldn’t ask the unicorns to travel down away from the woods calling to them
just as she couldn’t fathom living with the unicorns for the rest of her natural life.