Unicorn Keep (2 page)

Grabbing a brush, she quickly got her coat shining as much as it would before slipping her harness on. Ready to go,
Jiline walked Fire out and led her toward where Kile had run off. Her father and Cayla and Kile waited for her. Cayla took hold of Fire to complete the hook up to the plow where her father had left it the night before.

Her job done,
she ran back to the barn passing Sussy and Kait in the vegetable garden. She would join her sisters after she finished up her barn chores.

2. THE PLAN

Tap, tap, tap.
Jiline peaked out. Her room was dark. Tap, tap, tap. Rolling over, she stared at her window. Tap, tap, tap. Someone was out there. She leaned forward to peer out. A figure was crouched. She couldn’t make out who it was in the darkness, but she opened the window without fear.

“Can you co
me out?”

It was
Madelen.

Jiline
crawled to the foot of her bed to grab her cloak and shove her feet into her boots. She glanced at her sleeping sisters. Somehow they hadn’t heard Madelen’s tapping. The room barely held the four small beds. Her father had made them special once Kait was born. She hesitated. Of course, they had probably figured Cayla would have been gone by now and Sussy should have been gone or preparing to leave.

Careful not to get her dirty boots on the blankets
, she slipped through the open window. Dropping to the ground, she slowly swung it shut. Madelen reached for her hand and they ran quietly around the house to the barn. The horses were still outside since summer was turning into fall. The nights were pleasantly cool at the moment, but it wouldn’t be long before they became cold and the rain and snow would pelt them. For now the horses enjoyed their nights outside. The girls went into one of the large stalls to hide behind the wall and sit on the dry grass currently stored there.

She
waited for Madelen to speak. Her friend was the quiet one of the two of them while she had a hard time muzzling in what she was thinking before blurting it out. A flaw which got her in trouble on more than one occasion.

“My parents couldn’t persuade them from taking me.”

Jiline put her arm around her friend’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. When must you leave?”

Her best friend was about to leave forever, she blinked a
s her eyes burned with unshed tears. Her stomach hurt at the thought, but she didn’t say anything else.

“Soon,”
Madelen whispered. “They left a letter with directions and a map with my parents. I’m supposed to reach the Keep before the harvest moon otherwise I’ll be locked out until spring from the snow.”

Madelen would hate being away from her family and Wilm.

She thought about what Wilm had said by the river. “What about the mayor? He couldn’t persuade them?”

Madelen
shook her head. “Wilm said he refused to speak on my behalf. Afraid of angering the mages.” She picked up a strand of grass hay and began to pick the flowers from it, her eyes darted to Jiline’s face and away.

She recognized the look. Madelen was holding something back.
“What is it?”

“You have to promise not to tell
.”

“Of course,”
she whispered.

“
Wilm wants me to run away with him when I’m supposed to go to the mages.”

She
bit her lip, surprised yet not surprised. It sounded like something Wilm would say and do. Her best friend would still be gone, but maybe she would be happy as long as she was with him.

“I told him he was being silly
,” Madelen whispered, shaking her head. “He doesn’t have a trade. I don’t have a trade. How would we live without support?”

Trust Madelen to look at the practicalities of the romantic suggestion, but she had a point.

“What did he say?”

“It isn’t important. If we had more time, he could go and learn a trade as he planned before we married. But no one in town is accepting apprentices. Not even his father could convince anyone.”

“Everyone has their own children to train.” It suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea what the mayor did except be mayor. He was the wealthiest man in town, but she didn’t know how he came to be.

“The plight of everyone
.” Madelen leaned against the wall. “So, I go to learn to be a keeper. If I’m lucky perhaps they won’t like me and I’ll be sent home. Wilm says he’ll wait for me.”

She leaned forward a little at the possibility.
“Sent home?”

“Not everyone who’s selected actually becomes a
unicorn keeper.” Madelen brushed some grass clinging to her skirt. “I’m not sure how. If I did, I could be certain to come home, but some people are sent away in the spring to return home.”

“You’re smart
. You can figure it out,” she reassured her, selfishly hoping her friend would find a way.

Tears
trickled down Madelen’s cheek and she shook her head. “You’re the smart one, Jilly, always have been. What if they figured out I was trying to go home? They act like I should be honored, but I’m not and I think she, Mage Daniah, knew how I felt. That was when she told us some children fail the final test and return home in shame.”

She grabbed Madelen’s hand and squeezed.
“It would only be shame if you wanted to be a keeper. You don’t want it.”

Madelen
shivered. “You didn’t hear the way she said it. It was a warning to me. I know it was.” She wiped at the tears with her other hand. “My parents tried to buy me back. They offered the mages everything, but apparently not enough. Burrt isn’t going. I wonder how much his parents gave them to keep him home. Burrt’s father couldn’t manage the wood cutting business without him.”

She
hesitated. Burrt had surprised her when the crystal had glowed. “Are you sure they bribed him?” He’d been a mean little boy always picking on the girls and playing pranks. She wouldn’t have considered him pure by any standard. “Maybe they realized the crystal made a mistake.”

“He’s not so bad now
.” Madelen laughed softly, obviously thinking the same thing.

She
shrugged. She figured it was only because he was so busy working with his father. He didn’t have time to pull tricks on anyone.

“
Wilm told me. Remember the mages are staying in their house. He saw Burrt’s father pass a bag to the mages who then said that Burrt wasn’t suitable for the task of keeper.”

“What about
Cris?” She knew the younger girl by sight, but had never formed a friendship with her.

“She’s going too, but her parents
are excited at the prospect.”

Like
her own parents. “My parents were hoping I would be selected.”

Madelen
drew back in surprise. “Why?”

She shook her head not wanting to reveal the details of the personal conversation she had listened in on. “My prospects aren’t as good as yours. No beau’s waiting in the wings. They’d ha
ve to send me pretty far to learn a trade. And here comes a trade offer right to the village.”

“Oh, I hadn’t real
ized.” Madelen leaned forward to wrap an arm around her to give them both a hug. They held the embrace for a moment. “Funny how you want to go and don’t get picked, I don’t want to go and do get picked.”

Jiline
wasn’t sure she would say she wanted to go, but she didn’t correct her friend’s misunderstanding. Madelen started crying again and she hugged her close. Her own heart hurting for her friend’s sorrow. It really wasn’t fair. How many girls in their village had the prospects Madelen had? None. Here she was no prospects at all stuck in Ainsley a burden to her family.

A completely impractical thought hovered on the edge of her mind.
“I wonder how many keepers they select?”

“Hmmm?”

“The Keep. How many days is it away from us?”

Madelen
shook her head. “Several days by horseback. Even longer on foot. I can’t ride very well so I’ll have to walk.”

“They don’t take you
with them?” she asked, wanting to confirm what Madelen had said earlier about the directions.

“The letter, remember, she said because of the sacrifices the families are making they know we need time to get things in order. I don’t think that’s the reason though.”

“What do you think the reason is?”

Madelen
shrugged. “Don’t know.”

She frowned.
“Were they returning to the Keep?”

Madelen
raised her head. “They didn’t say. What are you thinking?”

“I’m just wondering how many villages and cities they visit when looking for keepers.
” Her idea would hinge on them visiting and seeing a lot of children. “How many of us do you think they see and evaluate? They couldn’t remember everyone, right?”

“But they’d know if I didn’t come. They have a list of our names. I saw my name on it. If I ran away with
Wilm, what would they do to my family? I think they would do something. Not sending me wasn’t an option to them.”

“Hmmmm.”
She couldn’t help thinking that if people failed when they got to the Keep that the mages had to select a lot of children to come. How would they know who would pass the final test? Did a lot of them fail or just a few?

“I can only hope they find me wanting in some way. I don’t even like horses. You’d think they’d pick someone like you who can ride, train, and do everything with them.”

She almost laughed. An ability with animals had not been mentioned as a requirement. “They didn’t ask for the best rider, but the purest souls.”

Madelen
snorted. “You’re just as pure as I am. Whatever the heck that means.”

“Obviously not.”

“You’d probably like it.”

“What?”
Jiline released the hug and leaned against the wall.

“Being a keeper
. Taking care of the...unicorns.” She was quiet a moment. “The idea scares me. How do you take care of one? They could kill you so quickly. My parents have a book of creatures with a picture of one.”

Jiline
nodded, she’d looked through the book several times, fascinated by the color drawings of the marvelous creatures. Many of the animals hadn’t been seen in generations.

“Their horn looks very sharp and dangerous.”

“It’s only for protection, Mady,” Jiline reassured her. “You could hardly threaten them.”

“You know how you say I need to watch my feet when around my parent
’s horse?”

Jiline
nodded.

“That he might step on it by accident or even on purpose if he gets annoyed with me. What if the unicorns are like that? What if they just stab you by accident? What if they get annoyed at something you do? I don’t know a
retired keeper. Do you know a keeper? What if they’re all killed? That’s why the mages have to go so far from the Keep to find more keepers.”

Her voice rose with every sentence until she was sobbing again.
Jiline put her arm back around her and hugged her close, alarmed by her friend’s rising hysterics. She’d never seen her like this. Madelen was the practical, calm one.

The niggling idea at the back of her mind sprang forward.
“You don’t have to go.”

“But—”

“No, you’ll go with Wilm.” She spoke fast before she could talk herself out of her sudden scheme. “You’ll leave for the Keep just as expected. Wilm can head off for his apprenticeship. You two will meet up and go together.”

“But they’ll know I didn’t come.”

“No, they won’t.” She took a deep breath. The plan would not only help her friends, but benefit her family as well. “I’ll go in your place.”

“The crystal didn’t glow for you.”

“We’ll just have to hope they don’t have a giant crystal at the entrance or if they do they’ll just assume that I, Madelen, did something between today and then that ruined my soul.”

Madelen
turned her head to stare directly at her. “You’ll go as me?”

“Of co
urse, I can’t go as me. My name isn’t written on that parchment.” She brushed Madelen’s hair out of her face with her fingertips. “You know how everyone always jokes we look more alike than different. How we could almost be twins?”

“You’re my best friend, if they discovered our deceit...”

“They won’t. They won’t remember me from today. I’ll be you and you’ll be me.” The plan solidified in her head and became more possible with each passing second. “I’ll tell my parents I learned of an apprenticeship for myself. They’ll be happy to see me go. Wilm will go to the apprenticeship he’s been waiting on. I’ll travel with him for safety. You’ll go to the Keep. We’ll meet on the trail. You become me and go with Wilm.”

“I don’t know how to do anything,”
Madelen protested.

She
shook her head. “It doesn’t matter if there’s really an apprenticeship. It’s in the city, right?” She vaguely remembered Madelen mentioning his apprenticeship back when Wilm’s offer had been finalized.

“Yes.”

“So, you’ll find a job as a housemaid or nanny.”

Madelen
raised an eyebrow. As the future wife of the future mayor of their town, housemaid and nanny had not been in her career prospects.

She brought h
er rushing thoughts to a stop and looked seriously at her friend. “How badly do you want to be with Wilm?”