Unicorn Keep (8 page)

Breaking into a run, she headed toward the third wood she had been led to the night before. A glint of white told her she was heading in the right direction. This time three unicorns waited for her a
t the ancient tree.

She stumbled to a stop and tried to catch her breath as she waited. None of them spoke right away.

“I’m here.”

We see that
. The new unicorn said. They all had distinctive voices.
She doesn’t have enough power
.

I’ve hidden it
.

The new unicorn stared at the unicorn colt
, who looked away.

You sure she can break the barrier
.

The unicorn colt raised his head back up.
Yes.

The new unicorn nodded his head slightly.
Very well
.

With a swirl, the new unicorn flitted through the woods and was gone. Leaving the two original unicorns with her.

“Break what barrier?”

The help I referred to last night
.

“Oh
.” That didn’t really explain anything to her. “What did you hide?”

Your magic from the mages. It was how the crystal didn’t pick it up.

“Why does it glow if it doesn’t pick up magic?” She would think it would glow if it sensed magic.

They did originally. The mages changed it’s chemistry to make it appear the crystal is choosing someone when it is actually eliminating who they don’t want coming to the Keep.

“But they have magic.”

The older unicorn took over explaining.
Most of you do. Very few people are born without a spark of magic. Your mages have learned to grow the spark.

The unicorn colt snorted.
Steal is more like it.

They grew
their spark to become powerful enough to imprison us and steal our magic.

“Imprison? But I thought the Keep was built to protect you?”

The unicorn mare stepped closer to Jiline so she could look in her eye.
A lie. The valley is our prison. They use our own magic to keep us within the mountain walls. We cannot break them. The more we push at it the stronger it gets.

Jiline
gazed at the mare in horror as images of the unicorns’ confinement for nearly two hundred years flowed through her. “I’m sorry.”

You are not responsible,
Jiline. My son seems to feel you can help us break the barrier.

“But how?” If the unicorns with all of their magic couldn’t break a magical barrier, how was she supposed to?

The barrier is tied to us. A human mage can break it.
The unicorn colt said.
There is a spot where the barrier is weak. A trail the mages don’t know of. The barrier is strongest where we can physically leave and weaker where nothing can actually climb from the valley.

“The Keep?”

The unicorn colt shook his head.
The Keep itself is a physical barrier. We could attempt to climb the cliff and go through the castle, but they would erect a magical barrier before we could.

“I still don’t know how I
’m supposed to help you.” And she wanted to help them. The tears still gathered in her eyes from the unicorns’ sorrow the mare had allowed her to feel.

You will break the barrier for us.

“But I’m not—”

The mare spoke again.
No, you are not a mage yet, but with our help you can become one. It will take some time. But what is a few months after hundreds of years of waiting. The danger will be to you. If the mages discover what we are doing they will kill you.

Jiline
shook her head trying to wrap her mind around everything she was learning. The killing part didn’t really register, it was the becoming a mage that she found hard to believe.

The choice must be yours.

The unicorn colt snorted in protest. The mare swung her horn at him.

The choice is hers. You will not compel her.
The mare swung her head back toward Jiline and blew softly over her face.
The choice is yours. We will not force you or harm you if you choose to remain a keeper the rest of your life. Think until the quarter moon. Return then if you will help us.

8. CHOICES

Herrick
hid in the alcove and watched the trainees file by. The large group split into two. He examined Madelen as she walked by. Dark circles under her eyes. He had no interest in attracting her or any of the trainees attention. His mother was right. He was pathetic. Madelen had passed the test. She was a non-magic. Yet, he still felt the draw. He scuffed his boots on the old stone floor once they had passed him and emerged into the hallway.

He couldn’t explain what he felt toward her. The protective instincts when she
went down into the valley had been more than casual interest as his mother insisted. He needed to put her out of his mind. It wasn’t like he had nothing to do but follow her around like a little puppy. He had his own training to see to.

The mage level was at the top of
the Keep and boasted several full windows that looked out over the valley. Not that it did them much good beyond the view. A flash of white here or there. The unicorns were not happy. As far as Herrick could tell, they were never happy.

The keepers were having to stay on their toes to prevent any
mishaps. He knocked sharply on his tutor’s door and waited.

“Enter!” a voice boomed out.

Herrick heeded his command and pushed the door open. Mage Lionel’s blue eyes were steady on Herrick as he entered.

“I leave in a week’s time if you would like to accompany me,” Lionel said, setting out the workings of a complicated potion for
Herrick to mix and execute.

Herrick
met Lionel’s gaze. His mother at work again? “My mother’s command?”

Lionel didn’t look away, but his smile turned to a frown. “I spoke with your mother this morning and she felt it would be
beneficial for you to not be confined to the Keep all winter. There is plenty of the world for you still to see, Herrick.”

“I know there is.
” He carefully kept his emotions concealed. Something he had learned to do very early on and normally didn’t worry so much about. “I’m honored by your invitation to join you, Mage Lionel, but I plan on remaining at the Keep.”

Lionel nodded. “It is your choice, but the invitation is open should you change your mind.”

Herrick ground his teeth in irritation before stepping up to the table to identify the spell Lionel had laid out for him. He cataloged the ingredients, but his focus wasn’t really on his task and he turned back to Lionel.

“Mage
Brennah need not worry over me.”

“She’s a mother. Mother’s worry.”

Herrick narrowed his eyes and wondered just how much she had confided in Lionel. He knew their relationship had progressed past colleagues while he was gone for the summer. The difference in the way they looked at each other had been clear to him.

“Have you ever felt a draw, Lionel?”

Lionel frowned and dropped his gaze first. “No, Mage Herrick, I haven’t.”

He was surprised by Lionel’s answer. The man was easily forty years. Probably older. “My mother
seems to think every mage has a match and will have a draw if only exposed to each other.”

Lionel shrugged. “You can love another without a draw influencing you. Personally
, I’ve never wanted a draw. I prefer to be the master of my own fate. The draw gives another person too much influence over your destiny.”

****

Jiline rubbed her eyes. The hand-drawn pictures in the book in front of her were beginning to blur. It was several hours after dinner and her group was studying late, again. She closed her eyes a moment and then forced them open to look at the picture of a unicorn battling some sort of dog creature.

They
studied the lore of the unicorns in the evening. Well, the unicorns and the creatures who would harm them if the opportunity arose. The unicorn keepers had to be able to recognize the creatures themselves as well as the signs of when one of them was near. She hadn’t realized how many other animals and beings the Keep protected the unicorns from. Of course, the unicorns didn’t feel that way.

Mistress Marta cleared her throat. “It is getting late. All of you are excused to sleep. We have another long day tomorrow.”

Jiline closed the book and carefully shelved it in its place. She turned to leave, but stopped at the moon chart hanging on the wall and frowned. Three days. The quarter moon would rise in three days and she needed to give the unicorns her answer then.

“Madelen.”

Jiline jumped and turned. Mistress Marta waited in the doorway. All of the other unicorn keeper trainees had left. She hurried forward and bowed her head as she passed. She walked back to her room alone, but the room was full of many girls. None of the other girls seemed to notice her entering. Keeping her head down, she straight-lined it to her bed against the wall.

Sab
rine bumped her as she passed the girl’s bed. Jiline was pretty sure she had tried to trip her, but missed. The crabby girl’s antagonism had risen steadily in the last couple of days. She gritted her teeth to keep herself from demanding Sabrine tell her what her problem was. It was getting more and more difficult to ignore Sabrine and her little tricks. But she didn’t want to draw any extra attention to herself. She got ready for bed as quickly as she could and slipped under her blanket just as the mage lights blinked off.

I
n the dark, she stared at the ceiling, willing herself to go to sleep. The room was silent. She should have been able to fall asleep. She was exhausted, but her head wouldn’t stop spinning with the unicorns and the decision she had to make in three days. Unable to silence the thoughts, she tossed her blanket back and sneaked out of her room despite not needing to go down to the unicorns.

Instead
, she headed for the stable. She didn’t have an answer for the unicorns and worried a few days wouldn’t give her any more clarity than she already felt. The stable was quiet. The rows of stalls stretched out before her. Brody had brought Ginger outside a few times when they had been training in front of the Keep for Jiline to say hello, but she hadn’t been inside the barn since she arrived.

She walked down the long building peering into each stall where a horse didn’t already look out. She had been quiet when she entered and most appeared to be sleeping.

At last she found Ginger about halfway down and clucked softly to her pony before letting herself in. Ginger nickered sleepily at her and waddled closer. The mare was starting to get fat. Too much good food and not enough exercise. She glanced around the stable. The majority of the horses seemed to fit that description. How many of the horses belonged to trainees and keepers? They never had a moment to ride or do anything but train or work as far as she had seen.

The keepers who hadn’t passed the valley test were
all still here. She scratched Ginger under her chin. Why hadn’t they been sent home? They had failed the test. Narrowing her eyes, she knew the answer. They were being trained to keep the Keep in motion. It had to be cleaned, food prepared, rooms for the guests made, even Brody had come as a trainee from the few words they had shared.

Her eyes weighed heavily on her and she kissed Ginger on her nose before hurrying back to the dorm room. She fell into a deep slumber until the bell rung first thing in the morning.

Another day of physical training followed with her least favorite activity, climbing. She hadn’t caught up on her sleep and knew she was dragging. It didn’t help that she kept catching flashes of Herrick watching, distracting her away from the ropes.

She hated climbing. Trees were bad enough, but to climb hand over hand up a rope deep into a tree was
impossible for her. Mistress Marta clucked, disappointed in her attempts and excused her back to climbing the two trees which had branches low enough to jump up and grab.

She fared a little better and was able to at least get more than a few feet off the ground. They took their lunch outside underneath the torture devices
before continuing to climb the rest of the afternoon. Jiline’s body ached and where it didn’t ache it was numb. Her hands had reached a point of numbness where she couldn’t feel the blisters and cuts covering them.

****

She waited an hour past lights out before slipping out again. She thought about visiting Ginger, but instead went to the library. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for exactly, but she had more questions than answers. The unicorns had told her they had been imprisoned by the mages about two hundred years ago.

None of the volumes in the library she had seen were that old. Trailing her finger down the books
, she stopped at a stack of scrolls and picked one up and unwound it revealing a drawing of a suitably disgusting creature with four arms, sharp teeth, and one eye, one of the many she was supposed to watch out for as a keeper. Did the unicorns not know or had they forgotten about all the beings who were still trying to get at them because it had been two hundred years?

What if she helped them and the
monsters took down the unicorns to steal their magic? Everyone wanted the unicorn magic, even the honored guests who visited here. They came to the Keep because the spells the mages cast here were more potent and powerful than anywhere else. It had to be the unicorn’s magic which influenced it.

She went back to her room
uncertain of what she had hoped to find, but she returned to the library the following night after lights out. A decision had to be made. She would need to return to the unicorns’ valley tomorrow night to tell them.

She stepped carefully around the quiet room. H
er feet had blisters on them to match the ones on her hands, from running all day today, climbing the day before, but that was the life of a unicorn keeper according to Mistress Marta. Jiline was thinking it really wasn’t much fun despite the honor. She walked directly to the scrolls she had discovered last night. Pulling several out, she sat at a table and began to study them. If only one of them contained the information she needed to make her decision.

****

The quarter moon was high in the clear night sky. It illuminated the path down to the valley enough for her to not trip over a giant boulder. She carefully picked her way down. She didn’t allow herself to pause when she reached the valley floor, but raced toward the first strip of trees. Hopefully, the unicorns were expecting her and were distracting the keepers away from where she was.

Even with the hood of her cloak pulled over her head, she worried over someone spotting and recognizing her.
Now that she knew the techniques of the keepers she didn’t pause at the edge of the first strip of trees. Keepers kept to the trees. Better to stay moving. She curved left when she reached the second meadow going toward where she had met the unicorns before.

A flash of white
let her know she was going in the right direction. Keeping her face tilted down, she met the two unicorns next to the ancient tree.

Their voices didn’t fill her head as they had before and she bit her lip and looked from the unicorn colt to the unicorn mare.

“I want to help.”

I told you she would say yes.
The unicorn colt was almost gleeful.

You must be sure, Jiline of Ainsley
. The unicorn mare said with caution.
You will have to leave everything you know behind if you assist us. The mages will strike back against whoever helps us. You can’t stay here, but will need to leave with us.

She hadn’t considered leaving with the unicorns
when they escaped, but she supposed helping them was one way to fail at being a keeper. She took a deep breath.

“How do I help?”

The unicorn colt stepped closer.
You’ll break the barrier for us
.

Her momentary burst of confidence quickly deflated. They expected her to break the magical barrier surrounding the valley.

Not break, exactly.
The unicorn mare said.

“But how can I?”

The magic is within you.

They had mentioned this magic to her before, but she still had a hard time believing that even if she had magic within her that it was enough to take down something as massive as the barrier.

The unicorn colt tossed his head.
Do not doubt yourself, Jiline. I know you can do it.

B
oth of the unicorns pivoted suddenly, their ears pricked forward. The unicorn colt turned his head back toward her.

A keeper approaches quickly. You must return to the Keep before he spots you.