Castle Avamir

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

For all the daydreamers …

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First Aladdin Paperbacks edition August 2003

Kathleen Duey

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
New York London Toronto Sydney

Text copyright © 2003 by Kathleen Duey

Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Omar Rayyan

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster
Children's Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Also available in an Aladdin Library edition.

Designed by Debra Sfetsios

The text of this book was set in Golden Cockerel ITC.

Printed in the United States of America

6 8 10 9 7 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-689-85372-2 (ISBN-10: 0-689-85372-6)
eISBN-13: 978-1-439-10883-3

The Library of Congress Control Number for the Library Edition is 2003102697

T
he Gypsies have struggled over the wintry High Road into Lord Levin's lands. Spring rains are finally melting the snow. Moonsilver and Heart walk apart from the Gypsies. Strangers think Moonsilver is a lord's mount because of the fancy armor that hides his horn. In every village, every town, Heart asks about Castle Avamir. No one has ever heard of it.

H
eart wiped a raindrop from the tip of her nose.

She pulled her cloak tighter and shivered.

Davey's wagon was stuck fast.

Its wheels were half buried in mud.

Davey sat on the driver's bench.

The reins were loose in his hands. His jacket and shirt were dark with rainwater. His trousers were mud stained.

The horses were nervous and he was singing to them.

Heart brushed at her own clothes, then at Moonsilver's armor. The boots Josepha had given her were caked in mud.
Everything
was.

“We need a hand!” Binney was shouting. “Davey's stuck.”

Groans rose from the long line of Gypsy wagons.

Heart made a face. Every muscle in her body was sore.

They had been struggling against the weather since they had left Bidenfast.

Usually, Binney said, they made it to Lord Kaybale's sheltered valleys before the worst storms hit. Not this year.

Winter in Lord Levin's mountains had been long and cruel.

They had spent months huddled in the crowded wagons.

The cold didn't seem to bother Moonsilver or Avamir. It was terrible for everyone else.

Zim had been sick for weeks, sniffling and coughing. The horses shivered and stood close together. Kip slept inside Binney's wagon, curled in a ball so tight his tail covered his ears.

The snow storms finally stopped.

Then the rains had begun.

The streams had turned into deep torrents of dark, muddy water.

There was a low, distant rumble of thunder. “Not much chance we'll sleep dry tonight,” Talia called. She pointed at the dark clouds overhead. “Looks like another storm.”

Heart glanced up. “It has to clear up sometime.”

Talia grinned. “The sooner the better.”

Heart didn't answer. She was sick of the cold, of the wet, of the wagons being so crammed with people every evening that she couldn't read or practice writing.

Tibbs had left behind a whole packet of paper.

Heart had found a hawk's feather to make a quill pen.

She knew her writing wasn't very good yet.

She could barely read it.

But she was determined to improve.

“I miss our campfires,” Talia said. “None of us has practiced reading since Tibbs left. Not even you.”

Heart nodded unhappily. It was true.

She hadn't told the Gypsies about Moonsilver healing Lord Irmaedith, or the storybook he had given her, and only Zim knew about Lord
Dunraven's. So she had to keep them hidden.

She wanted to tell Binney everything.

But it was forbidden for commoners to have books. And one of the books in her carry-sack had been taken from Lord Dunraven's castle.

If she got caught, Heart didn't want the Gypsies to get into trouble too.

“Maybe Gypsies just aren't supposed to learn to read,” Talia said.

Heart glanced at her. “Everyone should learn.”

Talia laughed. “The Lords of the Lands surely don't agree with that. I wonder why.”

“They don't want people to know the old stories,” Heart said slowly. This was something she had thought about a lot. “They want to keep all kinds of things secret.”

Talia arched her brows. “Why?”

Heart wasn't quite sure why, but she knew it was true.

“We're set!” Binney shouted.

Heart sighed.

Talia frowned.

Kip whined, a high-pitched, unhappy sound.

Heart leaned down to pat his head. “Stay here.”

Slogging through the mud, Heart and Talia joined the line of people getting ready to help.

Binney and Zim had worked a rope around the back of the wagon.

Heart found a place between Talia and Josepha.

She wiped her hands on her cloak for a better grip.

On the opposite side of the mud mire another line was forming. They would hold the other end of the rope.

Four men pulled off their boots.

They rolled up their trousers.

Then they waded into the mud.

The men lined up shoulder to shoulder, their hands flat against the wagon gate.

“Ready?” Binney shouted.

Heart nodded along with everyone else.

Davey stood up on the footrest.

The horses leaned into their harness collars. They knew what to do.

“Ready?” Binney yelled. “One, two … THREE!”

“Pull!” Davey urged his horses. “PULL!”

Heart leaned backward, digging her boot heels into the muddy earth. She could hear people groaning with effort.

The men behind the wagon were bent almost double, their heads down as they strained to push.

“Yah!” Davey shouted at the horses. “You can do it!”

Heart heaved at the rope.

Her hands hurt. She pulled harder anyway.

Finally, a wet, squelching sound made her glance up. The wheels were coming free!

She gritted her teeth and pulled harder, along with everyone else.

The wagon lurched forward. Heart stumbled backward as the rope went slack. Talia staggered, trying to keep her balance.

Binney lifted her head. “Hurrah! There is no mud puddle too fierce for us!”

Heart heard quiet laughter on all sides.

“You are all heroes!” Binney raised her arms like an acrobat landing a back flip. “You are the conquerors of mud and drizzle!”

The laughter came again. Heart smiled. Binney reminded her of Ruth Oakes. They would be good Mends if ever they met.

Suddenly the bracelet on Heart's wrist tightened.

Startled, Heart pushed up her cloak to stare at the woven silver threads.

Sometimes it seemed like the bracelet tightened to warn her of danger.

But nothing was wrong….

The woods were still, except for the sound of the falling rain.

The Gypsies were all smiling, trudging back to their wagons.

Avamir and Moonsilver were walking calmly toward her.

Kip trotted with them, his ears plastered flat with rainwater. Heart pulled her cloak close around her shoulders.

T
he next two days, it rained steadily. Then it thinned to a constant sprinkle again.

“Ah!” Binney called out one morning. “I smell hearth smoke! Hickory Creek is over that hill!” She reined in her horses and pointed.

The whole line of wagons stopped.

The Gypsies cheered.

Heart frowned.

She pulled her carry-sack higher onto her shoulder.

Once they passed through Hickory Creek, they would be on their way out of the mountains.

What if the castle was just a story? What if she never found her family?

Binney was grinning. “We'll stock up on food,
then be off down the mountains onto Lord Kaybale's sunny plains.”

Then, for the first time in days, the pattering rain stopped. Surprised, laughing, the Gypsies cheered again.

Zim waved at Heart. “Shall we put Moonsilver in the wagon so you can walk with us?”

Heart shook her head.

The wagons skidded and slewed in the slick mud. It scared Moonsilver to be locked inside one.

Zim nodded. “We'll camp outside the village. There's an old barn there we always use.”

“I'll join you there after dark,” Heart said. “I want to go into town to ask questions.”

Zim shook rainwater out of his cloak.

Heart looked down the road. “Castle Avamir has to be somewhere, Zim.”

He reached out and touched her cheek. “It might just be a legend, Heart—a campfire tale.”

“Like unicorns?” she teased.

Zim laughed aloud. “Come back in time for supper,” he said.

Heart reached out to touch Avamir's neck. “Go with them. You'll get out of the rain much sooner.”

The mare shook her sodden mane, flinging a spray of rainwater into the air.

Avamir breathed against Heart's cheek, then Moonsilver's. Then she turned and broke into a canter.

Kip whined. He knew exactly what was going on.

“Go ahead,” Heart said. “Stay with Avamir.”

Heart watched Kip tear down the road. She slowed her step. Moonsilver stayed with her. They let the wagons get way ahead of them. Soon the Gypsies were nearly out of sight.

Heart patted Moonsilver's shoulder. She was so grateful for Joseph Lequire's gift. It was a grand disguise. The silvery armor he had made covered Moonsilver's back and sides.

And it hid his horn.

He looked like a nobleman's horse, not a unicorn.

He could pass through any town and be safe now. So far it had worked perfectly.

Heart pushed back the hood of her cloak.

Beneath it she was still wearing Gypsy clothes.

Moonsilver's disguise was perfect.

Hers was not.

Heart had a little money from playing her flute. But villages and small towns didn't have tailor's shops.