Unicorn Keep (5 page)

5. MAGICAL DRAW

The final keeper trainee had a
rrived. Herrick watched the father as he kissed and hugged his young daughter. It was unusual for a parent to escort a trainee to the Keep. Not unheard of, but unusual enough to be an irritant to Mistress Marta. She refused the father admittance to the Keep and insisted they say goodbye outside.

Herrick rolled his eyes as he turned away. A trainee keeper hovered just at th
e entrance of the hall. Madelen’s gaze was focused on the open door or the people outside. His stomach flipped as he took in the sight of her. He didn’t think she saw him judging by the way she leaned against the doorway, her body hidden from anyone inside the hall.

He
had only seen Madelen in passing since leading her up the trail. But he’d developed the habit of searching for her face whenever he passed by the trainees in the hall. They hadn’t reached the point where they would be allowed to mingle with the mages or the Keep’s guests yet. Still learning the hundreds of rules that kept the Keep operating.

Madelen
suddenly darted away. He took a single step to follow her, but paused. He had been doing that on more than one occasion when he caught sight of Madelen. The door creaked behind him. He glanced over his shoulder as Mistress Marta led the new trainee in and shut the door behind her. She paused when she saw Herrick in the hall.

She curtsied. “May I be of assistance, sir?”

He still hadn’t gotten used to Marta calling him sir. Didn’t matter that he had reached full mage status last winter. He remembered her constant scoldings over the years all too clearly. The small child peeked around Marta to look at him.

He smiled at her. “
No, thank you, Mistress Marta. Passing through.”

Pivoting
on his heel, he headed down the hallway Madelen had sprinted down. He suppressed the urge to quicken his step and glanced in the massive kitchen. She was there with several other trainees helping to prepare the evening meal to serve. He hovered in the doorway, watching.

The head cook noticed him first, but Herrick shook his head before she came over. She sent the trainees out the other door to set up the dinin
g room. He followed behind them walking over to the giant fireplace which was yet to be lit for the evening meal. He could feel the trainees’ eyes on his back, but he didn’t know if Madelen was one of them secreting glances in his direction.

Someone had laid the kindling and wood within the hearth. It only needed a spark to ignite. Holding one hand below the mantel,
he mouthed the fire spell and concentrated on transferring the heat from his body to the kindling. The wood smoked and crackled. The fire sparked to life. A trainee dropped something behind him.

He knew he shou
ldn’t be amused by the reaction but he was. Bracing his hand on the mantel, he angled sideways so he could watch them without blatantly staring. Madelen had her back to him as she picked up whatever she had dropped. By her position, he couldn’t be sure if she had even noticed his little burst of magic.

He dropped his gaze back to the fire and w
atched the flames dance. Why had he wanted her to notice? He’d followed her in here and then flexed his magical muscles to impress her. His eyes moved without thought to follow her movements throughout the room. She was completely oblivious to his presence. Maybe a little too oblivious.

She
twisted and pushed her long brown hair over her shoulder, a habit he’d already memorized. Yet, despite her irritation at having her hair in her face, he hadn’t seen her tie it back. She leaned over to set a fruit centerpiece in the middle of the table. Her green eyes lifted and met his. Her brows were drawn together. In anger, confusion, he wasn’t sure what. They smoothed out as she straightened, a more familiar expression on her face. The same cautious, ready-to-bolt expression she had worn during their journey up the mountain.

He looked away from her this time. He shouldn’t be watching her
. She was a keeper in training. The rules between mages and unicorn keepers were very clear. No fraternization allowed. The rules of relations with the house keepers were a lot less strident, but he didn’t yet know what type of keeper Madelen would be.

Any sort of relations between him and Madelen
at this point would be completely inappropriate. It didn’t matter, now that he admitted it to himself, how beguiling he found her. He had to stop following her around. The thought solid in his mind, he forced himself to leave the dining room and head toward the main stairs which would take him to the mage level.

He had been following her around. Why hadn’t he realized what he was doing? He jogged up the stairs and entered the magic training room. He was normally soothed by the soft light and herbal smells emanating throughout the room, but it didn’t do the trick this time. He paced across the room to stare out one of the small windows overlooking the unicorn valley.

The view didn’t ease his anxiety either. After a moment, he turned away and moved over to the bookcase. He jerked a well-worn volume out, but didn’t open it right away. He had only read the book once before, a study assignment two years ago. The small book contained many variations of love potions. But it wasn’t the spells which interested him. He needed to study the section on magical draws and mage courtships.

****

It had been nearly three weeks since Jiline arrived at the Keep. Not that she was counting the days. Okay, she was, but only because she would have thought someone would have discovered her lack of purity by now. She wasn’t popular with the other trainees or the keepers.

Sabrine, one of the three she had passed on the trail, seemed to be making it her mission to alienate her from everyone.
It didn’t help that they were both assigned to the same dormitory room along with eight other girls. And they all liked Sabrine just fine, but continuously gave her the cold shoulder.

She shouldn’t care since she wanted to get kicked out, but she
did. The one person who would probably be her friend was the one person she studiously had to avoid. Cris. It had been two days since she had spotted Cris and her father arriving. So far, it had been relatively easy to only see Cris from afar. In completely different age brackets, the only time she was in the same room with Cris was at the evening meal and they sat on opposite ends of the table.

Cris waved whenever she saw her and she did the same. She was fairly certain, Cris believed she was Madelen. Seeing what she expected to see.
Thankfully, Burrt’s parents had bought his freedom, he would have known instantly she was Jiline not Madelen.

She filed into the dining hall with her group of trainees. All of the groups of trainees were present. The nervous energy in the room was high. It wasn’t the evening meal and they were all present in the same room. She
tapped her toe on the stone floor softly to try to keep still. With each passing day she was becoming more and more anxious. She couldn’t figure out how to flunk out of keeper training. The more mistakes and blunders she made the more tasks they piled on her. She was tired of pretending to be a klutz.

Mage
Brennah entered. They all sat up taller. The other five mages, including Herrick, came in behind her. His gaze caught hers instantly and she dropped her eyes to her lap. They hadn’t spoken since the day she had arrived, yet he always sought her out. She didn’t know why.

She carefully looked anywhere but at him and caught sight of Sabrine poking
her friend in the side. The two girls shared a smile and smirked at Jiline. She was sure Sabrine had told everyone about she and Herrick arriving together. She also had a strong feeling that wasn’t all Sabrine had said judging by the other trainee reactions when Herrick appeared.

“Today is your first test
,” Mage Brennah said.

The room instantly became silent.
Jiline’s stomach twisted.

Mage
Brennah’s expression was fierce. “And your most dangerous test. We have taught you about the valley the unicorns live in. We have taught you about the Keep. But now you will learn the purpose of the unicorn keepers. You will go down into the valley for the first time and seek out a unicorn.”

Her
breath caught in her throat as fear seized her. But she wasn’t pure. Would the unicorns attack her?

“Now it is up to the unicorns to judge whether you have what it takes to be a keeper. Those of you who pass the test will care for the unicorns as the Keep winters. Those of you who don’t pass the test.
..” She shrugged. “Some of you may be returning home with the first winter frost.”

So this was her way out.
She had to fail the unicorn test.

“Be warned, the unicorns can be harsh judges.”

She just had to stay alive while she failed.

The mages left the room in a swirl of robes and Mistress Marta entered. The table erupted into nervous chatter as they rose and filed out of the dining room to head down a hallway which had been off limits
to them before. Now, the doors stood open.

****

Herrick watched Madelen as she filed out with the rest and suppressed the urge to snatch her. A trainee hadn’t been killed in a very long time, but the possibility was there. His feelings for her were growing stronger with each passing day, but were completely inappropriate. His mother paused as she was about to walk by and watched the last of the trainees leave.

“What disturbs you, son?”
Brennah asked.

He hesitated in telling her. He had kept his feelings
to himself for the first couple of weeks. But he could no longer deny his growing agitation at her being in the training program. He clicked his teeth together.

“Come,”
Brennah commanded and they followed the trainees path down to the valley.

But they stopped. The mages never went farther than the protection of this overlook. The unicorns might allow the trainees to live, but they would never tolerate the mages inside their sacred domain.
Brennah leaned forward on the railing, her gaze following the path of the trainees as they stumbled and slid down the steep trail. Two proven keepers led the way down to the base of the valley.

The unicorns had yet to show themselves. A scrying mirror was of no use. The
unicorns’ magic blocked any seeing spell. All you would see was fog in the mirror.

He
tried to keep Madelen’s figure in sight, but she was already heading off on her own. He ground his teeth again.

“
Herrick?”

Her tone was clear. She wouldn’t tolerate his silence much longer.

“One of the trainees,” he hesitated. She nodded her head in encouragement. “I have feelings for her.”

Brennah
’s eyes widened a fraction, before narrowing. “Have you been dallying with a trainee?”

H
is mother might be the most powerful mage within the Keep, but he still glared at her in spite of the fact that she could send him flying to the valley floor with a single gesture.

“No, I
’ve stayed away from her.”

She frowned. “The girl you rode in with?”

He looked back at where he had seen Madelen last and quickly scanned the grassy areas. She had gone into the forest. Stupid girl. She was actually going to hunt out a unicorn instead of waiting like the others. Only a few had ventured into the woods, most moved nervously about the small meadow. They didn’t realize and hadn’t been told that the majority of the unicorn meadows were past the tree lines.

“Yes.”

“What is her name?”

“
Madelen.” But her name sounded wrong on his lips. It had the moment she had told him, but her gaze had been steady then. Now, she wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“She’s pretty,” his mother said thoughtfully.

He nearly rolled his eyes. There were plenty of pretty girls within the Keep. Many of the male mages dallied with them if they were house keepers instead of unicorn keepers. The mages never told anyone that very few of their recruits actually cared for the valley or the unicorns. The majority of the keepers cared for the mages and the Keep itself. It needed a small army to run efficiently.

He thought he saw her emerge on the other side of the woods, but he couldn’t be certain. He didn’t realize how much he was straining to see her until his mother put her arm around him.

“You must stop thinking of her.”

He sighed, but couldn’t tear his gaze away. It had to be her, she was striding bravely through the meadow to another line of trees. Stupid girl. Don’t confront the unicorns. “I
have tried to put her out of my mind.”

“Try harder.”

A growl rumbled deep in his chest. “I want her.”

His mother’s arm loosened and she was quiet a moment. “You feel
a draw to her?”

“Yes.”

His mother shook her head. “But she is a potential keeper. A mage cannot be drawn to a keeper in that way. You know this.”

“I
know. I didn’t say it made sense.”

“A mage can only be drawn to a mage.” She suddenly straightened in alarm. “If she has magic in her, the unicorns will kill her.”