Unicorn Keep (9 page)

9. FALSELY ACCUSED

Obeying the unicorn colt’s command, Jiline sprinted back through the woods and meadows to the trail. She scrambled up, worried she wasn’t quick enough. It would be just her luck to be caught now. But no shouts rang out. Ducking inside the gate, she stopped and leaning forward, her hands braced against her knees, attempted to catch her breath.

Only a few mage lights flickered, barely illuminating the hallway. Not that she needed the illumination. She had snuck around enough in the shadowy darkness to know her way back to her room with her eyes closed.
Her breathing finally evened out and she headed quietly back down the hall toward the dormitory rooms. She had to be especially careful as she passed the entrance to the main hall. But all was quiet.

“I knew it,”
a voice said behind her.

She spun. Not as quiet as she had thought. Sabrine stood in the hallway just behind her. She had no idea where the girl had come from.

“Sabrine,” she said, trying to think of something to say. She looked past her for anyone else who might be with her.

“I know you sneak out to visit him,” Sab
rine snarled. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Defiling yourself in that way. You were chosen to be a keeper.” She pushed her shoulder and stalked past. “And yet you go to Herrick nightly.”

Jiline
froze in panic before running after Sabrine to grab her arm and stop her.

“Don’t touch me, you’re disgusting,” Sab
rine said. “I’m telling Mistress Marta and she’ll kick you out as you deserve. You might have them fooled, but I’ve always seen right through you.”

“Sa
brine, it isn’t what you think.” She hunted quickly for a lie and spotted the library door. “I’ve been studying. Being a unicorn keeper isn’t as easy as you seem to think it is.”

Sab
rine shook her head. “Do you think I’m stupid? We all see the way Herrick watches you.” She sniffed loudly. “It’s perverted.”

“I can’t help that.”
She had no idea what Sabrine was talking about. Yes, she noticed Herrick watching her when she couldn’t avoid him, but he was frowning in suspicion not leering in lust. “Besides, he watches everyone.” Didn’t he?

“No.
” Sabrine crossed her arms. “He only has eyes for you.”

She
blinked at the jealous tone in Sabrine’s voice. “You like him, don’t you?”

Sab
rine stepped back, her eyes flitting away from Jiline. “No!”

“You do
.” She grabbed onto the feeling with certainty. “Did you offer yourself to him and he rejected you?”

She had seen a
girl house keeper flirting with one of the male mages. It didn’t take a genius to know what they had gone to do when they had slipped out of sight. Sabrine spun back around to march down the hallway.

Herrick
stepped into Sabrine’s path. “It’s long past curfew.”

Sabrine shot a triumphant look at
her and grinned. Great, there was nothing she could say which would dissuade the girl now. Despite Sabrine’s sharp tongue with her, all she did was curtsy quickly to Herrick and run back toward the dormitory. Jiline should have been as quick, because she found herself alone with the one person who suspected the magic the unicorns had hidden within her. Their warning of what the mages would do should they discover her deceit rang loudly in her head.

Herrick
’s eyes narrowed and he stepped back. “You shouldn’t be wandering the halls at night.”

Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth. “Of course, I apologize, Mage
Herrick.” She bowed her head formally and stepped back quickly to follow Sabrine’s path.

“What were you doing?”

She paused. “I like to study in the library when it is quiet.” What if he had just come from the library? “And visit my pony. There’s no time in the day.”

“You need sleep more.” He turned and walked away from her
toward the main hall.

Stunned
by his sharp words, she waited a full second before running back to the dormitory. Sabrine was already back in her bed and pretending to be asleep. Jiline tiptoed past her and slid into her own bed.

****

Mistress Marta separated her from her group shortly after breakfast. They climbed the stairs to the mage level. Jiline’s heart began to race and she sweated. She hoped this was about Sabrine’s lie. She had seen the girl talking with Marta just before breakfast, but had dared to hope it was about something else when Marta hadn’t looked at her. Now, she wished it was about Sabrine’s lie as the only other alternative was they had discovered where she had really gone last night.

Twisting her fingers together
, she stood next to Marta as she knocked on a heavy wood door.

“Enter,” Mage
Brennah’s voice rang out.

She
closed her eyes in despair. What could it be but the unicorns for her to be summoned by the Keep Mage? Marta opened the door and not too gently pushed Jiline in over the threshold before shutting the door.

Mage
Brennah sat behind a large wooden table covered with what Jiline could only assume was magical items since very few of them looked familiar to her. Brennah rose from her seat and walked slowly around the table.

“Do you know why you have been summoned, Trainee
Madelen?” Brennah’s voice held an odd note to it and Jiline reluctantly stepped forward.

She shook her head, but her mouth wouldn
’t move. Something tugged inside her.

Brennah
frowned at her lack of response. “Confession is good for the soul.”

T
error froze her in place. They knew about the unicorns. But maybe not. Just as with her parents when she had done something wrong it was better to admit to as little as possible. Asking for a confession was a trick adults used to get you to admit what they might only suspect.

Brennah
’s lips pressed together for a moment, before she turned and returned to her chair behind the table. “Sit.”

Jiline
forced her legs forward to sit in the high-backed chair positioned on the other side of the table.

Brennah
was silent a moment as she stared at her. “Being a keeper is a great honor, would you not agree, Trainee Madelen?”

She bobbed her head. “Y-yes.”

“Yet, you would risk this opportunity we have given you.”

“I don’t understand.” Better to play dumb than to admit to anything.

“Breaking curfew is a serious infraction. The rules are in place for a reason. Mistress Marta had noticed your lack of drive and energy the last few days. Perhaps contributed by your evening strolls.”

Admit the truth when you knew they knew. She glanced down at her twisting fingers and forced them to be still. “I haven’t been able to sleep.”

“And why is that?”

She shrugged. Maybe Brennah didn’t know about the unicorns. You could hardly call climbing down to the valley a stroll. “The task of unicorn keeper overwhelms me. I was trying to understand better and thought if I studied extra I wouldn’t be so nervous.”

“You’ve been studying?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jiline nodded.

Brennah
sighed. “Lying won’t help you now. I know what you have been doing. Perhaps, you didn’t realize that a keeper not only has to be pure of the soul, which telling lies corrupts, but pure of the body. Having physical relationships with another is strictly forbidden.”

This was about Sabrine’s lies. “I’m not lying.”

“Where were you last night, Trainee Madelen?”

“I went to bed, but couldn’t sleep. I walked around a
nd studied the unicorn tapestries in the hallways. There are many within the Keep.” It would be easy for someone to walk the many hallways and not run into another soul.

Brennah
slapped her hand down on the table and her eyes smoldered in anger. “Enough. You were seen with Mage Herrick. A charge has been issued against both of you for having inappropriate relations. It is forbidden for a unicorn keeper and a mage to be involved.”

“I saw Mage
Herrick with Sabrine. She can vouch we weren’t having relations.”

Brennah
’s hand slid across the smooth wood of the table in a circular motion. “Are you saying Sabrine was looking at the tapestries with you?”

She
shook her head. “No, I ran into her in the hallway near the library. Mage Herrick found us there and sent us back to the dorm.” At least that part was true.

“This isn’t the first night you ha
ve snuck out.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

Brennah’s hand stopped moving in a circular motion and her fingers tapped. “You deny having relations with Mage Herrick.”

“Yes.”

“Were you aware that Herrick is my son?”

She shifted uneasily in her seat. Of course, the person who suspected her magic had to be the son of the Keep Mage. She shook her head. “No, ma’am.”

“He is destined to greatness. I will not allow some little peasant to use him to further herself.” Brennah rose. Her eyes sparking despite the slits. “Be satisfied with what you have, Trainee Madelen, it is much more than you were born into.”

She knew Mage
Brennah was trying to insult her, but she was so relieved at not getting caught in what she had truly done that she only nodded.

“I will be watching you. Excused.”

She slowly rose and beat a hasty retreat out the door. Mistress Marta waited on the other side. She grabbed Jiline’s arm and waited on Brennah.

“She may return to her training
. Separate her from the others at night.”

Marta nodded and didn’t drop her grip as she marched
Jiline down. “You might have gotten off easy from the Keep Mage, but don’t think I will tolerate your behavior.”

Jiline
debated arguing the issue and decided she needed to have Marta on her side if she was going to have any chance of helping the unicorns. She didn’t know what being separated from the others meant, but had a feeling it would make it impossible for her to sneak down to the valley. “Sabrine lied.”

“Did she?” Marta didn’t even look at her as they descended the stairs.

“Mage Brennah didn’t punish me because she knows I’m innocent of what Sabrine accused me of.”

Marta chuckled lightly. “She didn’t punish you because she would have to punish her own son. I say we should throw you out into the valley again and have the unicorns judge whether you’re
innocent or not.”

****

She supposed she should be thankful Mage Brennah agreed with Marta’s suggestion as she slid down the cliff face to the valley in front of everyone. She was the only trainee going down this time. Mistress Marta had removed her red sash before sending her down. She didn’t know where the five keepers currently in the valley were stationed, but she was sure she was being watched and judged. She just hoped the unicorns knew what was going on and wouldn’t abandon her. They had to choose her again if she was to have any chance of helping them.

****

Herrick met his mother on the patio wondering why she had summoned him away from Lionel’s continued quest to convince him to come with him when he left. “Mother?”

She motioned him to stand at the railing and he saw
Jiline reach the bottom of the cliff. Yeah, the draw was as strong as ever, but he shoved it in and kept his face from showing what he felt.

“What’s going on?”

“Trainee Madelen is being tested again.”

He frowned
as she walked into the first tree line. The urge to protect was as strong as before, but he didn’t act on it. He could control himself. “Why?”

Brennah
turned to frown at him. “You aren’t the slightest bit worried about her and what the unicorns will do to her.”

He shrugged to loosen the tension he felt. “They chose her as a keeper. She’s safe down there.”

“The keepers aren’t ever completely safe in a unicorn’s presence.”

“Then why send her down b
efore she finishes her training?”

“Charges have been brought up against her.”

Herrick kept his gaze on the valley not wanting to give his mother the chance to read his emotions. “Charges of what?”

Her eyes left his profile and went to the valley floor as well. “You didn’t tell me you caught her breaking curfew.”

“Her and another trainee. I sent them back to their room. You’re retesting her because she broke curfew?” He looked at her then. “Isn’t that a little extreme?”

Her lips tightened. “I’m not retesting her because she broke curfew.”

He almost blurted out, well than why? But held it in, he wasn’t supposed to be drawn to her, to care about her anymore than he would care for any other trainee or keeper within the Keep. His mother was toying with him. Would she really risk a possible keeper’s safety just to test whether he was still drawn to Madelen? He pushed off from the railing and strolled back to the Keep wall.