Unicorn Keep
Authors: Angelia Almos
UNICORN KEEP
By
Angelia Almos
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Kindle Edition
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Unicorn Keep
Published by Thoroughweb Press.
Copyright © 2012 by Angelia Almos
Cover design by Melody Simmons of eBookindiecovers.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
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Creative Commons License Notes
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons,
444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This ebook may be lent or given away to another person provided it appears in its entirety, without alteration, and the reader is not charged to access it.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who encouraged and helped in the creation of this book.
To my husband and two daughters who put up with me glued to my computer for a very long time. A big thank you to my wonderful beta readers, Scott Derrick, Jaye Shields, and Denise Stanley. And to my copy editor, Diane Noland. All of your input was crucial in the creation of this book.
A final thank you must go to Ginger, the real
pony, who was a part of my life off and on from my teenage years to two years ago when we sadly said goodbye as she went to the Rainbow Bridge. The real Ginger was a spunky and sassy Shetland pony who took many children on rides out in the wilderness and within the safety of an arena. The Ginger in
Unicorn Keep
is modeled off her though I needed to make her a larger Welsh style pony for the sake of the story, but the personality is spot on for the real life Ginger.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. UNICORN KEEPER SELECTION
The mages would judge all children between the ages of ten and fifteen at full light. Jiline hesitated outside the village square. Her stomach fluttered as she stayed in the dark corner of the livery stable. The village of Ainsley was not quiet. Voices wrapped around her. Some of the voices belonged to her friends. Any of them could be selected by the mages.
Rain clouds covered the sky. There would be no pretty dawn for the selection.
“Jiline,” a voice whispered behind her.
She jumped, so
focused on the square, she missed her best friend coming up behind her. “You scared me.”
“Sorry,”
Madelen whispered. “What are you doing?”
“Watching,”
she whispered back.
T
heir fingers intertwined as they held hands. Jiline checked her friend over closely. Those in the village joked that the two girls looked more like sisters to each other than to their own siblings which was true. They were both fifteen years, same height, brown hair, green eyes, even the same mouth, but Madelen was the pretty one.
Madelen
had been scared when word came out about the arrival of the mages coming into the village last night. So scared she had cried. She didn’t want to be chosen for a life of servitude. Not when the mayor’s son was in love with her. The mayor had made an offer for her a few months ago and her parents had accepted. In a little over a year, Madelen and Wilm, the mayor’s son, would be wed. Even without the prospects Madelen had Jiline wasn’t any more thrilled about the prospect of being drafted by the mages.
Madelen
’s face showed no sign of the crying Jiline had tried to comfort her through. Her mother must have done something to hide the lack of sleep. Appearances were very important to Madelen’s mother.
“I was waiting for you,”
Jiline whispered.
“You didn’t have to.”
She smiled. The dark gray was easing to a light gray and the children in the square suddenly hushed. The mages had arrived. Neither of them moved at first. Instead, their eyes locked and they stared at each other. But they had to go. Jiline reluctantly led her best friend around the building to join the small group gathered at the old well.
T
he three mages stood apart staring at them like insects. Their hoods covered their heads. The mayor stood next to them if a few feet away. Madelen sniffled and Jiline spotted Wilm standing behind him.
“Don’t cry,”
Jiline whispered under her breath as they joined the other children and young people from their village.
Madelen
nodded and her lips curved into her brave smile. Her fingers tightened around Jiline’s and she squeezed back.
“All children who haven’t reached their tenth year
and who have reached their sixteenth year may return home,” one of the mages boomed out.
The group
jumped and didn’t move for a moment, but slowly about half the group dwindled down until there were only twelve. It appeared many of the families hadn’t heard the age part of the summons or perhaps they hoped it wouldn’t be enforced. She scooted closer to Madelen not liking their odds. How would the mages choose?
As one, the three mages stepped forward
. She could now see inside their hoods. Two men and the middle one was a woman. The woman mage stood about a foot in front of the two men and she stared at each of the children in turn.
“I am Mage Daniah
,” her voice spread over the square. “Your families have a wonderful opportunity presented to them today. One of you may become a Unicorn Keeper.”
Jiline’s
breath stopped. Her parents had been whispering last night as to why the mages had come. Sometimes mages traveled looking for apprentices, but occasionally they needed new keepers: children and young people of pure thought to care for the unicorns which a small group of mages protected year-round at the Keep.
“This is a great honor for your family.”
Mage Daniah paused and looked down the line again. Her hand suddenly appeared from the swirling robe. “The crystal will tell us if your heart is pure enough for the unicorns. They cannot be fooled. They demand the purest of souls to be in their presence.”
Daniah
walked to the other end of the line from where Madelen and Jiline stood. It looked like they would be judged last. Daniah held the crystal up right in front of the face of Jonny. The crystal didn’t do anything. Of course, she wasn’t sure what the crystal was supposed to do. Maybe it talked to the mages. But she couldn’t see it doing anything.
Daniah
dropped her hand and stepped up to the next child. Her hand came up and the crystal began to glow. Madelen’s fingers tightened in her hand.
“W
hat is your name child?” Daniah demanded.
“C-Cris,” the ten-
year-old girl stammered.
One of the other mages pulled out a parchment. He jott
ed something down on it. Daniah lowered the crystal and stepped back to say something to her partner. After a brief whispered conversation, she walked up to the next child. No glow. Then the next. No glow. Three more. No glow. The seventh in line. The crystal glowed.
Burrt
was fifteen and he didn’t stammer when he said his name. “Burrt.”
Daniah
again confirmed with the other two mages. The last mage had yet to do anything as far as Jiline had seen. Daniah went through the rest of the line until she reached Madelen.
The crystal glowed.
Her hand ached from Madelen’s iron grip.
“What is your name child?”
Daniah demanded when Madelen didn’t offer it right away.
“
Madelen,” she whispered.
Daniah
stepped back. More whispers and writing on the parchment. The crystal did not glow for Jiline. An odd sort of deflation filled her. Her soul wasn’t pure enough for the unicorns. She scuffed her foot and looked at the cracked rock under her feet.
“You may go home now,” Daniah
said loudly. “Those of you who have been chosen inform your parents to come and meet with us today to discuss your selection.”
The three mages turned and retreated back to the mayor’s house.
Madelen’s shoulders shook and she turned to her friend in a panic. “I knew I would be chosen.”
“Co
me on.” She tugged her friend back toward the livery stable.
Madelen’s feet dragged
, but she scuffled after her from Jiline’s firm pulling. They would both have to break the news to their families. Jiline should have been relieved over not being chosen. But again the realization that the unicorns found her wanting was depressing.
The old road curved away from the village toward the small woods on the west side. She cut through the grass down a well worn path
, a slightly shorter route over the river to both of their family farms just past the river. It wouldn’t take them long to get home.
Madelen was quiet with her thoughts as they stepped into the airy woods. The river’s gurgle revealed itself several
steps before they could see its path among the trees. They had just reached the log which acted as a bridge when Wilm was suddenly upon them.
Madelen dropped her hand as Wilm pulled her into a h
ug. Jiline instantly felt unwanted as she always did when the two were together. She knew it wasn’t out of meanness, but they tended to forget whoever was around them when they were together. It had been like that for almost a year.
“They can’t take you,” he whispered. “I’ll talk with my father.”
Madelen
nodded her head against his shoulder. Jiline stepped quietly away and crossed the log. She glanced over her shoulder once she was safely on the other side. The two remained in their embrace.
She
ran the rest of the way home. Her six brothers and sisters waited for her. It occurred to her that she was the only one of her siblings who had gone. Her younger brother was ten. Why hadn’t her parents sent him to the village square this morning?
“Well?” Her eldest sister,
Cayla, demanded as she ran into the front yard.
Cayla
was yet to be married. Their mother worried her surly personality was keeping away any eligible beaus. With no money to offer, it was up to each of the children to find their own partners or a trade. Cayla had yet to find either even though she was seventeen.
She almost said she
wasn’t chosen, but something held her back. Instead she shook her head and ran past them to where her mother would be hanging the wash. Why hadn’t Kile gone with her?
As she had guessed, Imagene
hung the laundry on the other side of the house. Her father, Blake, sat under the tree. They both turned when they heard her. Her father wasn’t out working the fields. She hesitated again and shuffled her feet as she came to a stop.
“Were you chosen?” Blake asked, his voice unusually soft.
She shook her head slowly.
“Who was chosen?” Imagene asked.
“Cris, Burrt, and Madelen.”
Her mother shared a
grown-up look with her husband. “Go get to your chores. Tell your brothers and sisters to finish theirs as well. We haven’t been able to get anything done all morning.”
She
turned to do her mother’s bidding and bit her lip before blurting out. “Why didn’t Kile come with me this morning?”
Her mother had already turned back to the laundry, but her arms paused in the act of pinning a shirt.
Blake’s eyebrows came together in a frown. “Kile is too small.”
His tone clearly indicated that was the end of it, but she went on.
“They wanted children ten through fifteen.”
This time an eyebrow raised at her challenge. “He’ll pass
as nine. Do as your mother bid.”
Chastised, s
he hurried forward, but something made her hesitate at the corner of the house. Her siblings were still out of sight.
“She wasn’t chosen,”
Imagen’s voice drifted to her.
“There’s no use dwelling on it,” her father said gruffly.
“I had hoped. She has no prospects here, Blake.”
“We’ll figure something out for her.”
“We still haven’t found a place for Cayla or Sussy.”
“Hi
nry’s sweet on Sussy.”
“His parents won’t allow him to make an offer. They’re hoping it’
s an infatuation that will fade.”
Jiline
slowly backed away from their private conversation now that they weren’t talking about her. Coming to the front of the house, she stared at her two older sisters. Seventeen and sixteen they should have been married or apprenticed by now, but their village was small. No one offered apprenticeships here because their own children worked their trade. Her older brother, Joshoa, at fifteen had been lucky to find an open apprenticeship two villages over. Her parents were concerned over her own prospects. She was a year or two away from when she should be apprenticing or marrying. There were few boys her age. One had just been selected by the mages. And no tradesmen in the surrounding villages were accepting apprentices from other villages.
Things might be better in a few years for
Kile and baby Kait. Kait spotted her and ran over for a hug. She wasn’t a baby anymore at five years, but they still called her baby Kait.
“What happened?”
Kait asked.
“I wasn’t chosen,”
she said, picking her up for the hug. She leaned her forehead against her sister’s. “So I’m staying here.”
“Yay
!” Kait yelled, wiggling back down to the ground. “She’s staying.”
Cayla
and Sussy nodded slowly. They must already know what Jiline was just beginning to realize. Her parents had wanted her to be chosen.
“We’re to get to our chores,” she voiced her parents
’ message.
Kile
groaned, but obediently headed toward the fields to meet their father. Jiline walked to the barn, realizing their horse hadn’t been hitched to the plow. Three horses munched the hay she had thrown to them on her way to the village. Only one was workable on their farm, really, but the other two worked as she found jobs for them. Night wasn’t quite black, but a dark bay gelding who was as old as Cayla. He was an excellent weed eater since he was rope smart and she could tie him anywhere.
Ginger,
a pony, was just too small. Father had traded an old wagon for her almost ten years ago to pull their own cart. But they rarely hooked up their cart unless they had something to trade at the market. Once a month was what they averaged during the good months. And Fire, the plow horse, could pull the cart just as easily.
Fire was who she
came to pull from the corral. The mare was big and bulky with a sweet disposition. She worked tirelessly despite not getting much help from the rest of her herd. But she didn’t seem to care.
“Hey, F
ire, girl.” Jiline rubbed her copper colored coat as she slipped through the railings.