Castle Avamir (4 page)

“Moonsilver!” Heart sprinted, desperate to stay close.

She was terrified now. What would happen when someone saw Moonsilver running loose in the woods, all alone, without a page in sight?

His armor looked valuable.

Any villager would try to catch him.

And anyone who caught him would discover the truth.

Or, worst of all, some lord's hunters might decide to run him down.

Heart cried out. It was loud, a sound without words, her voice ragged with worry and fear.

Moonsilver slowed, then stopped.

Heart ran toward him.

He stood still, his head high, switching his tail uneasily.

Heart tried to stay calm, slowing down as she got closer.

Moonsilver was tall and beautiful and he looked grown up.

But he wasn't.

He needed her to be kind to him when he was scared. And he needed her to protect him.

“Moonsilver!” Heart said softly as she came up beside him.

She reached out for the rope, knowing that if he wanted to, he could jerk it from her hand again and gallop away.

Instead he reached out to nuzzle her cheek.

Heart was so relieved, her eyes stung with tears.

Moonsilver held still, letting Heart lean against his shoulder.

He shook his mane and looked at her steadily for a long moment. Then he did something Avamir had done only once, long ago.

He bent one foreleg.

At first, Heart thought he was doing his bowing trick, the one he used in the Gypsy shows.

Then Moonsilver put his weight on his bent knee. He was kneeling, looking at her.

“Ride?” Heart whispered. “Why?”

Moonsilver fluttered a long breath out of his nostrils. Heart ached to know what he was trying to tell her.

“Are we in danger?” she said, breathlessly.

He tossed his head and flattened his ears against his neck.

Then he lowered his head, staring at her from beneath his long white eyelashes.

Awkwardly holding her carry-sack, Heart scrambled onto Moonsilver's back.

The plates of armor were cold against her legs, but the smooth metal didn't hurt.

Moonsilver stood.

Heart hung on.

She settled her carry-sack in front of her and tangled her fingers in his mane.

The moment she was ready, Moonsilver reared, then lunged forward, breaking into a gallop.

Heart clung tightly to his mane.

I
t began to rain again.

Moonsilver galloped through the woods, leaping fallen logs and jumping creeks. He stopped only long enough for them to sleep.

At the end of four wet, miserable days, they had traveled farther than Heart could have walked in a fortnight.

On the fifth morning, Moonsilver didn't kneel.

He stood patiently while Heart broke camp.

When she was ready, he led the way. He walked slowly enough that she could keep up.

Heart was glad he hadn't knelt again.

Her legs and back were sore from riding, and it felt very odd to ride Moonsilver, even if it had been his idea.

At noon, they topped a ridge.

Through the sprinkling rain, Heart saw the mountain peak again.

It had looked big from a distance.

Up close, it seemed to fill half the world.

Heart walked slowly as they started upward.

“‘Under the stars and over the moon,'” she whispered to herself. It had to mean something. But what?

They came upon the road at noon.

She barely noticed it at first.

It wasn't a very wide road.

It was rough.

There were no wagon tracks, and the hoofprints in the soil were old, blurred by rain.

Not many used this road. And no one had come down it in a long time.

Still, Heart was uneasy.

Roads led to towns.

Towns meant that people were nearby—and that meant Moonsilver might be in danger.

Heart walked beside him, taking his lead rope
and pretending to guide him along.

But he was walking faster now, pulling
her
instead.

He broke into a prancing trot. “Slow down,” Heart said, but Moonsilver didn't respond.

He trotted a little faster.

Heart clung to the lead rope. If he ran away from her again …

Heart caught at Moonsilver's mane. “Slow down! We can't just follow a road like this!”

Moonsilver stopped and looked at her.

“We have to be careful,” Heart told him, hoping he could understand. “What if some townsman tries to catch you?”

Moonsilver tossed his head. Heart could tell what he was thinking. He was sure no one
could
catch him.

Heart frowned. “The storybooks say that lords-men once hunted unicorns. Even if they can't catch you, they might—”

Moonsilver jerked his head up, his ears tipped forward.

An instant later, Heart heard it too. Someone was singing.

She dragged at the lead rope. Moonsilver followed her off the road.

Together they hid behind a stand of birches. Heart hoped the white bark would blend with Moonsilver's coat.

She laid one hand on Moonsilver's muzzle.

Above them on the road, a man came into sight.

He had a cloak, but no hood or hat.

He was walking slowly, his shoulders hunched up as though he was trying to keep his ears warm in the gentle rain.

Heart peeked out to watch him pass.

He was still singing; the song was timed to his steps.

He looked old.

He tapped at the ground with a long walking stick.

There was a heavy carry-sack on his back, and his trousers were stained the color of the earth. A farmer? He was probably carrying vegetables to trade in town.

Moonsilver blew out a long breath.

Heart turned to look at him. “There must be a village up ahead.”

Moonsilver shook his mane.

Heart held the lead rope tightly.

She wanted to find the village.

She wanted to ask people if they knew anything about Castle Avamir.

But now she was worried. “Will you stay close to me?” she asked Moonsilver.

He shook his mane, then touched her cheek with his velvety muzzle.

“You have to,” Heart said. “You have to pretend to be a horse if we are going to be among people.”

Moonsilver looked at her steadily. Heart wished for the thousandth time that they could just
talk
, that she could be sure they understood each other.

Heart gripped the rope as they climbed back up the slope, but Moonsilver went slowly, keeping pace with her.

Once they were on the road again, Heart walked faster.

Bounding the first bend, she expected to see the old man in front of them. But he wasn't there.

He had turned off someplace, but where? He was probably a woodcutter, living alone in the forest.

The road curved in wide turns, winding upward.

It got steeper….

Much steeper.

Heart kept walking.

After a long time, the sprinkling rain stopped. She pushed back her hood, then raised it again.

The forest was still thick with fog. It chilled her skin and tickled her nose.

Heart shivered and walked on. Moonsilver stayed close at her side, and she was grateful.

The road was so steep in places, that Heart had to stop to catch her breath. Twice she considered turning around, but she didn't. All roads led
somewhere
.

After a time, finally, the clinging mist thinned.

Heart stopped to rest and turned to look down the mountainside.

There was a thick bank of the milky fog below her.

At that instant the sun broke through and startled her into looking up.

The sky overhead was blue. For the first time in months, there wasn't a cloud anywhere—no sign of a storm near or far.

It had been stormy for so long!

Heart looked back down the slope, then glanced upward again. Suddenly she understood.

The clouds hadn't disappeared or even thinned. She had just climbed
through
them.

Heart smiled. She was above the clouds!

She started upward again, excited.

She half-expected to see a shining castle at every turn.

But every curve in the road brought more trees, more meadows, an endless green landscape.

The forest thinned as she got higher, but it seemed to go on forever.

The hours passed and she began to get discouraged again.

Maybe the book was only nonsense after all.

Maybe Laura's Mends had just been some nobleman's daughters playing at running away from home. Maybe they had tricked Laura, making up stories to entertain her so she'd keep bringing them food.

Heart kicked at the dirt. And maybe she was a hundred days' travel from Castle Avamir and was heading in the wrong direction.

Or maybe it didn't exist at all.

Heart kept going until the sun began to sink into the clouds below.

Only then did she turn off the road.

Her legs ached from climbing all day.

So she chose the downhill side.

T
he land fell away more steeply than Heart had thought it would.

She skidded and slid, looking for a stand of trees thick enough to hide them for the night.

Moonsilver danced his way down the slope, crossing rocky ground no horse could have managed.

The land finally leveled out.

Heart spotted a dense grove of ash trees and smiled.

The evening light was getting dim.

They made their way into the trees.

Heart was surprised to come upon a wide meadow and a clear, deep lake.

Heart squinted, trying to see in the gathering dusk.

Past the lake, it looked like the land rose again in rocky ledges, sharp and forbidding.

Heart glanced at Moonsilver.

He stood looking out over the water.

Heart took Moonsilver's armor off and stacked the pieces carefully.

She made a tiny fire and warmed herself while he grazed.

She ate cheese and apples.

She made a bed of leaves.

They both drank cold, clean water from the lake.

Heart lay down for the night.

Moonsilver settled in nearby. His breathing slowed and steadied.

Heart was tired.

She felt herself sinking into sleep.

For the first time in a long time, her old dreams returned.

She was running.

The earth and the rocky ground were the color of the moon.

Then, near dawn, she awoke.

It took a moment to slow her breath, to understand that she wasn't running—she had been dreaming.

She stared upward. The stars glittered in the cloudless sky. After months of storms, she was thrilled to watch the moon rise.

It was full, a pale yellow circle floating in the darkness.

Heart slid from beneath her blanket and stood up.

The steep-sided valley had been touched by moonlight.

It turned Moonsilver's coat from white to silver, like the night he had been born.

It transformed the lake into a mirror.

Heart stared into the still water.

Then she pulled in a quick breath and shivered.

“Home lies ‘higher than the clouds, deep in a valley, under the stars, and over the moon,'” Heart whispered to herself.

She had climbed through the clouds, and was higher than the rainstorms now.

Then, when she had left the road, she had come downhill into this deep valley.

Now the stars were out overhead.

And
below
her the moon shone in the mirror of the still lake.

Heart felt her bracelet tighten.

She reached down to touch it, her breath coming quickly.

If the words from her book were true, Castle Avamir had to be somewhere among the rocky ledges she had seen in the dusk.

Heart looked down the slope.

The sunrise was below the clouds.

It was lighting the mist in golds and pinks.

Heart turned to see Moonsilver waking, stretching out his forelegs.

He stood up and faced her.

“It has to be up there,” Heart said, pointing. “Castle Avamir. It has to be.”