Read Online Castle Avamir by Kathleen Duey - Free Book Online Page B

thinned to a constant sprinkle again.
    â€œAh!” 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.”
    â€œI’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.”
    â€œLike 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.
    â€œGo 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.
    There had been no real towns on the High Road. They hadn’t seen anything bigger than a village since Bidenfast.
    Bidenfast.
    It made Heart shiver to remember how close they had come to getting caught there.
    If the young Lord Irmaedith had been less kind …
    If Lord Dunraven had noticed what had happened …
    Heart shivered again.
    Then she felt Moonsilver’s warm breath on the back of her neck.
    Heart smiled.
    Sometimes it seemed as if he knew when she was troubled.
    â€œI have to find Castle Avamir,” she told him, slowing so he could walk beside her.
    Moonsilver shook his mane.
    His armor clanked.
    Heart stopped, and Moonsilver began to graze on a patch of rain-soaked grass.
    â€œCastle Avamir is mentioned in the storybook three times so far,” she told Moonsilver. “But it’s all nonsense. The book says it’s higher than the clouds, deep in a valley, under the stars, and over the moon.”
    Moonsilver lifted his head to look at her.
    â€œAnd it might not have anything to do with my family, anyway,” she admitted. “But Ruth gave me the name Heart Avamir and …” She stopped because she couldn’t make sense out of anything she had learned so far.
    Moonsilver went back to grazing. He tore up huge mouthfuls of