Arrows of Time - Kim Falconer [78]
‘You’re right. I’m planning a little trip for us,’ she answered, her emphasis on the last word.
They walked down the rows of tie stalls, multicoloured round rumps and tails pointed towards them—black and brown and bay and white, all of varying heights and composition, from draughters to cobs to shaggy-haired mountain ponies. Some of the horses stood with their heads high, ears back, switching their tails and stomping their hooves. Others, the ones already fed, had their noses in the mangers, munching away. When they stopped in front of a red chestnut mare, the graceful creature turned her head towards Selene, nickering through a mouthful of hay.
Selene smiled, transforming to beauty again, and directed Jarrod to leave the beet pulp on a nearby bench.
‘Where are we headed, Selene?’ He dropped the sack and rubbed his shoulder.
She shushed him with a wave of her hand.
‘It’s a reasonable query,’ he said.
She stopped, pulling him into her with both hands, her green eyes turning dark as her pupils dilated. ‘Your world,’ she said in a whisper. ‘You’re going to take me there.’
He raised his eyebrows and was about to speak, but she pushed him back, placing a saddle and bridle in his arms.
‘Tack her up, and please don’t tell me you’ve never done that before.’
‘I can manage.’
‘Finally, one that can,’ she said under her breath. There was no trace of a smile any more.
‘And what about the toe-clips?’ Jarrod asked, lifting the horse’s hoof out of the deep straw.
‘Already done.’
They rode out of T’locity, away from the sun as it touched the horizon. Jarrod jogged alongside Selene; he was mounted on a well-schooled gelding, black as lava rock with four white socks and a long white blaze from his forehead to his muzzle. She rode the chestnut, a younger animal but also neatly trained. He turned to see the amber light drop below the skyline, and with one hand buttoned his jacket against the coming night. ‘We’re heading east?’
‘West,’ she said, correcting him without further comment.
He twisted around in his saddle again. ‘The sun is setting behind us?’
‘Obviously.’
Selene’s expression didn’t change. If she felt annoyed, or fearful, or any other emotion, it didn’t show.
Mirror universe then, not parallel. Interesting. I should have noticed that before, he thought. ‘Selene, can I ask you something?’ He took her silence as a yes. ‘That kiss back there, in the marketplace. Was that part of the act, or was it something else?’
She stared ahead. ‘Did it feel like an act?’
‘Not really.’
‘Then why do you need to ask?’ She moved her horse into a trot and he urged his forward to keep up. ‘Selene, I asked so we could talk about it,’ he said. When she didn’t respond he scratched the back of his hand. ‘You aren’t one for light conversation, are you?’
She shook her head.
‘Right…’
This woman was very different from Rosette or from any of his Richter women. Conversations with them had always flowed like water coursing downstream. Could this be more mirrors? He cleared his throat.
‘Are we really heading for my world?’
She nodded.
‘And you know how to get there?’ He clucked to the gelding, moving into a collected canter to keep up. The horses were confident in the failing light, the road a smooth, broad strip of well-packed dirt. The percussion of hoof beats filled the air.
‘I know where the portals are hidden,’ she said above the sound.
‘How’s that?’
She turned, narrowing her eyes. ‘Is there a problem with your memory?’
This would have felt a bit like a stab if he let it. ‘Actually,