Storm Warning - Mercedes Lackey [24]
As the rider spoke with the Guards, the horse shifted slightly, as if to watch the two Karsites. Its movements were as graceful as the horse itself was beautiful; it arched its neck so that its flowing mane fell just so, for all the world as if it knew how stunning it was.
Perfect. That was Karal’s thought, and he reveled in the fact that he would be spending the next several days in the company of such a beast.
After a brief consultation with the Guards, the man in white beckoned to them. Now that he’d had his fill of watching the horse from afar, Karal was perfectly willing to mount Trenor and rein in behind Ulrich; he’d had enough waiting around to last him for quite a while!
It probably isn’t going to be the last time I have to stand around and wait, though.
The escort had blond hair going to gray at the temples, a good, square jaw, deep-set, frank, hazel-colored eyes, and a nose that had obviously been broken more than once in the past. He sat his horse rather stiffly, which struck an odd note, given the grace of the horse itself.
The man hesitated for a moment, then held out his hand to Ulrich as they approached the gate. “Envoy Ulrich?” he said, as his horse stood rock-steady beneath him, showing no more inclination to shy away from strange beasts than if the horse were carved of pure alabaster. “I am your escort. Call me Rubrik, if you will.”
It has blue eyes, Karal saw, with a surge of disappointment. Most blue-eyed, white creatures were stone deaf. Was this the flaw in this otherwise perfect mount? Certainly deafness would account for the horse’s apparent calm.
Ulrich took the man’s hand and shook it, as Honeybee eyed the blue-eyed white horse dubiously, probably expecting a nip or a kick from it.
The man’s Karsite was excellent; much better than Karal’s Valdemaran. He had very little accent, and when he spoke, there was no sense that he was stopping to translate mentally before saying anything.
“You speak our language very well, sir,” Ulrich replied with grave courtesy, “and I hope you will accept my apology for not returning the compliment, but the truth is, I am nowhere near as fluent in your tongue as you seem to be in ours. This is my secretary, Karal.”
The man held out his hand to Karal, who followed his mentor’s example and shook it. Rubrik’s clasp was firm and warm, without being a “test.” Karal decided cautiously that he liked this Valdemaran.
Rubrik squinted up at the sun once he had released Karal’s hand. “You have come a long way, and as I am sure you realize, there is a longer journey still ahead of you, Envoy,” he told Ulrich. “Weather in Valdemar is still not so settled that I’d care to wager on clear skies for more than a day. I’d like to make as much distance as we can while the weather holds, if you’ve no objection.”
Ulrich shook his head. “No objection whatsoever,” he replied. “You are limited only to the number of leagues our two beasts are able to travel in a day; my secretary and I are good riders, and have no trouble spending dawn to dusk in the saddle, if you like.”
Karal winced at that; he was not so sure of his endurance as Ulrich seemed to be. Hopefully, the man would not take him at his word.
Rubrik smiled warmly. “Your High Priest Solaris has chosen her envoy well, my lord,” was his only reply. “If you would follow me?”
The trio passed the silent Guards, went through the open gate, and for the first time in his life, Karal entered a foreign land.
Karal had expected to feel—something—once he was across the border and in a new land. Some kind of difference in the air, or in himself. He’d expected that this alien place would look different from Karse somehow, that the grass and trees would be some odd color, that the people would be vastly different. There was no reason to have expected anything of the sort, of course—
—but emotions don’t respond well to logic, I suppose.
As they rode northward all the rest of the day, there was literally no way of telling that they were not in Karse. The hills were virtually identical to the ones they had just traversed;