Strange Attractors - Kim Falconer [96]
‘There’s nothing for it, Gracie. I’m going to be put in charge of the aged brood mares and never ride again.’ He ran up his stirrups, loosened the girth and led her the rest of the way to the citadel. The lieutenant made him wait for more than an hour. At least he had time to water Grace and rub her down. When he finally was called in, he was hit with a barrage of questions about the girl in the coach and her travelling companions.
‘No, sir, I didn’t see a wolf in the carriage. She was with a man and her temple cat but that was all I spotted.’
‘Her temple cat?’
‘It was clearly Dumarkian,’ Xane said. That couldn’t be news. ‘And I presumed the creature was her bonded familiar.’
‘You presumed?’
‘I did. It seemed a logical conclusion at the time.’
The lieutenant’s brow knitted. ‘How long have you been apprentice to the Stable Master?’
‘Not long.’ Xane hesitated. As he scanned his memory, he had a moment of doubt. ‘This past year.’
‘You were at the battle on the fields?’
‘I was, sir.’
Again his mind wandered. Snippets of other memories emerged, overlapping his recent encounter just days before. Of course, he’d been shot and left for dead. The order of events would be a little vague. He put the new visions down to dreams, or maybe hemlock hallucinations, though he clearly saw a dark battle. It took place in a strange world with a flat, ungiving ground, thunder clapping overhead and beams of red light streaming from strange weapons. There was a troop of swordsmen, and women, sheathing their blades and shifting into beasts, wolves like the one he saw on the road today, huge, elegant, fierce. They were beautiful creatures, and they were helping him. Clearly I’m losing my mind.
‘Did you see the beasts there? On the battlefield?’
Xane shook his head. ‘There were no such beautiful creatures on the Corsanon Fields.’
‘Beautiful creatures?’ the lieutenant asked. He snapped his fingers. ‘Those beautiful creatures killed many of my men!’
Xane straightened. ‘And the woman?’ He felt suddenly bold enough to ask. ‘Where’s the woman? What have you done with her?’ Xane heard the words but they didn’t feel like his own. They were strong and confident with an edge of threat. Suddenly he was overcome with a burning desire to know that she was all right.
‘What have we done with her? There’s a good question, lad.’ He pushed his face up close to Xane’s and snapped his fingers again. ‘She vanished, as some of the temple witches can do. Left only this behind.’
He held up the pendant Xane had seen before.
‘Recognise it, lad? Did the girl in the coach wear this?’
Xane’s hand trembled as he opened it. The lieutenant placed the silver-and-lapis bird in his palm and the touch of it filled him with light. For an instant he thought he knew where she was and felt he had to get there no matter what it took, but the sensation vanished just as fast, leaving him dizzy. ‘It was hers,’ he said. ‘I recognise it.’
The lieutenant was called to the door, an urgent message from his second. Xane didn’t think twice. He slipped the pendant into his pocket. When the man returned, he was too preoccupied to notice it was gone.
‘You’re dismissed.’
‘The message?’ Xane asked. ‘I was meant to deliver it to the Stable Master.’
‘We’ll see that it’s passed on.’ The lieutenant waved him to the door and Xane left.
He walked the mare back to the stables and although he kept to the smoothest streets, the shoe was off before they reached the barn, just as he predicted. He squinted, holding it at arm’s length. ‘They didn’t get it level, Gracie, and the toe-clip’s too thin. Snapped clean off from just a little stumble.’ He patted her neck. ‘Not your fault at all, nor mine.’ He shook his head. He didn’t know that much about horseshoeing. At least, he didn’t think he did. ‘But it’s clearly not level, or even shaped to your hoof. Who shod you?’ Oddly, he couldn’t remember.
When he arrived back at the stables, Willem was waiting. Xane braced himself, drawing a