The Eyes of the Dragon - Stephen King [14]
"My father, and his father before him, and his father before him," Yosef said, seeing now that he was going to have to say something, like it or not. "That's who told me to kill it. A horse with a broken leg is no good to any living thing, least of all to itself." He raised the maul a little. "You see this hammer as a murder weapon, but when you're older, you'll see it for what it really is in cases such as these a mercy. Now stand back, so you don't get splashed."
He raised the maul in both hands.
"Put it down," Peter said.
Yosef was thunderstruck. He had never been interfered with in such a way.
"Here! Here! What are you a-saying?"
"You heard me. I said put that hammer down." As he said these words Peter's voice deepened. Yosef suddenly realized-really, really realized-that it was the future King standing here in this dusty stableyard, commanding him. If Peter had actually said as much-if he had stood there in the dust squeaking, Put that down, put it down, 1 said, I'm going to be King someday, King, do you hear, so you put that down!, Yosef would have laughed contemptuously, spat, and ended the broken-legged horse's life with one hard swing of his deeply muscled arms. But Peter did not have to say any such thing; the command was clear in his voice and eyes.
"Your father shall hear of this, my princeling," Yosef said.
"And when he hears it from you, it will be for the second time," Peter replied. "I will let you go about your work with no further complaint, Lord High Groom, if I may put a single question to you which you answer yes."
"Ask your question," Yosef said. He was impressed with the boy, almost against his will. When he had told Yosef that he, Peter, would tell his father of the incident first, Yosef believed he meant what he said-the simple truth shone in the lad's eyes. Also, he had never been called Lord High Groom before, and he rather liked it.
"Has the horse doctor seen this animal?" Peter asked.
Yosef was thunderstruck. "That is your question? That?"
"Yes. Ť
"Dear creeping gods, no!" he cried, and, seeing Peter flinch, he lowered his voice, squatted before the boy, and attempted to explain. "A horse with a broken leg is a goner, y'Highness. Always a goner. Leg never mends right. There's apt to be blood poisoning. Turrible pain for the horse. Turrible pain. In the end, its poor heart is apt to burst, or it takes a brain fever and goes mad. Now do you understand what I meant when I said this hammer was mercy rather than murder?"
Peter thought long and gravely, with his head down. Yosef was silent, squatting before him in an almost unconscious posture of deference, allowing him the full courtesy of time.
Peter raised his head and asked: "You say everyone says this?"
"Everyone, y'Highness. Why, my father-"
"Then we'll see if the horse doctor says it, too."
"Oh PAH the groom bellowed, and threw the hammer all the way across the courtyard. It sailed into a pigpen and struck head down in the mud. The pigs grunted and squealed and cursed him in their piggy Latin. Yosef, like Flagg, was not used to being balked, and took no notice of them.
He got up and stalked away. Peter watched him, troubled, sure that he must be in the wrong and knowing he was apt to face a severe whipping for this little piece of work. Then, halfway across the yard, the head groom turned, and a reluctant, grim little smile hit across his face like a single sunray on a gray morning.
"Go get your horse doctor," he said. "Get him yourself, son. You'll find him in his animal surgery at the far end of Third East'rd Alley, I reckon. I'll give you twenty minutes. If you're not back with him by then, I'm putting my maul into yon horse's brains, prince or no