The White Spell (Nine Kingdoms #10)(88)

“I have the feeling, missy, that your destiny lies elsewhere.” He hesitated, then shrugged. “If that changes and if you want a place, I will make one for you here.”

She had to blink very rapidly for a moment or two. “Thank you, my lord.”

He put his hand on her shoulder briefly. “You have a way with horses, Mistress Léirsinn.” He opened the hall door. “Let’s go fetch ourselves a mug of ale, then we’ll go watch your lad finish up his work. That seems like a perfect use of the rest of the afternoon, aye?”

She had to agree it did. She couldn’t say she wouldn’t be happy for a place to sit down for a bit. It might give her a chance to recover from the day she’d had.

She was going to be a long time in forgetting the horse she’d ridden that afternoon.

? ? ?

It was perhaps unsurprising that she found herself in his stall that evening, grooming him again. If she’d leapt at the chance to simply trot him about a small arena beforehand, well, how could anyone have expected her to refuse? He could do the same prancing movements that any exclusive cavalry horse could do and there wasn’t a jump in Hearn’s keep that he didn’t leap over with grace.

“Take him outside if you like,” Hearn had said at one point.

She hadn’t argued. And she had to say that a spectacular sunset was even more enjoyable when viewed from the back of a spectacular horse.

All of which left her where she was at the moment, grooming his dark grey sides with his silver tail saved for very last.

“You know, Acair,” Hearn said from where he was leaning on the stall door, “there are people in the East who are horse lovers.”

“Are there indeed, my lord?”

“I take it you never travelled so far in your endless quest to nick things. Spells and whatnot.”

“Nay, my lord,” Acair said politely. “Their magic is strange and I find myself favoring that which my sparse wits can wrap themselves around. Besides, ’tis a bit of a journey, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Aye, you lazy whelp, it is. Worth it, though.”

“Is it? What is it about these horsemen that’s intriguing?”

“Nothing for you to work yourself up over given that they have no magic that you could steal. Nay, what they have isn’t in their blood, ’tis woven into their souls.”

“Poetic.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

Léirsinn looked over Turasadhair’s neck at the men who were standing there watching her work. “Don’t you two have anything better to do than stand there yammering on?”

Acair looked at Hearn. “Red hair,” he said knowingly. “Comes with a temper and a sharp tongue.”

Hearn only smiled pleasantly. “May you feel the fire of it until it singes you to death, my lad. Now, as I was saying, there are horse people in the East. No magic that you would recognize, but there is something about them that is unusual.”

“Their ability to shovel great amounts of horse sh—”

Hearn tsk-tsked him. “Mind your manners before I put you back to work moving that pile again.”

“To an unnecessary location.”

“Never said the work had to have a point to it, did I? And stop interrupting me. These horsemen have, from what I understand, developed a very keen eye. Not Seeing in the usual sense, but just regular seeing that the high and mighty ones tend to miss because they’re so involved in their vaunted Looking About.”

“I know the type,” Acair said.

“You are the type,” Hearn said.

Acair only laughed briefly. “Trust me, my lord, I’ve done a great deal of looking at all sorts of things I shouldn’t have. Now, do they do anything else besides make everyone around them uncomfortable with their observations?”

“I daresay they know which end of a horse bites.”

Acair snorted. “Even I know that.”

“Now,” Hearn said dryly. “I understand from Mistress Léirsinn’s pony that such wasn’t always the case. He finds it terribly amusing. And don’t think he doesn’t recount your misadventures with him to other horses as often as he can.”

“That damned nag.”

Hearn laughed. “I believe if you could ever come to an understanding with him, you might like him. He’s as fond of a well-executed piece of mischief as you are. As for what I was attempting to spew out before you interrupted me, I think it would be an interesting thing to see who is related to whom, wouldn’t it? Your lass there, I mean.”

“Aye,” Acair said, “it would be.”

Léirsinn thought it would be more interesting if they took themselves off to cozy up to a keg in Hearn’s cellar, but perhaps that would have been rude to suggest.

Hearn rubbed his hands together. “Offer to aid her in her work here if she asks, Acair, then we’ll spend a pleasant evening together. You’ll want to be on your way in the morning. Your gel there is welcome to come back anytime she likes.”

“And me?”

“If she invites you, I’ll always have things for you to shovel.”

Léirsinn smiled to herself as she worked on Turasadhair’s mane. She took longer at it likely than she needed to, but it was soothing work, work she knew how to do, and work that never left her facing anything she didn’t anticipate.