“I think the king mentioned it to them. I suppose there would be buyers among them.”
They descended the south parapet with Accacia walking close, her honeyed scent heavy around him. He left her at the north tower stair, pleased with the bits of information he had gleaned, annoyed he had not gotten more. He went quickly toward the stables with a sudden sense of unease, a sudden turmoil of fury that was not his own.
He found the four horses sweating in their open stalls, their retreat blocked by a ring of yellow-uniformed soldiers. A captain of the dark was trying to put a halter on Starpounder. Teb heard the black stallion scream, found him rearing and striking at the heavy-shouldered captain, his fury so great Teb could already see a faint dragon-image ready to surface. He raised his hand and shouted. Starpounder paused rearing, came down to strike his front hooves inches from the captain’s head, his teeth bared, his eyes burning with a wildness that no true horse could match.
The captain did not step back. His face was frozen into a sallow mask of contempt.
Chapter 12
The un-man was no taller than Teb, but broader and heavier, with shoulders humped forward, drawing a line of wrinkles across his yellow tunic. He took Teb’s measure with flat gray eyes, then turned back to face Starpounder. The stallion’s face, with lips drawn back, was pulled into a killer’s smile. His body was poised ready to strike again. When the captain thrust the halter at his head, Starpounder exploded, rearing, striking. Teb shouted and grabbed him—he came to the ground and backed off, but still he was tensed like a spring, pressing against Teb, glowering at the unman.
“Get away from him, Captain. You cannot halter him; no one can unless you know the signals.”
The captain’s voice was as flat and expressionless as his eyes. “Then show me the signals. How do you expect to sell creatures that will not obey and submit?”
“The stallion will obey the man to whom he is sold. I will teach the signals to that man.”
“Show them to me. Now.”
“When you have purchased and paid for the animal, I will do so.”
The un-man’s fury was like the silent lash of a whip. “Do you know who I am?”
“You are a captain of the army of Aquervell, and so captain to Quazelzeg.”
“I am High Captain Leskrank. I am captain to Supreme Ruler Quazelzeg, and to General Vurbane, ruler of Ekthuma, as well. I serve them on special mission. I desire to ride this stallion.”
“I will be most happy to oblige,” Teb said, controlling his anger. “But I will halter and saddle him.” Be still, Starpounder. You agreed to it; now swallow your fury and bear it.
Starpounder glowered at Teb, snorting, ears back, then came to him reluctantly. He put his head into the halter Teb held, but Teb could feel the effort it took. Teb stroked the stallion until at last he felt the fury of the dragon subside and calm. He saddled Starpounder with Leskrank’s own black war saddle, the sword still dangling at its side. He tightened the girth and gave the halter reins to the heavy-shouldered, gray-faced leader. Leskrank stared at the thin halter but evidently had been told, perhaps by Sardira, that was all Teb allowed on the horses.
“You must remove your spurs first,” Teb said. “He will not tolerate spurs.”
The man gave Teb a cold stare. “I am used to being master of my mounts. This stallion will learn that, when he belongs to me.” He moved to mount. Starpounder backed away and would not let the captain near him. Leskrank jerked the halter strap, but that did not faze Starpounder.
“When you remove your spurs,” Teb said, “he will let you mount docilely.”
Leskrank did so at last, and Starpounder came forward to stand still as the heavy captain mounted. Teb could feel the tension of the other three horses, could see the dragonfire behind their eyes. He slipped Seastrider’s halter on and swung onto her back, to ride beside Captain Leskrank. The other soldiers drew back from Windcaller and Nightraider, who stood eyeing them with challenge.
On the broad grass practice field, Sardira’s soldiers drew back so the two riders had the flat meadow to themselves. Teb showed Leskrank the special signals that he had taught to Sardira’s soldiers, signals he and the dragons had agreed on before they came to Dacia. Leskrank trotted Starpounder in circles, galloped him, then began to practice the signals.
On command, Starpounder reared to strike as in battle, spun so fast the heavy captain was nearly unseated, ducked to right, then to left, under the attack of Teb’s own sword in mock battle, spun again, backed, and, in a surprising launch of inventiveness, in a maneuver they had not worked out together, reared over Seastrider and snatched the blunt side of Teb’s blade in his teeth and wheeled away bearing the weapon. Any other soldier would have laughed with pleasure.
Leskrank’s expression did not change, except that his eyes burned with the desire to own this beast.
“I am working on signals for that maneuver and others,” Teb told Leskrank as they walked the horses back toward the stables. “I will be happy to have you put the stallion through his new paces, once they are perfected.” If we are here, he thought. For now they had another reason to vanish quickly from the palace, before the dark leaders tried to buy or steal the four horses.
But Leskrank made no offer of purchase. While Teb was sponging off the horses in the stable yard, the dark captain went off toward the main hall with no offer, no word, no change of expression. Teb squeezed out the sponge and looked after him. Leskrank’s men followed him in silence, until at last Teb and the four were alone.
He does not mean to buy us, Seastrider said. Why should he? I can see it in his face. He means simply to take us. He means to teach his soldiers the signals, then ride off on us when he returns to the dark continent. He would make a bitter meal, but I would relish feeling him writhe in my jaws.
Roasted first by dragon fire, Starpounder said, and even so, he would not be palatable. Of course, he means to kill you, Tebriel, if you try to stop him.
Teb smiled, imagining the four horses turning suddenly to dragons and finishing off Leskrank and his troops.
He will do nothing, Seastrider said, until he is sure he has learned all the signals and your methods of training. Until he understands how to make us submit to his will. She shook her mane and snorted. The unliving may detest knowledge and skill, Tebriel. But when a skill is useful to them, they mean to have it.
Teb stayed with the horses for some time, stroking and grooming them, for the presence of the dark had left them all edgy. Starpounder, having resisted his urge to kill the un-man, was sweating and fidgeting now and could not settle. Suddenly, as Teb brushed him, his body became translucent, black-gleaming scales showing through. They all stood frozen as Starpounder brought the force of the shape-shifting under control, subsiding at last into the stallion’s satin curves.
Seastrider did not lose her image, but she pawed and shook her head, and nipped at the flesh on her shoulder. Teb did not know how much longer they dare stay here, with the dragons’ patience wearing so thin.
We will conserve our power, Tebriel. We will practice patience, all of us will, Seastrider said, glowering at Starpounder.
But it would not be long after the state supper that night that Seastrider, too, found her powers changed, and in a different way.
Teb didn’t look forward to supper. He dressed carefully, swallowing his disgust at having to dine with the unliving and their amoral followers.
Sometimes he thought he hated the human men who served the dark more than he hated the unliving. The unliving were patterned by their own unchangeable evil natures. They were formed of evil and could not choose any other way.