Misunderstood, because he didn’t fit into their perfect Soreian mold.
“So what would you do differently, then, little sister?” Soahm asked.
Sonara smiled, tilting her chin towards the oncoming storm. The clouds were darkening now, rolling above the angry waves in the distance, where sky met sand and sea.
“For starters, I’d ride him without that heavy armor. Right when the rain hits.”
Soahm laughed, for when it came to riding unarmored on a beast as fierce as Duran, that most certainly sounded like a death wish. Couple the storm with it, and any steed’s attitude would change.
But Sonara had sensed Duran’s fighting soul from day one. He was born too early, a squalling and scrambling thing, scrawny legs and thin neck and a mare that did not have enough milk to sustain his endless hunger.
“He won’t survive the week,” the royal horsemaiden had said, considering the beast a burden.
But Sonara had refused to give up on him.
She did not sleep for days, so focused was she on filling him with donor’s milk. Bottle after bottle, she’d sustained him.
Duran grew quickly. He cheated death, and in the months after, Sonara spent countless hours grooming him, whispering her hurts and her pains into his fuzzy ears. Kissing him on his velvety snout. Sometimes, soaking her tears into his neck in the dark of night, when her problems surfaced and her demons tried to reel her in. Her soul always felt lighter in his presence. Like he was taking some of the burden off her back and placing it upon his own.
Sometimes, she swore he looked into her eyes and saw through to her soul.
He didn’t know what she was, a bastard without a true call to a crown.
He just knew that she washis.He’d claimed her heart from the moment she laid eyes on him.
And he was hers.
“Then I’d open these blasted gates,” Sonara said louder now, watching Duran’s dark-tipped ears flick towards the sound of her voice. “He was not meant to be confined to a pen.” His head turned to her and his blazing red eyes fell upon her face in recognition. He tossed his mane and pranced across the sand, snorting as he stopped before her. Sonara held out a hand, feeling his warm breath dissolve against her skin.Home,her heart whispered. “Then I’d turn him towards the crags, where the seagrass catches the breeze. I’d give him his freedom, allow him to think with his own head instead of a bit. We’d run until the storm broke. I wouldn’t slow him. And when he grew tired…” she smiled, thinking of the freedom, “we’d stand on the edge of the crags, watching the horizon where the sky meets the sea.”
Silence.
Then laughter, as Yima stalked over, catching Sonara’s gaze.
“The groom thinks she can do better than a cadre full of riders.”
“I don’tthink,”Sonara shot back. The wind blasted her hair back from her face. “I know I can.”
The other trainers standing around laughed. But Soahm…
“A gift, Sonara,” he said softly.
He winked at her, just before he stepped forward and lowered his hood from his head. The crowd gasped, the riders dropping to their knees as they realized the Crown Prince of Soreia was in their presence. His blue curls lifted as a gust caught the strands. The storm wind pulled at the fabric of his cloak, tugged at the heavy chain around his neck and the black stone dangling from it, sealed carefully in a ring of forged gold.
For centuries, the amulet had been in the royal family, passed down from generation to generation, from one heir to the next, marking the successor to the Soreian throne. There was no story behind the stone. Only that it was ancient, that it once belonged to the very first Soreian queen, who’d always seemed to know how to find favor with her people. Beloved. Admired.
She wore the stone upon her neck until the fading sands of time called her home.
“You’ll let Sonara inside the pen,” Soahm commanded, that very same stone hanging from his neck. He placed his palm over Lazaris’ pommel. “Give her a chance.”
The gate opened with a creak as the storm rumbled overhead.
Sonara stared at Soahm blankly.
Go on,he seemed to say, with a nod of his head.
She swallowed, heart racing as she stepped slowly inside. Gently, she removed Duran’s bridle and looped it over the railing.She ran her hands against Duran’s side, as if she were running a brush across him. Easy,soeasy, she stepped closer.
“You and me,” she whispered.
