Good. Very good.
Just wait for her to give him a piece of her mind. Friends didn't disappear on friends without a word of warning.
Responding to the shift in her rider's posture, Caia started forward.
"Roscoe, you got this?" Eva shouted.
He waved a hand at her. "Go. We're already through the tricky part. I can take care of the rest."
Eva took him at his word, leaning forward on Caia's back. "You ready, my darling?"
The mare's slow walk turned into a canter as they left the slower moving horse train behind. Caia kept to the gentle pace as they descended the small hill that led into the valley.
Eva was careful not to let Caia have her head. If she had, Eva had no doubt Caia would have lunged into a breakneck speed and probably broken her leg by the time she made it halfway down. A fall here could have brutal consequences. The footing was unstable. Easy for Caia or any horse to step wrong.
Caia wasn't pleased with the slower pace after being promised a run, but the mare trusted her partner.
It was why she didn't do more than toss her head as she picked her way down the slope to the valley floor.
There, Caia lunged forward, Eva not stopping her.
There were times you simply had to run, and this was one of them.
Caia broke into a gallop as Eva whooped into the wind. As always when she was on her friends back, Eva felt this sense of freedom. The world speeding past. The mare an anchor beneath her. Something tangible to hold on to.
The pounding of her hooves keeping time with Eva's heartbeat. Almost as if in this moment they were one. Woman melding with horse as they followed Sebastian's path.
The camp quickly grew in the distance. The tents looming large in a short time.
Jason stood up as Eva brought Caia to a canter and then a trot.
"He let you saddle him?" Eva asked, nodding at the Kyren standing a few feet away.
At a glance, it was easy to see why the Trateri were so enthralled with the Kyren.
Take the most regal and proud horse you'd ever seen and magnify that by a hundred. That would give you a creature close to the Kyren.
Lethal looking horns jutted from his brow. They were a reminder that although the Kyren's appearance held many points in common with a prey animal, they were predators every bit as dangerous as a beast. Some might say more so since they held the intelligence of a human.
This Kyren in particular was all that and more. Sebastian's coat was a black so deep it nearly shined. Almost otherworldly looking.
"He didn't give me much choice," Jason said, giving Sebastian an irritated look. "He was quite insistent. He retrieved the saddle himself. Pulled it right out of your tent."
Eva grimaced.
Seeing her expression, Jason grinned. "Yeah, you have a mess to clean up later."
"Story of my life."
Eva had a feeling this wouldn't be the only mess left to her to deal with today.
Sebastian turned his head, fixing a gaze on Eva that saw far more than most humans gave him credit for. They'd see his body that looked similar to a horse's and make certain inferences. Like he was only as intelligent as a horse. That if they broke him, they'd be his master. Never knowing that their assumptions would lead to their death.
Sebastian's eyes pulled at Eva, drawing her in as a voice sounded in her mind.
It's time.
Eva clamped down on the mix of emotions those words spawned and gave Sebastian a resigned nod. "I know."
