I sigh and square my shoulders the best I can. Even my shoulders ache. “Okay. I—Can I at least do the brushing part? I don’t know how to massage anybody, let alone a horse.”
Kaelen’s sculpted lips tremble, and the laughter in his purple eyes makes them sparkle in the sunset light. “No, Soli. I didn’t mean you should massage the horse. Although, yes, we need to care for him, but we have plenty of people here who know how to do that. I meant that massage would help with your aching muscles from riding the horse for hours.”
I roll my eyes. “I didn’t ride the horse, remember? You rode the horse, and I just sat with you.”
The heat in his eyes burns like a fire-kissed caress against my skin, and I fight to keep from shivering. Then I realize a prince may be about to offer to massage my sore muscles, which leads to thoughts of Kaelen’s strong hands on my hips and thighs, which leads to my face flaming so hot I turn away to grab a waterskin and take a deep, gulping drink.
“Riding makes me thirsty,” I say faintly, still turned away from him.
“I know what you’re doing,” the prince murmurs. “Avoidance won’t always work.”
“But it will right now,” I say hastily. “Okay, let’s take care of this beast.”
“He’s no beast. He’s a beauty,” Kaelen croons to the horse, whose ears perk up. “His name is River.”
“Hello, River.” I tentatively touch the flat, smooth space between his eyes. He seems to like it.
Kaelen demonstrates circular strokes with a short-bristled brush on River’s sides and flank before putting the tool in my hand. “We call this—”
“Currying,” I say, transfixed by the motion and the way the horse clearly appreciates it. He’s leaning into me as if to ensure I get all the best spots.
Behind me, Kaelen seems to do the same thing. My breath speeds up. Apparently I, like the horse, am getting a second wind.
Kaelen bends his head until his mouth touches the top of my head and inhales deeply. He rubs the side of his face against my hair in an unexpectedly intimate caress.
“You smell like everything I most want,” he murmurs, but then he stiffens. “What ishappeningto me?”
“What?”
He clears his throat and looks anywhere but at me. “Yes. It’s good for the horse, because—”
“I know,” I stammer, trying to keep from rubbing my body against his. Trying to remember why that would be a bad idea. Wondering why he keeps blowing hot and cold and hot and cold and then some other temperature that doesn’t even exist.
I force myself to focus instead on a book I read about the care and feeding of livestock. “Gets rid of dirt and stimulates oil production, which is good for their skin. I read a lot. I know a lot more in theory than I’ve ever had the chance to practice in real life.”
He steps back so he’s no longer touching me. “Of course. I’m sorry.
I wasn’t trying to condescend to you.”
“What? No! Please tell me things. The difference between reading about something and living it is as vast as the difference between nightin the Sea of Ice and daytime in the Desert of Sharnon.” I shudder, thinking again of the Fell and Zhagarn. “Fighting, for instance. Killing. Reading all the books in the world couldn’t have prepared me for the reality of that.”
The horse shuffles sideways, stretching out his neck to give me better access, but he bumps into me and knocks me off balance. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I normally don’t ride horses all day. My aches have aches. I stumble and can’t stop the gasp that escapes my lips.
“Okay, Soli.” Kaelen plucks the brush out of my hand and herds me over to the fire that someone already built. “Sit here, and we’ll take care of you.”
I gingerly sit, holding back the groan when my poor, abused bottom hits the log pulled up next to the fire for seating. Then I clench my teeth and look around rather desperately for Elianna or even Chitai, because an urgent problem is presenting itself.
And there is no way in Terra I’m going to tell the crown prince of Valourian that I have to pee.
After I take care of bodily necessities and wash my shirt to clean away the evidence of today’s battle, I insist on helping prepare dinner. I’ve never been allowed to cook, but I’ve picked up a bit from my desperate attention to all things culinary in my underfed years at the library. While Sergeant Neville and Bern tend the fire, Kaelen and Andras take off for ten minutes and return with a brace of rabbits. Luckily for me, they take care of skinning and prepping them, because I’m not sure I’m hungry enough to try that.
Just for future reference, though, I keep an eye on how they do it. If I find myself alone and starving sometime on this trip … well. I won’t want the scrolls of the next Age to say: “She tried to save Altarra, but she was too incompetent to feed herself.”
I blow out a breath. No matter. It’s never too late to learn.
But this is an awfully large pile of vegetables, and I’m not that quick with my knife.
I glance at Chitai but don’t have anywhere near the nerve to ask her if she wants to help cook. Anyway, she’s clearly on watch, and I like her odds of protecting us much better than my own, so I return to prepping potatoes and vegetables. The latter go into a pot of boiling water Bern set up on a metal rack over the fire, and I salt the potatoes and place them between the stones that ring the small firepit. I read about how to do this in one of the many books and scrolls dedicated to helpful tips for travelers. According to several authors, roasting the potatoes will make them taste better than boiling them.
