Once on dry land again, Lasair and Zolotoyshook the river water off their sodden coats while Sahar unclenchedher fists and took in several deep, calming breaths.She turned toAleksandr, nodding her unspoken thanks, and he grabbed her by thetunic and pulled her to him, giving her a smacking kiss on thelips.
“You’re welcome,” he called out over hisshoulder as he sent Zolotoy into a gallop.
Sahar had fallen five riders behind, but soonovertook the fifth and then the fourth as she and Lasair climbedtheir way up the hillside.Once on the flat hilltop, there werethree riders to catch up to: Aleksandr, the Jackal, and Yago.Munirand four others were coming up over the hill’s crest behind her.Sahar kept Lasair at a steady pace, maintaining her positionbetween the two clusters of riders and giving the mare a bit of abreather.
Aleksandr made his move before the downhillrun, his golden stallion passing the Jackal’s roan in a burst ofstrength and speed that Sahar took advantage of, urging Lasair intoa full gallop and edging past the Jackal, who had resorted to usinghis riding whip on his poor mount.Glancing back over her shoulder,she saw Munir and Feroz overtake the Jackal, who had pushed hishorse too hard too soon.
Sahar’s legs gripped Lasair’s sides as theystarted downhill.The path was rocky and overgrown with thick brushon either side, leaving only enough space for two horses abreast inthe widest, clearest sections and a single horse in others.Lighterand fleeter-footed than Zolotoy and Tor, Lasair soon closed thedistance between them, but she could see no way to get past eitherof them without injury, so she held Lasair back.They were onlyhalfway into the race and she would have plenty of time to take thelead once they made it to the wider path through the riverdelta.
The verdant delta was no more than fiftypaces ahead of them when behind her there came loud shouting andcursing amid a cloud of dust that could only mean that a rider andhis horse, or several, had taken a fall, and she gave a silentprayer of thanks to the gods as Lasair’s hooves hit flat ground.She glanced back to see Munir and Feroz still riding, and gaveLasair her head.
Twenty paces ahead, Zolotoy and Tor wereracing neck and neck, their powerful haunches bunching andspringing, their hooves churning up earth and sending clods flying.She hunched up higher on her saddle and leaned closer to Lasair’swithers, hoping to take advantage of Aleksandr’s and Yago’spreoccupation with each other to edge past them.She’d closed thegap to ten paces when Yago’s arm shot out and the sound of a whipcracked through the air.Aleksandr swerved to the side so suddenlythat he almost fell out of his saddle and then righted himself witha curse.Yago’s arm flicked out again and she heard the snap andsaw the snaking tip of the whip strike Zolotoy’s flank.
“You spineless worm,” Aleksandr yelled.“Youwhip my horse again and I will kill you, the race be damned.”
Yago sneered and plied the whip to Tor’s rumpwith three quick smacks as Aleksandr slowed enough to twist in hissaddle and run his hand over Zolotoy’s flank where the whip hadstruck.He glared at her as if she had somehow aided or condonedYago’s actions, and then he swung back around and hunkered overZolotoy’s withers, closing the ground they had lost between themand Yago with pure determination.
The crowd of people gathered at the city’sedge where the delta path met the road burst into loud cheers asZolotoy passed Tor, and then cheered again as Sahar and Lasairturned onto the road, followed by Munir and Feroz.They were on thelast half league of the race, the last of the flat road before itturned up the hill to the palace gates and the finish line.If shewas going to make her move, she needed to make it now.
“Come on, Lasair,” she whispered fiercelyinto the mare’s ear.“Come on, girl, show them what you got.”
Lasair responded with a surge of speed andSahar kept up her whispering as they gained ground on Yago and Tor.They pulled up even with them and she was glad of the crowds.Without them, Yago might’ve used his whip on Lasair as he hadZolotoy, as he now used it on Tor, who had nothing left to give byhis labored breathing and the sweat lathering on his black coat.With a disgusted shake of her head, she rode past them andconcentrated on Aleksandr and Zolotoy, who were still running hardand steady a good ten paces ahead.She glanced back and saw thatMunir had now passed Yago, but was still five paces behind Lasair,whose breaths were growing shorter along with her gait as theystarted up the hill to the palace.
“Come on, Lasair,” she urged, willing herbreath into the mare’s straining lungs, her strength into Lasair’stired legs.“We can do this.”
We can do this, we can do this, we can dothis.The thought pounded through her head with the beat ofLasair’s hooves, but though the mare gave it her all, it was notenough to overtake Zolotoy.The golden stallion crossed the finishline to wild cheers six strides ahead of Lasair.
Aleksi’s belly filled with the sumptuousfeast held in the palace courtyard, he leaned forward in hisvictor’s seat and inhaled the sweet and instantly familiarfragrance of the exotic white flowers floating in a bowl of wateron the table.
He turned to Sahar, who sat at his rightside, nursing the wine in her silver goblet.“What are theseflowers called?”he asked.
“Gardenias.”
“It is the oil of these petals that you wearon your skin.”
It was more statement than question, and heanswered with a dip of her head and a flush to her cheeks.Shelifted her mass of curls from her neck as if she’d suddenly becomeheated, which Aleksi did immediately from the intoxicating scent ofgardenia and warm skin assailing him.He half lowered his head withthe sudden urge to nuzzle the soft underside of her jaw and thenjerked his head back as cups clanked on the table to a boisterouschorus of “Speech, speech.”
He stood on unsteady legs and raised hisgolden victor’s cup high.“To King Asad and Queen Oona,” he said,grateful that his voice did not waver.“I thank you once again foryour hospitality and for the generous victor’s purse now hangingfrom my waist belt.”He jangled his leather purse, heavy with thethirty pieces of gold added to the two from the previous race asthe gathering laughed and clapped.“To Princess Sahar,” he said,“and her mare, Lasair.They both ran a good, close race onceagain.”He lifted his cup to Sahar, and her smile lit up her faceand his.He gave her a purposely cocky grin.“I intend to beat themtwo out of three races.”
“You will try,” she said, lifting her cup ofsilver to him and taking a drink, her green eyes glinting with thechallenge.
Chuckling, Aleksi turned to Munir at hisleft.“To Munir, stalwart king’s guard and newly betrothed to thelovely Halah, and my new friend, congratulations on a race wellrun.”
Munir held his copper cup up to Aleksi andtook a good, honest draught.
“Goes to prove the advantage of a homecourse,” a voice said loudly over the huzzahs.
The voice and accusation were familiar.Aleksi had heard them two days before on the practice run, and hedid not like it any better now than he had then.He looked down thelong table of riders, past the Wolf’s sneering face to theJackal’s.
“What it proves,” Aleksi said, “is therelationship between a horse and its rider, which is why you,Jackal, and you, Wolf, lost the moment you used your whips.”
Aleksi sat down and looked to the king, forhe had not intended to insult him or his hospitality in any way,but neither was he going to stand there and let Sahar and Munir beslandered.The king, rather than insulted by Aleksi’s response, wasglaring at the Wolf and the Jackal.
“What it proves,” a feminine voice shrilledout over the grassfire of whispers sweeping across the courtyard,“is that breeding will show every time.”
“How so, sister?”Aleksi said.
Anastasia pushed one of the jeweled combsholding her blonde coif up deeper into her hair, her ring-ladenfingers sparkling in the torch light.“Your horse, Zolotoy, was agift from our father, King Maksimillian, bred from the royalstable’s bloodline.Anyone could have ridden him and won.”
