War Mare

"You have strange churches in this land." She reproached me as I showed her into the spacious courtyard of the royal stables.

"I saw your eyes light up when you mentioned the stables. Do you like horses?" I asked curiously. She nodded.

"I was hoping to find Inncana here. My mare. I saw her being led out of the stables back home, but I don't know where she ended up." She said uneasily and preceded me, disregarding court etiquette. I followed her.

We walked past some boys shoveling manure into the building. Other noble ladies would have turned up their noses, but she just held her skirt so it wouldn't get soiled and crossed the channel that drained the urine from the building.

I took a breath to ask her what her mare looked like, but Valleria picked up her pace, only ever glancing fleetingly at the next stall, and suddenly sped up. From the other side of the stalls came a clatter, the clanging of metal and a high-pitched mare's neigh.

She was already running. With her skirts above her knees and her dark hair flowing behind her body like the tail of a comet. She squeezed under the railing and the clanking abruptly stopped.

"Wait outside." I turned to her guard and followed after her.

Valleria stood by the side of a huge white mare, humming softly to her and stroking her long arched neck.

"That's a warhorse." I remarked in surprise, realizing that Valleria could barely reach her withers.

"It is! Thank you for bringing me here. I was nervous I wouldn't find her again." She turned to me over her shoulder and smiled again, "Before my father died, he wouldn't let me touch a horse. But as my mother remarried, I got two older brothers. They stole the foal when they found out how I was looking at horses and brought her into my room to hide her there. They got a beating, but they never told him where they got the foal. I begged until their father sent them back with the money to pay for the mare so I could keep her." She pouted a little and turned to the mare again "Sometimes I expect them to come right up behind me to scare me. Full of life and laughter, like if nothing happened. But - I've seen their bodies. He showed them to us." She rested her forehead against the horse's shoulder and sighed.

"I know. I was there." I nodded, "Would you like to ride her? I'll have the groom to get her ready and mount her for you." I quickly tried to change the subject.

"No need, a halter will do." She said calmly, and before I could turn around, she took the halter off the bit and put it on the mare's head.

"No saddle?" I wondered and opened the stall so she could lead her out.

"I can feel her power better that way." She smiled.

'What are you doing to me, Valleria…' My mind thawed with the weight of all those ideas. She followed me, and led the mare closely after her.