‘Yes’m. We have—’ Something flickered in her eyes. She looked down. ‘We had bandits at home. I stood watch with the sheep, so I learned crossbow and longbow. And sling’ – a half smile appeared – ’not that I’m bragging.’
We had, Onua thought. Did she change it ’cause she wants me to think she’s been gone from home awhile? Or hasn’t she got a home?
Something looked around the girl, inspecting Onua with a large brown eye. It was a shaggy mountain pony, a steel grey mare. She was plump and well combed, and easily bore two packs.
‘Yours?’ The girl nodded. ‘How much would you ask for her?’ Onua motioned to a pen filled with ponies at her back. ‘I’m in the market.’
‘I can’t sell Cloud. She’s family – all the family I got.’ Again Onua saw a flash of sorrow that was pushed aside.
‘What’s your name?’ The K’mir stuck her fingers into a pouch filled with powder known as ‘eyebright’.
‘Daine, mum,’ came the soft reply. ‘Veralidaine Sarrasri.’
The eyebright made her fingers itch when Onua called on her magical Gift. ‘How old are you, Daine?’
‘Fifteen.’ An aura of red fire, visible only to Onua, flared around the girl’s face. The lie was a good one – she must have practised on the way, the trader thought wryly – but a lie nevertheless. She looked about thirteen.
‘Where are you from?’
‘Snowsdale, up north. About two weeks’ walk.’
There was no flare of red – she had told the truth. Onua sighed. ‘Are you a runaway? From home, or a bad master—’
‘No, mum.’ The soft mouth trembled. ‘I got no family – just Cloud.’
No red fire this time. Onua dusted the powder from her hand. ‘I’m Onua Chamtong, of the K’miri Raadeh.’
Daine looked puzzled. ‘The k-k – the what?’
‘The K’mir are a people to the east. Raadeh is the name of one of the K’miri tribes.’ Daine looked only slightly less baffled. ‘Never mind. You say you’re good with animals. C’mere.’ She led the girl to her pen. Inside, twenty-seven shaggy ponies in all colours and sizes milled around.
‘I buy horses. I had an assistant, but he got offered a better job working for a horse merchant here, and I wasn’t about to hold him back. If you hire on – and I didn’t say I’d hire you – you’ll help me take these south. It’s three weeks’ drive – if we don’t bog down in mud, if we aren’t hit by raiders, and if we go before all these people take the road to the next fair. It’ll be just you and me, and my dog, Tahoi. Why don’t you climb in and look ’em over? I want to see how you manage ’em.’
Daine glanced back at her mare, Cloud. ‘Stay put, and no biting,’ she ordered sternly, and clambered over the fence into the pen.
Poor thing must have been alone a long time, to be talking to a mare as if she could answer back, Onua thought. She sat on the fence rail to watch.
The ponies watched as Daine passed among them. Ears went back. Those close to her appeared to wonder which would do better: a bite or a kick.
When a yellow stallion, the king of the small herd, minced into place at her back, the girl spun and put both hands under his muzzle, lifting his head to stare into his face. ‘No, sir,’ she told him firmly. ‘I’ll not stand for any tricks. I may be human, but I’m not stupid.’ The stallion tried to rear. She forced him down, then blew gently in his nostrils, to teach him her scent. He shuffled, then fidgeted – then bowed his head in submission.
Horse Lords, Onua thought. She’s establishing domination over him and the entire herd!
In years of managing horses, she’d never seen the like. This particular breed was famous for its fiery nature (one of the reasons she purchased them for her employers). She had achieved peace – of a sort – with them using her strength, her wits, and bribes. All horse folk handled their animals that way. Only this child was different: Daine treated the stallion as if she were a pony herself, a dominant one.
She isn’t lying about her folks or running away – just about her age. If I let her go, she might get into trouble. There are too many predators around, looking for a pretty like this one. The road isn’t too safe – but what is?
She watched the girl move among the ponies, running her hands over each one. She was giving them bits of apple and sugar from her pockets. Onua was glad to see she could deal with the animals in a normal way. One display like that with the stallion was more than enough.
‘D’you ride?’ she called.
Daine came over to the fence. ‘Some. Mostly bareback, but I can use a saddle, and I know how to look after tack.’
‘What about hunting, fishing, tracking?’
The grin lit a face that was too thin and eyes that were too weary. ‘I do all that – had to, to get this far. I couldn’t trust folks on the road. Some looked like – bandits.’
As Daine climbed over the rail, the shadow was back in her eyes: grief, Onua decided, but anger too. ‘Tired of them already?’
The girl shook her head. ‘I’m getting an oil I have, and a swab. The strawberry has ear mites. They’re not too bad – if I get them now, he won’t spread them to the herd.’ She went to the grey mare, who was plainly sulking, and opened one of her packs.
‘How do you know you can trust me?’
Daine shrugged. ‘I don’t. How do you know you can trust me?’
‘Was that a joke?’ Onua’s voice was stern, but her eyes laughed. Her last two assistants had possessed no sense of humour.
Daine gave her a quick smile and climbed into the pen, a clay bottle and swabs in one hand. Onua watched, amazed, as the strawberry gelding trotted up to the girl. If someone had said that morning she’d see one of her charges willingly submit to an ear cleaning, she would have laughed herself sick.
I shouldn’t do it. She’s a baby. There’re all those rumours – no smoke without fire. Still, my magic will keep us safe at night, and she can handle a bow. ‘Daine!’ she called.
The girl had finished the gelding’s ears. She came over. ‘Yes?’
‘I’ll tell you right now – I’ve heard a lot of weird stories lately, about monsters in the wild, attacking travellers. Things out of legend, so folk say. I haven’t seen any myself, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. Are you sure you want to hire on?’
Daine shrugged. ‘I hear tales. I need work, mum. If I see monsters, I see monsters. My family was killed and my home burned by human ones.’
‘All right, then – here’s the job,’ said the K’mir. ‘You, me, and my dog take the herd south, like I said. I have the Gift, and I can shield our camp at night. It’s two coppers a day, two silver nobles as a bonus at the end. I pay all expenses, and we share chores. No drinking, no drugs. If you leave me on the trail, you’ll wish you died as a child.’ Daine giggled. ‘At the end of the road – we’ll see. We’re bound for the capital of Tortall—’
The girl’s face lit up. ‘Where a lady knight is the King’s Champion, right? And they let girls in the army? That Tortall?’
‘You heard the stories too,’ the K’mir murmured. ‘Well, they don’t let girls in the regular army, mind – just the Queen’s Riders. Why – have you a fancy to be a soldier?’
Daine shook her head. ‘Not me. But if they take girls for that, maybe they’ll