Daughter of the Disgraced King (13 page)

“Now you’re tired.” Jathan drew a deep breath. “So am I,
actually.” He looked out the archway to the terrace. “And no wonder. Dawn can’t
be far off. Shall I call for your carriage?”

Ailsa leaned on his arm. “I hate for this to end, but I
think I’d better go home while I can still walk.”

Jathan laughed. “Wise. Very wise.”

Moments later, he handed her up into her carriage. Jathan
leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, briefly. “Thank you for a wonderful
night, Ailsa. I hope it’s just the first of many.”

Ailsa blinked. The feel of his lips had sent a shock through
her that was completely unexpected. And Jathan had the strangest look on his
face. Had he felt it too? She gathered enough of her wits to answer. “I enjoyed
it, too.”

When Ailsa arrived at the imperial palace the next day, she
was met by a footman who led her around to the back where the stables were
located. A fine roan gelding was tied up outside the stable, already saddled
and bridled, ready for his rider. She patted him in passing. Was that meant to
be her mount? Or Mayra’s? “Um. Hello?”

Jathan stepped out of the stable, smiling. “There you are.
Good.”

Ailsa paused. She hadn’t expected to see Jathan today. After
that parting kiss last night—or early this morning, she corrected herself—she
wasn’t quite sure what to say.

Jathan’s smile faltered, almost the first sign of
uncertainty she’d ever seen him display. “I invited myself along on your ride.
I haven’t done much riding since classes started and I need to be in shape for
our summer break. I hope you don’t mind.”

Things were going to be just the same between them? Oh good.
She really hadn’t been quite sure what that little electrical jolt meant. Or
the strange look on his face after the kiss. She wasn’t even sure what Jathan
had meant by that kiss. Or what her reaction to it meant, for that matter. She
liked Jathan—most of the time. When he wasn’t being annoying, anyway. But she
didn’t want another complicated friendship right now. If Jathan was willing to
act as if that kiss hadn’t happened, maybe that was the best way to deal with
it. Ailsa smiled. “Of course I don’t mind.”

Jathan returned the smile. “I’ve been trying to decide which
horse to offer you and I can’t choose—mostly because I’ve never seen you ride
and I don’t know what you’re used to.” He turned to the right and led her to a
large stall that housed a palomino lady’s palfrey. The mare’s coat had been
brushed until it gleamed like burnished gold. The cream mane and tail were
braided with pink ribbons. She was also nearly as round as a barrel.

Jathan rested an elbow on the stall door. The mare looked up
but didn’t pause in her placid munching. “Goldenrod here is my mother’s, but
she seldom has time for riding while we’re in the city. Goldie’s quiet and
reliable—”

“And boring?” Ailsa asked, trying to keep from sounding
appalled.

Jathan grinned at her, his eyes glinting mischievously. “Very.”
He led her down to a box stall at the far end of the stable. “Now, on the other
hand, if it’s excitement you want, there’s Diamond over here.”

Ailsa drew in her breath sharply. She’d never seen a more
gorgeous horse in all her life. His coat was so glittering white that he would
have made Pearl look dingy. Ailsa felt a pang of guilty disloyalty for thinking
that, but it was the plain truth. His mane looked like strands of silver silk.
His eyes were a bright blue, the color of bluebonnets and full of intelligence.
“I’ve never seen a horse with eyes that color—not even an albino.”

“Oh, Diamond’s not an albino. His grandfather was a unicorn.”

Ailsa spun to stare at Jathan, sure he was trying to tell
her a tall story.

Jathan held out his hands. “It’s the truth.”

Ailsa squinted at him, unconvinced. “I didn’t know there
were any unicorns left.”

“Oh, yes. A few protected herds still run wild in parts of
the Ring Mountains. They’re virtually impossible to tame, of course. Almost no
one even tries. But some of the farmers do leave their best mares out where
they’re . . . accessible.” Jathan smiled slightly. “Even the half-unicorns are
very difficult to manage, but they’re supposed to make fantastic war horses.
Quarter bloods and less are more practical. Diamond here is a quarter blood. I
should warn you, though, he’s likely to be quite a handful.”

“I can see that he’s spirited.”

Jathan nodded. “That, too. Mainly, he really doesn’t get
enough exercise except when they turn him out in the paddock. He was supposed
to be Arrigo’s, but Diamond has one of those unicorn quirks—he only accepts
female riders. Arrigo gave him to Mayra at her last birthday, but she almost
never rides him.”

“Why ever not?” Ailsa asked.

A horse whickered a little farther down the aisle. “He’s
beautiful and I love him, but somehow whenever I come out to ride, Silver
always greets me with a whinny and then I’d feel bad if I didn’t ride her. Sort
of disloyal.”

Ailsa turned to see Mayra standing at a stall door, stroking
the nose of a fine gray palfrey. Mayra was dressed in a worn, but elegant
velvet riding habit. Ailsa suddenly felt very underdressed in her functional
split skit and tunic.

“Besides, Silver is so much easier to ride than Diamond,”
Jathan put in.

Mayra made a face. “It’s true I can relax more when I ride
Silver, but that’s not the only reason. She’d feel like I’d deserted her if I
rode Diamond instead.”

It only took a glance for Ailsa to see that Mayra and the
gray had a similar bond to the one she felt with Pearl. She smiled. “That’s how
I’d feel about my horse back home, if she were here. My friend says I have a
special bond with Pearl. That she runs beyond her abilities for me.”

Mayra smiled back, then she turned a mock scowl on her
brother. “See. She understands.” She turned back to Ailsa. “Please ride Diamond
if you like. You’d be doing him and me a favor. As Jathan said, he only really
likes to have a female rider, so the grooms can’t do much with him.”

Jathan’s voice rose a little in pitch. “Only if you feel up
to it. There are plenty of other horses, more exciting than Goldenrod, but not
as challenging as Diamond.”

Ailsa smiled, dismissing his obvious fear. “I think I can manage.
Anyway, I’d like to try.”

“Are you sure?” Jathan persisted.

Ailsa’s eyes narrowed. He’d never seen her ride, but he didn’t
have to doubt her word. “Quite sure.”

Jathan let it go with a worried frown.

In short order, the two additional horses were saddled and
bridled and led out into the open air. Jathan stood by, ready to give Ailsa a
leg up. She glowered at him forbiddingly and set her own foot in the stirrup.
True, Diamond was at least a hand taller than Pearl, but she could still mount
on her own. She had no sooner settled into the saddle than Diamond tossed his
head and pranced sideways. Ailsa gathered the reins and checked him.

Jathan swung up into his own saddle on the roan. “You’re
going to need to let him run a bit before you can do much else with him, I
think. We usually take a turn or two around the track before we do anything
else, anyway.” He clucked to his horse and led the way around the stable to a
fenced oval. The center of the oval was lush and green, but the grass had been
worn down to dirt in a track around the inside of the fence.

Jathan and Mayra steered their horses over to the grassy
area just inside that worn track. Jathan paused and reached back. “Pass me his
reins and I’ll lead you around in a nice canter to take the edge of him.”

Ailsa scowled at him. Sav would never have doubted her
ability. Or tried to treat her like a child. “Either I’m going to ride him—myself—or
I’m going to take him right back to the stables.”

“Ailsa, that’s not a good idea—”

Ailsa felt Diamond bunch himself beneath her. She settled
herself firmly into the saddle and tightened her knees for a better grip. Diamond
apparently took that as encouragement. He kicked out once and then started at a
gallop around the course.

Ailsa was too good a horsewoman to let him get away with
that. She leaned back and pulled the stallion down to a walk. “Oh no you don’t,
my lad. We go together or you don’t go at all. You want to run—and you were
made for it. But you must wait for me to tell you or you’ll stay right here.” Diamond
tossed his head. Ailsa laughed. The sound did something to Diamond. His ears
pricked forward. He arched his neck and pranced in place. “All right, then. Let’s
run.” Ailsa leaned forward and turned her feet to press her heels to his sides.
Diamond took off down the dirt track like a rabbit bolting from a hunting fox.

Ailsa clung to his back, folded low across his neck. She let
him run down the first straightaway, then pulled him down to a more moderate
pace for the sweeping turn around the far end. As they came around on the far
side of the ring, she leaned forward and spoke in Diamond’s ear, inspiring him
to go still faster. Ailsa felt the wind of their speed pulling her hair loose
from its braid. Let Jathan chew on
that.
Maybe it’d teach him not to
doubt her word about her own abilities. She sat up and slowed the horse again
at the second turn. She had him in an easy canter when she came abreast of
Jathan and Mayra again and stopped. “I believe this horse could fly if he set
his mind to it,” she laughed.

Jathan gaped at her.

Mayra smiled. “I’ve never seen him respond like that.”

Ailsa shot Jathan a glare and leaned closer so that only
Mayra could hear her. “If you let him get the idea that you need help to manage
him, he’ll think he get away with whatever he wants. He has to know that
you
intend to ride him—not you with the help of one of your brothers.” She sat back
and spoke louder. “He’s not really mean—and I’ve ridden a few horses that were.
He’s just full of himself and needed a good run before he could settle down and
concentrate on his manners. If you don’t want to run him like that, maybe you
could have someone take him out on a lunge line before you ride.”

“I never suspected you could ride like that,” Jathan said.

Ailsa tossed her head, making her braid flip. “I’m a desert
girl, not a city girl.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jathan said, still staring at her.

They made another full circuit of the track before leaving
and striking out on a tree-lined path.

“There are miles of parkland around Terranion. And most of
it has riding trails. This one leads to a . . . well, it’s more of a large pond
than even a small lake. But Mayra and I thought you’d like it—being a desert
girl, and all.” Jathan winked at her.

Ailsa nodded slightly. “You obviously know the trails here
much better than I do.” Part of her was still annoyed with Jathan, but the sun
and the lush forest were working on her, too, making her feel too good to
continue any bad feelings. Talk of the lake did briefly remind her of the man
who’d tried to assault her at the inn. She looked around. “What about our . . .
body guards.”

“Oh, they’ll be around. Within sight and call, but not
usually where
we
can see
them,
” Mayra said. “No one’s going to
get to us without coming through them first.”

The path was wide enough for them to ride side by side and
talk. Much of the conversation was taken up by Ailsa’s exclamations over the
lush and vibrant woods and all the unfamiliar creatures that inhabited them.

“If you think this little patch of woods is interesting, you
should see . . .” Mayra paused, mouth open. She turned to her brother. “Jathan,
why not? Why couldn’t we ask Father to invite her to come with us?”

Jathan cocked his head to the side, pretending to think it
over. “I can’t see any reason why not.”

“Come with you where?” Ailsa asked.

Jathan turned to her. “Our end of term tests at the
Institute are in two weeks—”

“I know that,” Ailsa interrupted.

Jathan waved his hand at her. “Let me finish. After the
exams following the solstice, the Institute—and the Academy—shut down for two
weeks during the summer heat. Well, what we consider to be hot, anyway. You
might not think so, being a desert girl and all.”

She was going to get tired of that phrase, she could tell.
Ailsa aimed a blow at him, but Jathan leaned out of reach, laughing at her.

“It’s traditional,” he went on, “for the imperial family to
spend that time at our mountain retreat. It’s a really beautiful spot. And
there’s a lake, there. You’d like it. And I’m sure Father would be happy to
have you with us.”

“And so would I,” Mayra added. “It’d be wonderful. For a
change, I’d have someone to talk to.” She tilted her head toward Jathan. “It’s
even more all boys up there than it is here. Say you’ll come.”

Ailsa thought again of the euphoric feeling she’d had at
first sight of the mountain lake on her way here. “If your father and my
grandmother approve, I’d love to.”

“Then it’s settled.”