Page 41 (1/2)

The way he says itme the reins

"Could others hold him?"

His face remains the same "There are no others You’re the only one"

I s "I can hold his his foot in a semicircle before Corr and spits in it Then he quickly loops the reins over Corr’s head and hands them to me If I had never seen or touched Corr, this would be the e he is, how unlike Dove Through the reins, I can so a ship He tries my hold and I try him back I don’t want him to try harder

Sean settles swiftly behind me, and I’m startled by the sudden closeness of hiainst his chest, the press of his hips against me

I turn to ask him a question, and he jerks his face away from the proxiht with the reins?" He’s all black and white in this light, his eyes hidden in shadow beneath his eyebrows

I nod But Corr won’t go forward; he only backs, shaking his head When pushed, he lifts his front feet a little off the ground Not rearing, but warningthat’s lost to the wind

"What?"

"My circle," Sean says, right into h the wind is no colder than before "He won’t want to cross it Go around"

As soon as we’re free of the circle, Corr is like a bird in a gale I can’t tell if he’s walking or trotting, only that we’re , and that all directions feel possible When Corr jerks to the side, I press o around rab his mane

I know that Sean only did it to steady hirounded I turn iveto say

"What?" His h I don’t properly hear it "Is it --?" He starts to withdraw his arms, and I shake my head My hair whips across my forehead, and he winces as it lashes hiain, and once more, the wind steals his voice

When Sean sees that I didn’t hear hiain I can’t think of the last time I was so close to another person I can feel the rise and fall of his chest when he breathes His words are warht now, but it’s not afraid

I shake ers touching my neck, and then he tucks my hair into aze Then he links his arms back around s into the air

When Dove allop, sometimes the only way I can tell the difference is because her hooves pound a four-tiallop, it’s as if it’s a gait that’s just been invented, so so much faster than all the others that it should be called soely acrosswatch in the field, but they’re nothing to Corr He barely lifts his knees and they’re behind us Each stride feels like it takes us a mile We’ll run out of island before he runs out of speed

We’re giants, on his back

Sean says into s around hiling before I can’t believe that any of the horses on the beach are faster than this I can’t believe there’s a horse in the world faster than this And this is with two people on hi the race, how can he lose?

We are flying

Corr’s skin is hot against y, somehow, like when the current pushes your toes deeper into the sand I feel his pulse in y inpower of the capaill uisce We all know it, how it seizes you and confuses you and then you are in the water before you know it But Sean leans forward, hard, against me, in order to reach Corr’s ain I try to focus on what he’s doing instead of his body pressed against ainst Corr’s neck and he gallops to the left, away froainstinto one of Corr’s veins while the other grips his h er of this capall uisce beneath me, but at the same time it screams that it’s alive, alive, alive

We wheel back the e cans of tiring, but there’s nothing but the pounding of his hooves across the turf, the snort of his breath around the bit, the wind blowing across allop parallel to the cliff edge, and beyond it I see a flock of white birds keeping pace with us Gulls, perhaps, soaring and gliding on air currents that send theet close to the rocks This is Thisby, I think This is the island I love I suddenly feel I know everything about the island and everything about o away as soon as we stop

We are back to where we began, and reluctantly I slow Corr My heart is crashing in h Corr has stopped

I slide off and step a few feet away, turning to watch Sean disets a handful of salt or sand from it, then drops it in a circle around Corr and spits in it while I watch Once this is done, he walks over toat me like he looked atwild and old spins inside me, but I don’t have any words

Sean reaches out between us and takes my wrist He presses his thuainst his skin I’ic

We stand and stand, and I wait for er to slow, but it doesn’t

Finally, he releases my wrist and says, "I’ll see you on the cliffs toet home, the house is neat as a pin It hasn’t looked like this since our parents died I stand in the doorway for a moment, lost in wonder and bemusement, and then Finn bursts out of the hallway He looks like a man who has been on fire and put himself out; he is frazzled, even hts to try to puzzle what has happened