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THE YOUNG AERIN had worshipped Talat, her father’s fierce war-stallion, with his fine lofty head and high tail She thought it very impressive that he would rear and strike at anyone but Hornmar or her father, rear with his ears flat back, so that his long wedge-shaped head looked like a striking snake’s

But when she elve years old her father had gone off to a Border battle: a little mob of Northerners had slipped across theof the sort happened not infrequently, and in those days Arlbeth or his brother Tho out hopefully and in haste to chop up a few Northerners who had stayed to loot instead of scraain at once The Northerners knew Damarian reprisals were invariably swift, and yet always there were a few greedy ones who lingered It was Arlbeth’s turn this time; and there had been ht, and one horse; two men injured - and Talat

Talat had been slashed across the right flank by a Northern sword, but he had carried Arlbeth safely through the battle till its end Arlbeth was appalled when at last he was free to dismount and attend to it; there were muscles and tendons severed; the horse should have fallen when he took the blow Arlbeth’s first thought was to end it then; but he looked at his favorite horse’s face, with the lips curled back fro around the eye: Talat was daring his master to kill hiht, If he is stubborn enough to walk hoh to let him try

Aerin had been one of the first to run out of the City andhome, for Talat had set the pace, and while Aerin knew that if anything had happened to her father a er would have been sent on ahead, still their slowness had worried her - and she felt an awful fear squeeze her belly when she first saw Talat, his head hanging nearly to his knees, put three legs slowly down one after the other, and hop for the fourth She only then saw her father walking on the horse’s far side

Somehow Talat climbed the last hill to the castle, and crept into his own stall, and with a terrible sigh, lay slowly down in the straw there, the first time he had been off his feet since the sword struck hirimly, and sent for the healers; but when they caed to his feet and threatened them, and when they tried to pour a narcotic down his throat, it took four of the hafor and a chain twisted around his jaw to hold hi up, and it healed But he was lame, and he would always be lareen with chest-high grass, cool with trees, with a brook to drink froe of the pond for rolling, and a nice big dry shed for rain; and Horn, and talked to hian to lose his black dapples; his coat stared and he didn’t eat his grain, and he turned his back on Horn care of Arlbeth’s near-horse now

Arlbeth had hoped Talatbetter than to ride Talat again But Talat’s bad leg was too weak; he could not ed them, and turned on his handlers when they tried to prevent hirace Had he been any horse but the king’s favorite, he would have been fed to the dogs

It had been over two years since Arlbeth had led Talat home from his last battle, and Aerin was fifteen when she ate so to breed Talat, Aerin had been turning corners that weren’t there and falling downstairs and being haunted by purple san with a confrontation with Galanna, as so est of the royal cousins, but for Aerin, and she had been about to turn seven when Aerin was born Galanna had beco the baby of the faed; and she was a very pretty child, and learned readily how best to play up to those likeliest to spoil her Tor was nearest her in age, only four years her elder, but he was always trying to pretend that he was just as grown up as the next lot of cousins, Perlith and Thurny and Greeth, ere six, seven, and ten years older than he was Tor was no threat The next-youngest girl cousin was fifteen years older than Galanna, and she, poor Katah, was plain (She was also, very shortly after Aerin’s birth, married off to one of the provincial barons, where, ust, she thrived and beca a land dispute in her husband’s faenerations)

Galanna was not at all pleased by Aerin’s birth; not only was Aerin a first sol, which Galanna would never be unless sheher, which ure within the same household that Galanna wished to continue to revolve around herself

Aerin was by nature the son of child who got into trouble first and thought about it later if at all, and Galanna, in her as quite clever Galanna it ho dared her to eat a leaf of the surka; she dared her by saying that Aerin would be afraid to touch the royal plant, because she was not really of royal blood: she was a throwback to her mother’s witch breed, and Arlbeth was her father in name only If she touched the surka, she would die

At fifteen Aerin should already have shown signs of her royal blood’s Gift; usually the Gift began to eist fits - years younger Galanna had contrived to disguise her loathing for her littlest cousin for several years after her temper tantrums upon Aerin’s birth had not been a complete success; but lately had occurred to an older Galanna that if Aerin really was a throw-back, a sport, as she began to appear truly to be, Galanna had excellent reason to scorn and dislike her: her existence was a disgrace to the royal honor

They laring at each other Galanna had corowth and beauty by that ti past her hips in heavy waves, and was artfully held in place by a golden ork of fine thread strung with pearls; her cheeks were flushed becoe till they were as red as her lips, and her huge black eyes were opened their widest Her long eyelashes had aled her supper wine and crept into her bedroom later and cut them off Everyone had known at once who had done it, and Aerin, who in general held lying in conteathered court - for Galanna, as usual, had insisted on a public prosecution - that Galanna should have been grateful she hadn’t shaved her head for her; she’d been snoring like a pig and wouldn’t have wakened if she’d been thrown out her bedroo hysterics and had to be carried fro a half-veil that covered her face to her lips, that no one ed features), and Aerin had been banished to her private rooht

Aerin was as tall as Galanna already, for Galanna was sly and aard; and Aerin’s pale skin cary, and her fiercely curly hair - which et froer than Galanna’s - curled all the more fiercely in the heat of her temper, and for all the pins that attearden; and whatever happened Galanna had no fear that Aerin would ever tale-bear (which was another excellent reason for Galanna to despise her), so when Aerin spun around, pulled half a branch off the surka, and stuffed most of it into her ly when she sh cheekbones into delicate proasped, turned a series of peculiar colors which ended with grey, and fell heavily to the ground Cabana noticed that she was still breathing, and therefore waited a few minutes while Aerin twitched and shook, and then went coone for a walk in the garden and found Aerin there This, so far as it went, was true; but she had been planning to find Aerin alone in the garden for sos to her She had thought of those certain things while she had been keeping to her rooain

Aerin was sick for weeks Her iven her mad hallucinations ofbeasts, and of a pale face terribly like her oith a dull grey band wound about its teh clouds of sh it alled with rubies The worst of these then began to wear off, and she could again see the walls of her own roory and half frightened; but she still had dizzy spells and sto ti’s daughter, just as Galanna had said; and a depression she would not admit further slowed her recovery