Page 115 of Scourged

Chapter 43

Mariah stood in the stable aisles as the stable hands ran to and fro. A few of them stopped and gawked, eyes going wide. She fidgeted in her riding leathers, adjusting the fitted cropped cotton shirt.

“Your Majesty!” A stable hand stopped in the alleyway, heels digging into the packed earth. He glanced over his shoulder. “Would you … Do you need me to ready your horse?”

Mariah smiled. “Actually, I was hoping you could just show me to his stall and then to the tack room.”

The boy cocked his head, brow twisting. “Your … Majesty? Are you … don’t you want our help?”

“I know you are all fantastic at your jobs and with the horses,” she assured him, twisting her hands together. “But I think I need to saddle my horse. On my own.”

The boy nodded. “Alright,” he said, though his brow was still furrowed. “I’ll take you to his stall.”

Mariah followed the stable hand through the rows of inquisitive faces, ears pricked and eyes bright. She knew the stable masters moved where the horses were stalled, depending on the current capacity. If she had tried to find Kodie herself, she might’ve wandered for hours. The stable hand led her around acorner and Mariah caught sight of a familiar golden head, black forelock spilling over his face.

She touched the boy’s shoulder. “I’ve got it from here. Just show me the tack room, and you can go help the others ready their horses when they arrive.”

The boy nodded, pointing to a rolling door to the left of Kodie’s stall before wishing her well and disappearing back the way they’d come.

Mariah’s smile lingered as she turned back to her horse. That one last trace of home she had left. She stepped forward, holding her hand out to him.

“Hi, sweet boy,” she murmured, scratching his velvety nose before moving her hand up to stroke his face. “Miss me?”

He nickered to her slightly as if in response, which only tugged her smile wider. Reaching for the halter hanging beside his stall, she undid the latch and slid open the door. She slipped the halter around his head, buckling it behind his ears, and tied the lead to a loop on his stall wall. Sneaking a quick kiss to his snout, she padded out of the stall and across the hall to the tack room.

It was like falling into a familiar routine. She grabbed a brush and his saddle pad, tossing them both onto the swept aisle floor, before finding her old, comfortable black-leather saddle. It was polished and clean, but Mariah couldn’t help the flash of images that raced through her head when she saw it.

She and her father leaving Andburgh under the cover of night after she stole her grandfather’s dagger from Lord Donnet.

The parade through the city.

Cedoric’s dying gasp as he fell from his horse.

Trefor’s shout of pain as an arrow pierced his shoulder.

She shuddered, then grabbed Kodie’s bridle from where it hung on the wall, slinging it over her saddle horn much the sameway she slung out those dark thoughts from her mind. Forcing them back into the darkest recesses of memory.

She had a mission today. A goal. Nothing would falter her feet.

With practiced hands, Mariah brushed Kodie quickly, then slipped the saddle pad onto his back, followed by the saddle. She cinched the girth across his belly, clipping his chest piece to the ring beneath him and then to either side of the saddle. Removing his bridle from around the saddle horn, she turned to face his head.

She froze.

Leaning against the open stall door, a contemplative expression on his handsome face, was Andrian.

In a movement that was too easy, too painfully familiar, he smiled, hands sliding into his pockets. “By all means.” His voice was a little rough. “Don’t let me interfere with your routine.”

She glowered at him, but there was no bite behind it. It was only to hide the stupid giggle that wanted to burst from her.

He wasflirtingwith her. And she wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it.

So, instead, she pasted a haughty look across her face and stepped to Kodie’s head. Putting her back to Andrian, she slid Kodie’s halter off and hung it on the ring where she’d tied his lead. Kodie dipped his head, letting her slide the bridle over his ears, the metal snaffle bit slipping between his teeth.

Mariah felt Andrian as she buckled Kodie’s bridle under his jaw. He was thankfully silent across their bond, but his heat was magnetic. He reached out, scratching gently at Kodie’s forelock, though she refused to turn to him.

“You know we have stable hands who do this sort of thing for us, right?”

“Yes,” she quipped, “but today, I wanted to do it myself.”