Indomitus Oriens (The Fovean Chronicles) by Robert Brady

Author:Robert Brady [Brady, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert W. Brady, Jr.
Published: 2014-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

Melissa watched Bill train the stallion from the fence, Shela on one side of her, Nina on the other, Lee standing just inside the fence where Vulpe had been, the hem of her palace dress already smudged either from climbing the rails or from leaping into the arena sand.

Melissa bounced Chawny in her left arm. The baby was highly interested in the consistency of Melissa’s hair, and how many strands she could rearrange.

Shela at first criticized Bill—the Mountain—then became more curious. When the stallion trotted away from him, she said, “See—this doesn’t work.”

Then the horse wheeled and stampeded toward the one man. Several of the stablemen leapt over the fence, but Shela ordered them to stand fast. Melissa called out, “Bill!” without thinking.

“Stop using his name,” Nina admonished her. She didn’t like Bill, Melissa knew. She wouldn’t care if he died.

But he didn’t die. The horse slammed to a halt right in front of him. It was a bluff charge—a tactic by the horse to see if he could take over dominance. Bill had taught him otherwise. Now he was teasing the stallion with a carrot.

“Is—what?” Melissa didn’t understand. “Is that a game?”

“No,” Shela said, and sighed, turning to face Melissa. “He won’t let the stallion have the carrot until the stallion stops trying to take it. In that way, Little Storm sees the Mountain controls the food. In the herd, the one who controls the food is the leader.”

“Lead the herd, lord the horse,” Lee said from within the arena. Shela smiled and turned to her daughter.

“You’re an Andaran daughter, aren’t you?” she asked. “A true Waya Agiladia.”

“I am,” Lee said, and turned her attention back to the arena, where Bill was handing the lunging whip to her brother.

“Hey!” she protested. “I want to do that, too!” and she was hiking up the front of her skirts and charging across the arena sand.

Shela laughed and shook her head.

“Should she—I mean, is it safe?” Melissa protested.

“Hell, no it isn’t safe,” Lupus informed them, emerging from a row of stalls to the east of the arena. “When are my kids ever doing something safe?”

Stablemen and women bowed to the Emperor as he approached with a squad of Wolf Soldiers. Shela smiled and reached for him.

“My husband,” she said as he took her hand.

“My wife,” he responded, and kissed the back of her hand. He turned to Melissa. “My child?”

She laughed and handed Chawny to Lupus. The baby gurgled and beat his face and chest with her tiny fists.

“Ah, this one is her mother’s daughter,” Lupus said, between pummeling.

Melissa turned her attention to the arena and saw Nina was already shadowing the two older children as Vulpe fended off the stallion and Lee held Bill’s forearm and tried to tell her brother what he was doing wrong.

“Let him do it himself, girl,” Bill told her. “You don’t want him telling you.”

“If that works I’ll make him an Earl,” Lupus chuckled.

“You almost had to dig him a hole,” Shela informed him.

Lupus laughed again.

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