Sun God by Nan Ryan

Author:Nan Ryan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781480467392
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Four

IT WAS EARLY MORNING.

Dawn was creeping over the Chihuahuan desert.

Luiz Quintano, alone out on the far northern reaches of the ranch, sat unmoving, astride his saddleless black stallion, Noche. His unblinking gaze sweeping over the vast expanse of land, Luiz felt his bare chest swell with pride, his heart thump against his ribs.

Orilla.

His Orilla.

The Orilla he had missed so desperately all those empty years away from its arid, desolate, glorious beauty. Orilla with its sagebrush rangelands and stark furnace deserts and cool distant mountains and blue sky that wrapped itself around him.

And its pervasive silence broken only by the moan of the desert winds. Sweet solitude; a soothing balm for the troubled soul.

Luiz took a deep, long breath of the dry, clear air.

How many times had he dreamed of being back here in this, his native land. How many restless nights had he paced the floor in crowded, noisy cities, unable to breathe, unable to sleep, longing for the quiet of his desert home. How many days had he spent in thankless labor or tedious idleness, yearning to be atop a swift mount, herding a sea of bawling longhorns toward the branding fires of Orilla’s holding pens. How many stifling afternoons had he envisioned plunging into the cold, clear waters of Puesta del Sol.

While the eerie gray light of a soon-to-rise sun bathed the endless acreage of his beloved Orilla, Luiz, for the moment, was again the young, happy boy he had been. The last decade had never happened. He was again seventeen and the best horseman on Orilla.

A broad smile appearing on his dark, chiseled face, Luiz suddenly slapped his stallion’s withers and said loudly, “How about it, Noche? Think I can still do it?”

The big black neighed loudly and danced in place, and Luiz began to laugh. “The hell you say,” he shouted.

And then, with easy agility and complete self-confidence, Luiz leapt to his feet to stand atop the mount’s bare, glistening back. Making certain his moccasins were placed in exactly the right position to ensure good balance, the breechcloth-clad Luiz bent his knees a couple of times, then carefully sprang up and down until he was comfortable with his stance.

His toes—within the soft moccasins—curling to the slope of Noche’s back, Luiz purposely relaxed all his muscles. He concentrated on his body becoming but an extension of the mighty stallion’s. They would no longer be two separate units. They would become one perfectly coordinated vessel of grace, power, and speed.

And when the transformation had taken place, it was unnecessary for Luiz to give Noche the command to move. Just as the man had become the stallion, the stallion had become the man. Noche nickered and immediately set off. He went into an easy lope, the symmetrical movement of his sleek powerful body totally harmonious with the sleek, powerful body of Luiz.

His raven hair blowing wildly about his head, the muscles in his bronzed legs and wide shoulders flexing like well-oiled springs, Luiz effortlessly kept his equilibrium, loving the sting of the wind on his face, the sense of the ground rushing by.

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