The Horse Road by Troon Harrison

Author:Troon Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2011-10-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

‘But perhaps this is the Great One’s will,’ Lila said, sitting on the end of my bed with her brows creased in a worried frown. Her long fingers smoothed the damask coverlet edged with fox fur, and her earrings glinted in the morning light. ‘You know that a horse sacrifice is the most powerful one of all. And that a white horse without blemish is the greatest offering one can make.’

I nodded, my face swollen with crying.

‘The army of the Middle Kingdom is ravaging the valley, laying waste to all the crops. And Ahura Mazda has commanded that we till the land and make it fruitful. It is the forces of Angra, the evil one, that make the land barren. And the evil one has brought the drought to us. All of the horses in this city will die if we don’t get water soon. Perhaps you can stop this from happening if you give up Swan.’

I wiped my nose across the back of my hand, smelling the sweat in my tunic sleeve. I tried to think about all the horses milling restlessly within the confines of the city walls, growing thinner, hungrier, thirstier. I tried to visualise all their foals, tugging at dried teats, flapping their fuzzy tails in agitation as their bellies shrank and pinched.

All I could see was Swan’s face, her pools of eyes.

A fresh sob broke from me. My throat was raw with crying. Lila moved closer and put her arm around me. ‘Maybe giving up Swan will win you a place with the great angels,’ she whispered.

I moaned. ‘I just want – I want Swan free and safe, I want her resting beneath the poplar trees in my mother’s pastures. I just – want her!’

Lila stroked my tangled hair. The slave girl, bought yesterday from the oil seller, hunched on the red and black rug at the foot of my bed and sneaked glances at me. Perhaps she had slept there all night; I hadn’t even noticed her until now.

Something tugged at my mind, like a fish nibbling at bait. I tried and tried to catch that slippery thought but it kept darting away. It was a memory of something that Arash had said last night in the reception hall. Suddenly, it flashed into my mind, hooked, bright and shining.

‘This is not about Swan, or about saving the city!’ I exclaimed. ‘This is not about pleasing Ahura Mazda, or about right thinking. This is about Arash’s desire for power in the royal court.’

‘We can find favour,’ he had said in his voice like beads of honey. I knew, suddenly and with firm conviction, that this was what Arash wanted. He didn’t care about saving the horses walled in Ershi. He wasn’t concerned about appealing to Ahura Mazda, Creator of All, so that the tide of war would turn and sweep the enemy from the valley, or so that Angra’s demon of drought would be chased away by Anahita’s four grey mares, Wind, Rain, Clouds, Sleet.

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