The Aebeling Read Free Page A

cut a small incision on the end of her finger. As the blood oozed out, she held her other hand out to Conn and he instinctively gave her his hand. She turned it over and with the blood she drew a symbol on his palm.
    ‘That is the symbol for life; a heart, and you now hold mine in the palm of your hand.’ She let go of his hand and stood and they studied each other.
    Conn didn’t really know what to say so he nodded. ‘I should deal with the bodies.’ Digging a shallow grave, he stripped the corpses of valuables, and buried them in their linens. The Rakians were shorter than the Twacuman, or at least these five were. Whilst they also had black hair, they had lighter, narrower eyes, and their skin color was more Asian than African.
    Elva found their horses hidden in a nearby thicket – ten in total, five being pack horses, and she brought them for Conn to load the “booty”. Conn then constructed a travois from bamboo and rope, fitted it to the Lusitano, and had Elva help him load Derryth onto the frame. The stallion then calmly headed back to camp. It was slow going; the travois by necessity would bump its way over logs and rocks; each jar causing Derryth pain.
    By the time that they arrived “home”, it was getting late and although he tried to warn Caewyn about his dogs, she walked straight up to them and didn’t get bitten.
    Conn was nonplussed; ‘Some guard dogs’, he muttered.
    She fussed with the animals. ‘They are so beautiful – are these some kind of white wolf? – they are huge!’
    ‘I suppose some kind of distant cousin to the wolf. They are called Maremmas – I have yet to hear any wolves.’
    ‘There are few – but they hunt on the other side of the mountain. We did not want them to eat our goats so we agreed not to kill them if they agreed not to hunt in our valley.’
    She said it so nonchalantly that Conn chose not to react in surprise. All he could think to say was ‘Well, that would be why then.’
    They put Derryth to rest in the yurt, and Conn went to take care of the horses. The girls followed him over.
    They stopped suddenly. Conn looked back and then followed their gaze.
    ‘You have an Elfina? How is that possible?’
    Conn looked confused. ‘What is an Elfina?’
    Caewyn didn’t answer but walked forward to one of his horses. Conn had four pack animals – three horses and one donkey. One of the horses was a black and white pinto mare of just over 15 hands. The mare stuck her nose out to Caewyn as she arrived, and Caewyn hugged her. She turned back, her face sad.
    ‘She isn’t an Elfina – but she looks like one.’ She looked at Conn in his confusion. ‘The Elfina is a special horse –said to have been created by the Gyden for the Twacuman. For hundreds of years we rode them – but they have all died out in Halani. Perhaps they have returned.’
    ‘The Rakians called my stallion an Ancuman horse. What did they mean?’
    ‘Just as the Elfina is only ridden by Twacuman, the Ancuman have always ridden horses like your stallion – golden horses. No-one else is allowed to ride them on pain of death – but I doubt that any will be brave enough to ask you to hand over your stallion.’
    As well as his buckskin Lusitano and the pinto mare, Conn had three young stallions; a steel grey Anglo-Arab, a dun colored Poitevin, and a tall Mammoth donkey that was taller even than the Pinto; they represented a diverse genetic pool of talents to be exploited.
    With the ten extra horses – helpfully all mares – to be settled for the night, it was quiet late when he finished, despite Elva’s help. The cempestre seemed very unpleased with the whole turn of events – and hardly spoke to him, whereas Caewyn seemed surprisingly unperturbed about it all.
    When Conn and Elva finally returned to the fire, it was almost dark. Conn prepared a meal for them all from a rabbit that Caewyn had caught, and they sat and ate in the flicker of the iron box. Caewyn sat to face the grove behind them,