Sunrise

Chapter Four: New Plan

The stablehands were nowhere to be seen...drunk in the cellars, if experience was anything to go by.

There were only a handful of horses kept at Spiral Castle; Achren did not enjoy riding and did not often travel far enough to need her own mount, so most of the beasts were of the sturdy, reliable type used for packing. Eilonwy was not fond of them; they were an ill-tempered collection of nags, sour from hard use and no affection. Now they were all facing away from the pen at the end of the rows, their ears flattened against their heads as they pretended to ignore the indignant squeals of the creature shut in there.

Eilonwy crept down the center row, flicking the nose of one old gelding who snapped at her as she passed. The restless drum of hoofs scraping wood filled the stable, interspersed with the snorting of their owner. A large white head appeared over the doorway of the last pen, rolled its eyes, whinnied angrily, and then disappeared again.

The girl held her breath as she approached. The horse was aware of her; it backed to the opposite wall, tossed its head, and glared, blowing through flared nostrils.

She rested her chin on the edge of the door, marveling at the magnificent animal. She'd never seen such a beast, except recorded in silk thread on tapestries that hung inside the castle. It was large and powerfully built, but sleek, with a fine-boned broad forehead that sloped to a delicate muzzle, and an arched, elegant neck crowned with a pale gold mane. It held its long tail high like a banner and worried the ground with a slim, muscled leg.

"You must be Melyngar." The pointed ears pricked in her direction. "You're much too beautiful for this place," Eilonwy observed. "Like a rainbow down a rat-hole. I've come to get you out, but you'll have to stop that racket." She crept a hand through the bars of the door. "Shall we be friends?"

Melyngar bobbed her head and blew loudly, then froze like a statue for several long moments, the heaving of her round ribcage the only sign of life. Eilonwy, waiting likewise still, felt the horse's tension like a weight, a beam delicately balanced, about to be tipped.

"Please," she breathed, in a whisper. There was a movement, a brush as of a silk strand sliding across her mind. Melyngar whickered softly and took a step, stretching her neck across the empty space toward the girl's outstretched hand. Velvet nostrils puckered in her palm, warm and tickling.

"That's better. You're certainly more sensible than that assistant pig-keeper." The horse whickered again as she unbolted the stable door and slid inside. Melyngar took another step and pushed her nose into the girl's chest; she slid her hand up the smooth-furred nasal ridge of the big head gently. Oh, why couldn't they have horses like this?

The white flanks were streaked with mud and rust-colored stains. Eilonwy frowned at them, muttering, "You've had a difficult day." She collected saddle and bridle from the disrespectful heap in the corner they'd been left in, and Melyngar stood still and docile while she fastened them. The horse's ears flicked back in mild reproach at her clumsy handling of the bit in the soft mouth, and Eilonwy sighed. "I suppose you can tell I've not done much of this. But I hope you'll forgive it."

The saddlebags had been rifled through but still appeared to contain some provisions of the type travelers carried. It would have to do; the kitchen would be too busy at this hour to make theft possible. She gathered up Melyngar's reins and led her out of the pen and through the rear door of

the stable.

There were two guards at the front gate, and though she knew the goose-down, iron-edged words that would allow her to slip by them while they stared at the stones underfoot, she wasn't sure whether the protection afforded would be enough for the horse as well. Better to use the back gate, which could be unbolted without noise, and whose single guard was usually asleep. She held her breath at the clatter of the iron-shod hoofs on cobblestone, but in moments she and the horse were safely outside the wall, close to where she had left that Fflam fellow.