Mirror Sight (23 page)

Probably deepening her hatred for me,
Karigan thought, but at least the staff knew that Arhys had been the one in the wrong, that she had misbehaved and endangered herself and that Karigan had not been hurting her but saving her life. Karigan did not want the entire household turned against her. Arhys was ostensibly one of them, and who was Karigan but some stranger who had arrived out of nowhere, now living in relative luxury beneath her “uncle’s” roof?

“If there is anything I can do to help—” she began.

“Er, I think it best we all keep our distance from her for the time being.”

With that the professor returned to his paper, and Karigan picked at what was left on her plate. No more words passed between them until he stood to leave. He paused by her chair on his way out to say, “What you did this morning, as I hear it from Luke and the lads, was very bravely done. You saved Arhys by putting yourself at great personal risk. I’m not sure if that ungrateful girl will ever understand, but I wholeheartedly thank you.”

Humbled, Karigan could only stare at her plate.

“Go ahead and look in on Raven when you’re done here. I’m sure you would enjoy that.” He gave her a quick smile and was gone.

She did not wait. She left her napkin and unfinished breakfast on the table and strode through the house to the back door. No one stopped her. Mirriam did not rush to intercept her. Feeling a new surge of freedom, she hurried across the yard toward the stables. With no one to hinder her, maybe now she would find her way home.

W
hen Karigan stepped into the stables, Luke looked up from a length of harness he was oiling and grinned. “The professor left something in the tack room for you,” he said.

Curious, Karigan lifted the hem of her skirts, careful not to drag them through dirt and manure to prevent further antagonizing Mirriam, and crossed over the threshold into the tack room. The scents of leather and saddle soap pervaded the small room. Buckles and bits gleamed in the light of a small dusty window. She caressed the seat of a well-used, but equally well-tended saddle mounted on a wooden horse. Despite all the changes wrought in this future, some things had not changed at all.

She discovered a package wrapped in brown paper and string on a small, worn table. A piece of paper with her initials was propped on it. She unfolded the paper and the note inside read:
Wear these for riding. You are my new part-time stable boy, by the name of Tam Ryder, retained to exercise Raven for my niece.
Karigan could almost hear the professor chuckling at the pun he made of her new alias.
Luke will tell you more if need be.
It was signed,
B.L.J.

Karigan tore the package open and shirt, jacket, trousers, and a cap spilled out. She gazed at them in astonishment. They were worn and patched, and carefully mended, but clean.

“Professor asked if I might have some old clothes to lend,” Luke said from the doorway, a bucket of water in his hand. “These belonged to my son, Luke, Jr. We used to call him Little Luke, but he’s grown into a big strapping man. He’s a farrier now in mid-town. Why don’t you give me that note.”

Karigan passed it to him, and he immediately submerged it in the bucket. “One quick way to destroy the evidence,” Luke explained. “Clean the ink off. Now, if you like, you can change so we can see how Raven does under saddle, eh?”

He showed her a cedar cabinet where he stored his formal coachman’s livery. In there, he explained, she could leave her dress and “female things” while riding. When not playing the part of Tam Ryder, she could leave her riding clothes in there.

“Got some boots, too.” Luke indicated a pair of scuffed, dusty boots bent at the ankles, next to a pair of tall, black shiny boots that must be part of his livery. “Professor got your shoe measurements off the bills he received from the shoemaker.”

“You’ve both been busy,” she remarked.

Luke just smiled. “The sooner you change, the sooner we can get to Raven.”

“I have a bit of a problem,” Karigan said.

Luke paused uncertainly.

“I need help with, er, my dress.” She could not reach the stays in back.

Understanding dawned on Luke’s face without a sign of embarrassment. “Oh, I help the missus deal with such things all the time, and my daughters when need be. I will help you if you wish it.”

Karigan nodded and he closed the tack room door and proceeded to undo the stays on the back of Karigan’s dress. He’d have to help her again when she changed back into it. The deed was accomplished with some grumbling from Luke about how much more complicated Karigan’s dress was, and then he stepped out of the tack room so she could take care of the rest. It proved to be a battle with Karigan drowning in superfluous fabric, and she appreciated anew Lorine’s assistance when dressing and undressing. She hung it all as neatly as possible in the cabinet beside Luke’s livery and set to work turning herself into a boy.

When will I just be able to be me?
she wondered.

The clothing was baggy, which was probably just as well to hide her feminine shape. Fortunately the trousers came with suspenders. The boots, in contrast, were well-broken in and fit perfectly. There was also a pair of gloves with flared cuffs, not unlike her old Rider gauntlets, which would help hide the cast on her wrist. She modified what Lorine had done with her hair, pinning it tighter to her head. When she finished, she put on the oversized cap and gazed at the mirror on the inside of the cabinet door. She determined that if no one was expecting to see a young woman, all they’d see was a scrawny boy. It was an effective disguise.

When she exited the tack room, Luke greeted her with an appraising look, then nodded his approval.

“Now, a couple things about Tam Ryder,” he said. “Tam’s of the Dregs, no folks, and he scrounges on the outskirts of the city. I discovered Tam had a way with horses one day in town and told the professor about it. The professor thought maybe Tam could manage his niece’s new horse and pays him to exercise it. The professor, being of the generous sort he is, also thinks this will keep Tam out of the way of the Inspectors and out of trouble. Tam doesn’t talk much. In fact, when we go out in public, you’ll let me do all the talking, eh?”

Karigan nodded.

“Here in the stables your disguise is safe. But you are not to speak of this to anyone in the house. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good then. I found a saddle that looks like it’ll fit Raven. I suspect he’s been used hard on the mouth so we’ll try some different bits and see what suits.”

Raven whickered in greeting at her approach. There was no disguising herself from him. She laughed and stroked his neck. He seemed none the worse from his encounter with Arhys earlier in the morning and stood calmly while she brushed him down, burnishing the gold and mahogany dapples on his rump. However, when she took the bridle Luke handed her, she could almost feel Raven’s suspicious regard, how he tensed up, but he tolerated her sliding the bit into his mouth and buckling on the bridle. He chewed on the bit and shook his head, but did not rebel further.

“He wouldn’t have let me or the boys do that,” Luke mused. “He trusts you, maybe because you’re not male, and it would’ve been males who mishandled him.”

The professor must not have told Luke that Raven was truly a Green Rider horse nor Karigan a Green Rider, which would have explained why Raven was so receptive to her.

“Let’s see how he likes the saddle,” Luke said.

It was an ordinary saddle, larger and heavier than those used by Green Riders, who tried to minimize the weight their horses must carry while on message errands. She set pad and saddle on Raven’s back as gently as she could, praising him softly the whole time. His flesh quivered, and his ears darted back and forth as he listened. He stamped his hoof quite profoundly when she pulled the girth around his belly. He shifted and snorted when she tightened it, and curved his neck around to get a good look at what she was doing.

Luke pressed some pieces of carrot in her hand. “Give him these. He’s being good.”

She did, and Raven daintily lipped them off her palm. The carrots took his mind off the tack.

“Let’s take him out and see how the pair of you do,” Luke said. He led them out of the stables into the paddock. The paddock was necessarily small because of the way the buildings in Mill City were packed together. It was a sign of the professor’s status that he had space for one at all.

“Now the professor tells me you’re an experienced rider,” Luke said. “That true?”

She nodded.

“Good. Thought so. You seem competent around horses anyway. Not common in girls.”

Karigan frowned but put the comment aside to focus on preparing to mount. She felt no small trepidation. She hadn’t much direct experience with stallions—mostly geldings and mares—and there was no telling how Raven would react to a rider on his back no matter their bond. She and Luke had no way of knowing his exact origins or how long or deeply he’d been abused. It may be that he was entirely unrideable or that it would take a very long period of gentle retraining to make him accept a rider. Even the intelligent Green Rider horses were animals of instinct first. It might come down to how he’d been treated and trained by owners prior to Dr. Silk.

The last thing Karigan wanted to do was convey her nervousness to the stallion, but she knew mounting up could prove very painful in the end for her, and it was difficult to quell her anxiety.

“Leg up?” Luke asked.

She took a deep breath and nodded, and up she went, landing lightly in the saddle. Raven flicked his ears, then looked back at her as if to see her for himself. He didn’t even flinch, and her nervousness faded, replaced by joy to be on horseback once again.

“Walk him around a bit,” Luke said. “See how he does.”

Karigan adjusted the stirrup leathers then squeezed him into a walk. There was a good deal of head tossing and prancing, a buck or two, which only increased when she attempted to correct him with the reins.

Luke scratched his head. “Let’s change out the bit to something milder.” As it turned out, they tried three different bits before Raven settled sufficiently. In the meantime, he got used to Karigan mounting and dismounting, and riding on his back.

With the new bit, he had quite a bounce to his gait, and he tossed his head though this time not in discomfort. Karigan had some trouble holding him in, and when she finally allowed him to trot, he arched his neck as if to show just how handsome he was.

Luke laughed in pleasure from his place at the fence. “He’s a proud one, that one. Give us a canter, will you?”

From the way Raven responded to her commands, Karigan could tell he’d once been a well-trained saddle horse. He’d not always been abused.

“Responds better to a light touch than the whip,” Luke observed. “Something those louts of Dr. Silk’s never understood. There are all kinds in my work, and more than half of them ought not to go anywhere near the beasts.”

Raven’s canter was smooth, as comfortable as her Condor’s had ever been. Thinking of her horse almost two centuries in the past brought on a wave of guilt. Was she betraying Condor by bonding with Raven? Eventually those concerns dissolved, replaced by the sheer joy of riding once again.

When she returned Raven to a walk, Luke said, “He’s doing much better than I thought he would. In fact, I’m thinking he’s doing good enough to take him out for a bit of a hack. What say we get out of the city so we can really take him through his paces?”

“Yes,” Karigan said eagerly.

“All right, you stay out here and keep getting used to him while I tack up Gallant.”

She circled Raven around the paddock at a posting trot, getting a feel for his surging muscles, his barely contained power. He kept trying to break into a canter and pranced and sidestepped every time she pulled him back. He was testing her will, thinking to master her. He broke into a canter again, and she sat back and adjusted the reins. He half-reared, and she began to wonder if taking him outside the paddock, much less into the city, was such a good idea. But the horse did need exercise and maybe that would help calm him.

When next Raven acted up, Karigan recalled Luke’s words about using a light touch, and kept her commands firm but quiet. Combining the two was not necessarily easy and took subtle skill, but he responded with much less fuss. When she observed Luke watching by the gate, Gallant’s reins in his hands, she brought Raven to a walk and then a halt.

“Normally I might suggest a riding crop and spurs as aids,” he said, “but with him I don’t think it’s such a good idea.”

It wasn’t, Karigan agreed. Raven still had fresh whip lashes healing on his flanks, and she wanted to live, thank you very much.

Luke opened the gate for Karigan and Raven to exit the paddock. She felt the stallion bunch up, preparing for a bolt for freedom, but she managed to hold him in. He tossed his head in protest, almost yanking the reins out of her hands. The weakness of her right hand, due to her broken wrist, did not help.

Luke mounted up. Gallant was the professor’s saddle horse, a handsome steel gray gelding of twelve years. According to Luke, the professor rarely rode anywhere, preferring his carriage, so Luke saw that the gelding received adequate exercise.

“Be interesting to see how Raven does on the city streets,” Luke commented.

Interesting, right.

As if he’d heard her thought, Luke chuckled. “He’ll be fine, and he likes Gallant. As long as Gallant stays calm, which he will, Raven will, too.”

They followed the drive out onto the street, which was thankfully quiet. Raven engaged in looking here and there, ears flickering, hooves clopping along at a lively walk. He sidestepped at a passing carriage, and spooked once at who-knew-what, but Gallant, who was accustomed to the city, was a steadying presence, almost bored in demeanor.

As they departed the professor’s neighborhood and entered busier streets, Luke served as Karigan’s steadying influence, talking her through it when Raven acted up. Karigan considered herself a very good equestrian. Working with horses came naturally to her, but she knew Luke had years more experience, especially with stallions, which sometimes seemed like an entirely different species.

Riding Raven took all her concentration. It was tiring keeping up with him—she couldn’t be a passive rider with him at all. The last time she’d been on horseback was the day she entered Blackveil, the spring equinox, and where were they now? Just a couple weeks from the summer solstice, Day of Aeryon? If the seasons of her past and this future ran parallel, as she believed, it had been quite some time since she’d been in the saddle. She was going to be sore. Very sore. Could feel it already.