The Care and Feeding of Griffins (32 page)

Taryn turned around.  The horseman had not moved, not even to raise his eyes to meet hers.  His voice had been low, nearly emotionless, and yet it silenced all of them.

“Where I’m from,” Taryn began, and sighed.  She shook her head and started over.  “Where I’m from, we have things called weddings.”

“
Aye, to sanctify the bond between mates.  We have them also.”

“
Well, at these weddings, it’s traditional for rings like that to be exchanged by the bride and the groom…the female and the male, that is.  They’re called wedding rings, and they’re special for that reason.  That ring was bought by my mother’s mother’s mother’s mate.  He sold everything he owned to buy it and then carried it across the sea when he left his home on Ireland and came to America.  He didn’t mean for it to be a wedding ring back then, just something little that he could carry light and sell again to get lots of money so he could set himself up proper in the new world.  He was determined not to be just another dirt-poor Irishman.  But he met my great-grandmother and fell in love and gave her the ring instead, so they started out poor like everyone else after all.”

She came over and turned the ring so that he could see the hands and the crowned heart between them. 
“That’s a symbol special to Ireland.  It’s called a claddagh and it stands for love, friendship, and loyalty.  My great-grandmother gave it to my grandmother to be married with, and she gave it to my mother because when they got married, my parents were really poor.  But last year, my father gave my mother her own claddagh, so Mom gave Granna Birgit her ring back.”

“
And she gave it to you.”

“
Yes.”

“
To be wedded with?”

Taryn offered him a crooked smile. 
“Actually, she told me to sell it and buy something I needed with it, and I did.  She told me it had a noble history and I should use it in the same spirit so that my evil cousins couldn’t turn it into something to fight over after she was dead.  And I did and I don’t regret it.  Okay now?”

He took a deep, silent breath and let it out again slow before letting his hand close around the ring.  He looked at her grimly. 
“Tis precious to you.”

“
Lots of things are precious to me.  Among them, the food I bought with that.”

He dropped his eyes, thinking.  His forehoof pecked once, twice.  Finally, he nodded. 

Gradually, low talk and movement began again among the other horsemen as the mid-day meal preparations continued.  Foals had began to line up to receive platters.  Attention finally began to drift away from Taryn, and she rejoined Ven at the cookfires and did her best to help get the meal ready.

“
Do you think that you are well enough for hard labors?” Ven asked suddenly.

“
Sure.  What do you need done?”

“
Think before you answer, pray,” the horsewoman said sternly.  “I am in earnest.  Your hands you must ‘ware a while longer lest they blister anew, but shall you who know your body well believe you fit to labor?”

‘
Oh sure,
now
you think I know my body well.’  But she managed not to say it out loud, and she followed up with a good pause to give herself the appearance of deep inner reflection before saying, “Yes, I believe I am.  In fact, if I can say so, I’m restless.  I’d love the chance to break a real sweat.  What did you have in mind?”

“
Mm.”  Ven returned her attention to overseeing the food and said nothing more until all the horsemen were gathered for the mid-day meal.  Taryn couldn’t tell if she’d believed her or not, but she was aware of several speculative glances as the food was plated for serving.

Once again, she was firmly propelled to the high table when she tried to help the foals carry platters.  She stood at Tonka
’s side, tapping her shoe to bring Aisling surreptitiously to her so he wouldn’t be tempted to pounce on people’s hooves.  That had happened more than once during her stay, and there was nothing quite like seeing a horseman suddenly rear up to twice his already-impressive height (usually yanking out his runka or bellowing in surprise) to make a girl want to tether her griffin to a tree. 

Tonka
’s benediction ran long.  He thanked everyone but the Oscars committee for the togetherness of clan in the kraal, and at the end, astonished her by saying, “Share, my kinsmen, and receive with gratitude the foods of your labors and of our welcome guest, Taryn.  Speak now if we shall receive her as kin.”

In one voice, some one hundred horsemen shouted,
“Aye!”  A moment later, two hundred more eating outside the lodge echoed it.

Taryn blinked at them, and then at Tonka. 
“I really don’t deserve this,” she whispered.

He handed her a piece of meat from his trencher, smiling.

“No, really,” she insisted, accepting it automatically.  “I haven’t done anything.  Unless you count coming by on a visit and nearly dropping dead, and please God, don’t tell me you’re rewarding me for that.”

He handed her another piece of meat, still smiling.

“I can’t—”  She ducked under the table to feed Aisling and came back up, still trying to collect her thoughts.  “I can’t accept an honor like that when all I’ve done so far is be a nuisance!”

“
You’ve been a very helpful nuisance,” Morathi interjected.  He, too, was smiling.  “And if you were Farasai, that is all you would need to be in order that you be taken for clan and kin, so swallow thee thy sincere modesty and accept.”

She found herself smiling at his gently chiding tone and grudgingly gave in. 
“Well, if you put it that way, I accept with great pride.  Maybe someday, Ven will let me work a little and actually earn your honor.”

“
You have,” Morathi said, his smile fading.  “Earned, aye, and well-earned, for I would gladly call you daughter.  The labors of the heart are as fitting a testament as labors of the hands and too often overlooked.”

It was hard to argue with that.  Taryn ate her share of Tonka
’s lunch, resigned to her fate as honorary horsewoman and feeling about as useful as a sledgehammer in a china store.

“
You are well-met, my kinswoman,” Ven said, as the meal began to wind down.

Well-met after a week?  Taryn passed a bite of meat down to Aisling, eyeing Ven quizzically. 
“Thank you?”

A shocking though
t struck her just before Ven raised her head and loudly said, “You have worked our fields and shared your labors with our kraal, asking nothing in return.  So do I find you very well.  I give you now my stallion to take for your own.”

Taryn managed not to gape.  She even managed to shut up until the words,
‘And do what with him?’ were no longer threatening to escape.  She looked up at Tonka, who looked back at her mildly, and then around at Morathi, who dropped that wicked wink of his.  She finally turned back to Ven and, picking her words with extreme care, said, “I believe we are well-met, er, kinswoman…but I fear I must decline.  I’d hate to break him.”

There was a heartbeat of perfect silence, and then a gust of laughter, rolling away down the lodge in waves as horsemen passed her answer on.

“Oh, now I must insist,” Ven said, wiping at her eyes.  “Surely any stallion whom I make chieftain must be stud enough to keep apace of a human so freshly risen of her sickbed.”

“
But—”

Morathi
’s hoof carefully and briefly covered her foot.

“
But of course,” Taryn said helplessly.  “I’m sure I’ll have a wonderful time.  Thank you so much for offering.  Tally ho.”

“
There is a fine line twixt civility and incredulity,” Morathi murmured.

“
Yeah, I can thumb back at them both,” she whispered to him.  “I’m all the way up to hysteria.  What am I supposed to do with—”

Tonka
’s hand fell on her shoulder, turning her to face his wry amusement.  “Break me?” he echoed in a low voice.  His rear hoof stamped.  “You would
break
me?”

She gave him a smile and a bold toss of her hair. 
“I promise to go easy on you for Ven’s sake.  Just scream if you start to feel light-headed.”

He knew it was a joke, that much was plain, but there was a moment there when he looked openly and intensely curious.

They left together, passing raised cups of salute, heads bent in respect, and smiles that plainly said the absurdity of the situation was lost on no one.  Several horsemen reached out to slap Tonka’s shoulder, and she heard the same words in their own language repeated many times as they smiled at her.  Once actually outside, they were forced to stop and let themselves be enveloped by whole crowds of these well-wishers.  Only one horseman said anything to her in English—a young sorrel who bent down as he clasped her wrist and said, “I could take thee, mare, and let thee never gentle,” with a roguish smile.  Tonka actually reared up and came at him for that, kicking his forelegs with mock ferocity until the sorrel raced off, laughing.

Safely shut away in Tonka
’s rather small lodge, Taryn lost no time in turning on him to ask, “What were they all saying out there and why didn’t they want to say it in a way I could follow?”

“
They meant no offense to you, Taryn,” Tonka said, chuckling.  “Understand, when travelers come to a distant kraal, there is always a time of watching, in which the traveler must refrain from any act that may show disrespect to her hosts.  She is expected to work, which you have done.  She is expected to refrain from taking food unless she is given it, which you have done.  And she is expected to restrain from matings until the Ven of that clan does give her the chieftain for stud.  Once that is done, however, the traveler becomes kin, and any and all are welcome to woo her for matings.  What you heard so oft repeated,” he said dryly, “was a traditional…blessing, you might say.  To translate, ‘Let me be next, let me know what I have long imagined.’  Tis a way of welcoming you, to say that you are seen truly as kin.”

Her eyes went unwilling to the hide flap separating Tonka
’s living space from the trappings of slavery in the rear.  She suppressed a shiver without fully understanding why.  “How…comforting.”

He glanced at her, his smile going somewhat lop-sided. 
“In truth, I expected you to be more surprised when the offer was made.”

“
Morathi warned me it might happen.”  She wrenched her eyes off the curtains and turned a faint smile back on Tonka.  “He said I should ask you to teach me Castles.”

“
Aye, very well.” 

He went to the shelves on his wall and brought down a wooden box and a carved game board.  She came to stand beside the table as he arranged the game, but her attention was wavering.  She kept having thoughts, awful thoughts like fragments of memory, that had to do with him and her and that saddle in the back.  Something from her fever-time, she supposed.

“Aye, then.  This is your castle, Taryn, and this is mine.  These white chips are your army, and these black, mine.  Here, the field.  Now, the armies begin castled, but may be advanced to siege on mine.  ‘Ware you leave your ramparts undefended…Is something wrong?”

She took her eyes off the hide flap and focused on the game board. 
“No, no.  I just feel a little weird.”

“
How so?”  He looked concerned.

“
Where I’m from, people don’t usually hand over their husbands and drum you out of the dining room to go have sex.  I mean, don’t you feel the tiniest bit awkward?” she asked, searching his eyes.  “We’re out here playing board games, and you know that as soon as we leave this lodge, we’re going to be surrounded by people congratulating us for all the great sex we just didn’t have.”

His expression melted upwards in surprise and his tail swished.  Cautiously, he said,
“Do you wish in fact to mate with me?”

She stepped back and stared at him.  She
’d been trying to underline the farcical nature of their cohabitation here, but explaining that suddenly didn’t seem as important as clarifying his position.  “Are you saying that you do?”

He seemed to consider the question seriously, studying the rafters first, and then her body with a frankness that a little overwhelmed her. 
“Aye,” he said at last, stunning her right down to the soles of her feet.  “If naught but feeling mattered, I would, for you are a fine friend and not, I think, an unappealing one.  But form does matter for some things,” he continued, his gaze drifting to the game board.  He set up a few more pieces and then met her eyes again.  “If you desire to mate with me, I will, but I confess to some concern for you.”

He was looking at her so expectantly
, and she had no idea how this conversation had gotten started.  Still, the only thing she could think of to say was, “You really don’t think I’m unappealing?  You…you threw a spear at me, like, last week!”

“
Aye,” he said, and his gaze dropped.  “Aye, I did.  And I will never forget that, nor the look that I put on you with that craven act, but if there is a single thing that I may point to and say, ‘Aye, there is the moment,’ that would be it.”  His eyes came back to hers, resolute and nearly grim.  “There is the moment that I saw thee true.  There is the moment that a human broke me.”