Seer: Thrall (37 page)

"These are mine," Dina explained.

"I thought they were all yours."

"Well, some belong to our customers," she said. "And some belong to the stables. Some belong to Jen or some of our other employees. But these three are mine." From somewhere, she produced some treats. She reached over, handing something to Solange. Solange in turn held her hand out, and I found myself accepting a small carrot from her.

"What do I do with this?"

Solange held hers out in an open hand and clucked. The horses looked over. The one on the end tried to take it from her, but she pushed a nose away and instead offered it to the middle horse. "Give yours to this one," Solange said, indicating the one she had rebuffed.

Nervously, I held my carrot out. It took a moment, but the horse noticed and took a few steps over, reaching out for the carrot. She was amazingly gentle, her lips brushing the palm of my hand, but she kept her teeth off me.

They were big teeth, and I didn't believe I would enjoy a bite.

"Tickles," I admitted. "I thought they liked sugar."

"They like a great deal," Dina said.

The horse that Dina had fed turned sideways and moved closer to her. It didn't seem like she had to think about it. She lifted a hand and began scratching the back of the horse's neck, right in his mane. Then the horse did the most amazing thing. He craned his neck around and began lipping at Dina's shoulder.

"He's biting you!"

She laughed. "She's asking me to scratch."

"She? How can you tell?"

"The usual way," Dina said, looking over at me with a smirk.

"Oh." I colored. "I guess that should have been obvious. I'm such a city girl."

"Oh, it could be worse," she said. "You didn't fall off the fence when they trotted over."

The other two horses hovered around for a while, and the middle one nudged Solange a few times. But when no more carrots materialized, they slowly wandered off. Dina's horse remained, the two of them continuing to scratch each other. I would have liked to have video, but I had left my phone in the car.

I watched the horses while Solange and Dina chatted quietly. Finally Dina said, "Well, shall we introduce you to your horses?"

We climbed from the fence, Solange helping me as I jumped down. I hadn't needed her help, but it was sweet nevertheless. We headed back to the stable. We returned to the receptionist area. Dina made a call over the radio, telling someone named Leann to take over for her.

"Our daughter," she explained. "Everything will be fine here. If you pull on your helmets..."

A minute later she led us to the first of the stalls. There were two horses waiting in a single stall, both saddled. "These are Mystique and Bucket," Dina explained. "They are both fillies-"

"That means they're girls," Solange said, smirking at me.

"I knew that much," I replied. I considered sticking my tongue out at her, but I restrained myself.

"Solange, I'll bring Bucket out first. She's yours for the day." Dina didn't wait but slipped into the stall. She caressed the nose of one of the horses before grabbing the reins of the other, down near her nose. She tugged, and Solange managed the door. Dina pulled the horse out and Solange closed the door before the second horse could follow. "This is Bucket," she said.

Solange stepped up to the house, approaching at a small angle. She let the horse get a sniff of her then began to run her hands over the animal.

I stood back, deeply nervous. The horse was huge. They all were.

"She's so big," I muttered.

Dina started to laugh but smothered it.

"She's not big?"

"Not as horses go," Dina said. "She's big enough for polo, but small enough to remain agile." Dina smiled. "And she's for sale."

Solange chuckled. "I'm not at all surprised. Come say hello, Sidney."

I'd kept my distance from the animal. Dina still held the reins with Solange standing next to the horse's neck. I approached cautiously. The horse didn't seem to pay much attention to me. Instead, she was snuffling at Dina.

"She thinks you have more carrots."

"I do have more carrots," Dina said. "She won't bite."

I stepped around Dina. Solange slipped to the side, giving me the place nearest the horse's head. I looked up at her. One big, brown eye fixed on me. Slowly, I reached up and began scratching the horse's neck the way I'd seen Dina earlier.

"She likes it a little lower," Dina said. "Just in front of the saddle." So I adjusted, and I swear, the horse smiled at me.

Do horses smile?

I heard a door open at the front of the stable, and a moment later I saw a teenage girl step up behind Dina. "Hey, Mom. I'm here."

"Good. We're going to help these ladies climb on top of their mounts, then I want you to manage things here."

"I could take 'em out."

Dina turned and smiled at her daughter. "Next time, darling. Frances and Annie are due in another half hour. You'll need to saddle Penguin and Stash for them." Then she looked appraisingly at Solange. "And we might need Guest and Burger when we get back."

"You're putting her on Burger?" Leann asked. She nodded at me. I guess I even looked like a noob.

Dina smiled. "Burger is for me. Just have them ready in an hour."

"Sure, Mom."

"All right. Sidney, if you want to step back. Leann, can you grab the mounting block for Ms. Casper?"

The girl stepped away for a moment, returning with what is best described as a step stool. She set it down beside the horse. Solange eyed it, then with a gesture from Dina, she stepped up onto the block, lifted her left foot into the stirrup, then was up and on the horse easily. She made it look effortless, although I was a little surprised she'd needed the little ladder.

Perhaps she hadn't, but she was doing what she always did: hiding her real abilities.

Dina offered Solange the reins then slipped back into the stall. She emerged with the other horse -- Mystique. I thought she was beautiful, and when Dina nodded to me, I stepped up to the horse and said, "Hello, Mystique," to her. Dina handed me a carrot, and I offered it to the horse, who took it happily. I gave her a good pat, but I didn't even bother checking her gear the way Solange had. After a moment, Leann set the mounting block in place. Dina continued to hold the horse's head.

"I've never done this," I said, eyeing the horse. It seemed awfully far up onto her back.

Leann explained what to do. It seemed obvious, by and large, but I was nervous. I eyed the saddle, looking for something to hang onto. "The...um. Thing is missing." I pointed to the front of the saddle. "The handle."

"The saddle horn," Leann said. "We ride English style here. That's western style. We have no saddles with horns." She turned to her mother. "But you gave her a polo saddle?"

"By request," Dina said.

"Best to get used to it from the beginning," Solange said from atop her horse. "Sidney, it's easier than riding a bike."

"It's a lot higher than a bike," I said. "And I saw those teeth."

"Aww," said Leann. "Mystique is the sweetest horse we have. She'll treat you well." She turned to the horse. "Won't you, darling?" She turned back. "She used to be mine."

"This is your horse?"

"Used to be when I was a kid. She's a total sweetie. You're going to love her."

I eyed the horse and the saddle again. "Where do I hang on?"

"That's what your legs are for," Leann explained.

"Maybe you want a ladder, Sidney," Solange said. That time, I did stick my tongue out. If the vampire could do it, I could do it. Right?

I lifted my foot and put it into the stirrup. It took me two tries, but I found myself on top of the animal, and it wasn't as hard as I had feared. "Thank you," I said, looking down at the girl.

"You're welcome. Have a nice ride."

She was about to step away, but Dina handed the reins of the horse to her. "Hold her while I get Cleaver." Dina stepped away to another stall and emerged after a minute with a pitch-black horse. He, like all the horses, was gorgeous. A moment later, she practically jumped into the saddle.

I looked over and smirked at Solange. Dina hadn't needed a little ladder. I was pretty sure Solange hadn't needed one, either.

Leann lifted the reins to me. "All our horses are trained for neck rein," she said. "Hold both reins in your left hand and then move your hand towards the side you wish to turn. We also train for controlling with your knees and shifting your weight, but today you can just use the reins." She gave me a few more directions.

I couldn't believe they were letting me on one of their horses with just a few sentences of instruction from a teenage girl.

I probably looked very nervous. Leann finished by saying, "Don't worry. Mystique is going to want to stick with Bucket and Cleaver, anyway." She kissed the horse on the nose, and Mystique in turn snorted at her. "You be a good girl now, Darling," she said. "Give..." She looked up at me. "I didn't catch your name."

"Sidney," I said. "Pleased to meet you, Leann."

"You give Sidney a gentle ride. Make sure she wants to come back for more." Then she turned the horse towards the rear doors, and without my doing a thing, the horse was walking forward.

My heart had calmed down, but as soon as the horse decided she was in charge, my nervousness grew again. Solange and Dina both clucked at their horses, and soon I had one of them on either side of me.

Side-by-side, the six of us walked along the lane between the paddocks and the polo field: three horses, two humans, and one vampire. I had a moment wondering what Bucket would do if he knew her passenger wasn't human. I wondered if, to an animal nose, she smelled different. If so, she didn't give any indication.

"Are the stirrups too short?" I asked. "My legs aren't straight."

"You need room to post a trot," Dina explained. "A walk is easy to sit, but a trot requires you to carry your weight in your legs, not on your backside."

"A trot? What's a trot?"

Dina explained about the different gaits of horses. Halfway through, I shook my head. But then I admitted what we were doing so far was easy, and I was having a good time. "It's a beautiful, fall day," I said. I looked over at Solange. "Thank you."

"I arranged the weather carefully," she replied with a smirk. But she transferred her reins to her right hand and reached out with her left. We clasped briefly, Solange shifting in her saddle to be able to reach. When she did, her horse moved closer to mine, and immediately Solange released my hand and sat upright in her saddle. "Oops."

I smirked at her.

"That's what Leann meant when she said the horses here understand about shifting weight," Dina said. "Bucket is pretty gentle, or that could have involved him spinning around in a circle."

"Why is she called Bucket?"

Dina smiled. "It can be quite a challenge to provide names for new horses. Bucket was no exception, but she earned her name because one day, she took exception to a bucket that one of the riders had used to climb onto one of the other horses."

"Took exception?"

"That's a euphemism," Solange suggested, "for 'kicked the shit out of'."

"Quite so, although not as bad as that. She gave it good kick, then chased it around for a while like a dog after a ball."

"And Mystique?"

"Leann named her after her favorite character from X-men."

"Oh," I said. "She was pretty hot in the movies."

Dina laughed. "Yeah, I thought so, too. We have another filly here named Storm."

"Leann named her, too?"

"Our other daughter, Caroline," Dina said. "We turn right up here."

I didn't have to do anything. Mystique either knew the way or was taking hints from Bucket and Cleaver. I simply sat in the saddle and enjoyed the view.

"Are the girls... um. Yours?" I asked. "I don't even know how to task that."

Dina laughed. "I carried Caroline using a donation from Jen's cousin. Jen carried Leann using a donation from my brother."

"Oh wow," I said. "I haven't heard of that before."

"We talked about anonymous donors," Dina explained "It was Jen's idea for Caroline, and then it was an obvious choice when it came time for Leann."

"Does she call your bother 'Dad'?"

"No. He's Uncle Glen. When each girl turned sixteen, we told them the full truth."

"That had to be weird."

"It was. We held a little party for each of them. Leann and Glen both cried and held each other for a long time. He's always been involved in her life, but we agreed when we started this that Jen and I were the parents, and she still calls him Uncle Glen." She paused. "It turned out he never told his wife, and she found out just a few days before the party."

"How did she take it?"

"She was upset. She thought she should have known. She was standoffish around Leann for a while, but she's come around, and now she treats our daughter very well."