Queen's Charge

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"Sa!" Khraa whistled as he barged into the grotto. Jumping awake, the gray mare looked at the entrance to the cave, surprised. Then she groaned, immediately aware that Korr's warm body was no longer nestled against her for his daily nap. She pushed herself to her feet and met her mate coming in.

"Korr was out at the lookout hill," said the gray prince, stamping a hoof. "He's not ever to be up there! Did you not impress that upon him the last time he went to lookout hill?" The charcoal gray stallion pulled himself up and glared accusingly at Sa.

The mare rubbed her shoulder against her mate, nipping his neck gently. "Of course I did," she said. "But he's curious, Khraa, and angry. All the other foals get to go up there, as all of them will be lookouts when they're near to half-grown. He seethes that he will never be allowed up there."

The prince of unicorns raised his neck high and stiffened. For several long moments he was silent, and Sa wondered what he was thinking. She glanced over her mate's shoulder, looking for Korr, but didn't see him. Khraa had probably left him in Tal's care until he decided what to do about his son's latest transgression.

Khraa finally loosed his muscles, and Sa was relieved to see the anger go out of his eyes. "Yes," mused the prince, "he would be upset about that. It is unfair."

"What will you do?" Sa asked, tilted her head to regard her mate.

"I will make the lookout hill off-limits to anyone who is not an initiated warrior. The gryphons only take younglings. Of course. I don't see why this wasn't done long ago -- it's hazardous for little ones to be up on that hill, looking out for the very gryphons who would eat them, given the chance. Yes. Yes of course."

Sa smiled. She'd known her mate would figure out something, and this solved the problem neatly. Korr's railing would cease if he learned that his friends weren't to be allowed on lookout hill either. He was a rash colt, stubborn sometimes, but he was fair in his dealings. "A good compromise, I think," said the gray mare. Khraa nibbled her pale white mane.

"I will go talk with him," Sa offered. "So that you may discuss this plan with Sonne." Khraa nodded and wandered out of the cave. Sa watched him go, then she, too, stepped out into the bright caress of the noontime sun.

The grass was green as a tercel's coat and soft beneath her hooves. The suddenness of the shift between the darkness of the cave and the bright sunlight that warmed the Vale made Sa blink and pull back, standing poised with her neck coiled back like a serpent's. Then, still blinking, she adjusted and stretched out. Sa peered down over the Vale, watching with interest her fellows gamboling about, the young half-growns sparring and chasing each other, stretching cramped muscles and strengthening weak ones. After a moment, she identified dark blue Tal, lecturing her students on medicinal herbs or some such. Sa could also identify Teki, Tal's striking young son, dozing peacefully next to the dark and brooding form of her own Korr.

Sa picked her way down to the floor of the Vale, pausing briefly to greet several of her companions, and walked over to Tal's group. The midwife/healer of the herd glanced up at Sa and bowed her neck. Tal's students, turning, also bowed to the prince's mate. Sa returned the courtesy, thanked them, and indicated that they should continue their lesson. Tal obliged.

Korr was eyeing her sullenly, showing no signs of welcome. Nor, when she approached, did he change his mood or even cringe, but simply stood and glared angrily at her. Sa sent him a firm look, reminded him of his manners with a nip on then withers, and waited. After a moment, Korr's muscles loosened and he awarded his dam a perfunctory bow. Beside him, Teki, apparently awake but miming sleep, watched with interest. Noticing Teki's open eye, Sa flicked her tail at him. The tip dealt a quick, harsh flick to Teki's shoulders, and the pied colt quickly learned not to snoop. He turned away.

"Come with me, Korr," Sa said, turning away from her foal. She heard Korr hesitate a moment, looking after her, and then came the quick-paced clopping of his tiny hooves across the turf as he followed. "Your sire is very disappointed," Sa was saying, "but I think he tries to understand. Hurry up, young one, you are too far behind." The gray mare paused and waited for her son to catch up to her. Then she turned to face him.

"Korr, none of the younglings will be lookouts from now on. It is too dangerous to allow foals up there, where the gryphons are." Sa nuzzled her son's neck reassuringly.

Korr pulled sharply back, and she was surprised to see the anger in his eyes. "I don't want to be looked after like I was going to break! I'm growing, and I'm getting stronger, but my sire still treats me like a foal. And so do you! Just because Tursi was too stupid to run --"

"Quiet!" Sa said, stepping forward. She towered over her young colt, looking down at him with burning eyes. "Silence from you!" Her voice was shaking with anger and repressed misery. "Your sire and I have warned you countless times how dangerous the gryphons are! It doesn't matter how big and strong you are, because it takes a whole host of warriors to defeat even a pair of gryphons. And even if it didn't, a gryphon's voice enchants. They sing their prey right into their beaks! By Alma's Eyes, Korr, your sister lost her life to gryphons' treachery, and you above all should know that, and respect her."

Korr shrank away, but barely. "Aye, dam, Tursi deserves respect. That's what I'm always told: that Tursi was such a wonderful, promising filly. 'Oh, how the prince misses her!' they say. How he screamed when they found gryphon claw-marks in the mud on the hill after she vanished! I'm nothing but a replacement for her, who would have been the perfect queen!"

Sa was silent for a long moment, staring at her defiant son. Korr stood braced, his legs with their knobby knees braced well apart, his shallow foal's chest puffed out. His eyes flashed with hard anger, and his head was raised as far as his short, broad neck could get it. Sa noticed that the tip of a horn springing through the fuzz upon his brow, the first fuzz of a beard beneath his chin. "Korr . . ." she said softly. Her foal's muzzle twitched slightly, his nostrils flared. "Korr. In our hearts and minds, you are not a replacement for Tursi. Nay, hark me, son; don't turn your head. From the moment you were born, we knew that you were great. I know it still. You, princeling of the unicorns, will someday rule, and I believe that your reign will be a great one. You will make even Alma proud, my son, if you would but keep your temper cool and your hooves firmly in the Ring of Law. Then you will become a fine warrior, a fine stallion, and a wonderful king. And I will always stand with you, and love you, and you, not Tursi, will be a perfect ruler of the unicorns."

Korr's firm stance lessened. He took a step, breaking the pose, and moved into his mother's side. She felt him press against her ribs, turned her head and nuzzled his own ribs gently. Her ropelike tail flicked, shooing the biting flies away from her nursling's tender hide. The sun warmed her back and his as they stood together, comforting and being comforted.

Sa was suddenly aware of little Teki standing a distance off, staring at them. Lifting her head from her colt, she blinked at him, and the little pied foal pranced nervously. "Dam sent me to you," said the black-and-white colt. "Tas, the little one, is ailing again and she needed to mind him. She hopes you do not mind watching me."

The little colt at Sa's side pulled away, staring suspiciously at the healer's strange, pied son. Teki, with the black spots over his eyes, who seemed never to blink, appeared unbothered by Korr's withdrawal at his approach. Sa's tail flicked Korr across the hocks, admonishing him for being so rude to the son of the mare who midwived him. She bowed her head formally to the pied colt. Teki returned the gesture gravely.

Sa then noticed Khraa waiting just beyond the pied colt, pacing back and forth. "It will be no trouble minding you, Teki. I hope Tas is all right, but now I must speak with Khraa. You and Korr can play while I am busy. I will be nearby if you need me." Then, with a final nod to the pied colt, and affectionate nibble of her own son's withers, Sa strode over to join her mate.

"I have bad news," said Khraa, his voice flat but his eyes sparkling with anger.

Sa paused midstride. She looked at her mate. His body was neutral and revealed nothing of his thoughts, but she could see from that sparkle in his eyes and the firm set of his jaw that he was upset. "The queen refused our plan?"

Khraa shook his head. He stamped a hoof, the muscles rippling along his shoulder. "Nay, she thought it was a wonderful idea, and she thinks it was probably foolish ever to let younglings up on lookout hill."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Sonne . . . Sonne is nervous about Korr. She believes us capable of raising him, but she wants to keep an eye on him herself." Now Khraa's muscles tensed with an effort not to show strain, but Sa noticed it anyway. "She does not, I believe, think us 'capable' of keeping his life structured. She says that he does his mischief often, and she wants to put a stop to it herself."

Sa paused. Sonne was a good ruler and a wise mare, she reminded herself. If anyone knew how to raise an unruly colt to be a law-abiding stallion, it was Sonne. The memory of Khraa's wild younger days was a stringent one to Sa, but he had grown into an intelligent, well-behaved adult. Still, Sa could not shake off the feeling that Sonne found her lacking in ability to successfully raise a colt. She stiffened through the withers.

"Well," she voiced part of her thoughts aloud, "if anyone can deal with a wild young colt, Sonne can." Sa rubbed apologetically against her mate, who whickered and allowed himself to be comforted a little. "When does she want to begin?"

"She'll initiate contact with him whenever she has time," Khraa said in that distant, stilted tone he assumed when hiding his disgust for something. "Most likely she won't begin work with him until he is at least a year old."

Sa nodded. She turned and looked at her colt, now romping hesitantly with Teki. The sound of their laughter drifted over to her on the breeze, merry and bright. The wind ruffled the grass ever so slightly. Someone hailed Khraa, and stallion and mare both turned to look. Then Khraa, beckoned over by a friendly whistle, trotted away, and Sa turned back to the colts, frisking merrily beneath the noonday sun.

*****

Korr yawned and rolled over onto his side, allowing the sun to toast him on that side. The sweet smell of grass was in his nostrils, rich enough to make an adult unicorn hungry, but Korr lived on his mother's milk as yet, and was untempted. Sunlight turned his nursling fringe of mane from black to dark brown with highlights of amber hidden in them. A bug crawled up his leg and worked its way across his belly, tickling him. Korr's skin twitched spasmodically until the bug was shaken off, then lay still.

Blades of grass itched at his muzzle. Korr shifted on the ground, moving to a more comfortable position where the grass would no longer itch him so. Then he closed his eyes and prepared for a nap, allowing his consciousness to slip blissfully away into the warm darkness of sleep.

A hoof stamped right next to his head. With a start, Korr awoke. He looked in surprise at the cloven hoof next to him, a dainty one with a mallow, reddish hue. Rolling his eyes up, Korr's vision was cast across a neat, well-constructed foreleg, up the muscled shoulder of a warrior, along a regal, crested neck, finally to settle upon a sierra-red face with intense, sparkling eyes. Jerking back and kicking onto his feet, Korr bowed his head and greeted the cerise queen of the unicorns of the Vale.

"Well met, little Korr," said Sonne, and the long, elegant leg stamped again. Korr, unsure of what to do or say, looked around for his mother, but saw no sign of Sa. Khraa he did find, but his sire, newly returned from guiding the warrior-initiates on their pilgrimage to the Hallow Hills, had fallen deeply asleep in the warm sunlight. The little colt turned back to Sonne, who gave him a little nudge with her nose. "I watch you today for your sire and dam," she said with a nod of her head.

Trying to gather his wits together still, Korr nodded. The cerise mare stood absolutely silent, staring at him with an eerie wordlessness that made the colt uncomfortable. Suddenly, in this worst of moments, an itch seized him about the brow and he ached to scratch his young horn upon a nearby rock, but could not bring himself to break the gaze with Sonne. He feared she would feel he was disrespecting her if he should suddenly start scrubbing his head against a rock. The princeling shifted uncomfortably, tossed his head a little and pulled the muscles in his neck to a firm tightness.

"Sooth," said Sonne, amused. "Do not be wary in my presence, little one. I am here to watch you, not to scold you." She folded limb and couched herself, quite calmly, tucking her nose down by her chest and tilting only one ear towards him. The queen's eyes closed.

Hesitant, Korr remained staring at her. Oh, his forehead itched! One of Sonne's eyes popped open and looked at him, as if asking him a question. The little colt shifted uncomfortably. The dark eye closed. A cool breeze washed in off the mountains, sending little shivers down Korr's spine. Sonne said, her eyes still closed, "Off with you now, Korr. I will rest here awhile and be your companion."

Realizing of a sudden that he had been ordered to go, Korr sprang away. His head dove down and he scratched furiously against a rock, rolling his withers back and forth in his frenzy to relieve himself of the itching. Then, with a little sigh, he, too, fell to the ground, barely bothering to fold his forelegs underneath him. Sleep caught him almost instantly Another cool breeze washed down off the mountainside.

He was aware of someone standing over him, and woke expecting Sonne. Instead, it was Teki, Tal the healer's pied son, with his unblinking eyes. Korr jolted awake and looked around for Sonne. The queen was sleeping on her feet a small ways off. He leapt to his feet and turned to Teki.

"My dam bade me --" began the pied colt. Korr cut him off.

"Aye, Teki, I know: your dam bade you stay with me while she tends to Tas. I like you all right, Teki, but I've started asking Alma every night either to make Tas better or let him die at last so you won't come to me every day and say 'My dam bade me stay with you while she tends to Tas.'"

Teki nodded solemnly, shrugging Korr's comments aside. The pied colt would have allowed Korr's comment to go unmarked, and it would have been completely forgotten, however at that moment, Sonne suddenly appeared behind the pied colt. Her eyes were dark with suppressed rage.

Korr pulled back. He'd thought her asleep. "Korr," she said, in a solemn voice. The princeling turned his head down, ashamed to meet her gaze. Sonne said in a firm, rebuking tone, "The goddess Alma loves all her children, and hopes they love each other. She cannot turn her head when one of her children wishes death upon another. 'Tis evil to have such wishes in your mind, I suggest you rid yourself of them."

The little princeling scuffled a hoof slightly. His forehead itched again. Teki moved silently away to let the two of them argue, but Korr could picture those black-rimmed eyes focused intently on the scene, drinking in the conversation greedily, though Teki would never tell a soul what he heard. "I did not mean it, granddam," Korr replied, his voice barely a whisper. "I did not really ask Alma to kill Tas. It's not his fault he was born late and poorly."

Sonne snorted. Korr peeked up and saw her shaking her head. "Son," she said, "I know you meant no harm. Yet Alma stands defiled, and will unless you promise never to say such things again." Korr opened his mouth to promise, but Sonne stamped a hoof. "And you must apologize to Tas. Come, stand. I will take you over."

Korr groped about in his mind for something to say. "What of Teki?" he asked. "Who will watch Teki?"

"Teki can come with us," said Sonne, nodding at the pied foal. Teki bowed his head to her, very respectfully. Korr groaned inside. Then he trailed Sonne as she led the way to Tas' little grotto, lingering as far behind as he could. Teki stood back even further.

The cave burned with a stale odor of sickness. Even the lichen on the walls was a gross, dark, unhealthy color, as if the sickness of the cave's occupant had affected it. Water dripped from a ceiling somewhere within, and its slow, patient, round percussion rang through the quiet cave. Occasionally the dropping was pierced by the sound of the tapping hooves of Tal, so Korr assumed, circling her patient and fetching various medicinal herbs to try. The air tasted of gangrene, and Korr felt as if he had just eaten some of the lichen on the walls. Even Sonne blanched at the hideousness of it. Showing the first sign of emotion here, Teki stood outside, his eyes dark and sad. He balked and refused the queen when she told him to go in, but surprisingly, Sonne did not press the issue.

Korr and Sonne proceeded deeper in alone. The little princeling crowded close to his granddam, fearful, his eyes large and round with nervousness. As they reached Tas' little grotto, the smell became even worse, and Korr could smell a lingering odor of loose manure. He pulled back and would have retreated, but Sonne's tail lashed him. The queen's eyes were hazy, as if she were distancing herself from this cave and place. She forced Korr to proceed her into the room.

Here was where the water dropped. Tas, a dappled colt, Korr's age but a quarter smaller and not yet hornsprung, lay on his belly on fresh grass his parents had hauled in, staring at the drop. Each time the water fell, Tas's eyes followed the droplet down, then when it splashed and splattered, the eyes went back up and awaited the next drop. It was a miracle of Tal's hard work that the foal's bedding was not wet, either from the constantly dripping water or from the loose stool whose scent lingered about Tas. The healer glanced up when Sonne and Korr came in, blinking in surprise and forgetting to bow to the queen.

"Teki? He did something?" she asked, disbelief already in her voice.

Sonne shook her head. "Nay. Korr wishes to speak with Tas, if it does not disturb your care of him."

Tal eyed Korr thoughtfully for a moment, then turned still worried eyes back to the queen. "But Teki?" she inquired. "Where is he?"

"Outside the cave," said Sonne. "He did not wish to enter."

Tal's tail flicked. The healer mare looked mournfully at Tas, her little patient, but the colt was still following the water up and down, oblivious to the conversation going on around him. "Let us leave," said Tal, "that the colts may speak."

Sonne nodded wisely, and both mares left. Korr shifted uncomfortably, looking at Tas, but the dappled colt ignored him. The pluck of water on the cave floor sounded loudly in the silence. The little dapple shifted, brought his hindquarters into view. Fur was chafing off and the skin beneath was flaked and dry. Tas's tail was straggly. The water dropped to the floor.

"I'm sorry that you're sick," Korr said at long last. He looked at Tas for a response. Pluck, the water said. "Really I am. I said something mean while I was talking to Teki, about wishing you would die, but I didn't mean it. It's not your fault you're little and sick." Silence still. "Does is hurt you a lot?"

More silence from the dapple. Not even a flick of Tas's eyes. "Look, Tas, I don't know what to say except that I'm sorry. And that if -- when -- you're better, you can come to me and we'll talk. Maybe we'll be friends. I hope so. I hope we'll be friends soon."

The water told him pluck. Korr felt a little frustrated. "Are you even listening? Would you understand if you were listening, or have you spent so much time in here that you don't understand any words at all? Oh, Alma . . . I'm sorry, Tas. I didn't mean that. Forgive me?"

Pluck.

Korr sighed and turned to leave. He jumped a little when his hooves clopped resoundingly on the stone. Somehow, he thought as he glanced down at the floor, the cave seemed especially empty. Hollow. Dead in every way. Rock, he knew, was not alive, but this rock was more dead than the stuff in his home grotto. He made his way to the egress.

"I like the water," Tas said suddenly. Korr turned around, startled. "When I watch it, my stomach doesn't hurt so much. I've been watching it for weeks. It just does the same thing, over and over, like Tal. Every now and then the noise changes a little, or the pace, but it's still the same. Still keeps dripping. I think it irritates Tal, the dripping, but I'd go mad without it. It's the only thing I get to watch. I've watched if for so many days . . . yet I can't find a source. Where does it come from, the water?"

Korr looked at the little colt, the weak one with the smelly haunches, lying on the gathered grasses. Since his birth, the foal had never moved from his little bed except to wash the stench off of his legs. He barely knew the outside world, had probably never seen Alma's eyes sparkling and winking at him from the dark blue of the evening sky. "It comes from Álm'harat," Korr said softly, daring to use the goddess's full name. There was another pause, while he waited. Tas seemed to be nodding slowly, but he was only following the water up and down. Korr turned again to leave.

"I hope I get better soon. I want to run in springtime," Tas whispered to himself. Korr paused, glancing over his shoulder at the sickly colt. Nodding his head, he quietly left the grotto, and heard the faint drips of water following him out.

He paused as he emerged once again into the sunlight, looking hesitantly at the three before him. It was obvious that the queen and Tal had been talking, but they had fallen silent as they heard Korr's hoofbeats returning. Teki stood next to his dam, his chin rested on her withers, staring thoughtfully out at the Vale, spread far below.

Korr bowed his head to them, and Sonne and Tal returned the gesture. Teki seemed unawares. Then Tal nudged her little colt, waking him and removing his muzzle from her withers, and slipped into the darkness of Tas's grotto. Teki shook himself, blinked, turned to watch her go. Then he looked at Korr, his dark, black-encircled eyes seeming even more shadowy than usual. The pied colt nodded as he stepped up to Korr, raising himself.

"I go to help my dam," Teki murmured. He slipped past Korr's shoulder towards the grotto. Korr turned in time to see his friend pause at the entrance to the cave, obviously steeling himself as if he were preparing to fight some gigantic monster. Then the pied colt vanished into the darkness.

Korr turned back to Sonne, saw her watching him. Wordless, the queen turned onto the path which led back to the safety of the Vale, and they descended.