Chapter 2 – Ros
I heard the door slam behind Kat and left the room with the excuse of finding her. My grandmother accepted this and aunt Em made no move to stop me though I am sure she saw through it. I called after Kat once or twice half-heartedly, though I knew she would not turn back.
She was going down to the cove where the merpeople are. I knew it before she knew it herself but she would not have wanted me to follow. She doesn't like to be seen with her guards down. No-one does but Kat finds it intolerable. She would find me if she wanted to. She knew where I would go just as I had known for her. I didn't want to think, so I headed straight for the paddock.
The paddock is a small piece of land next to the place where the copse gives way to woodland proper. It has no fencing, that wouldn't keep Emer in. I was worried she wouldn't be there; mostly she spends the hot summer days in the shades of the forest but I found her at the edge of the trees. She moved forward when I approached, whinnying slightly. I stroked her black neck and the feathers across her shining wings.
'You feel up to a canter?'
I asked her softly and she tossed her mane back where it grows long over her eyes in answer. She trotted smartly over to where a tree had been felled so that I could mount, gripping tightly with my knees just below the wing joint. I clicked slightly with my tongue and she started to walk forward, gradually moving into a canter and unfurling her wings, made as if to throw me off. With a swoop at the pit of my stomach and a whoop that rang out through the open sky I surrendered myself to the rushing wind and the blinding sun and for an hour or so remembered nothing.