And indeed by the time they were dressed, the dining-room was empty, with only a few old women lingering over cups of hot milk and bread soaked in them. They helped themselves to porridge from the kettle and ate, after which Betta came in search of them.
“You are to go to the Housemother, Lady Jandria,” she said, “And Mistress Romilly to the stables.”
Jandria chuckled good-naturedly and said, “Just Jandria or Janni. Have you forgotten the rule of the Sisterhood?”
“Janni, then,” Betta replied, but she still spoke with residual deference. “Practice in unarmed combat is at noon in the grass-court; swordplay at the fourth hour after. I will see you there.”
In the stables and paddock, Romilly found a number of horses; black horses from the Kilghard Hills, the finest she had ever seen. It would be, she thought, a pleasure and a privilege to train these to the saddle.
“They are needed by the Army, in as much haste as possible,” said Tina, who had brought her here, “And they must be trained to the saddle, to a steady pace, and to stand against loud noises. I can get you as many helpers as you need, but we have no expert, and Lady Jandria told us that you have the MacAran Gift. So you will be in charge of the work of training them.”
Romilly looked at the horses; there were a good two dozen of them. She asked, “Have any of them been trained to pacing on a lunge-line?”
“About a dozen,” Tina said, and Romilly nodded.
“Good; then find a dozen women who can try their paces, and take them out in the paddock,” she said, “and I will begin getting to know the others.”
When the women came she noticed that Betta was among them, and greeted her with a nod and smile. She sent them out to work for a few minutes at running the horses in circles on the lunge-lines, steadying their paces, and went into the stable to choose the horse which she would herself work with.
She decided to give each horse into the charge of the woman who had exercised it today; it was easier if they formed a close tie with the horse.
“For then the animal will trust you,” she told them, “and will do things to please you. But it cannot be a one-way connection,” she warned, “Even as the horse loves and trusts you, you must love him – or, if it is a mare, love her – and be completely trustworthy, so that the horse can read in your mind that you love; you cannot pretend, for he will read a lie in moments. You must be open to the horse’s feelings, too. Another thing-” she gestured to the short training-whips which were in their hands, “You can snap the whips if you like, to get their attention. But if you hit any horse enough to mark it, you are no trainer; if I see a whip in serious use, you can go and practice your swordplay instead!”
She sent them to work and listened for a moment to the chattering as they went out.
“Not to use our whips? What are they for, then?”
“I don’t understand this woman. Where is she from, the far mountains? Her speech is so strange. …”
Romilly would have thought it was their speech which was strange, slow and thoughtful, as if they chewed every word a dozen times before speaking; while it seemed to her that she talked naturally. Still, after she had heard a dozen women say they they could not understand her, she tried to slow her own speech and speak with what seemed to her an affected, unnatural slowness.
If they were at Falconsward, everyone would think their speech silly, foreign, affected. I suppose it is a matter of what they are used to.
She turned to the horses with definite relief. At least, with them, she could be herself and they, at any rate, would not be critical of her speech or manners.
The horses, at least, speak my language, she thought with pleasure.
There were so many of them, and of all kinds, from sturdy shaggy mountain ponies like the one she had killed on the way here, to sleek blacks such as her own father bred. She went into the loose-box among them (to the distinct horror of Betta, who seemed as troubled as if she had gone into a cage full of carnivorous mountain-cats) and moved through them, trying to find the right horse to begin with. She must do a splendid job of training, because she knew that there was some grumbling – she looked so young, they said, and they would be quick to spot any mistakes.