“Put your pack on him first,” she said, “just over the shoulders. Then get on slowly. Just don’t make any moves that might startle him.”
That wasn’t going to be easy, not without a saddle. Still. He followed her instructions, as she draped her own pack over the mare’s shoulders; her pack, like his, was now arranged so that it was a tube with her gear in equal parts at each end and a flat place in the middle. That had been his idea, to make it as much like saddlebags as possible. Staying on bareback would be hard enough; they’d never be able to stay on with packs strapped to their backs.
The stallion looked up, craned his long neck around so that he could peer at the pack, then resumed eating.
Lorryn put both hands on the stallion’s warm back, just be hind the pack. This would be something like one of the exercises he’d trained in, just slower. He only hoped his arms were up to it; it was going to be a real strain on his muscles.
He hoisted himself up with his arms alone, moving slowly and leaning his weight onto the alicorn’s back, and slid his leg up over the alicorn’s rump at the same time. He had a bad moment when the stallion jumped slightly, and fidgeted as it felt his weight. But then the beast settled again, and he got his seat, thankful he’d learned to ride bareback.
Rena was already in place, looking uncommonly cheerful, considering their current condition. She also looked far more alive than he’d ever seen her; there was a faint rosy flush on her cheeks, her green eyes sparkled, and even her hacked-off hair looked better fluffed in untidy curls around her face than it had when it was beaded and braided and beribboned. It was too bad all those so-called friends of his couldn’t see her now; they’d never call her “plain” again. She was definitely in her element. Freedom suited her.
“We’ll have to wait until they finish eating,” she told him. “Then they’ll go wherever it was they were heading in the first place when we caught them.” She tilted her head to one side. “Are you wearing an illusion?” she added, changing the subject so completely, she took him by surprise.
With a start, he realized that he was; it had become second nature. He nodded. “I can’t remember a moment that I’ve had it off,” he told her. “Except very rare times when Mother and I were checking to see that it was solid. I even have it up, sleeping.”
“Can I see what you look like without it?”
He considered her request, and shrugged. “I don’t see why not.” It took an effort of will to cancel the illusion on himself, and he saw from her face that she was disappointed in the result
He grinned at her reaction, in part because he had expected it. “Sorry, little sister. No fangs, no bulging muscles, no horns. The best and easiest illusions are always simply enhancements or slight changes in what was already there, you know.”
She tilted her head to the other side, birdlike, and considered him from all angles before she answered him. “Your hair is yellower than any boy’s I’ve ever seen, except the humans,” she said at last. “Your ears are blunter and smaller. And you’re just a bit more muscular. But you’re still Lorryn. I’d still know you anywhere.”
He bowed, mockingly. “Exactly so, and precisely the point I suspect Mother may have worked some of those weak little magics on me as a baby to make the illusion easier to carry—lightening my hair, for instance, and seeing to it I didn’t turn into a muscle-bound gladiator. But—”
At just that moment, the stallion finished the last scrap of grass, and without any warning, went from a standstill to a fast walk, heading south, the mare behind him. He lurched onto a deer path with a half-rum, as Lorryn fought for balance.
Lorryn clung to the slick back, wishing the alicorn would at least tolerate some kind of bellyband to give him something to hold on to! Especially if it was going to move off without warning like that!
“They’re going the way we wanted to!” Rena exclaimed behind him, pleased.
At least she had a little warning!
“They’re also going a lot faster than I thought they would!” he exclaimed, as the stallion moved from a fast walk into an even faster pace—it wasn’t a trot, but it was just as fast as a trot Fortunately, whatever this gait was, the alicorn moved more smoothly than any horse he’d ever ridden, and from the way it had its ears perked forward, its head up, and its tail flagged, it could probably carry on like this all day. If so—nothing short of magic would have served as well to get them out of danger. Magic—or maybe a dragon.
“This is amazing,” he said after a while, full of awe. No wonder the alicorns were so hard to track and hunt! No one had ever described them moving like this! Why, they would be long out of reach before a hound picked up their scent, even though the trail itself seemed fresh! “I’ve never ridden a beast like this in my life!”
“They are lovely, aren’t they?” Rena agreed. Her voice sounded wistful. “I wish we could stay with them—but I don’t think the changes I made run deep enough to hold if they ever begin to hunt. Once they taste blood—I have the feeling nothing would keep them tame. There’s a feeling about that under the surface of them. Their instincts are very powerful, and instincts are the hardest things to change.”
“Well, we’ll have to make certain they don’t get any blood,” he said firmly. But that observation set his own thoughts running; no matter how grave a situation, there was always a stray part of his mind that would analyze everything. His ancestors had bred the alicorns as war-beasts; it might be that if that part of their nature could be expunged, and the taste of flesh eliminated, they’d revert to a gentler nature.
Well, gentle enough that girls like Rena could tame them, anyway.
It would certainly be a fine thing to have a mount like this, with its great beauty and easy pace—
And total lack of any way to control it! he reminded himself, as the stallion made an abrupt leap over an obstacle across the path, jarring him and making him lose his balance and fight to regain it. No, maybe not.
He realized a bit later, as he ducked a little to avoid a low-hanging branch, that the only reason the alicorns didn’t absentmindedly scrape them off was purely because of the way they were built. Their necks were so long that their heads were very nearly even with the rider’s—and the horn more than made up for the difference. Anything Lorryn would have had to duck under, the stallion did, too, giving him a moment of warning so that he didn’t brain himself on a branch. If they ever got tired of carrying a rider, they would have no problem getting rid of that rider. Perhaps Rena’s bribery was the only thing keeping them “tame.”
Ah. Another good reason to put off domestication.
They had set off in midafternoon. By the time night fell, between the mad boat ride and the alicorn trek, they would have gotten far beyond where even the wildest estimation of their abilities would have placed them. And they were going south, into the lands no elven lord had ever set foot on. The lands where the dragons and the wizards had supposedly gone. That came from more reliable sources than Myre; it was part of the treaty between the elves and the wizards.
And in the space of a few hours, thanks to Rena, he was a great deal more optimistic about their chances than he had been this morning. He no longer needed to worry where they would find food; Rena had already proven she could change the leaves of the trees into treats for the alicorns; presumably she could make them as nourishing for the riders as well. A little bland, not at all fete fare, but I don’t think I’m going to complain to the cook. He could still hunt—though on the whole it would probably be better to wait until the alicorns went on their own way before doing so. He could sense the minds of even animals, which meant he should be able to sense dangerous beasts or pursuit before it got too close.
Even if they didn’t find the wizards immediately, they were not doing badly!
For now, he reminded himself, before he got caught up in unreasoning optimism. It’s barely summer. When winter arrives, we’d better have found the wizards. We haven’t got real shelter, and it’s going to be hard to magic that up out of the wilderness without someone noticing and coming after us. I’m not certain Rena can make dead grass or pine needles into anything edible, and we don’t have warm clothing except for our cloaks.