Carnahan and I exchanged a look. This was more like it. We each plucked a dart, his red and mine green, and waited.
The girl looked up into the clear, starry sky and took a deep breath. “By Epona’s white mane, I ask that my wish come true,” she called to the night. Then she threw the fruit as hard as she could.
The moment grew silent and immobile. No one breathed. Again my arm snapped, and the fruit hit the ground on the open space between the girl and us.
With a sly smile, she bent and picked it up. The crowd gasped.
Our two darts could not have been closer together. The flights were interlaced and the shafts side by side in the exact center of the bite.
The crowd cheered. Carnahan and I both grinned. The girl pulled the darts from the apple and, holding them side by side, licked the juice from their tips. “Looks like,” she said with an unmistakable smile, “I owe two kisses.”
My grin grew wider. Heck, I could grow to like this place.
A familiar voice suddenly cried, “Will you people get the hell outta my way!” Cathy pushed roughly through the crowd, oblivious to who she shoved. Behind her, Nicole almost ran to keep up. Cathy seemed uninjured, although her hair was tousled, but something bad had clearly happened. She marched right up to me and faced me with cold, suddenly haunted eyes. The crowd fell into a murmuring semi-silence.
“I’ve done my job and made my delivery,” she snapped. “I am now going to take the longest, hottest bath of my life, and then I am leaving. What you do is entirely your business, but I advise you not to go anywhere near this Epona.”
I stepped close to her, aware that all eyes watched us. “Are you all right?” I asked softly. “Did something-”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she muttered, and pushed past me. I started to go after her when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Mr. LaCrosse,” Nicole said. Her eyes were even sadder than they had been before. “Epona would like to see you.”
“I’ve just been told that wasn’t a good idea,” I said. I didn’t know if I should pursue Cathy or not.
“Miss Dumont will be fine,” Nicole insisted with gentle authority. “She wasn’t hurt in any way. And neither will you be. Epona merely wants to meet you.”
A murmur went through the crowd.
“Why?” I asked.
Nicole stepped closer. “She said to tell you,” she whispered, “that she knows how hard you tried to save Janet.”
I went cold inside. Cathy knew nothing of my past; certainly I hadn’t seen anyone from Arentia in the village. There was no way, no fucking way, this Epona could know about Janet.
Nicole smiled sympathetically at my reaction. “She is a goddess, you know.” She pointed at my sword. “You won’t need that.”
“I usually need it the most right after someone tells me that.”
“You’re going to meet a lone woman half your size. Who’s also deathly ill.”
“I thought she was a goddess.”
“Then going armed won’t matter, will it?”
“Don’t worry,” Stan interjected. “Seriously. Being with Epona is the safest place in the world.”
I unbuckled my sword. I would’ve preferred to leave it with Cathy, but I handed it to Carnahan. He took it easily, the weight barely registering. “Keep it clean for me, okay?”
He nodded. “Like it was mine.”
Nicole took my arm. For the benefit of the crowd she said, “Now come into the forest, Mr. LaCrosse, and meet the Queen of Horses.”
SEVENTEEN
I’d spent a lot of time in forests all over the world, but I’d never seen one that looked, or felt, like the one into which Nicole led me that night. This was a virgin forest, almost a jungle. No ax ever struck home in this place, nor any natural fires swept it clean. Vines and undergrowth shrouded the roots and formed intricate lattices in the spaces between the trunks. They kept travelers on the trail far more efficiently than any man-made fence. In no time the glow of the village vanished behind us, and only the bright moon overhead showed the way. The music and noise quickly faded as well. Insects, frogs and birds filled the air with their cries.
It took a moment, but the presence of birds finally hit me. I was no expert, but I could recognize most normal bird cries, and the ones I now heard were new to me. They almost sounded like fragments of composed songs, rather than the calls of living animals. “What kind of birds are those?” I asked Nicole.
“Just birds,” she said with a dismissive wave. “What else would they be?”
“That’s why I’m asking,” I said. I didn’t press the issue, but I knew she was evading my question. Owls, loons and mockingbirds sang at night, and this was none of them.
The trail was broad and clear, as it would have to be to regularly accommodate the town’s entire population. But it wasn’t expedient. It curved around some truly gigantic trees, no doubt allowing pilgrims sufficient time to contemplate their upcoming meeting with the goddess.
Nicole’s crack about Janet had put me on edge, and the further we traveled, the more annoyed I got. How could Epona know about that? How could anyone? I never told a soul, not even Phil, how truly hard I’d fought that day. I took a fucking sword hit to a lung and continued trying to save her. When my own sword broke, I fought on barehanded. I killed seven of them, and injured a dozen, but they outnumbered me and eventually beat me down. And then they made me watch what they did to Janet. But damn it, I did fucking try.
Something large moved in the woods to my right. I turned in time to see a shadowy form, far too big for either a wolf or deer, leap nimbly through the undergrowth. It was so stealthy I barely heard its passage. Another one, whatever it was, ran laterally through scrub that should’ve tripped anything larger than a raccoon. Then I realized these huge silent shapes were everywhere, moving parallel with us. I was just about to ask Nicole what they were when one of them emitted an unmistakable equine whinny.
“Looks like you’ve got horses in your trees,” I said.
Nicole laughed. “You make it sound like an infestation. Like roaches or rats.”
I shrugged. “If the horseshoe fits.”
“You don’t care for horses?”
Moonlight gleamed off the eyes of a great equine shadow as it paused to watch us. “Not as a rule.”
She nodded. “All that speed. The grace. The strength. That can be intimidating, I suppose.”
I scowled. “Saw a guy get his jaw kicked clean off once. That was intimidating.”
“Did he deserve it?”
“Maybe. I’d just prefer that my work animals not make that kind of moral judgment.”
“See, that’s your problem. A horse by its nature is not a ‘work animal.’ ”
“Then what is it?”
“An equal. A friend. A symbol of the goddess.”
I smiled. “Yeah, you gals always get into horses, don’t you? I never knew a girl who didn’t obsess about horses until she discovered sex.”
I’d intended it as a joke, but Nicole didn’t laugh. Instead she walked in thoughtful silence before replying, “I guess that’s true. Something about horses appeals to the adolescent feminine nature. That’s very astute.”
“I was mostly kidding.”
“I know, but I think you may be right. There’s an undeniable sexual thrill for a woman to wrap her legs around a horse, and that gets replaced by the thrill of actual sex. So we do lose that first rush of chaste awareness once we begin making love.” She thought some more. “The act of love mirrors the act of creation. Perhaps, for women, the feeling we get before we know physical love is the closest we get to knowing the goddess. Because a goddess is everything at once, eternally sexual and eternally virgin. So even as the virgin, she’s still aware of her power because she’s also the wanton. And perhaps that is what girls feel.”
“You got all of that from one bad joke?”