Bahzell leaned back against the stable wall, crossing his arms across his massive chest, and gazed out the open stable door. The early afternoon sun was bright, but the stable was dimly lit and cool. It was like looking out of a cave, and he allowed himself to savor the sense of calm that it evoked.
Yet that calm was deceptive, and he knew it. He still didn't know everything about what had happened to the Warm Springs herd, but he knew enough. In that moment when he and Gayrfressa had fused, he'd actually seen what she had seen, heard what she had heard . . . and felt what she had felt. And Tomanâk had been at least a little more forthcoming than usual. He'd tucked away more information in handy corners of Bahzell's brain than the Horse Stealer had expected. He certainly possessed a far better idea of what was waiting out there than he'd had when he and Brandark and Hurthang had led to the Hurgrum Chapter into Navahk to destroy Sharnā 's temple.
None of which made to deciding exactly what to do about it any easier. And then there was Gayrfressa . . . .
"Sir Kelthys," he began after a moment.
"Yes, Milord?" the wind rider replied courteously, his nimble fingers still working on the bridle.
"You're after being a wind rider, and you've been such for over twenty years, I'm thinking?"
"Yes, I have," Kelthys agreed.
"Well, it's in my mind as how it's likely you've been after learning a mite more about coursers during that time than ever I have."
"I'd certainly like to think I have," Kelthys agreed again, this time with a slight smile. "Why?"
"It's Gayrfressa," Bahzell admitted after a moment, then paused.
"What about her?" Kelthys pressed gently.
"Well," Bahzell said slowly, "when Himself and I were after healing her, there was a moment when everything was after flowing together, as you might say." He grimaced, mobile ears twitching with frustration as he sought unsuccessfully for the exact words he needed. "There was after being a moment-naught but a heartbeat or two, mind you-when she and I were after . . . merging. As if there was naught but the one of us." He turned and looked at the wind rider. "Would it happen as how you've felt such as that, or know someone else as has?"
"I . . . don't think so," Kelthys said, picking his own words as slowly and carefully as Bahzell had. "There's a moment for most wind riders-not all of us, but most-when we first bond with our brothers when we see each other. When we know all there is to know about one another. When we can actually almost see the other one's thoughts. But we don't fuse, or merge. Not really, although we throw those words around sometimes. We remain separate. Closer than to our own siblings, or even our lovers, but still separate. And that doesn't sound to me like what you're describing."
"Nor to me," Bahzell agreed, and sighed.
"Was it all that terrible an experience?" Kelthys inquired, with a note of gentle teasing, and Bahzell snorted.
"Terrible?" He shook his head. "Not by a long chalk, Sir Kelthys. Mind you, I'd not be wishful as to be doing such as that again any time soon! No, and I'd not wish for any other courser to be experiencing what these have."
His voice had darkened with the last sentence, but then he gave himself a shake.
"Still and all, though, I've no choice but to say as how it's probably after being one of the two or three most wonderful experiences of my life. They're truly after being the gods' own creatures, aren't they just?"
"I think so," Kelthys agreed quietly.
"Aye. But you're after being Sothōii, d'you see, whereas I'm hradani. And there's not a courser ever born as was so very fond of hradani. So you might be saying as how that's after being the relationship as we're both most comfortable with."
Kelthys quirked a quizzical eyebrow, and the huge hradani shrugged, looking almost embarrassed.
"Gayrfressa and I," he said. "We're not after being so very comfortable, anymore. I'll not go so far as to say what's betwixt us is after being the same as betwixt you and Walasfro, but it's not anything as ever existed betwixt another courser and hradani, you can lay to that! I-"
"Forgive me, Prince Bahzell," Kelthys asked gently, "but is it really so difficult for you to admit that the two of you love one another?" Bahzell gave him a sharp look, and Kelthys waved one hand in the air. "I doubt very much that anyone besides a wind rider has ever experienced anything remotely like what you've described to me, Milord Champion. But it's not at all unheard of for coursers to form deep, intensive friendships with humans who aren't wind riders-to love them, Prince Bahzell. Think of Dathgar and Baroness Hanatha, or Lady Leeana. Those who don't know them well tend to forget, if they ever truly realize it in the first place, that coursers are at least as intelligent as any of the Races of Man. And they have far, far greater hearts than most of us have."
"Aye, I can be seeing that," Bahzell murmured. "Yet I'm not so very sure as how any other coursers, as weren't here and didn't see, will be accepting that Gayrfressa could be feeling such for a hradani like me. And, truth to tell, there's those among my folk as would find it even more unnatural than hers."
"I don't think you need to worry about how the other coursers are likely to react," Kelthys reassured him. "They communicate with one another in ways I don't think anyone, including the wind riders, has ever truly understood." He shook his head. "Trust me, Prince Bahzell. If Gayrfressa is prepared to feel about you as you've described, then any other courser she ever meets will understand why. That's not to say they'll all agree with her, you understand, but I doubt very much that any of them will ever question her feelings or fault her for them."
"Well, to be speaking the truth," Bahzell said after a moment, "that's after being the least of my concerns just this very moment. You see, it's in my mind as how she's not going to be so very willing to be being left behind."
"Excuse me, Prince Bahzell, but are you saying that you and Gayrfressa are still linked somehow?"
"I'd not be calling it 'linked,' " Bahzell replied. "Yet it might be as how it's after being something in that direction." He tapped his forehead with an index finger. "It's not so much as if I'm after 'hearing' her, or as if we're after living inside one another's minds still. And yet, there's not the least tiniest question in my mind as how I know what it is she's after thinking. Or, come to that, where she's after being."
Kelthys' eyes widened suddenly, and he laid the bridle aside for the first time since Bahzell had entered the stable. The hradani's eyes narrowed as he saw the human's expression, but he said nothing, only waited.
"Milord Champion," Kelthys said after several seconds, obviously choosing his words even more carefully than before, "is Gayrfressa the only courser whose location you know?"
"Ah?" Bahzell gave him a look which combined surprise and disbelief at being asked such a ridiculous question. But then he frowned and closed his eyes, cocking his head as if he were listening to a distant sound. He stayed that way for several seconds, and then his expression went blank and his eyes popped back open.
"She isn't, is she?" Kelthys murmured, watching him very intently.
"No," Bahzell said. He waved a hand in the general direction of the paddock to the south of the stable, completely invisible from where the two of them sat. "It's the entire herd I can be feeling," he said. "All of them-from Gayrfressa to the youngest foal."