Page 154 of Winter's Echo
“The right to refuse.” His jaw clenched. “Isn’t that something.” Nicco stood and took another roll. “We leave soon.”
Baxley followed him not long after, and Larana went to our room to get her pack. I already had mine, so when I was finished with my breakfast, I headed to the stables to meet the others.
“It’s fucking killing me.”
Nicco’s voice drew me closer, and instinct made me slow my steps.
“I think she’s delightful,” Baxley said, and even without seeing him, I could hear his laughter.
“She has to ride with you.” Nicco’s voice was firm, and then I heard his groan. “C’mon, Bax, you have to. Did you see her? All that hair? And whose idea was it for her to beclean? Her skin, it’s so… so soft. Likefragile. And she smells…”
“I’m enjoying you suffering.”
“I hate you.” I heard one of the horses neigh. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t you start,” Nicco grumbled. “It’s bad enough she’s in front of me all fucking day.”
I almost marched right in there to tell him I told him I would rather walk when Baxley’s next words made my temper cool.
“How about we get her her own horse? Then you’re not suffering, and she has a little more independence.”
Silence.
“She’d probably prefer it,” Nicco said with a grunt.
“Okay. I’ll go find a?—”
“I’ll do it,” Nicco cut him off. “It needs to be an animal that won’t scare her… Fuck off, Bax, don’t look at me like that. I’m going to get a horse.”
I ducked behind the wall as he marched past me, but he never noticed me there.
“Amarya?” Larana came out of the inn. “Are you okay?”
“Of course,” I lied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
She gave me a quizzical look and then went to meet them, not knowing Nicco was gone, and I had no choice but to follow.
Baxley smiled widely when he saw me. “Nicco’s gone to get you a horse.”
Larana looked up from her own mount’s saddle. “Why? She can’t ride by herself.
“I can learn,” I said before Baxley could tell Larana Nicco’s complaints. “I should learn.”
Larana stood back, her hands on her hips. “You can’t even get on and off without help.”
Stating the obvious wouldn’t help anything. “Then show me how.”
I was on my ass in the snow when Nicco returned with a brown horse with a steady gait and an indifferent gaze.
“I got you a horse.” He looked between us. “Why are you on your ass?”
“Because I don’t know how to mount a horse, and Baxley said you’d gone to get me one, and Larana very helpfully pointed out that I can’t mount and demount without?—”
“Dismount.”
I stared at him. “What?”
His eyes flicked to someone behind me who snickered. The silence that followed was all-encompassing. “You said demount. It’s dismount.”
“I can’t get on and off the fucking horse without help, and you went and got me a horse!”
