Page 80 of Fae Tithe

“Huh? Who?” she asked over her shoulder.

The Merman chuckled. “Goliath. I heard you say, outside of the manor, ‘I know you.’”

“Oh! He, um, he was pulling the carriage that brought me to Solas,” she explained, a prickle of tears threatening to fall at the memory.

Lance’s eyes widened. “El, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s okay.” She set her eyes forward onto the hard-working stallion. “The only other good thing that came out of all of this?” She smiled to herself, a small bubble of joy in her chest. “He’s free of them, too.”

Eleanor continued driving Goliath, sporadically glancing over her shoulder at the sleeping Helena. Her mother was tucked into Lance’s side, his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders, her temple pressed to the Merman’s chest. Eleanor watched long enough for her chest to rise and fall. After seeing Helena take a breath, she let out her own long sigh in relief, a small smile tugging her lips upwards.

“Would you like to swap?” Lance asked the third time she checked over her shoulder.

“No, no, it’s alright. I got this, Dad,” Eleanor called over her shoulder, the corner of her eye watching as his face split into a pointy-toothed grin.

“I can’t tell you what it means to hear you say that,” he said, the lines at the corners of his eyes becoming more prominent as his grin broadened.

“I can’t tell you what it means that I can say that,” she agreed, with a wide smile of her own.

Eleanor continued guiding Goliath until the afternoon bled into the early evening. The sun began to set, turning the sky pink. She heard Lance rustle behind her, and he reached out to tap the her on the shoulder. Eleanor glanced behind her.

“Let’s stop here for the night,” he said, before looking down at Helena and brushing some crusted strands of hair from her forehead.

“Got it.” Eleanor nodded.

She faced forward again and gave a gentle tug on the reins. Within a few of his long strides Goliath, slowed to a walk and eventually stopped.

Eleanor glanced down to the river. It would be nice to be by it, she decided.

She stood down from the driver’s bench, an ache in her rear and legs stiff from sitting for so long. Eleanor rolled her shoulders and twisted her torso left and right. She stretched her arms all the way up, ridding herself of all her pins and needles. Finally, she leapt down from the driver’s seat, shoes hitting the road.

Eleanor watched as the cart bobbed and shifted beneath Lance’s movements. He had unwound his arm from Helena and left her head resting against his folded-up cloak as he stepped down from the cart.

“Since he listens so well to you, El. Let’s see if he will let you lead him down into the soft grass, just before the reeds.” Lance smiled, giving her an encouraging nod.

Eleanor bobbed her head in return and reached her left hand to the bridle. She hooked her fingers under the side of the noseband and gently led Goliath into the soft spring grass. She narrowed her eyebrows at the presence of a bit. Her mother did not use them on the ponies back home, so Eleanor decided that her gentle stallion did not need one either. She would work at removing it from the bridle once they had settled in for the evening.

The cart bumped its way over the grass. It stopped under the shelter of the yellow blossoming trees that buzzed with the enthusiasm of hard-working bees in the dimming light, frantically gathering nectar and pollen before they turned into their hives for the evening.

“An expert, I see.” Lance grinned. “I’ll unpack the cart and get your mother comfortable while you take care of your horse?”

Eleanor nodded enthusiastically. My horse. It was nice to be excited about something. “Sure!”

As the Merman set to his tasks, so did Eleanor. She examined the harness that hitched the stallion to the cart. It had taken both herself and Beth to attach Goliath to it back in Solas. The Changeling only knew how to drive the horse, from her practice with the ponies and cart back home, but she was not sure how to unhitch him.

Eleanor closed her eyes. She recalled how Beth had harnessed the Seelie Stallion. Now do that, but backwards. Start with the traces.

Opening her eyes again, she was met with the view of Goliath’s velvet muzzle. He had lowered and turned his head. The stallion was snuffing at the sweat on her skin. His deep puffs blew the loose strands of hair around her forehead. The horse then stuck out his large, pink tongue, stark against his black fur, and ran it along Eleanor’s face from chin to temple.

“Yuck!” she squealed, wiping the saliva off with the back of her hand and whipping it away with a flick of her wrist into the grass.

“You okay there?” Lance called out from behind her with a ring of alarm in his voice.

Eleanor looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened in surprise. The Merman had not wasted any time. A comforting campfire was already taking onto the kindling he had gathered. The bags had been removed from the floor of the cart. He had even settled Helena into a makeshift bed of cloaks and a folded-up cotton bag for a pillow.

“Yes! All okay,” she replied, before turning back to Goliath. Get on with it, Eleanor.

The Changeling set about her task. She stepped the length of his body and stood by the horse’s rump. She began by unbuckling the traces that attached to the central tree at the cart’s front. Eleanor then moved on to unhooking breech straps from the stallion’s hindquarters. Finally, straining, she lifted up a shaft on one side. It was heavy, and part of her considered asking Lance for help.