“No!” Norah called to them. She looked back over her shoulder at the commander. “Tell them to stand down. They’re only making it worse.”
“Back up slowly and get out of there,” he told her.
“I have to help him!” she insisted. She stepped toward the man on the ground, and the mare snorted but warily stayed.
“North Queen!” the commander growled. The mare reared again as the commander swung himself over the top of the corral.
“Wait!” Norah cried, making him pause. “Just wait.” Slowly, she inched toward the man and knelt beside him, keeping her eyes on the mare. He lay crumpled on his side. She touched his face, but he didn’t respond. Blood ran from a deep gash on the side of his head. Slowly, she rolled him onto his back. He was alive, but his breath was faint. He needed help. Norah rose slowly, looking at the horse. The mare shook her head, tossing her mane. This was no ordinary horse. The beast called to her.
The mare was snowy silver with a dark face and matching legs. As Norah drew closer, she could make out the dapple in her coat. Her beauty was intoxicating, but what caught Norah’s attention was the brilliant fire in her eyes. She’d seen eyes like these before. And it dawned on her—they were the same as the fox in the Wild, where Alexander had first found her. They had to be connected somehow.
“Don’t!” the commander called to her, but she ignored him.
The animal’s wild eyes looked at Norah through her thick mane, and her nostrils flared nervously. Norah clicked her tongue, drawing the mare’s ears forward. She stepped closer and reached out her hand. “It’s all right,” she said softly.
The animal tossed her head again but finally stretched out her neck to nose Norah’s hand. Norah waited patiently.
“You’re all right,” she whispered. Slowly, she moved to scratch the mare’s chin, and then ran her hand up the animal’s jaw. The horse threw her head up, but Norah paused, and the animal calmed.
“Easy, you’re all right,” she soothed. Slowly, Norah reached out again. She ran her hand down the horse’s neck and chest, patting her. She loosened the ropes and pulled them away.
“That’s better, yes?” she said to the animal. “Will you let him go? Death’s not the answer.”
The mare snorted, but Norah felt her yield.
“Collect your man,” she called back to the Horsemen. The commander echoed her in a foreign tongue, with a few additional words she was sure, and they hurried warily to gather their man.
The mare flicked her ears and pawed the ground but stayed. Norah drew her hand along the animal’s neck and shoulder, still working to calm her.
“North Queen!” the Shadow King’s voice boomed from behind, and she looked to see him making his way toward the enclosure. The commander straddled the top of the corral with a spear in hand, and a man she assumed to be King Abilash stood below. Her stomach turned at being the center of their attention.
“I’ll get you out of here,” she whispered to the mare and then turned to face the ire of her own captors.
She strode to the edge of the corral and slipped out between the railing. The commander dropped to the ground from the top and stood beside the King Abilash. Both looked astonished.
“What is this power you have over the Wild?” Abilash asked. “How do you do this?”
But there was a fury inside her heart. “She doesn’t belong to you. Why do you have her?” she demanded.
Her offense caught Abilash by surprise. Then he noticed the Shadow King approaching and gave a bow. “Salar, I’m glad to see you’re recovering, my friend,” he said, in an effort to change the subject.
Anger rose within her at being dismissed. “No thanks to your men,” she said shortly. “Is that how you treat your friends? Attacking those under their protection and then poisoning them?”
Abilash, his face heavy with dishonor, looked at Mikael. “My men didn’t know who they were attacking, and we suffer great shame. We offer you our deepest apology and whatever you require to mend the bond between Kharav and our people.”
Mikael didn’t appear to be in a forgiving state. “The North Queen’s attackers. I want their families. Ten years’ servitude in Kharav as restitution for their crimes.”
Abilash nodded reluctantly.
Norah gasped. “Their families?” Mikael’s eyes found hers, and they held a warning, but she couldn’t help herself. “Sins of the father are not sins of the son,” she said, objecting. “You punish innocents.”
His face gave away nothing, but she knew she was pushing him for clemency he wasn’t accustomed to.
“There must be recompense,” he said.
“One fitting of the crime!”
His eyes blazed. “And what do you think is fitting of assaulting a queen?”
It wasn’t lost on her that he called for restitution only for her grievance, not his own. Norah felt like the men guilty had already paid the ultimate penalty, but he wouldn’t leave with nothing. “What about the mare?” Norah asked, and Abilash’s eyes widened. She knew the horse was valuable if they would let men die over it. “We’ll take the mare instead.”
A tension rippled through the air, one that Norah didn’t understand. The commander’s face darkened—he was perhaps offended by her audacity to bargain as a prisoner.
Mikael looked at her with reluctance in his eyes, but then he turned to Abilash and surprised them all. “I’ll have the mare,” he said.
Abilash’s face hardened, but he gave a stiff nod. “Our friendship with Kharav is very dear to us. If the North Queen can ride the beast, it’s hers.”
Norah sensed Abilash doubted she could ride the mare. She doubted it herself. Mikael shifted uncomfortably, and she feared he would interfere.
“I accept,” she blurted, and turned back to the enclosure before he could stop her.
Norah approached the mare again, and the horse shook her head. “Easy,” she whispered, reaching out her hand. The mare allowed her touch, but Norah wasn’t sure about riding her. “I told you I’d get you out of here, but you have to trust me. Can you do that?”
The mare snorted.
“I’m going to trust you too,” she said. “I’m going to trust that you won’t maim me or make a fool of me. We can help each other.”
Ever so carefully, she stepped to the side of the mare, who snorted again and turned to watch her. Norah reached over her back and slowly put weight on the animal. The mare waited. Summoning her courage, Norah gathered a fist of mane in her hand and jumped up, rocking her weight forward over the horse’s back. Mounting a horse with no saddle wasn’t the most elegant of actions—it was certainly not how she pictured herself doing it in her mind, and she struggled a bit before she swung her leg awkwardly over. Her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for either acceptance or a quick throw. But fortune was with her, and the mare moved quietly underneath her. Norah urged her forward and toward the gate. “Open it,” she called.
The men looked at each other in astonishment and swung the gate open wide, watching in awe as Norah rode through.
The commander gave a beat to the ground with his spear as she passed. “Don’t get any ideas,” he threatened.