"Mickey Zucker Reichert - Herald's Rescue" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reichert Mickey Zucker)

A HERALD'S RESCUE
by Mickey Zucker Reichert
Mickey Zucker Reichert is a pediatrician whose science fiction and fantasy novels include The Legend
of Nightfall, The Unknown Soldier, and several books and trilogies about the Renshai. Her short fiction has
appeared in numerous anthologies, including Battle Magic, Zodiac Fantastic, and Wizard Fantastic. Her
claims to fame: she has performed brain surgery, and her parents really are rocket scientists.
Dust motes swirled through the sunbeam glaring into the barn. By its light, Santar trapped the
upturned right front hoof of the salt merchant's gelding between his muscular calves. "Hand me the pick."
Blindly, he held out his right hand.
Santar's younger brother, Hosfin, slapped the tool into the proffered palm. "Do you see
something?" He crowded in for a closer look, his tunic tickling Santar's bare arm, his shadow falling over
the hoof.
"Think so," Santar grunted. "Got to get past all the crap first." Flipping the pick in a well-practiced
motion, he gingerly hooked out chunks of road grime and straw. The sharp odor of manure rose
momentarily over the sweet musk of horse. "Here." He touched the pick to a gray cobble shard lodged in
the groove between forehoof and frog. He dug under the hard, sharp stone. The horse jerked its foot
from his grasp, just as the pick lodged into position, and the movement sent the fragment flying. It struck
the wooden wall with a ping, then tumbled to join the rest of the debris on the stable's earthen floor. Still
clutching the pick, Santar scooped the hoof back upward to examine the damage. He discovered a light
bruise but nothing that suggested serious swelling or infection. He stroked the injury with a gentle finger,
and the horse calmed.
Hosfin's head obscured the hoof. "No wonder he was hopping and snorting."
"Yeah." Santar released the hoof and patted the horse's sticky flank. "Could have been a lot worse.
Lucky beast."
"Lucky man," Hosfin corrected. He stepped back, skinny arms smeared with grime, sandy hair
swept back and tied with a scrap of leather. "Don't think he could afford another horse by the look of
him. Needs to learn to take better care of his valuables."
Santar's brown hair hung in shaggy disarray, in need of a cut. Horse work had honed his muscles:
lugging grain bags and hay bales, exercising his charges, cleaning and grooming. He also had an almost
inexplicable way with afflicted creatures that made his father's stables an exceptionally logical place for
any traveler to board. They might find stables nearer their lodgings or destination, ones larger or with
more modern construction, ones with fancier names or decor. But Santar's father prided himself on
service, mostly provided by his seven sons and one daughter. Travelers who cared as much for their
animals' comfort as their own tended to seek them out, including the occasional Herald from Valdemar.
Santar especially loved their huge white mounts with their impeccable coats and strange, soft blue eyes.
They seemed so docile and intelligent, their conformations so perfect, their intensity of attachment to their
riders so mythically intense. The Heralds tended them so vigilantly, Santar rarely had the opportunity to
do anything for them but stare.
A sharp whinny from the yard sent Santar's head jerking up so suddenly he nearly brained his
brother. "Who's that?"
Hosfin's thin shoulders lifted, and he slouched from the stall. As Santar watched him move, he
marveled at how his brother had grown just in the last few months, gaining the gawky, spindly
proportions of an adolescent. Santar wondered if their eldest brother had looked at him the same way
when he had turned fourteen three years ago.
Santar caught up to his brother at the door of the stable. The younger man stood as if frozen, the
door wedged against him. Alarmed, Santar pushed past Hosfin. "What is it?"
A handsome white stallion stood in the yard, coat shimmering silver in the late afternoon sunlight.
Against his fine, pink hooves, the grass looked like crystalline emerald; and blue sky reflected from eyes
full of wisdom. Santar shook his head to clear it, shocked to find the creature of his reverie come so
abruptly to life. "It's...it's a Companion."