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Thadred woke up.
Gravel pressed against his cheek and most of his side. He was wet. Soaked to the skin. And cold. Very cold.
Immediately after realizing he was cold, he realized he was in pain. Excruciating pain.
Everything was sore and everything hurt. Groaning, he rolled onto his back. The gravel pressed against his shoulders and spine and that hurt, too.
He looked up, blinking at the sky. Dark, sickly branches snaked overhead, the thorns of the Cursewood. But something was...different.
It took him a moment to realize that the sky was clear. There were no clouds concealing the stars or the moon. It was the first time he had seen the skies of the Cursewood as anything but overcast.
Water trickled somewhere nearby. He moved one leg—his good leg—and water sloshed.
Thadred pushed himself up onto his elbows, looking around.
He appeared to be along an inlet or tributary of the river. The water was still here, and the banks of the river lined by trees instead of rocky cliffs.
Something flicked at his side, and he jumped thinking it was a snake, but no. It was just the rope he’d taken off Sair. It had somehow wrapped around his wrist when he’d fallen into the river with the kelpie.
Remembering the waterhorse, Thadred sat up. The gravel around him was churned, but he could see no other signs of any other life along this riverbank. His heart beat a little faster as the cicadas and frogs chirruped and croaked around him.
He cocked his head to the side, surveying the world around him. It was glowing—but not.
There were warm sources of something around him, spotted through the grass and trees like pebbles. A hazy mist hung around him, not quite visible, but not quite a feeling either.
Was this...what this what he thought it was?
A flare of brightness caught his attention to the left. It was hazy, vague, and darker than the glow of the frogs and insects, but it was still coming.
It drifted up along the riverbank and Thadred’s heart thumped harder in his chest. He pulled himself upright, scrambling away from the water’s edge, but he was too late.
A black shape leapt up out of the water, wild white eyes almost glowing in the dark. Thadred rolled just as two black hooves stomped where he had been lying a moment ago.
The kelpie snapped and dove for Thadred again. Thadred smacked the rope in its face like a whip.
The kelpie jumped back, then charged again, ears pinned and white teeth flashing in the moonlight. Thadred kicked and caught its nose square on the end of his boot.
The kelpie’s nose cracked and the waterhorse stomped his frustration. He backed up a few strides and pawed at the ground.
Thadred dragged himself toward the trees. Maybe if he could climb one, he could get out of the kelpie’s reach.
But he hadn’t climbed a tree since before his accident and even stairs and ladders gave him trouble these days. Especially with his injured side aching and the hip joint throbbing—
The kelpie lunged and this time it leapt past Thadred’s defenses to clamp its jaws around Thadred’s arm. It jerked Thadred off the ground and straight up into the air. Its front hooves kicked at Thadred and it was only because he was so close that his guts weren’t pulverized on impact.
Thadred punched at it with his free arm, but the kelpie shook its head, teeth crushing his forearm and tearing his sleeve. He was sure he was bleeding. Something ripped and he wasn’t sure if it was the linen or his own flesh.
He punched the kelpie again, this time in the eye. The waterhorse loosened his grip just enough that Thadred was able to wrench his arm free.
The thing came at him again and all he could think to do was what he had done at the riverbank.
He grabbed it around the neck, hugging it against his chest as tight as he could. Despite being smaller than a destrier, the kelpie was still as high as his shoulder. The thing shoved back, slamming him into the base of a tree. Thadred grunted with the impact, but the contorted angle kept the kelpie from pulverizing him. The kelpie kept him pinned against the tree and he kept his arms wrapped tight around it for dear life.
The kelpie lashed out with its forehooves and missed, striking the tree at Thadred’s back. Bits of obsidian blackbriar flew in all directions like shattered glass and Thadred was grateful it hadn’t been his kneecap.
“Come on!” Thadred yelled, adding worse words.
The kelpie whickered and then slammed Thadred back again. It twisted around, teeth flashing.
The kelpie’s head came up and one large, luminous eye rolled toward Thadred. The kelpie’s eye caught the light of the moon and shone just as pale, flicking over Thadred hungrily.
Thadred stared at that eye—thin black iris surrounded by milky white, reflecting like an abalone shell. Thadred’s head spun, and he was plummeting through sensations and smells and sights faster than he could think.
He felt the soft mud squish under his hooves, the marsh grass whipping across his legs and tickling his belly.
He was a wandering loner, hunting and guarding his territory. Seeking out companionship, but the other horses that came here weren’t like him. They had no meat teeth and their hooves rotted after too long in the mud.
He ate them sometimes, other times he drove them away. He wandered and waited. He’d been alone for a long time. A very long time.
He was a yearling, forced out of his herd by an older, bigger stallion. He’d been hurt in the fight and the bites on his neck had ached for months. He hadn’t seen his herd since.
He was a colt, catching frogs with his milk teeth while the rest of the herd watched over him.
He was a newborn foal, born in the river and straight into the cold of the current. His mother and the other mares guided him to the surface for his first breath, their warm scent the first thing he breathed in.
Above, a full moon looked down on him, as caring as the nuzzling of the mares.
Lleuad.
Thadred stumbled back, gasping. He fell and landed hard on the gravel. He looked down at his body, half expecting to see hooves and a tail. But no—he was still human.
He shook his head and blinked to clear the images from his mind. What had happened?
The kelpie was standing over him. The kelpie’s ears twitched as he studied Thadred.
Breathing heavily, the knight pushed himself up on his elbows. He was prone on the ground. The kelpie could easily stomp him to death. Heart racing, he kept still.
The kelpie swished his tail. He lowered his head and raised it again.
The stallion took a step closer. He didn’t charge this time, studying Thadred the way a normal horse might study a strange fence post or a new saddle.
Thadred dared to sit up.
The stallion took another step and then another. He sniffed at Thadred’s boot, ears twitching.
His head came up and he stomped. He studied the knight curiously.
It occurred to Thadred that perhaps the kelpie had seen into him the same way that he had seen into it. What would that have meant? How would an animal brain even begin to understand the complexities of a human life?
The kelpie nosed at his boot, but didn’t make to bite him again.
“Lay-odd.” Thadred carefully sounded out the word he had heard in his head, the only word he’d been able to properly describe.
The stallion’s ears twitched at that.
“Is that your name?” he asked. A minute ago, he would have thought it stupid to speak to a horse, but it made sense now. “Lleuad.”
The kelpie chuffed.
Thadred swallowed. This animal could kill him. Had tried to kill him. He should be more careful, but...
He reached up with his left hand—the one he could most easily live without if it was bitten off. Carefully, he extended his knuckles toward the kelpie as one would a strange dog. The knuckles on both his hands were bloody, the reward of punching a horse.
The kelpie sniffed his hand and dragged a rough tongue over the scabs, making Thadred wince. Then he dropped his head to sniff Thadred’s neck.
Thadred went stiff, acutely aware of those sharp teeth dangerously close to his throat.
The kelpie nosed at his neck and sniffed his hair. The stallion himself smelled like salt and forest. There was a faint smell of leafy decay, but also a wildness that reminded Thadred of mountains.
The kelpie extended his neck so that he tucked Thadred’s shoulder under his throat. He shook his mane, sending strands of black hair into Thadred’s face.
Thadred patted the kelpie’s neck because that seemed the thing to do. He scratched the crest along the mane, feeling the sleek silkiness that reminded him of a muskrat.
The kelpie pulled up and Thadred let go. The kelpie dropped his head again and stomped but kept his neck within reach.
Thadred frowned and put his arm around the kelpie’s neck again. The kelpie raised his head, but this time, Thadred held on and let the animal pull him to his feet.
Thadred swayed, leaning on the horse for balance.
The kelpie whickered and swished his tail. He mouthed at Thadred’s arm, where blood was seeping through the tears in Thadred’s sleeve. Still, the animal didn’t bite again.
Thadred patted the kelpie’s withers, not really sure what he had done, but...well. The thing wasn’t trying to kill him anymore. He might have thought it was some sort of trick if not for the visions he’d seen. He’d seen the kelpie’s life—his whole life. It was strange, alien, and made no sense, but it was just as sensible as anything else that had happened since entering this waking nightmare that was the Cursewood.
“Lleuad,” he said again, getting used to the name.
The kelpie rolled a large eye in his direction. At first, Thadred thought that the creature was annoyed, but he just flicked his tail and let Thadred pet him, acting for all the world like any other stable horse.
Thadred laughed, throwing back his head.
He was lost in a cursed forest, alone with a man-eating horse, possibly being hunted by Kadra’han, and he had no idea where Amira and Daindreth were. Despite that, it seemed to him for all the world as if he had just tamed a kelpie.
Thadred looked up to the moon. Something was still different about it in this place. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but at the moment it was the least strange thing happening in his life.
Thadred stroked Lleuad’s neck and the stallion just stood there, allowing the contact as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Thadred had never used sorcery before today. He’d never shown any ability before.
But perhaps Sair had been right. Maybe he did have a bit of magic after all.
