I sat the horse uncomfortably, not because I hurt, but because I feared, and he felt it, moving in shuffling little strides, his ears in a constant waver. He chewed nervously on his bit, even though I let him have his head. I had come early to the field, well before Uther normally came to drill, but I was not surprised to see him appear. A little surprising was that he led an ordinary horse fully tacked behind him, and not his bound charger. He mounted it, and rode to intercept me, falling in step beside me. "Fine day for a ride." He noted, and I managed a weak smile.
"You're out early." I said when he did not carry on the conversation without me.
"Heard you were out here." He answered, unsubtle as always. "Clair. Let's just ride… out on the road to Hearthglen, not on the list field."
"That would be good." I agreed, heading out with him. I didn't truly pay that much attention to us, didn't quite realize that neither one of us was mounted on a war steed. I was unarmed and unarmored, intending on only riding monotonous circles around the list field. Uther had eschewed his charger, and the heavy majority of his armor. After all, this was Stratholme, jewel of northern Lordaeron, home of the great Order of the Silver Hand…
We had ridden for quite a way, far enough for me to relax and sway with my mount like a real rider again, confident enough to take a hand from his reins to wave with a point. Uther's face had been watchful early, but he'd relaxed as well, nodding along with my words, when it went back to watchful instantly. Then I heard cries, barely audible under the birds and whispering of the trees, that of a small child… Uther galvanized into motion, stepping his horse into a canter straight from the walk. I almost yelled his name, but that voice that kept me safe when nothing else did silenced me. No. I would not give him away, neither his presence, nor his identity.
My horse danced beneath me, the sudden speed of its companion an invitation to run as well, and I clenched my hands on its reins. Uther had ridden straight down the road, but there was a deer path visible through the thick trees just budding with spring leaves… close to parallel to the road. I softened my hands on the reins, sitting deeper in the saddle, and my horse hopped into a short strided canter. Last season's fallen leaves mulching the way muffled his passage, and I arrived on Uther's flank with much less noise than he passed with.
"Put the boy down." He growled, still an impressive noise without the finery of a paladin's armor and mount, while I surveyed the situation from the higher ground I occupied. Bandits…here? Surely not. But that was a cart, overturned, at least one body… Five men… armed, one holding a small child suspended by its forearm from the side of his dark bay horse. That was like flapping a bright banner before a bull, and Uther's set expression proved that he was indeed that bull.
I frowned, we were less than eight miles from Stratholme… this was too… wrong. Three of the men carried chains, not precisely a weapon of choice against raiding targets…. Chains were good against swords, such as the one hanging at Uther's side, a weapon of little honor but great expediency.
"What have we here?" The man on the bay asked, but he declined to drop the child, instead bringing it closer to the horse, and I saw Uther through his eyes. Without his marks of station, Uther was a large man, plainly dressed, on a serviceable horse. He lacked the precise words of a man raised to nobility, while he did not use a commoner's dialect, his words did not bring to mind a gracious upbringing.
"I said…put the boy down…gently." Uther stated again, and I cast around for a weapon… any weapon. Unfortunately, when I apparently needed it the most, mine was resting in its stand on my chest. I slithered from my saddle, dropping my reins to the ground, and prayed. All of the Order's war mounts were trained to ground tie, but this was just a riding animal pulled at random from the stables. He had trustworthy eyes, and that had been enough this morning… I should have taken Arthas's big gray instead.
