The White Sheep's Disguise ✓

Chapter 18

The courtyard is empty of all training when I descend a set of stone steps and approach the sunlight. I squint into the rising heat of day and raise a hand to shield my eyes, glancing at the blue sky onward and past the stone walls encasing us from danger and civilization. The farther north I came, the hotter it became.

Gudgeon Docks remains in autumn's clutches and through the ocean waters, has taken on chilled winds that resemble the dead of winter. The capital is entirely different. Gambesons remain unnecessary, yet Gustus provided me with two, both made of finer fabric than anything I'll ever long for from a distance in Gudgeon Village.

Already, I feel the heat's bite as I stroll across the courtyard and head towards the legion of ten horses standing in a perfectly straight line. Only one man tends to them, a cervielk like Setsuko. His deer legs bend awkwardly at the knee, but his hooves are covered in leather boots styled to work for such a beast. Some cervielks are more adapted to their kind than others; Setsuko appears more human than beast.

This man, on the other hand, has larger ears and a hunch in his back that can't be replaced by practicing posture. He tightens the straps on the saddle in the same way I tug at the collar of my fitting jerkin. Advice from Keaya, given when she appeared at my door late last night and ordered me to wear something other than a simple tunic. Riding with the Panjandrum Corps is risky business, and arrows break through shirts easily.

The high collar reaches my neck and leaves no room for the sun to glance against my shoulders or arms. White sleeves billow from underneath the confinement, swooping to my wrists in wide cusps. I feel like a fool in these clothes. Gustus provided me with too much, and too different a style than what I'm used to. The handwoven dresses and tattered trousers picked up at a market from someone in desperation to make quick coin are what I search for, not trousers that conform to my shape and hug so tight I can feel the fabric riding up my thighs.

When the man turns, I realize he is more beast than man. Unlike Setsuko, auburn fur dots his nose in a thin layer, shielding white spots from the sun's beam. His perfectly combed hair is the same shade and pushed to the side off his forehead where two antlers, short and fuzzed, jut out at wide angles.

He lifts a hand in acknowledgment, a wide smile stretching the sides of his face through lines and white teeth. A much warmer welcome compared to the thorough look over I received from Keaya the night before.

"You must be Marie," he introduces. Placing a hand against his chest, he bows slightly at the waist. Not to acknowledge a royal, but to introduce himself as a gentleman. Still, I can't shake the unsettling feeling that he sees me as someone of higher standard than himself. I grind my teeth, trying to bury my growing annoyance with royal customs. "I am Gav, third in command of the Panjandrum Corps."

He stands at the rump of a black stallion. As he leans his weight on one hip, shifting to rest an elbow against the horse's fine coat, a tail whips around and smacks him against his flat nose. That smile wipes away and is replaced by an annoyed frown. I bite my lip to keep from laughing.

"And that is my horse, sadly enough." Gav jerks his thumb. "He's the snottiest of the group, as you can see. The others, well, they're not so terrible. Come, I'll introduce you."

I glance down at the chest plate of his steel armor. I know the Rivian emblem to be a dragon's gaping maw, but the Panjandrum Corps' is a different wonder. The golden dragon has no features, no flashing claws or threatening teeth. The spread wings resemble flight and the twisting tail curls into a tight spiral below the beast's body. As if seen from the air, the dragon soars across the circular seal, rounded and protected by a golden ring. Its head turns to the side, scouring for food along the mountainside and reveals two crooked horns.