The Webbing Blade

THE OUTPOST

LOU GOT another shock soon after.

Not only were they headed out onto the plains, out into the darkness, but they were going to take horses with them.

Lou felt a mixture of feelings about that. He was happy to have something beneath him that could do the running if he needed it, but, at the same time, he was anxious that he might just as easily slip off its back and break his neck. And what if some of those cursed wolves Sully had been talking about decided to rip the horse’s throat out?

Although Rut’s calming words had gone some way to reassuring him, to stopping him taking everything Sully said at face value, he admitted to himself that he was still reasonably wary about the whole thing.

He’d spent his whole life being scared of the dark, of venturing out onto the plains at night, and he still hadn’t seen anything close up likely to change that opinion in a hurry.

Sully brought them to the stables beneath the fort that Lou had never known existed. There were five horses all there, swaying on their feet as they slept. They were all black as the night and he caught whiff of that horsey smell of theirs, that scent so strong that it make the back of his throat tang.

Sully approached the first horse, removed his glove, then reached out and gently stroked its mane. It snorted and shook its big head, sending its mane dancing about, shimmering in the light from the torches. Sally stroked its nose, soothing it from its sleep, then he glanced back over his shoulder at Lou, then smiled slightly. “Come on. They don’t bite.”

Lou wasn’t so sure. He remembered being a kid, when he’d been playing out in the square one day. A cart had come rolling into town, its cartwheels bucking against the cobblestones, and before he’d known it, those clopping hooves had drowned out all sound, and he had found himself beneath a pair of huge carthorses.

The driver had pulled them up, stopped them right there. But Lou had tumbled to the ground out of shock, and he still remembered that numbing feeling that’d crawled up from the base of his spine as he’d landed on his bottom on the hard cobblestones.

That night his ma had found out from one of the neighbours and sent him to his room for putting himself in such danger. He wondered how she might feel now, knowing that he was out here, playing at being a skuller.

All the same, Lou got another reassuring glance off Sully and approached the second horse along. Just like the first horse, it was sleeping. And so Lou copied exactly what he’d seen Sully do.

He reached up and stroked its mane, feeling the rugged hair against his fingertips, and he felt its nerves contract as it came around. He took a step back and he felt the horse jab its head in his direction.

He took another step back, feeling that familiar childhood fear coming back to him now, biting him hot and hard. He bumped up against the rickety wooden fence behind him, making it creak and groan, and he clung onto it as if he was on a ship caught in a storm, and he was steadying himself.

The horse shook its head a couple of times, snorted, then clopped its hooves. Next it turned away from him and apparently went back off to sleep.

Sully rounded his own horse and said, “You’ve gotta be gentle and firm with them, otherwise they won’t respect you. They know what kinda danger we’re going out there to face, so they’ve gotta know their rider knows just what he’s doin’. Else they’re not gonna let you so much as feed them a carrot.”

Lou still felt his heart pounding against his ribcage, that fear stabbing him in the gut. He felt more scared now than he had out on the plains. The smells of the horses got stronger and sharper and he felt like he might be sick.