Page 89 of The Twisted Throne

“Do you like to be kicked?” James asked.

“Of course not,” she retorted. “But that’s how I’ve seen most people make their horses go, so I thought that was how it was done.”

“Get kicked enough and you grow used to it,” James said icily.

They were talking about horses, yet the statement, and his tone, made her flinch. Ahnna covered her reaction by fussing with her stirrup, then said, “So what do I do?”

“Gentle squeeze, though in truth, you need barely think about him walking and he’ll go. This is a horse who loves to run.”

Sighing, Ahnna climbed on Dippy’s back, sitting stiffly in the saddle with the reins clutched in her hands. Sure enough, the faintest squeeze had the horse walking, and she followed James’s instructions to steer him around the yard.

Eager for more, she squeezed her legs again, and they broke into a trot. For the first circle around the yard, she bounced like a sack of potatoes, but then she found her rhythm, not unlike keeping her feet on a rocking ship.

Faster.

“Ease off,” James called. “That’s quite fast enough.”

She squeezed her legs, ignoring James’s admonition, but instead of a slight increase in speed, the horse flung himself into a gallop, careening around the yard. Terrified that he was going to crash, Ahnna heaved on the reins as hard as she could.

Only to find herself sitting in the dirt, her horse still circling wildly around the yard, reins flapping. As she watched in horror, one of them wrapped around his foreleg, and Dippy stumbled, nearly going down.

James caught hold of the other rein, then untangled him. But the damage was already done, her horse limping.

“How badly is he hurt?” she demanded, scrambling to her feet. “Will he be all right?”

James ignored her, feeling Dippy’s foreleg and then shaking his head. “Idiot.”

Ahnna flinched, certain that the word was intended for her.

James handed the reins off to a groom, then rounded on her. “I told you no faster!”

Which had been exactly why she’d ignored him. And now her horse was injured as a result. Tears stung her eyes as she watched Dippy limp back to the barn.

“Pulling like that made him feel trapped, which is intolerable for a horse like Dippy. You’re lucky he didn’t go over backward and land on you. Next time, circle him!”

“You could have told me that part,” she retorted, her anger rising. Most of which was for herself. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known.”

“The only way you seem to learn is the hard way, Ahnna. So what is the point of me wasting my breath.” James started toward the barn. “No riding until he recovers.”

—

Not long after Dippy wasinjured, it began to rain.

Not the torrential rain of Ithicana, but a strange wet mist that seemed to sit upon the land like a damp blanket, the view from her window in the Sky Palace nothing but gray clouds and fog. And with her horse recovering, Ahnna was left to pace the near-empty halls of the palace with little company beyond her own footsteps.

Virginia occasionally invited Ahnna to join her and her ladies, but the conversation was stilted, she and Lestara both sitting alone like islands while the others circled around. None of the ladies of the court showed any familiarity with the initials C.F., and Ahnna was reluctant to press lest she draw attention to her spying. Instead, she listened to their gossip, learning a thousand bits of knowledge, though none of it spoke of plans to change the natureof Harendell’s trade. None of it spoke of other markets. None of it spoke of growing Harendell’s fleet to bypass the bridge. Indeed, very little of it spoke of Ithicana at all.

It made Ahnna start to wonder if she was obsessing over a problem that didn’t exist. Whether James had been speaking speculatively when he’d mentioned it on the ship. Whether William had been so deep in his cups that his mention of Harendellleaning on other friendshad been nothing more than the wine talking. Whether the amounts Alexandra was funneling to C.F. were nothing illicit at all, merely some entertainment that she’d agreed to fund. But her instincts screamed otherwise. Screamed that the threat was real, no matter that no one seemed aware of it.

She was miserable and lonely, but with William gone all day with his friends and James not wanting anything to do with her, there was nothing to do but pace and pace. Like an animal caught in a cage.

Which was why when William suggested one night that they head out for a night in the city in the company of Virginia and Georgie, Ahnna didn’t hesitate to agree.

“Whoever built this tower really ought to have thought of a faster way down,” Virginia groaned, leaning against the side of the carriage as Buck and Brayer slowly descended from the Sky Palace. “It’s so tedious.”

“There is a faster way down,” William said with a grin. “But you only get to use it once.”

Virginia rolled her eyes, then stole the bottle from his hand, drinking straight from the neck. “I truly don’t understand why the kings of old decided to build a palace atop it.”

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