(no subject)

[peerless_thayet]

Three days out of Corus, the breeze picked up and carried with it the scent of the sea. Turning her face west, Thayet took a deep breath and smiled. Already she could imagine salt-stiff hair and skin, and the way the cool water would feel on sore feet too long cramped in boots and pressed hard into stirrups.

She shook her head at her own fancy and ran a soothing hand along her mount's withers. Truly the mare had the right to complain of sore feet and legs, whereas she herself had not carried a woman's weight on her back all the way from the palace. It was an important lesson she tried to impart to the trainees: take care of your ponies and they will take care of you. Dipping her toes in the sea would have to wait until she'd made her mare comfortable. That was as it should be.

A glance back showed her two columns of trainees leading their spares and flanked by Buri, Alanna, Sarge and Onua. At the rear Numair rode tall, if not well, beside the cart driven by his young charge, Daine. Several of the trainees were coming out of the lull brought on by hours in the saddle, the glazed look in their eyes slowly fading. Later she would remind them their lives would one day depend on alertness, but for the moment she enjoyed watching them get their first whiff of salt air. Many of them had never seen the ocean.

Thayet knew well what it was like to have her horizons shift and expand.

Cresting a hill, they looked down on the coast road, rocky cliffs and white-capped waves. Water, a deeper blue than the sky, filled in the rest of their view; it covered everything, impossibly far, like a child had ignored carefully sketched lines and swiped a full brush of paint across a canvas. Again Thayet looked back, and again she smiled.

There it was.

That was the look of awe she'd felt on her face the first time she'd seen Corus.

~ ~ ~

They made camp in a sandy cove, near enough to the sea to hear the waves pummeling the shore and feel the wind race east. The trainees took their cue from Daine and Onua and dutifully tended to their ponies, while Thayet, Buri and Alanna took their mounts aside to do the same, using the time to discuss plans for the evening and what to hunt for their meal. It was decided that first there would be an archery lesson, then Alanna would teach the trainees to find fish in and near the rock pools. The Lioness grumbled something about ruining their dinner by being sick all over it, but they each knew she'd end up tossed in the water if she didn't go, and far more angry with that result. Thayet laughed at her expression and picked up her crossbow.

After the archery lesson, the queen watched the trainees trailing the champion like obedient ducklings and bent to remove her boots and stockings. They were carefully placed on a rock, the legs of her breeches carefully rolled up to her knees.

Daine was standing nearby, staring at the rollicking waves with an expression of pure wonder. Feeling a kinship with her, Thayet moved past and said, "Come on. We'll go for a walk."

The girl hurried to keep up with Thayet's longer stride. When she had some trouble simultaneously pulling off her boots, Thayet rested a hand on her shoulder and chuckled. "It won't go away. Slow down. Onua says you never saw it before?"

"No, mum."

With a nod, Thayet pointed out the steep beach and explained about undertows, making a mental note to similarly instruct the others. "Never forget it's there, Daine. Plenty of good swimmers drown because they can't fight that drag."

Answering with a nod, Daine's eyes filled with understanding. She's a good listener, Thayet thought.

"Then, let's go," she said to Daine, taking those last few steps from damp sand to surf. Cold, wet and heavenly fingers wrapped around her ankles and calves, draining the heat of the day's ride out the soles of her feet. Horse Lords, it felt good.

Daine, however, gasped and darted out of the water. Her reaction took a moment to penetrate the cloud of contentment Thayet was lost in, but when it did, the queen angled her head back and grinned. "Too cold?" When she didn't get a reaction, she pressed on, insistent, "Come on. You'll be numb before long."

Demonstrating, she waded in until the water swirled around her knees. This is mine. This camp, these people. This purpose. The thought had been with her since she'd raised her short, curved sword and given the order to ride out. From experience she knew it would stay with her throughout the summer. Thayet was proud to be queen. She was a good queen. But this was hers.

Pride and exhilaration washed over her, and, turning her face into the wind, she let loose a K'miri war cry.

On the beach, Buri rolled to her feet and pierced her back with a stare. Thayet didn't have to see her to sense it.

"Thayet, stop that," Numair called from the northern end of the beach. "Come look at this."

A smile for Buri, and Thayet pulled her feet from where they had been sucked into the sand, then walked up on shore. The mage had been investigating a strange block and was holding something too small for her to see in his hand. She took her time reaching him, letting her gaze wander out to sea where she could just see a white sail rising and falling with the ocean swells. Eventually she could spot a crudely cut circular object between Numair's fingers, but she whirled around when his face went strangely dark.

Daine, eyes glazed like the trainees' had been earlier, was making her way into deeper waters, and a large, dark form had her in its sights. Thayet had barely called out a warning and started to run when it launched itself into the girl, knocking her into the sea. Again and again it went after Daine, keeping her down, while everyone on the beach swarmed toward them.

Suddenly an invisible force seized Daine around the ankles and hoisted her into the air, shaking her slightly as her lungs coughed up water and sucked in air. Thayet turned, relaxing: Numair. Furious, he brought a shrieking Daine up on the beach and lowered her into Onua's care. His Gift turned the air around his hands black and white with fire. Others grabbed their weapons, met him at the water line.

"No, don't!" cried Daine, unexpectedly, and jumped in Numair's path. "Don't!"

He was only just able to dispel the lightning he'd called forth to annihilate the huge creature. (Sea lion, Thayet noted silently.)

Small and looking a bit like a drowned puppy, Daine faced her attacker. What passed between them then was for no one else to know. "Why did you think I was another male?" Daine asked aloud at last.

Alanna came up beside Thayet as the girl tentatively scratched the sea lion's whiskers. "Do you know much about her skills?" the astonished queen asked her husband's champion.

"No," the Lioness answered, frowning. "Few of us know much about wild magic, other than it exists. We're learning. He knows more than all of us put together."

Thayet followed Alanna's eyes to Numair. "Good," she said thoughtfully. "Good."

[Scenes/some dialogue taken from Wild Magic, by Tamora Pierce.]