and I discovered that my castles stand
upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand
The bay stallion had long ago abandoned any linger amount of self-doubt, and has always felt himself better for it. He does what he can, when he can, when he feels so inclined – the rest of the world can do as it pleases.
The only response to his call is the lone hoot of an owl, and so he returns to his grazing. He kicks away the last vestiges of snow in search for green grass, but the ice and mud are thick and he is soon exasperated. He glances up, expecting to see only the empty field around him, but it seems that the whistling wind had muffled the sound of Shatter Me’s footsteps. He doesn’t smile, though there is a brief wrinkling of the skin around is eyes that suggests that he might have started to do so. The silver queen is battered and thin, but she is free of visible injuries. The winter has been unkind to her, he thinks, or perhaps the loss of her king.
“Better than you, I think.” He replies in his low drawl, and his words are not as cutting as they might have been. He has always liked the silver mare; she is a mare but not entirely useless, and he has had more overbearing monarchs before. He notices that she is not pregnant this spring, and wonders if perhaps that had been a choice she and Tiberios had made, or if perhaps she had lost a child. Teas has always been prone to ensuring that his paramours are at some stage of mothering (be it heavy with foal or with a child at their side) – it is better insurance that they will not have a plethora of free time to use bothering him.
Texas wonders then, briefly, if Hoku has had her foal. Eld has been long gone, and has taken their son with her. His penchant for wooing the mares of the Waterfall has never extended to Shatter Me, though it is not because he finds her displeasing. She is simply too silver, with eyes that are brown and gentle and remind him of things that he would rather forget. Best to find satisfaction outside the Falls and avoid entrapment, he has always thought.
“What are your plans?” Texas asks, and he might mean for the day, or perhaps for the kingdom in general. He doesn’t clarify – though he means the latter, and it doesn’t occur to him that perhaps it is too soon to ask her such things. He only knows that their already weak kingdom is now without a king, and there are plenty of vultures that are likely to come circling soon.
texas
