Read Online The Horse Road by Troon Harrison - Free Book Online

wheels’ approach like tiny tongues of lightning. In the ears of my imagination, the wheels of the army were turning, turning, turning.
    Thud, thud, thud.
The hooves of our horses rose and fell in the dirt: first Grasshopper’s, then Rain’s, then Gryphon’s. Behind me came the horse pulling the wagon which was being driven by a manservant; Tulip was tied behind the wagon, and behind her rode my mother’s second servant, mounted on a horse the colour of winter grass.
    In the ears of my imagination, the thousand hoof beats of the army rose deafeningly. They blotted out the song of birds in the juniper trees, and the jingle of Gryphon’s curb chain as he tossed his head, biting at flies on his chest. I felt completely alone in this deafening silence, this roar inside my head. Cold sweat beaded my lip. I wanted to kick Gryphon into a gallop, to run and run until I found Swan and savedher, hiding her in the nomads’ high valley under Berta’s kind and watchful gaze. Until I found a place where Swan and I would both be free.
    Perhaps Batu sensed my fear again for he slowed Rain to a halt, waiting until I was alongside. Rain swung his white face and touched his muzzle to my thigh in greeting before falling into step beside Gryphon. My stallion’s golden ears with their black tips pinned back briefly, and he curled his lip at Rain, warning him not to come too close.
    â€˜Walk on,’ I said sternly with a tightening of my legs, and Gryphon’s ears relaxed, flickering forwards and sideways as he listened to the sounds around us, and tolerated the gelding walking at his side.
    â€˜Why do the men of the Middle Kingdom want your horses?’ Batu asked. ‘They already have horses of their own; we saw the cavalry yesterday.’
    â€˜In Ershi, people say that the emperor wants taller, faster and more powerful horses to improve his small cavalry mounts,’ I replied. ‘He is doing battle all the time with the tribes north of his Great Wall.’
    â€˜My people’s tribes,’ Batu interjected.
    â€˜The emperor’s spy has carried word to him of our Persian horses, that can run many
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without tiring, that can walk many hours without water. He has set his heart on acquiring them. And also, my father’s heard that the emperor has been searching for Heavenly Horses that bring wisdom and long life to their owners. Now he believes that our horsesare the Heavenly ones. He wishes to own them so that, upon his death, they will carry his soul to heaven, to the Jade Terrace. There, a goddess will hand him a golden peach, and when he bites into it, he will become immortal.’
    â€˜My people believe something like this too,’ Batu agreed. ‘Horses bring us into the world, and on a horse’s back we leave when it is our time to die.’
    I nodded. ‘In the mounds of my mother’s people, the warriors are buried with their legs bent, ready to ride with the spirits. Their horses lie beside them.’
    Ahead of me, my mother dropped her reins again. Her right hand reached for her dangling left arm and held it briefly; her fingers moved over her tunic sleeve the way they might feel a horse’s injured leg. I glimpsed her hand as it came away and saw that her fingertips were pink, as though she had been picking raspberries in the hills.
    â€˜We are moving too slowly!’ I said fiercely to Batu. ‘We need to be trotting!’
    â€˜Your mother is weak, and the wagon could not move fast over rough ground, and Gryphon’s wounds would break open.’
    â€˜I know all this – I’m not a child!’ I muttered, but then I nudged my knee against Batu’s so that he would know it was my fear speaking and not my true heart.
    Turning in my saddle, I scrutinised Gryphon’s flanks and quarters; his wounds were closing over withthin scabs, and only traces of fluid leaked from them. When I laid a palm flat against him, there was