He found himself in a courtyard in front of a huge complex of stables, paddocks, and exercise yards. There were many, many horses walking in circles in those yards, tethered to a contraption like an umbrella without a cover, each spoke with a lead-rein attached to the horse’s halter. It was fascinating, but it revolted him. It seemed hideously boring for the poor horses.

But he supposed it was better than no exercise at all. At least the sun was shining, what sun made its way through the skeins of smoke scudding across the sky. And at least they were with other horses in small herds, of sorts.

But his heart ached for his poor horses, used to green meadows and free gallops.

A Doll approached him—of course, because Star had surely told the Dolls what he wanted. “Would my Lord wish to see the Golds or the Sweetfoot palfreys first?” the Doll asked. “The palfreys are on the carousels for exercise at the moment.”

He decided that he did not want to see his Sweetfoots. Not like this. “The Golds,” he said, and the Doll turned and led the way into one of the stable buildings.

Though his heart was misgiving him, it seemed that whoever had set up these stables had at least done so with the maximum good care for the horses in mind. Rather than straw—which probably would have been a great pain to deal with here in the middle of the Capital, what with being bulky and hard to transport from the country—the stalls were deep sawdust over sandy dirt—good for drainage and easy to clean and rake level. The pathways between the stalls were stone slabs. Most of the horses were in loose-boxes—and he could see his two false Golds from where he stood.

They had been given simply enormous stalls, four times the size of the rest of the loose-boxes, and their posture told him almost everything he needed to know. They weren’t stressed, they weren’t annoyed by their neighbors, and they approved of their surroundings.

He strode toward them eagerly, the Doll with him trotting to keep up.

The breeze was in his favor, and they scented him before they saw him. Both their heads came up, and they whickered a greeting, alerting all the rest of the horses in the building, who lifted their heads and turned in his direction to see what the newcomers were excited about.

“Hello, my lads!” he said as they made their ponderous way toward the sides of the stalls on the pathway. One of them whickered again and the other snorted as he came to the corner where the two stalls met, and they put their heads over the wall to have their noses rubbed.