As always the “spy-wheels” in Abi’s head began turning. She concluded that there were two possibilities here. Either Kat was as interested in Brice as Brice was in her, or she was not interested in Brice and was going to use Dylia as a distraction while she felt her way through a conversation intended to (somewhat) disenchant him. She was satisfied with either of those answers and busied herself with collecting the mane and tail hairs from the special combs and brushes used only for that purpose.

It was the habit of Heralds—and Trainees, for that matter—to braid little gifts for friends and loved ones out of the hair of their Companions’ manes and tails. One might think, given the huge numbers of Companions that had passed through the gates of the Palace, that the Kingdom would have been flooded by such trinkets by this time, but as with all things mortal, even Companion hair turned brittle and fell to dust after a time, and so the demand for them was still high. There were plenty of unscrupulous people who sold plain white horsehair braids as the genuine article, but one look at the real thing showed the counterfeits to be what they were. The hair from a Companion was faintly translucent, with a silvery sheen, and the same pure white as new snow. The hair from white (more properly, “gray”) horses—was not.

So Abi gathered up the hairs, made them into a tidy little skein, put a loose knot in the middle of the skein, and tucked the bunch into a little bag hanging from each stall meant for exactly that. It didn’t take long, but when she had finished, an unpartnered Companion wandered into the stable from Companion’s Field, walked over to her, and gave her a nudge with his nose.

Since this sort of thing had been happening to her since she was tall enough to come here on her own, she knew exactly what he wanted. She followed him into his own box-stall, took up the brush and comb there and went to work.

Even if he wasn’t her Companion, the job was a pleasant one. The stranger radiated pleasurable content even she could feel, thoroughly relaxing her. I should do this more often, she reflected. The Companion turned his head slightly and nodded at her.

“You know,” she said aloud, raising her voice so everyone could hear her. “You can come in here and groom unpartnered Companions any time you like.”

“We can?” gasped Brice.

Kat laughed aloud. “Of course you can. Anyone up here on the Hill can, if you have the time to spare.”

As if to underscore that, another unpartnered Companion appeared at the door to the Field and snorted happily when one of the King’s Squires came in through the door to the stable yard. “All right, keep your tail on,” the squire laughed. “Let me get your brushes.”