:In very deed, and reveling in it. First journey I've been able to enjoy in a while. But I would like to stop now :
'Then so would I.' He unwrapped his leg from the pommel and stretched it; she waited until his foot was back in the stirrup, then resumed her easy amble, not quite a walk, not quite a canter. 'Is this a temporary halt, or are we stopping for the night?''
:The night?: she asked, wistfully. There was a hint of something more there than she was sending.
'You're not telling me everything,' he accused. 'Why this inn?'
:Well-you won't be the only Herald there. Herald-Courier Sofya is there-:
'Chosen by?' He had a shrewd hunch where this was leading.
She curved her neck coquettishly, and looked up and sideways at him out of one huge blue eye. :Gavis :
He shook his head at her. 'Ah, yes-the one that has been setting all the courier-records lately. Why this penchant for over-muscled courier-types, all legs and no brains-'
:He is not over-muscled,: she replied indignantly, breaking into a teeth-rattling trot to punish him.
'But brainless?' he taunted, feeling unusually mischievous.
:He just doesn't speak up unless he has something to say. Unlike certain Herald-Mages I know.: She kicked once, jarring every vertebra in his spine, before settling, all four feet braced in the dust of the road, and plainly going nowhere.
He reached forward before she could stop him, and tweaked her ear. 'Well, since you want to arrange a little assignation, don't you think you'd better get the cooperation of your Chosen?'
:I can't imagine why,: she replied.
'We could move out of the center of the road, and I could groom you so that you looked your usual lovely self when we rode into that inn yard, instead of being all covered with road dust. I could even braid your tail up with some of the blue and silver cord that was with the barding. If I felt like it.'
:-Vanyel-I-: she floundered.
'And I do feel like it, you ridiculously vain creature,' he said, leaning down and putting both arms around her neck, resting his cheek on her crest. 'And to think that they call me a peacock! Has it been so long since I teased you that you've forgotten what it sounds like?'
:Oh, Vanyel - it has been a long time.:
'Then we'll have to remedy that.' He dismounted, still a bit stiff from his long doze, and opened the pack with the currycomb in it. Something else occurred to him as he wormed his hand down inside the pack. 'Just-do me a very big favor, sweetling-'
:Hmm?: She turned her head and blinked back at him.
He fished out the comb and the cords. 'Please, please remember to shield me out of your trysting, all right? You forgot to, the last time. Here, let's get out of the road.' He stifled a sigh, as they moved under the shade of tree beside the roadway. 'I don't grudge you any pleasure at all, but it's been a very long time since I did any number of things - and teasing you is only one of them.'
Yfandes twitched, the closest to blushing a Companion could come.
Vanyel allowed no hand to tend Yfandes but his own, no more than he would have permitted a stranger to see to the comfort of his sister, the cloistered priestess. 'Fandes frequently protested this wasn't necessary, but this afternoon she wasn't complaining. Especially not when young Gavis pranced up to the fence of the inn's open wagon - field with a proud curve to his neck and a certain light of anticipation in his eye. Vanyel kept his amused thoughts to himself as Yfandes flirted coyly with the handsome Companion, and wished her nothing more risque than a 'pleasant evening' when he opened the gate into the meadow for her.
She gave him a long look over her shoulder. . - Vanyel, you aren't made of stone. I wish you would find a - comrade. You would be much happier.:
He winced away from the idea. :I've been over this with Savil. And you. Until I can stop trying to replace 'Lendel, I'm not going to cheat myself and my would-be partner :
