“Sit.” Deifir motioned her wine at the chair beside her. “And try never to think of what may have been. Not yet at least. I am the Treorai and I sent you away.” She swirled the wine around, watching it. “I sent you away because I believed I would have more time.”
“More time? Before the horsefolk attacked?” Socair took the seat she had been offered.
“You met with both Briste and Rianaire, did you?” Deifir ignored the question. Socair could see now that she was flushed red and drunk. “How did you find them? Were they all you’d imagined?”
“They were…” Socair paused. Was it a diplomatic response Deifir was after? “Briste was… strange. And—”
“Oh, come now Socair. Be honest with me.”
“Briste may be insane. She is dangerous to her people and to anyone who comes near enough to catch her notice. And Rianaire… I respect her.”
“Oh?” There was surprise in Deifir’s voice.
“She is flippant and misled me intentionally, smiling in my face all the while. But I believe I understood her beneath it all.”
Deifir stood and went to a small bar near them where an open wine bottle sat. “Did you win their support?”
Socair looked at the floor. “I did not. I failed you. There is no other way of saying it.”
The Treorai tapped a full wine glass against Socair’s hand. She grabbed it and Deifir returned to her seat, her own glass refilled. “No. If you had come here with a pledge from either of those women, I’d have named you a miracle worker or a witch.”
“Then why was I sent?”
Deifir took a deep drink of the wine. “I told you. I thought there would be more time. Drink.”
Socair drank from the glass. The wine was dry but sweet. Not what she’d have wished for after her long ride, but it would do. She finished half the glass without noticing. “What is there not enough time for, Deifir? Will we not make a stand at Innecarnán?”
“We will.” Deifir tilted the glass back and finished its contents. She looked at it a moment and all at once gritted her teeth and flung it against the wall. The glass shattered and shards flew off across the floor in several directions. Deifir stood, breathing heavy. “Do you know? We are connected to them, in a way. To the hippocamps. Or so the stories say. Old stories, from before the Sisters. Long, long ago, we were only horses. All of us.” Deifir paced around, running her hands along the back of Socair’s seat. “We roamed free and cared only for the wind and the water and the grassy plains. A creature, an old god, long forgotten, fell in love with the beauty of the horses but they were frightened when he came near. They ran. But still he loved them, he yearned to be among them.” Deifir walked to her bottle of wine and lifted it, inspecting the label as she talked. “He tainted the lake where the fairest of the horses drank with his essence and when they came to drink from it, the horses began to change. Their beautiful coats shed and their ears became rigid and their manes grew long. They came to look the way the creature did. The other horses were frightened and drove them north, across the land bridge. In time, they too would drink from the lake, only there was little left of the essence the god had left. They became corrupted creatures, each of them less like the god than the ones who drank before.” Deifir upturned the bottle and drank. When she finally pulled the wine away, she drew a long breath. “They no longer tell those stories among our people. Now we speak only of the Sisters. Had you heard that story before?”
Socair shook her head and finished her glass of wine.
“I am unsurprised. We share so much with the hippocamps if the story is true. So many of us would find it disgusting to consider. And no doubt the horsefolk feel the same. And so they kill us. They make gods of their most vicious and live for death.” Deifir sighed heavy. “It is too much for me to bear sometimes. If you were to live in my place, what would you do? How would you see us through this?”
Socair looked at the window and tried to see the stars beyond it. She thought quietly for longer than she should have. “Whether my trip was a farce or not, I believe you had the right of it then. We must unify. We must come together and drive the horsefolk back to their place. And we must keep them there.”
“Do you think it possible?”
Socair huffed, resigned. “It must be.”
Deifir stood, smiling, and grabbed Socair’s hand. “Undress for me.”
Socair was pulled to the edge of the bed. It was not until she moved that she realized her mind was spinning. Perhaps she had been more dehydrated than she thought from the ride. Deifir kissed at her neck and stepped back.
“Come now. If you act so shy, I will be embarrassed.”
She could not help but smile at Deifir’s words. It was not often that they made love and Socair was never quite comfortable with it, but this night she felt a strange calm. She undid her brigandine and tossed it aside. Her shirt was unbuttoned and left hanging open. The air in the room was colder than she had realized but it felt good as it moved over her breasts. Socair had barely undone the button to her trousers when Deifir came to her and kissed her deeply. A hand, cold and nimble, slid down behind her small clothes. She was near taken by surprise to find she was wet already and her mind was so eager. Deifir’s finger pushed its way inside her and the world became a hazy blur. Her mind, some deep part of it, told her this was strange. She wanted to protest, but could
