Almost as soon as he’d done it, Thoth regretted ‘inviting’ the girl along. Why had he done that? He should’ve just ignored her. She walked along in wide-eyed silence for a moment, stealing odd glances at Morveren. The little water-fox trotted happily along at her side, bouncing up on her front legs now and then to press her wet nose against the girl’s hand. She looked about Thoth’s age, although she was taller than him (who wasn’t?) and her hair was darker. Her skin was a similar shade to his, but there the similarities ended. Her green, gold-flecked eyes were a startling contrast to his dark brown, and she had a long, monkey-like tail which was split about half way down. Glancing at it, Thoth couldn’t work out if it was meant to be one tail with two ends or two tails with one base.

“A thoroughbred horse,” he grunted, not bothering to elaborate beyond that. There was a time when he would have reeled off an encyclopaedic definition and then proceeded to give her a run-down of the approximate prices of various different breeds, but these days his verbose tendencies were limited to moments of anxiety. He didn’t bite when she mentioned aja, just assumed he’d misheard or, if he hadn’t, that she wouldn’t start going on about whatever that was. He would have ignored her completely and marched on at a slightly quicker pace, but her question about Morveren touched a nerve. “That is my familiar,” he answered shortly. “And her name is Morveren.”

Her own name was one of the few words that Morv recognised. She wiggled her bum at the sound of it, causing a gleeful ripple down her long, slender tail.

Thoth paused at the girl’s last suggestion, glancing back at the mare over his shoulder. Blisters had formed along her skin where the unclean leathers had rubbed. Probably they hadn’t been removed for weeks, or even months.

“Yeah, okay.” He dropped the reins and reached out for the mare’s bridle, reassuring her gently in her native language. She watched nervously but didn’t move while his fingers worked the leather, tugging and unclipping until it all came away in his hands. The mare shook her neck and snorted; the first sign of life she’d shown all day. “We’re going back to the castle,” Thoth told her, still in her own language. “I can get you cleaned up, we can put something on those cuts and I can get you something to eat, if you want to come.”

She didn’t answer, standing shyly silent with her head bowed, but she did follow him loyally when he turned and carried on walking. Thoth thrust the bridle vehemently into the nearest bin and slipped his hands into his pockets. When the girl kept following him, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

“So, who are you anyway?” He glanced back at her tail, a spark of recognition in his coffee-brown eyes. “You’re not related to one of the castle guards, are you?”


MASTER OF THE ORBIS . MASTER OF THE WATER ELEMENT . SON OF AURA