"Mama, Auntie Ari did it again."
"Hush, Robin. Leave her alone."
That's right, leave me alone. She spat once more, just because she knew the child would still be watching, then lifted herself on her palms and hand-walked toward her bench in the corner.
"Ari, can I get you something?"
Sometimes she thought they'd never learn. Grunting a negative, because ignoring them only brought renewed and more irritating offers, she swung herself easily up onto the low bench just as the pounding began. Sounds like they didn't even dismount. I can't wait.
"Who can it be at this hour?"
Her cousin, Dyril. Answer it and find out, idiot.
"Stone me, it's a horse!"
The sound of hooves against the threshold was unmistakable. She could hear the creak of leather harness, the snorting and blowing of an animal ridden hard, could even smell the hot scent of it from all the way across the room — but somehow it didn't add up to horse.
And while the noises it was making were certainly horselike ...
From the excited babble at the door, Ari managed to separate two bits of relevant information; the horse was riderless and it was nearly frantic about something.
"What color is it?"
It took a moment for Ari to recognize the rough and unfamiliar voice as her own. A stunned silence fell, and she felt the eyes of her extended family turned on her. Her chin rose and her lips thinned. "Well?" she demanded, refusing to let them see she was as startled as they were. "What color is it?"
"He's not an it, Auntie Ari, he's a he. And he's white. And his eyes are blue. And horses don't got blue eyes." Young Robin was obviously smarter than she'd suspected. "Of course they don't. It's not a horse, you rock-headed morons. Can't you recognize a Companion when you see one?"
The Companion made a sound that could only be agreement. As the babble of voices broke out again, Ari snorted and shook her head in disbelief.
"A Companion without a Herald?"
"Is it searching?"
"What happened to the Herald?"
Ari heard the Companion spin and gallop away, return and gallop away again.
"I think it wants us to follow it."
"Maybe its Herald is hurt, and it's come here for help."
And did you figure that out all on your own? Ari rubbed at her stumps as various members of the family scrambled for jackets and boots and some of the children were sent to rouse the rest of the settlement.
When with a great thunder of hooves, the rescue party galloped off, she beat her head lightly against the wall, trying not to remember.
"Auntie Ari?"