She nodded. “Several.”
“Are they all dangerous?”
She shook her head. “But at least one of them is: the kelpie. It is quite dangerous, in fact.”
They approached the horse with caution. There must have been a body of water nearby; water dripped from its mane. Perhaps the animal was docile because it was tired. Perhaps it had been trapped for a time in a downpour. Except, it hadn’t rained that day.
“What do you suppose we ought to do?” Sorcha eyed the horse with misgiving.
“Granny would not have given us the spurs if she didn’t mean for us to use them.”
Sorcha shook her head. “It’s possible she included them on the chance that we did decide to ride the horse, even though doing so would be a mistake.”
It might very well prove to be one. But could they truly risk returning too late to save Donella? Their time was running worryingly short.
“I think we should ride it in the direction that we need to go,” he said. “It will speed our journey and increase the chances we can return home byBealltainn.”
Sorcha agreed, though she seemed reluctant.
He climbed onto the horse’s back, and Sorcha, using a fallen tree as a step, sat behind him, the rough fabric of her dress bunched up around her. Riding a horse very nearly atop its hind legs would not be terribly comfortable for her. He hoped, for her sake, this proved a gentle ride. She wrapped her arms around his middle. He took hold of the damp hair of the horse’s mane, the only thingavailable to him. Not merely wet, the mane contained bits of seaweed.
Duncan pulled out a piece and, keeping hold of the mane with his other hand, held the seaweed up for Sorcha to see. “I’ve never known a horse to collect this in its mane.”
“Seaweed!” she gasped. “It’s the kelpie.”
The kelpie.She’d said that was the most dangerous of the monsters appearing in the form of a horse.
Something about the feel of the creature beneath him began to change. It softened and grew more enveloping, almost as if he were sinking into it.
“Tell me what to do,” he said.
“It will become sticky, making escape impossible. It will ride with us directly back to whatever loch it lives in and drown us in the depths.”
The kelpie bolted.
Duncan needn’t have held on to the mane; the kelpie had become so adhesive he couldn’t have come loose if he’d tried. “What of the spurs? Why would Granny give us spurs?”
“The spurs are made of iron; they must be. Iron alone can control it.”
Her grip on him tightened. She was holding so fast he could hardly breathe.
He dug his spurs into the flanks of the beast, which was twisting and shifting in shape. The harder he dug, the more solid it became beneath him despite feeling less and less like a horse. Using his legs and the spurs on his feet, he pushed and turned and nudged the creature in the direction they were meant to go. It bucked and jumped and made every attempt to loosen the grip of the ironspurs. Duncan held on for dear life, and not merely his. Sorcha’s life depended on it as well.
From behind him, she called out directions, telling him which way to turn the kelpie, which way to direct it.
On and on they went, dodging trees, jumping over rocks and obstacles, moving faster than any horse ever could. Duncan’s legs burned with the effort to keep control of the beast even as it made every attempt to dislodge him. The muscles in his legs were turning to gruel. He didn’t know how much longer he could maintain control of the dangerous monster.
At last, the creature came to a jarring stop. Rearing up on its back legs, it slung them to the ground, then darted off on the instant.
Stunned, the air knocked entirely from him, Duncan lay on his back, hurting in every muscle of his body, his mind refusing to accept the reality that they might be safe. He could summon only enough strength to turn his head and look for Sorcha.
She lay on the ground nearby, looking up at the moonlit sky. Her breath clouded above her in the chill of night.
Night. How was it that so much time had passed? Could they truly have been riding for hours?
Using what little strength remained in him, he pulled himself over to where she lay. He set an arm around her.
“Are you injured?” he asked.