“Shhh. Let’s talk about you and your horse. So cute.”
Vero grabs Mickey and shakes him a little. “Put some back before you kill yourself.”
His body seems to have no life as it flops all around. “I don’t wanna.”
Vero looms over Mickey and fixes him with a vicious look. “Do. It,” Vero growls.
“You can’t make me,” Mickey says, then hurries off to Riley. “Can I ride too? I’m getting bullied on the ground.”
“I really don’t know. He might try to eat you,” Riley says, but Mickey’s apparently willing to take the chance since he clambers on. The horse is perfectly fine with Mickey, and Mickey looks quite pleased to have someone to carry him around.
And off they go.
Vero just stares after them, probably shocked his menacing attitude didn’t fix anything. “Have you ever heard of a necromancer with that much power?”
“Can’t say that I have,” I respond.
“He’s going to kill himself,” Vero growls.
“He didn’t seem surprised when you told him that,” I say. “Maybe Riley can talk some sense into him. Riley does seem to be the only one he listens to.”
We manage to get to the middle of town where everyone is busy repairing the homes. Though I wonder if we’ll have issues down the line with separation between the two sides, they seem to be working together quite well now that the people enacting the laws are gone.
Story sees us and rushes over with a smile on his face. “Your horse is so neat!” he says to Riley, who just grunts in response.
“Riley is scared of horses,” Mickey explains. “I’ll probably just put him in a room and summon like fifteen horses and force him to spend twenty-four hours in the room with them.”
“And you think that’ll cure him?” Story asks.
“For sure,” Mickey says.
“I kind of feel like it might do the opposite…”
“Nah.”
Everyone stops working and hurries over to us, but I’m not quite sure why until Lark drops to her knees in front of me. “We will do anything you ask of us. You are too gracious of a god. We do not deserve this much kindness,” she says, and I see everyone else kneeling as well.
I shake my head and try to wave them to their feet. “No, please get up. I don’t need you to kneel before me. I am not that kind of god. I will happily take care of you, and in return, I expect simple rules to be followed. I do not put up with any discrimination between those with magic and those who don’t have it. I will do my best to find a way to break the brands so those with magic can have it again. So please stand up.”
Lark stands and the others follow. “Thank you.”
“I’m just doing what I think is right,” I tell her.
The people are eager to show me what work they’ve accomplished, and truly, I’m not sure how they’ve already done so much. Riley plods along behind us on his super-slow horse looking more relaxed than he did before, though it has to be hard to feel terrified when the horse is barely moving.
It’s like I can feel the strength returning to this world. And I can feel the power returning to my body.
When we reach the stable, I grab Riley and pull him down. We lost Mickey and Vero at some point, so it’s just the two of us.
“You’re pretty damn happy, aren’t you?” Riley asks.
I beam at him. “Maybe just a little.”
“A little? Bullshit.” He’s grinning at me now.
“What about you?”
“I’m happy to be off the horse,” he says.
