Page 54 of Wind Rider

“As usual, you and I agree.”

River raised her brows at him, but decided that arguing with him was pointless, especially as she and Clayton did agree on many things—just not on their mutual attraction.

“Well? Can I help you with your mission?” he asked.

“No, but thank you. This is a solitary mission that Anjo and I have to conquer together.”

“Aren’t they all with you two?”

Clayton’s voice was light, as if he were kidding around with her, but River saw the truth in his eyes, and this time instead of looking sad or disappointed, he looked annoyed and angry.

She met his gaze steadily from astride Anjo’s back. “No, they aren’t. Every day I do things with the Herd. Yesterday Anjo and I helped teach the children how to dress a horse’s mane with ribbons. This morning Anjo and I partnered with Luce and Blue to teach the sunrise Flow class. I’m not a hermit, and there’s nothing wrong with me needing and wanting alone time with my filly.”

“Hey, whoa, I was just kidding. No need to snap at me.” He raised his hands in surrender.

“Oh, horseshit, Clayton. Don’t hide your true feelings like that. You’re mad. That’s easy to see. And you have no reason to be. I’m being myself. I’ll always be myself. I love our Herd. I care about the people and the horses, and someday—if Anjo and I are judged worthy—I want to be the best Lead Mare Rider I can be for everyone. Nowhere in my life is there time for passive-aggressive crap and game playing.”

Clayton’s eyes blazed with anger. “Why do you always insult me?”

“Why do you always try to push me into a relationship that I have been very clear about not wanting?”

Without another word Clayton spun on his heels and stomped away, with Bard trotting behind him.

River sighed and said aloud, “I’m going to have to do something about him. It’s been six months since he returned from Herd Cinnabar—sixwhole months since I told him clearly that I’m not into him likethat.And it’s not like we were lovers before he left and I suddenly changed. I’ve always made it clear that I am not interested in mating with him. He’s just not listening.”

Anjo snorted and tossed her head fretfully, sending worry to her Rider, along with a mental picture of Clayton—face red, punching a tree.

River laughed. “Well, he’ll hurt his hand—that’s for sure. Come on, let’s go. There’s a stallion we need to find and, thankfully, he’snotbonded to Clayton.”

River clucked to Anjo and turned the filly with the gentle pressure of her outside leg, and as soon as they were past the camp boundary she stepped up into a smooth canter. As she passed, she waved at a Watcher stallion—one of several Rider/stallion pairs who kept watch over the Herd, day and night. Then they headedaway—away from the prying eyes of the Herd.

It didn’t take long. It never did. How Ghost found them, River wasn’t sure, though she believed it had something to do with Anjo. It seemed the filly and the stallion had bonded and she somehow called to him, though River had never known of a psychic bond happening between two horses. Anjo and Ghost’s bond was so strong that the stallion had followed them from the Herd’s spring campgrounds north to their summer ground, and again east to the Ozark Plateau and their fall grounds. And River was certain Ghost would also follow them to the Quachita Mountains and the Valley of Vapors and the hot springs that kept them warm and safe, even in the most terrible of winters.

Just thinking about winter had River shivering—and not for Anjo and herself. As the days grew shorter and colder, and the Herd prepared to move again, River was more and more concerned with what would happen to Ghost if he tried to weather the winter in the Quachita Mountains—outside the warmth of the Herd’s hot springs valley.

The golden stallion galloped up to them, trumpeting a welcome which Anjo echoed, and River thought—not for the first time—how much she wished she could ask her mother’s advice about this mysterious stallion and his connection to Anjo, and to her. But she agreed with her filly—no one need know about Ghost. Not yet. The stigma of a Riderless horse and the belief that there must be something very wrong with him was just too great. What if the Herd decided he must be driven away? Or worse, euthanized?

“Anjo and I won’t let that happen, and today I got help with how we can find an answer for what is going on with you, handsome.” Ghost had paused in his greeting of Anjo to lip River’s leg gently. Still astride her filly, she rubbed his wide forehead and automatically began combing her fingers through his tangled forelock. “This should be very interesting. I hope you’re open for a little, um,exploration.”

The stallion nuzzled her and then started trying to mouth her saddlebag open, making River laugh.

“Yes, I brought your carrots! I wouldn’t forget them.” River slid from Anjo’s back and opened the pack, offering the bunch of carrots, as well as a bag of hearty feed, to Ghost, who settled in to munch contentedly. As usual, River brought a helping of grain for Anjo, too, and her filly joined Ghost.

While the two horses were eating, River prepared. This was something else she wished she could have asked her mother’s advice about, but as that wasn’t possible, she followed her intuition and used all of the knowledge she had already gained in her Crystal Seer classes.

From her saddlebags she took out a blanket and spread it on the ground near the horses. Then she brought out a full skin of water, a narrow length of leather cord, and the two crystals she’d been guided by her intuition to bring—the quartz crystal she’d used earlier in class that day, and the amethyst phantom crystal Clayton had given her six months before, on the day Anjo had Chosen her as Rider.

First, she washed the crystals, pouring clean water over them and then laying them on the blanket to dry. River had recharged both crystals the previous night during the full moon, before she had any idea she would be using the phantom stone.

Then she sat cross-legged on the blanket and picked up the quartz crystal. “But you made me realize the answer to my question of what to do about Ghost could be foundwith him,or at least found with him if Ihad a crystal that could help show us the way.” River took the leather cord and wrapped it around the crystal, tying it tightly so that it wouldn’t slip, before knotting the cord and slipping it over her neck, letting the clear stone rest against the skin between her breasts.

She placed a hand over the stone, pressing it against her skin and feeling it warm as it awakened for her again. River spent several minutes focusing on the crystal. She didn’t lift it to her third eye—she was saving that place for the phantom crystal. It didn’t seem to matter anyway. Along with the crystal warming, she could feel her thoughts sharpening and the typical mental babble in her mind quieting.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she noticed the horses had finished the carrots and the grain and were grazing lazily side by side. River called Anjo to her, and the filly trotted eagerly to River’s blanket.

River concentrated on her connection with Anjo, and then she made the hand gesture that Anjo had been trained to recognize as asking her to lie down. Then she imagined Ghost lying beside her—the two of them facing River where she sat on the blanket.

Anjo immediately did as River asked, buckling her legs and lying down. Then the filly tossed her head and nickered to Ghost, who was standing close by, watching with open curiosity. He was more hesitant, but eventually he folded his legs and, with a groan that had River smiling, lay beside Anjo, facing River.