Not Magic Enough and Setting Boundaries - By Valerie Douglas Page 0,43
his voice breathless. “Mine?”
Elon nodded. “Yours.”
It hadn’t been politic to mention it in Daran’s presence.
The High King of Men desired an Elven purebred with an intensity that bordered on obsession, although none but Elves rode them or ever would, but he would have settled for a cull. He wouldn’t, however, be given one, not with his temperament. Elon had seen how he treated the horses of men, his reins hard on their mouths. He wouldn’t expose even a cull to Daran’s volatile temperament.
Jareth on the other hand…
Chosen for his gentle and flexible nature, Zo had been deemed perfect for this mission. Elon had planned to allow whoever accompanied them on this journey to ride Zo temporarily - he definitely didn’t intend to be months or years away from his beloved Aerilann - unless the horse bonded with his rider as Elven horses were wont to do.
It ceased to be a question. Bonding had taken place instantly - again boding well for the young wizard.
This promised to be an interesting journey.
Chapter Two
Zo’s gait was so smooth that - for Jareth - it was like riding a dream, or a cloud. He was fascinated by it and by the other two -watching the smooth, steady pace of Elon and Colath’s horses as they rode through the main gates of the High King’s city and out onto the Plains. Their speed was another source of interest. That even canter seemed no different to him than the horses of men and yet they ate up the miles far more quickly - putting distance between themselves and Doncerric far faster than he believed possible.
It was more than a matter of their longer legs and greater stamina, there was something of magic in it, Jareth knew, a magic bred by the Elves into the horses themselves.
A brisk, cool, salt-laden breeze from the sea that hammered and boomed at the cliffs of Doncerric blew over them as they turned north and slightly west, away from the ocean and toward the forested Enclave of Alatheriann - the largest of all the Elven Enclaves and the closest to Doncerric.
Others also rode out on this mission but they marked only the undisputed territories between and around the various lesser Kingdoms that made up the whole.
It fell to Elon, Colath and Jareth to mark these others - the ones between Elves, Dwarves and men.
Per the Agreement, this that they would mark first was also undisputed. To declare it and make it so were two entirely different things, though.
There was no small talk as they rode. It wasn’t a thing of Elves to talk for no reason, to comment on the weather - clear and bright, with the breeze setting the grasses and grains to blowing like waves on the sea - or the journey - which traced a path they all knew.
While he felt no need to comment on it, Elon enjoyed the fresh air, the sun warm on his skin as they finally escaped the confines of stone that the races of men and Dwarves seemed to enjoy.
It wasn’t for his people to be enclosed but to be out in the open air with the soft-scented breezes around them, the sun warm on their shoulders while the horses’ hooves beat a steady rhythm against the earth.
It was as well, too, that Jareth seemed to have no need to chatter as many men did, smothering the music of the world with their voices rather than listening to the whisper of the wind through the grass, the sweet songs of the birds - the heartbeat of the land.
The first few markers went easily enough as they skirted the very edges of Alatheriann, the ‘buffer zone’ as Daran had ironically named them. Verdant lands that lay between those of Elves and men, necessary for hunting but also for keeping distance between the empathic races and the mentally noisy folk of the Kingdoms.
It was another point in Jareth’s favor that he was as quiet in his mind as in his nature.
Elon and Colath sensed the watchers within Alatheriann observe them, though none came to greet them as they normally would have - not with a man - a wizard no less - in their presence.
Such things would take time even for their more broad-minded folk to accept, much less those of men. Elves - who had no capacity for lying - had learned early that the honor of men was shown more in the breach than the observance. It was difficult to tell which