That got me another blow making his horse lips quiver.
“You have to let me go.”
Salem was still.
Then he pulled his neck from my hold and twisted it to look down his body at the open church doors.
Then he looked back at me.
Then he shifted his big bulk so he was facing the doors and butted me with the side of the saddle.
Oh my God. Was I reading him right?
“You… are you…” I paused then whispered, “going with me?”
He threw his head back and whinnied then twisted it to look over his shoulder at me and jerked it up and down in an obvious affirmative.
“Are you serious?”
He whinnied a “someone’s gotta keep you safe” whinny.
So… totally… awesome!
I surged up his body, threw my arms around his neck, gave him a huge hug and whispered, “Thank you.”
Then I ran to the doors, snatched up the knife I dropped, shoved the hilt between my knees as I retied my belt tighter around my waist. Then I shoved the knife into my belt and approached the horse.
It took me three tries to heft myself into the saddle, I was not a seasoned rider and, mind you, I had ample fabric hindering me straddling a horse (so much for my kickass outfit, I had to get myself something that said “warrior princess”). Unfortunately, the minute I got up I realized the stirrups were way too low so I had to dismount, cinch them higher and do it again (this time, it took four dratted tries).
But I got on that beautiful beast, touched my heels to his flanks and off we went, out the door and into the unknown.
* * *
I felt the bed depress, I opened my eyes in exhausted confusion, saw Noctorno sitting on the bed, his h*ps in the crook of my lap and he was leaning over my body with a hand what I guessed was in the bed behind my back.
Uh.
What?
What was he doing here?
My head shifted back on the pillow, my eyes darting to the nightstand.
“Looking for this?” I heard him ask, I looked to him and saw his other hand raised, my knife dangling from his fingers by the tip of the blade.
Blast!
He flipped the knife up, losing hold on it but he caught it expertly by the hilt and he did this, no joke, without taking his eyes from me.
“You didn’t think, did you, that my own, damned horse was going to take you somewhere I couldn’t find you?”
Salem, a traitor.
What a disappointment.
We’d ridden the rest of the night and all the next day, stopping only to bum water and, for my part, answer the call of nature. An hour or two after night fell we came upon this hunting lodge which Salem, in his Salem way, assured me was safe. He even reached out his powerful neck and pointed with his communicative muzzle to the window ledge that held the hidden key.
I thought he was my horse in shining coat.