Ranger's Apprentice 12: The Royal Ranger (18 page)

Maddie’s cloak and hair streamed out in the wind behind her and Will heard her delighted laugh.

‘He’s very fast,’ Will said.

Tug turned his head and regarded him with his left eye.
Not as fast as Sandstorm.

‘No. Perhaps not. But there wouldn’t be much in it.’

I beat Sandstorm.

‘I remember. But you only managed it in the last few metres.’

The little horse snorted disparagingly.
I was foxing.

‘Of course you were.’

He felt Tug begin to pull against the reins, but held him in check.

Do you want me to catch him now?

Will shaded his eyes to look after Maddie. She and Sun-dancer were small figures in the distance. A cloud of dust was drifting in the air behind them. Then they rounded a bend in the road and were hidden by the trees. The gradually settling dust was all that was left to show where they had been.

‘Not yet,’ Will told him. ‘Later.’

Maddie exulted in the rush of wind through her hair and the smooth, powerful strides of her horse. This was riding,
she thought, and she urged Sundancer on to even greater speed. As she reached the first bend in the road, she turned in the saddle to look back.

Will and Tug were small figures in the distance now, plodding stolidly onwards. Well, she thought, what could you expect of a shaggy little barrel like that. Over the years, she’d heard people talk of Ranger horses with a certain degree of awe. Now that she’d seen one at close quarters, she couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

‘And he must be one of the better ones,’ she said aloud. After all, Will was one of the most senior of all the Rangers. It stood to reason that he would have one of the better horses in the Corps – if not the best.

She felt a delicious streak of rebellion stirring within her. Will was so capable, so knowledgeable, so superior to her in just about every way. He could track game where there was barely a sign to be found. He could shoot with uncanny speed and unerring accuracy. And his knife work was almost superhuman – fast and deadly accurate.

But here was something she was better at. With a sudden moment of honesty, she amended that thought. Her horse was better than Tug, she thought. But then, if she had the intelligence to select a superior horse, why shouldn’t she share in that superiority?

Sundancer would run Will’s little grey pony into the ground, she told herself. And as she had that thought, she decided that she wanted their victory to be overwhelming. It wouldn’t be enough to simply beat Tug and Will to this Derrylon ford. They would do it thoroughly, crushingly. If Will said it would take a day to reach the ford, she decided that she’d do it in half that time.

She leaned forward over Sundancer’s neck.

‘Come on, boy! We’ve got a point to make.’

Sundancer’s ears went back and he tossed his head in delight. He loved to run. In fact, he lived to run. It had been bred into his bloodline for generation after generation. He lengthened his stride and accelerated.

Maddie yelled in delight. She had never felt him run so fast before! It was exhilarating and she gave herself over to the sheer, pulse-racing excitement of the ride.

Tug continued his steady, measured lope.

Dugga-dum, dugga-dum, dugga-dum
went his hoofs on the hard-packed surface of the highway. From time to time, he would turn his head to look at Will. But his rider never responded to these hints. Finally, Tug decided to address the matter directly.

Tell me when you want me to start running.

‘Trust me. You’ll be the first to know.’

Dugga-dum, dugga-dum, dugga-dum.

It has to be said that, ordinarily, Maddie was not the sort of person who would allow her horse to overextend himself. Usually, she was careful to control her mount and ensure that he stayed within his own limits.

But the excitement of the ride, the exultation of the speed that she felt, and the temptation to show Will and his horse how superior Sundancer was, led her into error.

They had been galloping wildly for kilometres when she felt the Arridan horse’s stride falter. Then Sundancer shook
his head and plunged on. But now she realised how hard she’d been pushing him.

His flanks were streaked with foam and his sides were heaving like bellows as he dragged in huge lungfuls of air. She became aware that he was grunting loudly with each breath and instantly she was overcome with remorse. She reined him in, although he resisted her efforts initially. He was willing to plunge on until he dropped from exhaustion.

She drew back firmly on the reins, checking his mindless instinct to keep running, speaking softly to him, gradually increasing the pressure against the bit until he allowed her to bring him to a halt.

He stood, legs spread and breathing heavily, as she quickly dismounted, patting his neck and walking round him to make sure he was undamaged.

‘You’re all right,’ she told him. Thankfully, she had caught her mistake in time.

She splashed some water from the water skin into her hand and held it near his muzzle. He pushed his soft nose against her hand and drank. She continued to let the water trickle into the cupped hand.

‘Not too much,’ she said. ‘Not too fast.’

He snorted gratefully. She loosened the saddle girth and took a square of old blanket from her pack, rubbing him down and speaking softly to him. It had been a near thing, she realised. If she had kept going much longer, she could well have ruined her beautiful horse.

When he was rubbed down, she led him to the side of the road and let him crop the grass for a few minutes. Mentally, she kicked herself for coming so close to disaster. It wasn’t Sundancer’s fault, she knew. The blame lay
squarely with her. She was the rider. She was the one who should have controlled him, harbouring his energy and strength.

She let him rest for some minutes, then took the reins and led him back onto the road. She’d walk for a while, until he’d cooled down properly and recovered. She stepped out and he followed her meekly. She turned and watched him for a minute or two, making sure there was nothing wrong with his gait – that he hadn’t strained any muscles or ligaments in that mad, heedless gallop.

To her relief, he seemed fine. She smiled fondly, shaking her head in wonder as she thought of his amazing speed and willingness, grateful that there was no permanent harm done to him. She wondered how far behind them Will and Tug were.

‘We’re probably so far ahead that we could walk the rest of the way and still beat them,’ she told Sundancer. He shook his head tiredly, plodding along behind her.

Then she became conscious of a noise behind them. A regular, rhythmic noise.

Dugga-dum, dugga-dum, dugga-dum.

She whirled round. Will and Tug had rounded a bend behind them and were cantering slowly towards them, still moving at that ridiculous, constant lope. Once more she had the thought that Tug ran like a rocking horse.

Be that as it may, she thought, he was a very consistent rocking horse.

Will drew up beside her. He didn’t check Tug as they came level. Sundancer lifted his head at the sight of the smaller horse and dragged back against the reins, but she held him in check.

‘Your horse looks tired,’ Will said amiably, as he began to move ahead of her.

‘He’ll be fine,’ she said defiantly.

He turned in the saddle to look back at her as he and Tug drew away.

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he said. Then he faced the road ahead and called back over his shoulder, ‘We’ll wait for you in Pendletown.’

She glared at his back, then turned and began to tighten Sundancer’s girth again. The Arridan, spent as he was, was moving nervously, eager to set off after Tug. She placed one foot in the stirrup, then stopped.

He wasn’t ready yet. If she allowed him to run, she might injure him. Reluctantly, she took her foot out of the stirrup and loosened the cinch again. Then she resumed leading the horse at a walk.

At the next bend already, Will was surreptitiously watching over his shoulder. He saw her begin to mount, then saw her come to a decision and begin walking the horse once more.

‘Good girl,’ he said approvingly.

How’s that?
Tug, of course, was facing the road ahead and hadn’t seen Maddie’s moment of indecision.

‘She won’t mistreat her horse, even if it means losing the race. We’ll make a Ranger of her yet.’

They rode on in silence for several minutes before Will spoke again.

‘If only she drank coffee,’ he said.

Dugga-dum, dugga-dum, dugga-dum.

‘
THE THING IS
,’ Will said, ‘we need particular qualities in a horse.’

It was three days since they had returned from the ford. Sundancer was none the worse for the experience. Tug, of course, merely shrugged off the long ride as part and parcel of his everyday life. Today they were riding side by side, although as yet, Will hadn’t said where they were bound. Maddie might have imagined it, but she thought Sundancer was showing a new level of deference to Will’s shaggy little grey.

‘What sort of qualities?’ she asked.

‘Speed, of course,’ Will replied. ‘And your Arridan has that. In the short haul, he’s possibly faster than Tug.’

Tug shook his mane and snorted. Will smiled and leaned forward, patting his neck.

‘I’d say he’s definitely faster,’ Maddie said. ‘After all, he just ran away from the two of you the other day. You saw it.’

‘Yes. I did,’ Will said evenly. ‘But Tug wasn’t running then. He was just loping along conserving his strength.’

‘So how fast can he run?’ she challenged, turning sideways in the saddle to study the little horse. As before, she thought that he was a fairly unimpressive sight.

To her surprise, Will shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

She looked at him sceptically. ‘You’ve never seen him run?’ she asked but he shook his head.

‘I’ve seen him run plenty of times. And each time, he ran as fast as he had to. But I have no idea if that was as fast as he could go. In fact, I doubt it.’

Maddie frowned uncertainly. She wasn’t quite sure that she understood him.

Tell her about Sandstorm.

Will considered Tug’s suggestion, then nodded.