Wat blinked at me like I was slow. “Haven’t you lot on the frontier heard about the horse plague?”
“Horse plague?” I repeated, taken aback.
“Killed damn near all of the horses last year,” Wat said. “The ones that are left are worth their weight in gold.”
“I hadn’t heard anything,” I said. I almost added something to the effect that we still had plenty of horses on the frontier, but it occurred to me that if word of that got out, King Julius would have even more of a reason to look west, and possibly to interfere with everything we were building in the new kingdoms of the frontier.
It was just after lunch by the time we made it to an inn Wat knew and apparently had an agreement with in the village of Aktau. The village was quaint and clean, more like the cities than the settlements of the Wolf River Kingdom, and its people seemed busy and uninterested in strangers.
The inn was marked by a sign of a mountain goat standing proud and tall atop a peak. Much like Larth’s inn in the mountains, it was three stories and made with stone on the ground floor and thick, dark beams and whitewashed plaster on the upper floors. It had an air of prosperity to it, and when Wat showed me inside, the staff was quick to settle us at a table and to feed us, for which I was extremely grateful.
The innkeeper offered me a room for the night, for which I was also grateful, and Wat waved a friend over from another table to introduce me.
“Master Conrad, this is a good friend of mine, Horacio.”
I nodded to the tall, broad-shouldered man who came to the table to join us. He wasn’t bad looking at that. I would have guessed that he was in his thirties. He had green eyes and chestnut-brown hair, and he reminded me a little of Orel. Best of all, his thick legs filled out his trousers nicely, and I found myself wishing he would turn the other way so that I could see if his backside looked just as good in the supple fabric.
“Hory, this is Master Conrad,” Wat continued with the introductions. “He’s come from the frontier and is heading to Royersford to attend the healer’s college. Think you could drive him the rest of the way?”
Horacio’s eyes lit up at the sight of me, but whether it was because of the mention I was a healer of sorts or because he liked the look of me the way I liked the look of him, I couldn’t tell.
“I think transport to Royersford could be arranged,” Horacio said, looking me up and down.
There was definitely a sparkle in his eyes. I didn’t know what the customs or laws of the Old Realm were, not enough to know if any flirting on my part might land me in trouble, so I opted for politeness and held out my hand.
“I would be grateful for transportation,” I said. My heart kicked against my ribs a bit and my trousers went tight at the sheer size of Horacio’s hand as it encompassed mine. “I can, of course, pay.”
“I should say so,” Horacio said with a friendly smile, giving me another up and down look. I wasn’t built as powerfully as Jace, nor was I as svelte and fey as Peter, but I prided myself on the fact that I wasn’t hard to look at, at all. I had a young man’s body, and I knew that appealed to a variety of people. “I didn’t realize those backwards frontier cities were still sending people over to our side of the mountain for courses.” He paused before adding, “You look a bit different from most of the ones that used to come over the mountains.”
I could have told him that’s because I was a wolf, not a city-dweller, but not only did I not know if people in the Old Realm truly understood the difference, I wasn’t certain how much truth would land me in hot water.
Horacio held my hand for longer than I thought was usual, and when he let go, he was still smiling. “Certainly, I’ll take you on to Royersford.” He turned to Wat and went on with, “There’s been a bit more travel to and from Royersford in the last fortnight or so, ever since King Julius announced the harvest festival to take place next month.”
Wat seemed to light up. “So he’s going ahead with the festival, then?” he asked.
“Looks like it,” Horacio said. “Enough people demanded it, so it’ll happen. Anything to keep people happy and to keep the new king on their good side.”
I held my breath for a moment at that comment. Were people in the Old Realm dissatisfied with King Julius? Was there unrest in general? Magnus would want to know either way. Our chances of making something of the Wolf River Kingdom were directly related to whether people in the Old Realm were happy with their lot and content to continue to ignore the frontier or whether they grew restless and wanted to invade. Especially if we had horses and they didn’t. Who knew what else we had that the Old Realm lacked?
“You might do a fair bit more business escorting people between cities hereabouts in the next month than turning over stones to find travelers in the mountains,” Horacio went on, speaking to Wat. “There’s fewer and fewer people coming over the mountains these days.”
Wat shrugged, seemingly unbothered. “There’s nothing to travel over there for, so there aren’t many who need to come back,” he said.
I hid my surprise and interest at that comment too. It seemed as though the Old Realm truly didn’t care what was going on in the frontier.
Horacio turned back to me. “Royersford is three days from here by road in a fast cart, like mine. If we leave first thing in the morning.”
“I’ll be ready whenever you are,” I said with a shrug. “I’m eager to get there and get settled at the college.”
Horacio smiled at me and nodded. “I like the eager young ones,” he said, rubbing a hand over the bottom half of his face.
Two things were clear to me—Horacio was up for a fuck if I was, and Wat didn’t have the first idea what sort of silent communication was going on around him. I was more than willing to indulge Horacio, if we had time for it during the journey, but I had no interest in pointing out the obvious to Wat.
I wondered what that had to say for the way things were in the Old Realm. On the one hand, I’d been raised to believe the Old Realm was the height of decorum and sophistication, all rules and prissy manners. On the other, it’s where Magnus had come from, and Magnus had been an official court whore.
I figured I would find out the next day, after my first night sleeping in a soft bed in days, when I set out from Aktau with Horacio.
I wasn’t the only one getting a ride deeper into the Old Realm with Horacio. The wagon was loaded with crates and sacks filled with letters—which was how I learned Horacio not only escorted travelers, he also carried the mail—a trio of women around my age hitched a ride as well. The three of them were maids on their way to Royersford looking for work. They were friends who seemed more interested in sitting in the back of the wagon giggling than talking to me or Horacio. And fortunately, they didn’t seem particularly interested in the conversations Horacio and I had as I rode on the wagon’s bench with him.