Free The Tower of Ravens by Kate Forsyth

and rather bruised, I think. She’ll be grand in the morning. What about the mare, though, Dai-dein ?”
    “ ‘;Twas lucky ye found them when ye did,” Niall said gravely. “The mare has been ridden hard, and then allowed to founder. She’ll be lucky if she does no’ take a chill.”
    “I do no‘ think she meant to harm the mare in any way,” Lewen said eagerly. “Ye ken the stories about winged horses, how difficult they are to tame. The mare would have fought the bit and saddle, and flown high to try and throw her off. She was bruised all over. I’d say the mare tried to knock her off against tree trunks and branches, ye ken the way they do.”
    “How do ye ken she’s bruised all over?” Lilanthe said sharply.
    Lewen went red. “I… she told me…”
    “Here, lad, have some soup,” Niall said calmly. “Dearling, will ye cut him some bread? He must be starving.”
    “Aye, that I am,” Lewen responded, glad of the diversion. “I managed to eat some of my cheese and bread on the way home, but it dinna even begin to fill the hole.”
    He began to eat his soup hungrily, and when Lilanthe had cut him some bread he slathered it with butter.
    Meriel bounced up and down in her chair with excitement. “But who is she, this girl? Where did she come from? Did she catch the winged horse?”
    “I dinna ken,” Lilanthe answered, taking her seat again and looking across at her son, raising her eyebrows. “Lewen? Did she tell ye anything while ye were tending her?”
    Lewen shrugged. “She said she’d tied herself onto the horse, so I guess that means she caught it. She said she had to tie herself on tight so she would no‘ fall while the mare was in the air.”
    Merry gave a sigh of happiness. “Oh, I wish it had been me! Imagine, your own flying horse.”
    “Thigearns do no‘ say they own their winged horses,” Niall said repressively. “It is a friendship, a partnership. They say to win the respect o’ a winged horse, a thigearn must ride it for a year and a day without once putting foot to ground. This girl is no thigearn.”
    “She managed to stay on its back for a night and a day,” Lewen said. “That’s pretty amazing.”
    His father regarded him for a moment, then nodded and smiled rather ruefully. “I’ve done it myself on occasion, and I must admit I thought well o‘ myself afterwards, and I was no’ riding a horse that can fly. She’ll be stiff and sore for a day or two, particularly if she’s no‘ used to riding astride.”
    “I wonder where she came from,” Merry said, holding out her bowl for another serve of soup. “I dinna see a winged horse flying over and I was out in the garden all day. Ye’d think I would’ve seen it.”
    “Unless it came down out o‘ the mountains,” Lilanthe said.
    “But there’s naught in the mountains but goblins and ogres,” Merry said, wide-eyed. “Did the lass look like a goblin?”
    Lewen shut his mouth on his indignation and said nothing.
    “Nay, o‘ course no’,” his father said for him. “She was a bonny lass, if rather wild.”
    “There are other faeries in the mountains,” Lilanthe said quietly. “Corrigans, satyricorns, nixies, cluricauns, even seelies. She is certainly wild enough and bonny enough to have seelie blood in her.” Lewen looked up and inadvertently met her eyes. Her face was solemn, and he clamped his jaw together and looked away. “I do no‘ think that is it, though.”
    “But ye are sure she’s o‘ faery blood?” Niall said. “She looked human enough.”
    Lilanthe nodded her brown twiggy head and got up, stacking the empty bowls and taking them away from the table. “Aye, she’s a half-breed, that I ken. Happen ye need to be one to ken one.” There was a faint shade of bitterness in her voice. “She is hard to read, though. I canna hear her thoughts. I would say she has been harshly treated in the past, for her mind and heart are locked up tight indeed. She is well used to shielding her