Free Blood Bride (Aarabassa World) by Catherine L Vickers

snuffling in his ear. 
    ‘Frizzle boy, stop that.’
    Something gently nudged at his back, not at all like a dog’s paw. Sensing he had unexpected company, Leon swiftly moved to reach for his sword, but it was not nearby.
    ‘That would not do much good, my son,’ a deep rumbling voice spoke. 
    Leon looked up at a dark silhouette, blinded by the sun’s glare he could not make out who it was. Slowly he stood, squinting with his hand shading his eyes to clear his vision. 
    ‘You must be Prince Leon?’ The husky voice asked.
    Moving position to he could see better, he realised he was surrounded by many figures. Stumbling slightly as he stepped backwards, a strong arm steadied him from behind. A strong aroma of horseflesh meandered around his nose. Turning around to thank the man who had kindly saved him, he found himself staring into the strong proud eyes of a huge centaur with the face of a bearded man, smiling at him. The centaur had a long plaited string of hair on his chin that fell into a neat tail, with a colourful string intricately entwined into its display. His large naked torso bared strong muscled hairy arms that had reached out to stop Leon from taking a fall in his shock.  The human-looking body merged into a horse’s torso with four thick horse’s legs. A swishing tail at the back was also neatly plaited with beads and ribbons. He had heard of these centaurs but never had he imagined what one would actually look like. He turned to face the rest of the group, only to notice even more of these beautiful creatures, amongst them stood a group of tall human men.  Leon knew that where there were centaurs, then there would also be the human tribesmen known as the Cheroks.
    ‘Yes, I am Leon,’ he stuttered, a little stunned and lost for words.
    ‘I am Phellip.’ A tall dark skinned, lean young man stood forward and spoke. ‘My father has sent me to greet you and guide you safely to our village.’ 
    ‘How did you know of my arrival?’ asked Leon curiously.
    ‘The dwarves sent pigeons with brief message of your quest. We communicate often in this way. Very useful on many occasion,’ Phellip explained with a wide grin. ‘Come, Leon, not far.  We go to Ruling Village. Close to border. Other border close to River Wharfdon. Too much risk to house Ruler there.’
    Phellip spoke with a broken Lairkish accent to his deep, strong voice. ‘Marshes very difficult passage, you now know this. Make it hard for enemies to invade our lands.’
    ‘Why would you fear invaders? There haven’t been any battles for at least three human generations,’ Leon puzzled at such a statement from these people.
    ‘I young, you Leon, young,’ Phellip continued. ‘Our peoples not forget Serpent Wars.’ Phellips smile had faded, replaced with a grim expression of deep thought. ‘Our peoples, we remember when Cold Water Serpent invade, further down River Wharfdon,’ he pointed. ‘Many talks we shall have while you stay. Now, we moving to Ruling Village this moonwake, not the next one.’ Leon took that as an indication to hurry.
    Leon searched for Frizzle and noticed that Jhapar was enjoying some fuss and attention from one of the centaurs. Frizzle was rarely afraid of anything, other than ‘pond monsters’, and showed no fear of the huge centaurs. In fact, he had taken kindly to one of the Cherok’s human partner and wallowed in the fuss and attention.
    The group travelled north at a slow pace to begin with. Leon felt quite small on Jhapar’s back, compared to the Cherok males who rode high on their tall centaurs. Frizzle had wormed his way onto the back of the centaur that his Cherok friend was riding. It was unusual for a centaur to allow any human upon their backs other than a Cherok male, Leon wondered how they felt about dogs. 
    By the end of the moonwake they were still traveling. The centaurs did not gallop at full speed, allowing Jhapar’s pace to lead them. Leon looked over the flat dry landscape and could