Free Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) by Cedar Sanderson

family.
    Pele laughed, a rusty sound. “You are a most impertinent cat.”
    “I am that,” Sekhmet agreed contentedly.
    “Keep an eye on him.” The little tremble was back.
    “As always. Bes is with the little ones, now. Vulcan goes to Quetzalcoatl’s court. I will join him there, now that the Scholar is safely with you.”
    Pele nodded. “Blessings on your journey,” she intoned, touching the cat softly on the forehead. Power flickered on her fingertips.
    Sekhmet felt the burn as the goddess gave her energy. She stretched her head out and bumped her nose against Pele’s, evoking another laugh from the goddess (whose wrinkles were only temporary, fitting her awful mood). Then the big cat turned and ran back the way she had come. Time to join the battle.
     
    Chapter 12
    Linn was still sitting at the table, making notes in a lined pad she’d found on the bookshelf, when Bes called her to come outside. Again, she hadn’t heard him until he wanted her to. Annoyed with this failure on her part, she went out onto the porch and felt her irritation dissolve.
    “Oh! They are so beautiful...” She walked down to where he stood, holding the reins of the two most beautiful horses that she had ever seen. One was a buckskin, the other a palomino, but both sported the classic white spotted blankets of an Appaloosa.
    Bes grinned. He held the reins of the palomino out to her. “Can you ride?”
    “A little.”
    “She’s well broken. You’ll do fine, she’ll take care of you.”
    Linn looked at him, then at the horse. She focused, then her Sight kicked in. She staggered a little, but when Bes caught her elbow, she straightened. His aura was flaming white, still too bright to look at directly. The horses, though... Little flickers of green, green as grass, danced over them. The mare pricked her ears at Linn and blew a little, relaxing into a hip-shot pose, obviously bored. “Bes, are they...?”
    He let go of her and she closed her eyes, trying to turn the Sight back off. “No,” she heard him say. “Merely warded with the power of their owner. Good, child, you’re seeing better.”
    Linn opened her eyes and was relieved to be able to see normally again. “Who is their owner? Do all immortals have different colors? What kind of horse are they?”
    Bess threw up a hand, laughing, to ward off her questions. “I’ll answer as we go. I’d like to be back before the kittens awaken.”
    Linn nodded and put her foot in the stirrup. She swung up awkwardly. She only rode in the summer when visiting Grampa Heff, so she was out of practice. She settled into the deep-cantled saddle, liking the way it held her legs in place. A roping saddle, she wouldn’t fall out of this easily. She looked over at Bes, who looked very much at home atop the gelding. The dwarf god ought to have looked absurd, but he didn’t, just relaxed and confident.
    “Where are we going?” she asked.
    “I need to show you the wards and teach you how to make them yourself.” He nudged the gelding with his heels and the horse ambled to a start.
    Linn felt her eyes widen a little. She couldn’t do wards. She didn’t have the power like they did.
    Bes headed toward the woods. She let her mare come up alongside him, where she could talk easily to him while they still covered open ground. “So who did you borrow the horses from?”
    “Coyote, of course. Old dude packs serious mojo, and I had to talk to him anyway.”
    Linn blinked, trying to wrap her mind around the Egyptian god’s words. He’d talked to the creator god of Native American legend? She tried to remember what she had read about that entity. “Um... isn’t he another trickster god?”
    Bes chortled. “Yes, indeed he is. Maybe the trickiest of us all.”
    “Do you know Loki?” Linn asked next.
    “You ask a lot of questions, anyone ever tell you that?” He grinned toothily at her.
    “Frequently,” she responded dryly.
    Bes went off into gales of laughter, clutching the saddle horn.