Free Voyage of the Snake Lady by Theresa Tomlinson

flashing manes, but none of the horses seemed to be quite the right one for a weary snake lady. After the powerful bond that she’d had with Isatis, it was going to be difficult to give her heart to another horse. Well, she would set Tamsin a good example by waiting calmly and allowing the others to go forward and make their choices first.
    For a while the horse taming went well: the mares seemed to be accepting the strange two-legged creatures who fixed them with determined stares, then strode at their sides. But as the sun began to sink, the big bay stallion became unsettled. He stamped angrily as he sensed this crafty, uninvited intrusion among his mares. He began to canter around the edges, snorting, so that some of the mares backed away from their Moon Rider, aware of his agitation.
    Myrina watched him uneasily and rose to her feet. She swore under her breath as the thought came into her head that perhaps her choice was about to be made for her—and what a choice! They might well lose all the mares if the stallion could not be mastered. A dangerous situation was developing and something must be done to stop it.
    “Wait until I call you,” she ordered Phoebe and Tamsin.
    They watched her, wide-eyed and anxious, as she set out to face the snorting bay, racking her brain for the right name.
    The huge horse screamed, baring his teeth at her approach. All the Moon Riders saw what Myrina was doing and stood still, holding their breaths. She strode toward him, fixing his gleaming dark eyes with an angry stare. He reared threateningly, his hooves trampling the air high above her head.
    “Dear Snake Lady!” Akasya whispered. “Please Maa she knows what she does!”
    Myrina stormed on until she stood right in front of him. She pulled herself up to her full height, stretching up on tiptoe, stiff and straight as a rod; they stood head to head, both breathing heavily.
    Tamsin bit her lip, clutching Phoebe’s hand. None of the women dared move or make a sound; everything depended on this.
    Suddenly the stallion reared again so that Myrina was forced to flinch back a little or get one of those heavy hooves in her face. As he reared, he screamed again, a terrifying, warlike bellow, mouth wide open, baring his great teeth.
    But as his hooves thumped down onto the grass in front of her, Myrina was ready for him. She strode forward again, slapping him sharply across the muzzle and baring her own teeth. She answered him with a wild beastlike bellow. “ Aaaagh!” she roared. “I can do that, too!”
    The stallion’s ears shot back in surprise and his eyes rolled wildly.
    “Aaagh!” she roared again, at the top of her lungs. “I name you Big Chief. You are Big Chief and nothing else will do!”
    There was silence for a moment as the two stood head to head again, both very still but eyeing each other fiercely. The stallion stamped again, but did not rear this time.
    “Big Chief!” Myrina spoke his name again in a gentler tone. “I name you Big Chief and I shall be your rider!”
    There was another tense moment, but then the huge stallion stretched out his muzzle and sniffed all around Myrina’s hair with unexpected delicacy. He blew warm horse breath over her face and shoulders. The scent of it warmed her and brought back happy memories.
    “We will be friends,” she told him firmly, putting out her hand to stroke his nose. “See—I can touch you like this! I will not hurt you again.”
    Big Chief gave a low, gentle whicker.
    The watching women breathed out in relief and turned their attention once more to their own chosen beasts. Myrina smiled shakily and stroked the horse’s nose again; she knew that she had won, but it had drained her of energy, leaving her feeling weak. As she withdrew her hand, the great bay lowered his head to crop peacefully at the grass at her feet; Big Chief had accepted both his name and his rider.
    Myrina turned to where Phoebe and Tamsin stood watching and beckoned to them. They strode down to