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You very patient people deserve another snippet from Kings of the North, as a Happy New Year present…or Bye-bye 2010 present. Oh, what the heck. Two presents, one for each year. I’ll be keying this in from my reference ARC, so do not assume that any typos here are actually in the book (I sure hope not…)
Spoiler-phobes, don’t read below the line.
#1
Where: Vérella, the palace
Who: Selis, Duke Marrakai and Dorrin, Duke Verrakai
Duke Marrakai stopped Dorrin on her way out of the palace that same day. He looked perfectly healthy now, as if he’d never had an injury. “I’m wondering if you’ve considered taking squires,” he said. “I know other peers are planning to propose their sons to you, but I exercised a little persuasion to I could be the first to ask. I have a situation, you see.”
“A situation?”
“Well, perhaps you noticed that although there are girls in training to become Knights of the Bells, you never see them as anyone’s squire. There’s a feeling that girls of that age should be home with their families. They can train with the local grange, or even here for knighthood, but they’re just not chosen as squires. They need a woman’s guidance, is one thing people say. The girls don’t much like it, but there you are. Now, you’ve commanded women in battle; you know all the things that young women get into, I daresay. And I have a daughter–”
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The daughter is Gwennothlin, and she fits the family character (“…all one brew, and that a heady one…”)
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#2
Where: Fin Panir
Who: The Marshal-General of Gird and Arvid Semminson
The horse dealer protested. “It can’t be stolen. The Marshal told me–a Marshal from up there–” The man pointed his thumb up the hill. “He said it was his, and he wanted something quieter, not so flashy.”
“Did he say why he bought it in the first place?”
“No…t’horse was jerking on the lead. I thought maybe he was heavy-handed.” The horse dealer watched Arvid scrubbing at the white on the near fore. “I swear, Marshal-General, I didn’t know…he was a Marshal; I never even thought about it–”
“There we go.” Arvid spoke up. Patchy black showed through the white now. “See that?”
“Yes.” The horse-dealer grimaced. “And I paid…” His voice faltered as Arvid looked at him. “Two gold crescents.”
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Guess whose horse it was.
Comment by Jenn — January 1, 2011 @ 8:34 am
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thank you for the snippets.
80!! Not that I am counting.
Comment by FrancisT — January 1, 2011 @ 9:27 am
> Guess whose horse it was.
Socks? Is it Socks?
(I’m not quite clear whose horse Socks is – I thought Paks had given Socks to the Girdsmen, but maybe not ? )
Comment by FrancisT — January 1, 2011 @ 9:28 am
Oh yes – Happy new year and many thanks for the snippet
Comment by elizabeth — January 1, 2011 @ 9:56 am
You’re welcome, Jenn! And thanks for the counting!
Comment by elizabeth — January 1, 2011 @ 10:03 am
FrancisT. Socks was a black horse with four white socks. This is a horse whose legs are dark. As Arvid proves by scrubbing the white off to reveal the dark legs, these white markings were faked. Crudely (the horse dealer should have noticed. May have noticed. May have turned a blind eye. He is in trouble and knows it.)
Paks did give Socks to the Fellowship and since she was afraid to ride when she left, she did not take him away at that time (she could have, under the law, but she didn’t.) Socks is a stocky, draft-y looking heavy horse with a lot of feather. This is a very different kind of horse, though the brief description doesn’t let you know that. (The writer knows, heh-heh-heh…) The horse’s owner is someone who likes having a sound, fast, and stylish dark horse on which to escape problems…but still look dashing.
Comment by Jenn — January 1, 2011 @ 11:49 am
Arvid’s horse?
By the way if you are still looking for inspiration for titles, may I suggest Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. They always had such interesting titles.
One Corpse too many. A morbid taste for bones. Pilgrim of hate etc.
Granted they were for mysteries but they were medieval and fantastic titles.
Good Luck on your title hunt.
Comment by Margaret — January 1, 2011 @ 3:41 pm
My guess is that it is Arvid’s and when he saw the horse, he recognized it, despite the fake socks. Which still leaves all the tantalizing questions:
How did Arvid lose his horse? Why would a Marshall try to deceive the horse dealer? To get rid of the horse? To make some money? Was it really a Marshall? If so, why would a Marshall “go bad”?
I suppose you could call these spoilers, but I think a better term might be torturizers!
Comment by Eir de Scania — January 1, 2011 @ 4:38 pm
A much better term, agreed.
If the white colour was so easy to rub off the dealer must have noticed. Unless he didn’t check the horse’s hoofs, wich I can’t imagine any horse dealer not doing.
Comment by Genko — January 1, 2011 @ 6:49 pm
I for one am suspicious of a fake “Marshall.” Or else the guy is saying he got it from a Marshall and he really didn’t. If Arvid noticed, it doesn’t necessarily mean it was his horse — he’s just familiar with that trick and suspicious, as he always has been. If the dealer should have noticed, why wouldn’t Arvid notice.
Okay, I don’t know about horses, especially the descriptions of them. but I’m not sure that “stocky, draft-y looking heavy horse with a lot of feather” fits with my picture of Socks as he was described in the Deed. Aris was impressed by him, and he was called a warhorse. I suppose “warhorse” could mean heavy (“no speed but lots of bottom”, as I recall it). What does “feather” mean?
And yes, I noticed that this horse was painted or doctored or whatever to have white socks, but was actually all dark, presumably. Can hardly wait to find out more about this horse and how it fits in with all of this.
Thanks for the snippets — should be interesting to find how Dorris deals with female squires. Yummy …
Comment by elizabeth — January 1, 2011 @ 9:12 pm
Brief quick answers (as I’m still at work on III):
Yes, it’s Arvid’s horse. How does a thief become victim of a thief? Hmmm. Why didn’t the dealer notice? Hmmm again (I said he was in trouble.) Who really stole the horse and where did he go with it? Hmmm…that comes later. There’ll be a side story after Kings comes out (didn’t fit well with Book III.)
Paks’s horse “Socks” was a heavy warhorse, with the bone to carry a heavily armored rider. Google on both Friesian horse and Shire horse for pictures. “Feather” is the long hair on the lower legs of some breeds (Shires have more than Friesians; TBs and Arabians have none; the draft breeds Percheron and Suffolk Punch also have none.) Socks had heavy feathering and that’s why Paks didn’t know at first about the scars on his back legs–the long hair hid it.
Gotta run. Much more to do on III before shipping it off early Monday morning. It revealed today that oh, by the way, it wants three additional scenes.
[edit addition] Just found perfect picture of Shire horse that looks a dead ringer for Socks (wrong saddle, though), here.
Comment by Eir de Scania — January 2, 2011 @ 11:06 am
To me “feather” on horse legs sound funny. But we call it “hoof-beard” in Swedish, so who am I to speak?
Comment by elizabeth — January 2, 2011 @ 11:18 am
I like hoof-beard!
Comment by Jason — January 4, 2011 @ 9:52 am
Interesting picture, though a little heavier in the body than I’d envisioned in my equine ignorance. Hmm, I live just a mile or two from Down Under Saddle Co., the place that hosted the pic. If anybody needs me to make a visit in the name of research, lemme know.
Jason
Looking forward to the next book!
Comment by elizabeth — January 5, 2011 @ 12:19 pm
The broad back is part of the weight-carrying capacity (and explains why shorter horses with the same conformation–round bodied, not “flat-sided”–can carry much more weight than most people think. What you need in a heavy riding horse is a) absolutely sound hooves, not too small for the weight of horse & load, b) bone in the leg (thickness of bone) sufficient for the weight of horse & load, and c) very strong loin coupling (lower back, in humans.) It also helps to have the natural neck conformation such that the horse finds it easy to learn to “lift” the back while in motion under a load. Relatively short-backed, broad-backed horses with sufficient foot and bone can carry the most weight without injury or discomfort to themselves.
The broad back is formed by both underlying skeletal structure (ribs arching more outward outward rather than down as in “slab-sided” horses) and musculature: the muscles on either side of the spine being large enough and in the right place to form a wider “top” to the horse’s back, and sufficiently fit to give a strong connection after the last ribs and before the pelvis. Xenophon called such horses “double-backed”–the rider, even bareback, is sitting on muscles, not the spinal processes (I’ve been bareback on both types. You really do not want to ride a high-spined horse bareback.)
At any rate, the Shire in modern times is primarily a draft horse, very good at pulling loads and only secondarily used for riding (though it’s come into favor as a showy mount for heavy riders at medieval events.) It’s so broad that (I’m told) only tall riders are comfortable on it and it requires custom saddles. Medieval war saddles placed the rider as far forward as possible (the narrow end of any horse’s back) and held the rider in a firm grip–high cantle, high-arched pommel with rolls that braced the thigh in place. I’m looking forward to seeing Friesians in action in the Spanish-language novela “Los Herederos del Monte” which will start on a local Spanish-language station next week. The trailers have been (for a horse person) fascinating. (Of course, the ideal war-horse varies with the terrain and the use to which it’s put. )