The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince Read Online Free PDF Page A

capricious mount was at the very front of the riders, and soon she surged ahead of all. As they rode, the mists of the vales rose thick, and the baying of the hounds echoed from the hills until one could scarce say from which direction the dogs gave cry. In the trailing shrouds of mist, Queen-in-Waiting Caution on her Spotted Stud were lost from sight.
    Now some will say that the air smelled of magic that morning, and that soon the hounds were confounded and ran whimpering back to their handlers. Some will say that the mist swirled only about the Queen-in-Waiting and her mount, or that the Spotted Stud deliberately bore her into the thickest bank of fog, to conceal her as he carried her away from her nobles. But I was there and it was only a miserably wet and foggy day. My poor mount and I were jostled right and left and soon left behind in the hue and cry. I had expected it to be so, and as soon as the hullabaloo of the hunt had gone, I was happy to turn my horse’s head around and let him find his way back to the stables.
    Hours later, when the hunters and hounds and handlers, dripping with damp and dispirited, returned to Buckkeep, the Queen-in-Waiting was not among them. Her noble suitor would not apologize for her being missing, saying plainly that she had sought to out-ride him, and she had. Then the king was wroth with all, and ordered up his men to go search for Caution. But before they could depart, all saw the Stablemaster Lostler ride out. Now, I have heard some minstrels say that he stood in the stable yard and proclaimed, “I will find her most swiftly, for where the Spotted Stud is, there too am I, and even in the mist our hearts call to one another.” Thus it is claimed that with his own tongue he admitted his Beast-magic, though in those days there was small shame and little danger in owning to it. But I was there and he spoke no such words. He never called attention to himself or his stuttering tongue, so never would he have made such a public announcement.
    And I will speak bluntly of the gossip that was noised about later and is still repeated even now. Some insist that the Queen-in-Waiting was never lost at all, but rode ahead of the pack and into a hidden vale, because she and the Stablemaster had decided she should do so long before the hunt. Some will say when the Stablemaster rode up to her, the mists parted to reveal her sitting on the Spotted Stud. I have heard one minstrel sing of how the mist cloaked her hair as with a thousand jewels, and tell of how pink her cheeks were with the chill. He sang, too, that she wept with joy to be found, and that when Lostler dismounted, she slid down from her own horse and into his waiting arms.
    Oh, a hundred ways have their secrets been gossiped about and yet what really happened remains their secret to this day. Did Caution deliberately lose herself in some foggy vale, knowing that Lostler would come to seek her? Did Lostler whisper to the Spotted Stud to bear her astray and keep her hidden until he could come to claim her as his own? Some will say that he whispered to Queen-in-Waiting Caution as he did to the horses and dogs in the stable, and so bespelled her with his voice that she scarcely knew what she did. Some will say that he took her roughly, with no regard for her high birth, as a stallion will take any mare he pleases. Others will say, no, she could not wait to lift her skirts and pull him down upon her. Many say that it was her first time to do so, but by no means her last.
    Since I was closer to her than any other and even I do not know the truth of any of it with certainty, I know that all the gossip and whispers are mere speculation, some of it more out of jealousy and hatefulness than any concern for the truth.
    But this much is known, and truly. As the sun was leaving the sky, home they came, and there was mud upon Caution’s skirts and twigs in her hair. She said she had taken a fall from her horse and needed some time to recover even after