The Horses Rejoice: The Horses Know Book 2 (The Horses Know Trilogy) Read online

  Mum is okay and the same as ever; proud of Robbie and Con for being such talented Earth-Singers one minute, despairing of them and their “wild ways” the next; proud of me for my strength as a Rock-Singer one day, wringing her hands the day after because I haven’t found the right man to settle down with yet; proud of you for being Horse-Bonded and a major subject of news whenever Salom comes to the village, terrified at the same time that she’s never going to see you again. We ride the storms with her as best we can.

  Nerys always asks after you when I see her, she’s waiting for the news that you’re the youngest ever qualified Herbalist! Talking of which, what will you do now that Adam has passed away? Is there someone else there who can take on your apprenticeship until you qualify? Or don’t you need to qualify now that you can multiskill? There’s so much to get my head around, I can’t think straight.

  I will do my best to sense you at sleep time little Sis, I hope I can, as we have so much to talk about.

  Love you as always,

  Kat xxxxxxxx

  2nd December 2842, The Gathering

  Dear All,

  Thanks for your letters, I hope you’re all well, and ready for whatever winter decides to throw at us this year. I’m so sorry not to have written back before, but Salom went on such a long trip after her last visit to Rockwood that she’s only just made it back here and I’ve been avoiding all the other Heralds because they’re driving me nuts! We’ve been besieged by them all wanting to hear first hand all of the details of the Woeful attack, how multiskilling was discovered, and details of rumours they have heard about Justin and me being Aware. Anyone would think we have nothing better to do than be grilled by them for hours on end.

  Anyway, the big news is that my lovely friend Quinta has achieved perfect balance! We’re all so excited as she’s been close for ages, she just had to let go of a tiny little bit of grief for her previous horse, Noble, that was stopping her from feeling exactly what Spider’s body needed from hers. She’s finding adjusting to being Aware every bit as difficult as Justin and I have done, but she’s so happy.

  Sooooooooo, the good news is that as soon as winter has passed, I can come home for a visit! I’m so excited, I’ve checked in with each of you every single night and tried to get you to feel me there, so far with no success, but at least I know that after only a few more months, I’ll be seeing you in person. I’ll be with friends as we’ll be going on one of the trips around the villages that all Horse-Bonded have to make, so I won’t be able to stay too long, but I promise it will be long enough to catch up on everything.

  I can’t wait until then to say to you, Dad, that it’s bonkers for you to think that you let me and Infinity down when the Woeful attacked. I’ve been here at The Gathering because it’s where I’ve needed to be and you accepted that, despite the fact that I left you all in the way I did – so, far from letting me down, you’ve been amazing.

  I am enclosing another letter for Katonia (more sister stuff!)

  I love you all and I can’t wait to see you.

  Amarilla xxxxx

  2nd December 2842, The Gathering

  Dear Kat,

  I’m sorry to hear about you and Greg. I was surprised at first, as from your letters he sounded perfect for you, but I think you’re right to listen to your restlessness. I know what it’s like to feel like that – it’s how I felt from the time I first dreamt of Infinity to when she finally tugged me.

  I haven’t lied in my other letter about why my friends and I will be visiting Rockwood, but I haven’t told the whole truth either – now that Quinta can take my place teaching, Infinity and I are free to go and find the Woeful. We’ll give the impression of just being on a trip visiting villages to offer the horses’ advice and to help people to open up to multiskilling, but I wanted you to know what we’ll really be up to.

  Rowena and Oak will be coming (she warned me against even trying to leave without them), as are Marvel and Broad (Marvel would follow Rowena to the moon and back) and then there will be Jack with Candour and Vickery with Verve (Jack and Vickery were members of the group we stopped from going off to hunt the Woeful, funnily enough. Neither is comfortable staying at The Gathering for long anymore, so they both asked if they could come) and I think two from my teaching groups will be coming – Sonja with Bright and Aleks with Nexus. Sonja’s a joy to teach, but Aleks is difficult. I could do without him coming, to be honest, but I can feel how hard Nexus is working to try to keep him moving in the right direction, so I need to give them the help they ask for.

  You’ll be disappointed to know that Justin won’t be coming. It would be too much for Quinta to be the only one with perfect balance left teaching at The Gathering, especially when she’s only just found it, so Justin is needed there. He’s not happy about it but he knows that I’ve waited as long as I can and I need to be on my way. As for telling you everything about him, well you already know what he looks like as I’ve told you about all of my friends and their horses. You know he’s bonded to Gas and you know that he and I are very good friends – and that’s all there is to tell. We both know how we feel about one another (and about everything else, come to that, seeing as we’re both Aware!) but Justin has this ridiculous, outdated idea of chivalry that he won’t be talked out of. He’s ten years older than I am, and apparently there are lines that aren’t going to be crossed until I’m older. Exasperating doesn’t even cover it! Rowena thinks it’s hilarious.

  You asked what being Aware is like... well when someone sits down beside you for dinner Kat, you’re just aware that they are there. I’m Aware of the day they’ve had, how they’re feeling, their plans for the evening and all of the other thoughts that are uppermost in their mind. I can know a whole lot more if I delve deeper, but I’d never do that unless I was asked – in fact I try to block out as much as I can from people so I don’t discover things they wouldn’t want me to know. When a fly lands on me, I’m Aware of everything it’s landed on recently, what it’s looking for, what it senses. Oh, and I can be Aware of anyone who has passed on from this world if I think of them. So yes, you’re absolutely right when you say that being Aware is being aware on a whole new level!

  When you see Nerys, please tell her that Adam pronounced me a qualified Herbalist before he died – I should have said, but that news seemed insignificant in the light of everything else.

  I can’t wait to see you Sis, we have so much to talk about. I nudge your mind every night in case you can sense me, but I hold myself back from your thoughts and feelings, as they’re private. You’ll have loads to tell me, particularly about whether you know what your restlessness is about yet.

  With all my love as always,

  Am xxxxxxxxxxx

  28th February 2843, Nixonhouse, Rockwood

  HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY AMARILLA, FROM US ALL!!!!

  We’re so excited that you’re coming to visit in spring! We don’t know exactly when you’ll be coming, so we thought we’d write you an 18th birthday wish on your birthday. We’ll either give it to Salom to take to you if she passes through soon, or hopefully, we’ll be able to give it to you in person when you visit.

  We love you and we can’t wait to see you and Infinity very soon!

  Dad, Mum, Kat, Robbie and Con xxxxx

  One

  Mission

  She’s muttering to herself again,’ I heard Aleks say. ‘How do we know that she’s really Aware, and not just mental?’

  ‘Well what do you think, Aleks? I mean, really think? Deep down?’ said Jack, sharply.

  There was a pause and I realised I was holding my breath.

  Aleks sighed. ‘I trust her,’ he muttered. ‘And even if I didn’t, Nexus does. It’s just hard, blindly following a young girl on a crackpot mission to befriend monsters who will likely kill us all as soon as look at us, especially when all that said girl seems to do is mutter to herself.’

  ‘You volunteered to come with us, Aleks, and you and Nexus can leave any time you like – but I w
ould remind you that Amarilla also spends a decent amount of time teaching you to ride Nexus better and you are both continuing to improve in balance whilst on this “crackpot mission” as a result. So either stay and offer support and strength to the group, or leave,’ said Jack.

  He Who Is Candour was a wise choice of travelling companion, noted Infinity.

  I sighed and nodded. I can’t blame Aleks for doubting my sanity though, I question it myself sometimes.

  You have yet to master your new Awareness and you have removed yourself from the company of those with whom you share it, I was informed.

  Justin and Quinta had to stay behind to teach our students, I protested.

  There was no hurry for you to leave.

  I thought of the impatience I had been feeling during the year since achieving perfect balance and the knowledge of my oneness with All That Is that came along with it. I could be Aware of any of the other parts of All That Is whenever I chose, be it human, cloud, snowflake, pollen grain, horse, Woeful... The Woeful. The source of my impatience.

  I hung on as long as I could, Fin, you know that, I told her.

  But longer would have been better, and you know that! Justin’s thoughts crashed into my mind.

  I smiled. I know nothing of the sort, I thought back to him, unable to stop my lips from muttering the words as I did so.

  Well I miss you. Quinta’s a good instructor and becoming even better now, but it’s not the same here without you and Fin.

  As soon as the next person achieves perfect balance, they can take your place teaching alongside Quinta and you can come on after us.

  Give us a chance, you’ve only been gone a week! And Gas isn’t helping at all – every time I ask him to help me demonstrate something, he demonstrates what he happens to want to do that day, whether it’s helpful to my students or not. He denies it but I know how much he loves it when everyone gasps at what he can do!

  I laughed out loud and then stopped abruptly when I realised that all conversation between the riders behind me had quietened.

  I miss you and Gas too, Jus, you know that, but you also know how much I need to do this!

  I felt his acceptance that what I said was true.

  Take care, Am. A wave of love accompanied his words and I returned a wave of my own. I felt his spirits lift as I turned my attention back to Infinity.

  You told me that I would be the first human capable of fully expressing my soul through my personality, well this is me doing exactly that, I told her. My soul speaks to me of the one thing that drew me back to my body when I could have left it – my concern for the Woeful. I’m going to find them and help them.

  I felt Infinity scrutinizing my mind with interest.

  What? I asked her.

  I expected to find interesting the consequences of a human who has found the necessary Awareness to allow her soul to be expressed through her personality. It is so. To begin with you had a tendency to deny your humanity. You ignored or counselled yourself out of experiencing human thoughts and feelings. Now that you have progressed to allowing yourself to live as a human you are developing a tendency to attribute every thought and feeling you have as originating from your soul.

  Fin, are you trying to say that I am mistaken in thinking that my mission to help the Woeful is in line with my soul’s wishes?

  Do you attempt to convince me that you do not already know?

  ‘DAMMIT!’ I shouted and then looked to my fellow travellers.

  Aleks sighed loudly and raked a hand through his dark curly hair as he always did when he was annoyed, as his grey mare, Nexus, came to a halt beneath him. Blond-haired Jack glared across at Aleks from dapple-grey Candour’s back, his piercing blue eyes saying more than any words could have. Rowena’s eyebrows were raised in question above her dark eyes. She tucked a stray wisp of her long, black hair behind her ear as she turned to watch tall, handsome Marvel rein Broad, his tall, solid bay, in alongside Oak, her black stallion. Behind them, red-haired, freckled Sonja brought her dark bay, Bright, to a halt beside blond, stocky Vickery’s white stallion, Verve.

  ‘Infinity and I need a little time on our own, very sorry, we’ll be back soon,’ I told them all and tried to ignore their rolled eyes and looks of confusion as Infinity spun and took off into the trees at a canter.

  Infinity’s black and white ears flicked back and forth, ever alert to her surroundings as we weaved effortlessly between the trees. When we reached a small, sunlit glade, Infinity slowed to a graceful halt and I jumped from her back and began to pace back and forth while she nibbled at the vibrantly green spring grass.

  As Infinity had just reminded me, I hadn’t exactly blossomed as a result of achieving perfect balance. I had become so entranced and distracted with everything of which I had realised I was Aware – the infinite peace and wisdom of the horses, the exact origins of the myriad of scents on a given breeze, the energy currents that drew animals to follow the behaviours of their species, the intermittent interest in the physical from those who had passed into the realms of the non-physical, the thoughts and feelings of those around me – that I had struggled to care about anything beyond that. I had absented myself from thinking or feeling anything human. Infinity had let me be that way for a while and my friends had only commented in passing that I seemed a little distant, with the exception of Justin, who I knew was experiencing as much wonder and confusion as I was.

  As time went on, Infinity had nudged my mind when she felt me distancing myself from my humanity, and my friends had been a bit more pointed in their remarks, Rowena in particular. It was when she told me that she couldn’t blame some of my students for asking to change to a different instructor due to my distracted, lackadaisical air, that I began to pull myself back into my life as a human being.

  I threw myself into my teaching with a passion. My Awareness of those I taught meant that I knew what held them back from being able to give everything of themselves to their riding – whether it be a mental block, a physical lack of strength or coordination, or an emotional hindrance, such as fear of failure, physical harm or of embarrassing themselves in front of their friends – and I did all I could to try to help them to push past their blocks, so that they and their horses edged ever closer to achieving perfect balance. I knew that when someone reached that point, I could leave and do what my soul was calling for me to do – to help the Woeful. And now that I was doing it, Infinity was telling me that that wasn’t what my soul wanted at all?

  When we left our bodies, when we were just thought, you told me that if I returned to my body and used it to change the way the Woeful are perceived and treated, there would be enormous evolutionary potential for humans. I can feel that the one thing that ties my soul to continue inhabiting a human body relates to my concern for the Woeful. I am acting on what you told me and on how I feel, and yet somehow this is wrong? I challenged Infinity.

  We are always just thought. You know this, she replied.

  I don’t even know my own name sometimes. When we left our bodies and floated in All That Is, I remember thinking that everything was so easy, so uncomplicated. I couldn’t think why anything here should have bothered me the way it did, why anything should have mattered to me. I remember that experience and I remember how I felt, so why can’t I just be like that now I’m back in my body? Why is everything so hard? When you said I’d be able to express my soul through my personality, I thought I’d be able to live my life as you do, always knowing everything I would need to know, but I’m still getting it all wrong!

  I did not say it would be easy.

  No, you didn’t, you left that part out.

  Would it have changed your decision had you realised?

  What, that being Aware would mean being on permanent sensory overload while still trying to live life as a normal, socially acceptable human being? I sighed. No, it wouldn’t have changed my decision. I need help though, Fin. I don’t understand what it is that you’re saying I’m doing wrong.

 
; How old were you when you first sensed me?

  Twelve. I sensed you once you were born.

  And when you had a more definite idea of my existence?

  I was fourteen. You told me that I was able to sense you more definitely when you began to consider your purpose here – when you began to consider me.

  I knew you were the one. I knew that we would find each other. I knew that we would achieve our goal. How long passed until I reached for you?

  You left it another two years.

  Infinity stilled within my mind. I thought of my concerns about how the Woeful had been so badly treated in the past and how vulnerable their existence must be for them to have been desperate enough to brave a river crossing and attack a settlement, as they had when they attacked The Gathering. Their plight was something that needed to be addressed, of that much I was still certain. I thought back to when I had been out of my body and considering why helping the Woeful was important and I remembered how I had felt – a calm knowing that it was the right thing to do. I hadn’t felt restless, worried or impatient. I understood.

  The plight of the Woeful is something that needs addressing. That is my soul’s desire. The impatience to get on with it, the worry I feel, that is coming from my personality. It isn’t necessary and it isn’t helpful, I told myself as much as I did Infinity. If I’d allowed myself to know that the issue will be addressed and dealt with in good time, I could have saved myself and my friends a whole load of hassle. I could have waited until Justin could come with me, but I’ve gone storming off ahead and made things more difficult than they needed to be for all of us. Oh Fin, I’m making a mess of it all aren’t I?

  That will depend on how you proceed henceforth.