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

handsome man, well muscled, tall and raven-haired. When the Queen-in-Waiting glanced at him, he blushed like a maid, and sank to one knee before her, bowing his head, and his thick black hair fell like a mane, cloaking him from her gaze. The fall of his hair bared the nape of his neck, and it was pale and downy as an infant’s.
    “Stop,” said Caution to her ladies. “There is something here I wish to look at.”
    One of the ladies, thinking to prove her wit, pointed at the stud and said, “Oh, so that’s what became of that blanket with the holes burned in it; they’ve used it to make a horse.”
    Another, vying for favor, said, “No, not at all. ‘Tis but a spotted cow with a horse’s halter on his head.”
    A third said, “Behold, not a cow nor a blanket, but a white cheese gone to black mould.”
    All laughed far louder than such jests merited, expecting to win Queen-in-Waiting Caution’s laughter as well. But instead she spoke in a terrible voice, harsh and cold. “Silence, you fools! Never before have I beheld a creature as perfect as this one.”
    But when she spoke her eyes were not on the stallion, nor on his Chalcedean owner, but instead on the young man who gripped the Spotted Stud’s halter. There and on that spot, she declared that she would buy the beast. When the deal was closed and the gold passed, she had bought not just the Spotted Stud, but the man who held his halter, and this despite the laws of the Six Duchies against the buying or selling of a man. Slave he had been to the Chalcedean, but she in that moment raised him to free man and servant.
    His name was Lostler. Now some will say that his name was Sly, and some will even call him Sly o’ the Wit when they sing of him. I never heard him called by such a name. The flaw of his mouth made him prone to soft speech and shy ways; yet for all that he was a man, as hard-muscled and strong-willed as his horse. Soon all would come to know that as well.
    Before the month was out, the Stablemaster of Buckkeep stood before the Queen-in-Waiting, begging her to be rid of the spotted horse. The stud would not tolerate anyone to handle him, save Lostler. The other stallions in their stalls screamed and snorted at his presence and could not be calmed, save by Lostler. The Spotted Stud leaped a fence and serviced three mares that were to have been bred to another—nor would he leave them until Lostler came to fetch him away. “Be rid of one stallion, for the good of your entire stable,” the Stablemaster told her.
    To all this the Queen-in-Waiting listened and then she said, “It is not one stallion we need to be rid of, but one Stablemaster. By your own words, Lostler does your work for you. Be gone, then, and let Lostler master my stable and horses for me.”
    So it came to be, for even in this matter her father the king did not oppose her, but let go the man he had himself raised to Stablemaster a decade before and allowed Queen-in-Waiting Caution to put her own servant in his place.
    Now let the truth be told. Lostler was a man with what some folk thought a gift in those days. He could whisper in the tongues of beasts, and so bend nearly any animal to his will. Some call this magic the Wit, and some speak of such a man as having the Old Blood, the blood that beasts and men once shared. It was no shame, in those days—not for one to have the Wit nor for one to use it. Some folk said then that much good could come of that magic. Certainly in the year that followed it is true that both horses and dogs in the stables prospered and many a sickly beast was cured and many a vicious animal made gentle. Many and many a spotted foal was born, for the blood of the Spotted Stud proved strong when mingled with the Buckkeep stock.
    Whenever the Queen-in Waiting wished to ride out, Lostler prepared her horse for her, and held her stirrup for her to mount, and softly answered all questions she brought to him regarding her horse. She began to ride daily, even