Page 9 of A King's Oath

“He will love you now.”

This time, he didn’t have to hold her palm. Even though she pushed her body away and winced with one eye closed, Ava bravely held up the peanut butter-coated apple slice to Cherry and he gobbled it up, the crunch a happy echo in the stables.

His feet began to trot again and Ava jumped up and down — “Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Hi,” she cooed to Cherry. In response, his horse neighed.

“Hi,” her voice softened, and Samarth had to lean down to again see her expression. It was that soft one she used to look at him. And he unreasonably felt jealous of his horse.

“One more,” she demanded.

“Last one,” Samarth handed her the last quarter coated in peanut butter. “If Coach finds out I have been feeding him treats before practise then I am dead meat.”

This time Ava did not stretch away. She carefully stepped closer and held her hand up. Cherry ate it up. It was his Diwali today — a pretty girl and apples with peanut butter. He neighed, pushing his face close to her. Ava shrunk back.

“Nothing,” Samarth laughed, holding her close to his chest. “He wants you to caress him. See? Like this. Between the eyes.”

He finished a few long caresses between his eyes then scratched his jaw, patting him behind the ear in that exact tap of rhythm he liked. Cherry was a happy boy today.

“I think this is enough…” she said hesitantly.

“If you are making him a friend, make him your friend for a lifetime. Come,” Samarth held her small hand and used it to caress Cherry’s head.

“It’s so soft…” she murmured.

“It’s also fun brushing his coat until it shines.”

“Oh…kay,” she chuckled. “One step at a time.”

“Done,” Samarth declared, glancing into her eyes that turned up to stare at his. Something stopped. Maybe it was the wind. Or thesounds around him. Ava’s eyes remained unblinking, staring at him, just as his remained on hers. What was this? Why was this so…good?

Cherry let out a piercing neigh and they startled back. The neigh was so loud that it set off the neighs of his other horses from the nearby stalls.

Samarth quickly moved away, patting away in a line.

“Here, here, I am here! Hi. Here,” he caressed the muzzle of his second horse. “Sujan, I’m going to get you your treat after practise…”

“You won’t practise with him… umm, Cherry?” Ava asked.

“I will,” he gave Sujan a pat and moved to his third horse, meeting the overeager face of his thoroughbred mare — Bella.

“But you just told your other horse you will practise with him…”

“I practise with four horses. We all do. Each one of us has four of our own horses. Mine are Cherry, Sujan, this is Bella,” he patted her neck. “And that one over there is Bodhi.”

“Why do you need four horses?”

“Polo is an exhausting game. One horse can only sustain it for 7-8 minutes at a time. We finish one chukker and switch horses…”

“Chukker?”

“Like a round. One round is called a chukker. We change horses after every round because they do the running. They need to catch their breath,” Samarth smiled up into the black eyes of his fourth and final horse, the youngest of the lot — Bodhi. He reached out and nuzzled the side of his face, knowing he liked more physical contact. Samarth loved the physical contact too. But not all his horses enjoyed it as much as Bodhi did.

The stables suddenly fell silent. Except for the occasional neighs and breaths of the horses, he couldn’t hear anything. Not the chatterbox voice of his bench partner… ex-bench partner.

Samarth turned, panicked she had left. But she was still there, right there, rooted to her spot, eyes on him. Expression softened tothatone. His one. He stilled, letting Bodhi’s face go and turning completely to meet Ava’s unblinking eyes. And again that thing happened. The wind stopped. Inside as well as outside him.

He stared unblinking at her.

Cherry let out another long whine. Samarth startled.

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