Victory Keep: Chapter 6

As soon as she was weaned, and no longer taken down to Xorie, Katrina began to make her own way down to the centaurs' chamber.

The first time, she gave up when she reached the top of the first spiral staircase, frightened by the prospect of trying to toddle down it alone.  The second time, she was caught and taken back to bed, where she lay listening to Lady Malcolm chastising the guards whom she had so cleverly avoided.  The third time, she made it down two flights of stairs before deciding that she could go no further, and settling down to sleep in the stone corridor.  It was Sarah who found her and took her back up to her bedroom, clutching the child to her chest like a stolen bundle and staring wildly around her at every turn.

'Now then, little missy, what do you think you are doing sleeping out of your bed like that?' said Sarah, once Katrina was safely back in her bed.  'You could have been trodden on, or tumbled down the stairs.'

'Nurse,' said Katrina.

'No, my lovely, you know you have your milk from a cup now like a grown up girl.'

Katrina had neither the will nor the words to pursue the matter, so she let it lie for the time being.  When nightfall came, however, she made her fourth attempt to get to Xorie.  She descended two flights of stairs, treading carefully and clutching the wall on her right, where the stairs were wider.  Then she came to the final flight of stairs and carried on downwards.  After that, it was a simple matter of toddling over the grass to the centaurs' chamber.  She knew the way, as she had been taken there four times a day for so long.

Both centaurs were asleep.  Katrina, feeling very tired herself, went and snuggled up to Xorie's left flank and shut her eyes.  Xorie awoke in the morning to the feel of the child's heat and weight against her side.  When she saw Katrina, she had not the heart to wake her, or even to move.

When Fipp woke, the first words her spoke to his mother were, 'What's she doing there?'

'I suppose she must miss me,' said Xorie.

'Fair enough too,' said Fipp, 'when you think what you used to do for her.  The whole castle will be looking for her.  Perhaps I'd better go and tell them she's here.'

His assessment of the situation had been no exaggeration, for the whole castle was indeed looking for Katrina.  Fipp wandered past the people looking in the well, and the outbuildings, and all over the stables, and even in the moat.  No less than four intrepid guards had braved those unclean waters, searching for the king's poor drowned ward.  Fipp did not speak to any of them.  He knew who he was looking for, and at last found him trying to calm a crying woman.

'Edgar,' said Fipp.  'I'm sorry to interrupt, but I know where Katrina is.'

'Oh, marvellous!' said Edgar.  'That is a relief, I must say.'

The woman stopped crying.  'Where is she?'

'In our room,' she Fipp.  'She must have wandered down in the night.'

'Tut,' said Edgar.  'Did no one think to look there?  It makes sense, of course.  The poor child has been deprived of more than just a food source, I fear.'

'Is she all right?' the woman asked Fipp.

'Yes,' said Fipp.  'She's fine.  She's just been sleeping.'

'Let us go and retrieve her, your majesty,' said Edgar.  'Lead the way, Fipp.'

When he heard the expression 'your majesty', Fipp realised the woman must have been the queen.  He thought of Lady Malcolm's lessons on royal etiquette and wondered whether he ought to make some kind of apology for not recognising her, or at least bow to her.  He decided, however, simply to follow Edgar's instructions and lead the way.

The queen's reunion with her husband's ward (for Katrina was never referred to as the king and queen's ward) was tearful on her part, and emotionless on the part of the child.  Xorie, Fipp and Edgar all stood and watched as the queen cuddled and wept and scolded, to no particular response.

When at last the queen seemed to think she had hugged Katrina enough, she turned to Xorie and said, 'Forgive me.  I did not know you were the child's wet nurse.  I am sorry not to have met you before, and of course your dear boy.'

'Well,' said Xorie, 'you are too busy to meet everyone who comes here, I am sure.'

'I am not so busy as that,' said the queen.  'Now then, as you cannot be a frequent visitor to the nursery, it is hardly surprising that Katrina has missed you.  She must be brought to see you whenever she wishes.  Edgar, kindly go and tell Lady Malcolm that it must be so.'

Edgar bowed low, and then left the room without comment.

'I was missing the child as well,' said Xorie.  'I shall be glad to see her sometimes.'

'Mother,' said Fipp, in a low voice.

'Yes, my darling?' said Xorie.

'You ought to call her "your majesty", and I think perhaps you ought to speak only when spoken to, as it's her.  I mean, her royal majesty the Queen, um…'

'Darling,' said Xorie, 'you shouldn't listen to human nonsense.  You won't remember, as you were just a baby, but Edgar and I agreed that I was only here as a favour.'

'Your mother needn't observe our customs, dear child,' said the queen, 'for I have heard that centaurs have their own ways.  Still, I am very glad that you are learning our ways.'

'I am not glad,' said Xorie.

'Mother,' said Fipp, 'please, don't get into an argument with the queen.'

At this the queen laughed, and said, 'Fear not, young centaur, for today I am so glad to have found my young charge that I do not feel like arguing with anyone.  Now then, I must take her back to Lady Malcolm, but she will be brought to see you tomorrow.  Farewell, my friends.'

'She's nice,' said Fipp, once the queen had left.

'Darling,' said Xorie, 'I am not expected to behave in the silly way that humans do, even by the queen herself, and you must not do so either.  Haven't I told you about mutual respect?  Haven't I told you that all centaurs are equal to each other, and no other creature is better than us?'

'Yes,' said Fipp, 'but Mother… there are no other centaurs here.  We are living with humans, and I don't want to make enemies.'

'If these creatures wish to call you enemy for not treating them as your betters,' said Xorie, 'then I would much rather you did make enemies.  I still don't know what you did to upset the prince, but I am sure it was not much.  Let me tell you a little more about how centaurs live.  You'll soon see that it is better.'

'Why tell me about what's better than here?' said Fipp.  'There's no point.  This is where we are, and this is what we have to live with.'

Xorie was struck by these words, but it was a very long time before she acted on them.  She sometimes thought that she should take her son away, but it was difficult not to stay when they were both able to live comfortably in exchange for her suckling the foals.  The alternative was a wide world in which Xorie did not know where she might be welcomed, but only where she would not.

There were, of course, other reasons to stay.  One was Edgar, now a good friend to both centaurs, and another was Katrina.  When the child came down for her morning visits she used to play outside with Fipp, rolling on the yellowed grass in the summer and kicking up leaves in the autumn.  In the winter they threw snow at each other, Fipp sometimes kicking it up with his back legs and almost covering the small girl.  At this point Xorie would bring her into the hut, lie down with the child sitting by her and wrap her in a piece of cloth that she kept warming over the small open fire.

'I used to kick snow at my friends as a child,' said Xorie.  'Of course, they were centaurs too, and they could kick back just as hard.'

'Weren't you a child here?' asked Katrina.

'No, love.'

'Then where?'

'Not far from here, in the forest.'

Fipp kicked the snow off his hoofs in the doorway, and then settled down near to the fire.  Xorie looked at him, thinking.  He had never asked to hear about her childhood, or any part of her life before.

'Some centaurs like to live out in the open, Katrina,' said Xorie, 'but in the winter it's better to have a little hut like this to go into.  This one was built by centaurs.  In fact, most of the castle was built by centaurs.  Did you know that?'

'No,' said Katrina.  'Why did they build it?  For the humans?'

'Certainly not,' said Xorie.  'They built it for themselves.  Then there was a war, between centaurs and humans.'

'And the humans won,' said Katrina, her tone matter-of-fact, as though she was familiar with such stories and knew very well how they ended.

'Not exactly,' said Xorie.  'There was so much killing.  Humans were killing centaurs, and centaurs were killing humans.  It looked like it would never end.  It was the centaurs who decided that there must be no more killing.  They gave up the castle so that the fighting would stop.'

'They surrendered,' said Katrina.  'The humans won.'

'The centaurs had the moral victory.  We are a peaceful race.  My people did not start the war, but they finished it.'

'Mother,' said Fipp.  'When was this war?'

'It was very recently, my darling,' said Xorie.  'The current king's father led the humans.'

'Didn't the centaurs ever build another castle?' asked Katrina.

'No, my sweet, because they knew that the greedy humans would come and take it, just as they did the last one.  Do you know why this place is called Victory Keep?  It is the humans' way of remembering how they took it by force from a peaceful race.'

'What was it called before?' asked Fipp.

'The fortress.'

'Is that all?'

'What more does it need?'

'What about the town?' asked Katrina.  'Did the centaurs build the fortress near a human town?  If they did, I think that was very silly.'

'What a clever question, my love,' said Xorie.

With a shrug, Katrina said, 'Edgar tells me about taxing the townspeople, and what the local traders do for us.  A castle has to be near a town or it has no income.'

'Good for Edgar.  And do you also learn sewing, and other ladylike pursuits?'

'Yes.  Sarah teaches me to sew.'

'They shouldn't make you learn such things,' said Xorie.  'You should only do them if you enjoy them.  If you are interested in politics, keep asking Edgar to teach you.  And to answer your question, my sweet, the town was not there before.  It is brand new.  When the humans had the castle, they spoilt the countryside around it to build the town so that other humans could live there, and would have to pay their taxes.  Taxes are a terrible thing, my sweet, as though land and people can be owned.  Did Edgar tell you that?'

'Mother,' said Fipp.  'Please don't give her too many ideas.  You'll upset Lady Malcolm.'

'I should be only too happy to upset Lady Malcolm.'

Katrina giggled.

'But perhaps I have said enough for now,' Xorie said.  'Now, Katrina, what shall we do?'

'I want to go to the stables,' Katrina said.

Xorie raised her eyebrows.  'To ride Starlight?'

'Just Star,' said Katrina.  'I don't call her Starlight - it's silly.'

'Do you think it acceptable to ride on the back of another animal, Katrina, and try to control it?'

'If it doesn't mind,' said Katrina.  'Star likes me to ride her.'

Looking at his mother, Fipp said, 'What a very sensible answer.  Come on then, Trina, I'll take you to the stables.  It's so cold, I could do with a good run around.'

After this, it became routine for Xorie to tell a story or two about centaurs each morning, as Katrina enjoyed them so much.  She also wanted to know about the other animals of the forest, and the fairy folk, whom she seemed to find fascinating.  She loved to hear about flower fairies and dryads, and began to demand stories about them as well.

'I don't know any,' said Xorie.  'I didn't know them personally.'

'But you saw them?'

'Sometimes.  They are secretive people.'

Fipp was not there that morning, as he had decided to pay a visit to the stables.  Xorie did not know what he did there, and did not want to know.  She even began to wonder if he was finding himself drawn to the mares, but she soon dismissed the idea, as he was still so young.  Still, she thought, it was something to watch out for in the future.

'We have trees and flowers in the castle grounds,' said Katrina.  'Are there fairies and dryads here?'

'Possibly,' said Xorie.  'I have never seen them.  I shouldn't think they like it here much.'

'Why?'

'It isn't suited to them.'

'But it's suited to you?'

'Fipp and I get on here well enough,' said Xorie, taking a handful of Katrina's hair and combing and plaiting it with her fingers, as she used to do with her sisters' tails.  'But I would have stayed in the forest if I could.  I made a friend of someone the other centaurs didn't like, and in the end I had to leave.'

'Oh, forbidden love!' said Katrina, her eyes lighting up.

Xorie laughed.  'You are fond of stories, aren't you, my pet?  Yes, it was forbidden indeed.  It wasn't so very long ago, so I was old enough to know better.  I knew he was wrong for me really.  Wrong for anyone.'

'What was wrong with him?'

'Well, for whatever reason, he seemed more human than centaur.  He liked human ideas.  You know, money and property and ownership, and eventually he even started disguising himself as a human and associating with them.'

'Disguising himself as a human?'  Katrina wrinkled her nose in disbelief.  'How?'

'Well, a human on a horse,' said Xorie.  'Try to imagine it, love.  It was very clever.'

'All right.'  She still sounded dubious.  'And then what did he do?'

'I'm not sure.  I think he started trading.  You know more about that than I do, my sweet - I've no idea how these things work.'

'Does he still do it?' asked Katrina.  'Does he pretend to be human now?  Where does he live?  What happens if he's expected to get off his horse?'

'Love,' said Xorie, 'I don't know.'  She dropped the child's hair.  'That's enough stories for today, my sweet.  Why don't you go and see Star?'

Katrina went, her feet taking her thoughtlessly across the grass while her eyes saw only what was in her imagination.  Fairies, dryads… a centaur disguised as a man on horseback!  She was trying to visualise it when she bumped into Fipp's side and stumbled.

'Careful,' said Fipp, as she steadied herself on his back.  'What were you thinking about?'

'Nothing.'

Katrina stepped back, looked at Fipp and tried to imagine him with false human legs strapped to his sides.

'Fipp,' she said, 'Do you want to go to the forest?'

'What for?' he asked.

'Have a look round.'

'Not particularly.'

'Fair enough.'

Katrina said no more on the matter, but kept her thoughts to herself as they came to her thick and fast, little devils whispering in her ear and refusing to leave her in peace.