Counting Shadows (Duplicity)

were out of sight from the stables. The scars on his back clearly show, and I mentally keep kicking at myself for staring at them. I can’t help but wonder if he lost his ability to feel pain before or after his wings were torn off.
    Lor jerks at his stallion’s reins a couple times. He doesn’t seem to realize that pulling backward is a signal to stop, and he kicks at the horse’s flanks as the stallion tries to slow down.
    “You’re lucky you picked the only stallion in the stables about to drop dead from old age,” I call back to him. He’s rapidly falling behind me, and I have to raise my voice more than before. “Otherwise, he’d have trampled you to death by now. You can’t just kick horses like that.”
    “What is it with you threatening me with trampling deaths?” Lor calls back. He heaves a frustrated sigh and drops the reins, throwing his hands up like he doesn’t even want to touch them anymore. The stallion shakes his head back and forth, feeling the freedom Lor has just given him. Then he lowers his neck and nibbles at something in the sand.
    I guide Tamal in a half-circle and urge him to canter back toward Lor. Lor’s eyes grow wide at our fast approach, and he eyes my hands on the reins.
    “Relax.” I pull Tamal to a halt just a couple feet away from Lor’s stallion. It’s much closer than I need to be, and I’m rewarded when Lor swallows hard and shudders. “I’m not going to trample you,” I say. “Unlike you, I know how to ride a horse.”
    Lor clears his throat, although the sound is weak. “Why do you ride differently from the other women here?” he asks. “They all ride like they’re getting ready to jump off at any moment.” He looks down at his horse and makes a face. “Which is actually pretty smart.”
    I roll my eyes and reach over to snatch Lor’s reins. We’ve made it to the beach, and no one is here to see us. I can guide Lor now, without anyone getting upset about a ‘lady’ doing a man’s duty.
    “It’s called riding side-saddle,” I reply as I tie Lor’s reins to the horn of my saddle. I give them a tug, ensuring they’re secure, and then nudge my horse forward. “It’s custom for women to ride like that. And it’s horribly uncomfortable, ridiculous, and even dangerous.”
    Lor just nods his head, as if this doesn’t surprise him. “That sounds like the kind of custom your people would have.”
    I glare at him, but I can’t bother myself with a retort. Because he’s right; my country’s customs do tend to be uncomfortable, ridiculous, and even dangerous. Our eternal Guardians, and poofy dresses, and Matches make us…
different
. But somehow I’m convinced it’s a good different. The kind that feels familiar. The kind I wouldn’t like to see end anytime soon.
    I shudder, my thoughts drifting to Shale. And to my choice.
    “Where are we going?” Lor asks when I don’t respond. He’s frowning down at his stallion, and trying to steer him by repeatedly kicking his flanks. The poor animal has figured out that ignoring Lor is the best option, and plods along after Tamal.
    “You wanted to get out.” I make a broad gesture with my hand to our surroundings. The salt-and-pepper sand. The wispy clouds overhead that block out the sun. The pounding surf just yards away. “So we’re out.”
    Lor makes that little grunting noise in the back of his throat. I can hear the displeasure in it, and I know that his version of ‘getting out’ includes something a little more exiting. Or at least something that doesn’t involve horses.
    Our mounts trudge along down the beach, their footsteps creating soft sucking sounds in the damp sand. We both allow silence to overtake our feeble attempt at a conversation. Lor is brooding, I can tell. As cocky as he tries to appear, he’s upset about the whole situation. He doesn’t like being trapped as my Guardian.
    He continues to glare at the vambrace around his forearm. He despises it, and I don’t have to ask to know. It’s what binds him to me, what keeps him from running away.
    “I’m still not convinced the vambrace’s magic is real,” he’d told me the other day.
    “Why?”
    “Human magic doesn’t last that long,” Lor said. He tapped the vambrace. “That spell probably faded from this thing centuries ago. If it ever existed.”
    I’d raised an eyebrow at him. “You want to test that theory?” And that shut him up.
    I sigh and shake away the memory. It’s strange to think that he