Lords and Ladies

But the breath of the riders did not.
    “And this time,” said the figure in the center, a woman in red, “there will be no defeat. The land will welcome us. It must hate humans now.”
    “But there were witches,” said one of the other riders. “I remember the witches.”
    “Once, yes,” said the woman. “But now…poor things, poor things. Scarce any power in them at all. And suggestible. Pliant minds. I have crept about, my deary. I have crept about o’ nights. I know the witches they have now. Leave the witches to me.”
    “I remember the witches,” said the third rider insistently. “Minds like…like metal.”
    “Not anymore. I tell you, leave them to me.”
    The Queen smiled benevolently at the stone circle.
    “And then you can have them,” she said. “For me, I rather fancy a mortal husband. A special mortal. A union of the worlds. To show them that this time we mean to stay.”
    “The King will not like that.”
    “And when has that ever mattered?”
    “Never, lady.”
    “The time is right, Lankin. The circles are opening. Soon we can return.”
    The second rider leaned on the saddlehorn.
    “And I can hunt again,” it said. “When? When? ”
    “Soon,” said the Queen. “Soon.”

    It was a dark night, the kind of darkness which is not simply explainable by absence of moon or stars, but the darkness that appears to flow in from somewhere else—so thick and tangible that maybe you could snatch a handful of air and squeeze the night out of it.
    It was the kind of darkness which causes sheep to leap fences and dogs to skulk in kennels.
    Yet the wind was warm, and not so much strong as loud—it howled around the forests and wailed in chimneys.
    On nights like this, normal people would pull the covers over their head, sensing that there were times when the world belonged to something else. In the morning it would be human again; there would be fallen branches, a few tiles off the roof, but human. For now…better to snuggle down…
    But there was one man awake.
    Jason Ogg, master blacksmith and farrier, pumped the bellows of his forge once or twice for the look of the thing, and sat down on his anvil again. It was always warm in the forge, even with the wind whistling around the eaves.
    He could shoe anything, could Jason Ogg. They’d brought him an ant once, for a joke, and he’d sat up all night with a magnifying glass and an anvil made out of the head of a pin. The ant was still around, somewhere—sometimes he could hear it clatter across the floor.
    But tonight…well, tonight, in some way, he was going to pay the rent. Of course, he owned the forge. It had been passed down for generations. But there was more to a forge than bricks and mortar and iron. He couldn’t put a name to it, but it was there. It was the difference between being a master farrier and just someone who bent iron in complicated ways for a living. And it had something to do with iron. And something to do with being allowed to be very good at his job. Some kind of rent.
    One day his dad had taken him aside and explained what he had to do, on nights like this.
    There’d be times, he said, there’d be times—and he’d know when they were without being told—there’d be times when someone would come with a horse to shoe. Make them welcome. Shoe the horse. Don’t let your mind wander. And try not to think about anything except horseshoes.
    He’d got quite used to it now.
    The wind rose, and somewhere there was the creak of a tree going over.
    The latch rattled.
    Then there was a knock at the door. Once. Twice.
    Jason Ogg picked up his blindfold and put it on. That was important, his dad had said. It saved you getting distracted.
    He undid the door.
    “Evening, m’lord,” he said.
    A WILD NIGHT.
    He smelled wet horse as it was led into the forge, hooves clattering on the stones.
    “There’s tea brewing on the forge and our Dreen done us some biscuits in the tin with A Present from Ankh-Morpork on it.”
    THANK YOU. I TRUST YOU ARE WELL.
    “Yes, m’lord. I done the shoes already. Won’t hold you up long. I know you’re…very busy, like.”
    He heard the click-click of footsteps cross the floor to the old kitchen chair reserved for customers, or at least for the owners of customers.
    Jason had laid the tools and the horseshoes and the nails ready to hand on the bench beside the anvil. He wiped his hands on his apron, picked up a file, and set to work. He didn’t like cold shoeing, but he’d shod