Pallasos followed until he could no longer keep up, then shouted through chuckles.
“Oh, come on, Brother! I know you’re fast, so show some restraint!”
White horses had a reputation for not being very clever, but the grooms shook their heads and said Daylight was an exception. Only old Habuni, who had cared for Daylight since he was a foal, chuckled at such remarks. If Daylight were such an exceptional horse, he would never have become Gene’s. The best things in the palace were never Gene’s to have.
When Gene slowed down, Pallasos caught up and brought his horse’s head alongside his. They rode almost side by side for a while. When Gene glanced over, Pallasos said,
“Look at you matching my top speed exactly. You know your little brother’s ability well, don’t you? Ah, you sly fellow.”
“You’ll be faster too if you don’t let yourself get distracted. Try it.”
“I can’t. That’s not my way. You’re the one who rides while looking at a single point. Someone like me has to look around.”
At that, Gene immediately pulled on the reins and stopped. Daylight slid a few steps with his momentum, while Halfwit, carrying Pallasos, ran several dozen paces farther before stopping. Pallasos looked back and shouted,
“What was that, all of a sudden!”
“You should have expected it.”
Gene rode over to Pallasos and showed him the hand holding his reins.
“I’ve been holding them like this for a while now. Of course he was about to stop.”
Pallasos wrinkled his nose.
“That’s not what I’m watching.”
“Then what?”
“Look over there.”
Where Pallasos pointed with his chin, people from the capital had come out in groups of three or five to watch the princes as usual. A few women were among them. Pallasos grinned, deliberately avoiding looking their way.
“The woman in green among them, isn’t she pretty?”
“I can’t even see her face from here.”
“I got quite close earlier when we were riding.”
“I didn’t see.”
“That’s why you need to look around. Do you understand now?”
Pallasos quickly kicked his horse’s belly and shot ahead, but Gene soon caught up and pretended to give him a smack on the head in midair. Pallasos burst out laughing and made his horse prance. Even from a distance, anyone could have seen that the two were joking.
“Yesterday you said Miss Eushipe was nice.”
“I’ve changed my mind. Now green is my favorite.”
“If you’re that interested, why don’t you go and talk to her?”
“I can’t. If I speak to her, she’ll faint from nervousness. I couldn’t cause her such trouble.”
“Then your love is destined never to be fulfilled.”
“When you put it like that, I suddenly feel restless. At seventeen, I haven’t even held a proper girl’s hand, and I’ve already suffered heartbreak? Must it really end like this? But whatever I say, Mother won’t give her permission. Ah, what on earth is Mother thinking? Does she intend to get me married at all? Why is she taking so long instead of choosing some suitable woman? At this rate, her son will end up marrying a local village girl who’s come to look at the princes. If I take Green Clothes off somewhere like a cave and spend the night with her, will she give her permission?”
Gene merely laughed in disbelief. For all Pallasos said, he knew his brother was not that reckless. Pallasos had a habit of talking nonsense only in front of him. Everywhere else, he was the very image of a dignified boy any mother could wish for.
“Brother, are you laughing? Don’t you think it’s unfair? You married Lady Thea when you were twelve.”
“The more care you take over marriage, the better.”
“Oh, that sounds as if you’re saying your marriage wasn’t carefully considered.”
“A carefully considered marriage is something you make when you’re about twenty.”
“Well, I wonder if Lady Thea thought that too?”
“Would seven-year-old Thea even have known what was happening to her? Let’s stop talking about this.”
Pallasos merely shrugged. When Gene said to stop, that was the end of the conversation. Before they knew it, they had returned to where the hills ended. The north gate was visible in the distance. At the sight of the person standing before it, Gene’s expression changed.
“Go in first. I’ll ride a little longer.”
Without waiting for an answer, he immediately turned his horse. As Gene rode away, Pallasos wiped the smile from his face and went down toward the north gate. The man waiting there greeted him.
“Isn’t this the younger prince? Have you been out for some air?”
“Chamberlain. Is there some business at the north gate?”
Anthalon had held the position of chamberlain, serving the king at the closest quarters, for more than twenty years. Though already past sixty, his back was straight, his stride long, and his eyes sharp. Those who saw his gaze for the first time guessed at his temperament and feared him. Anthalon was known as a mild-mannered man who had not made a single enemy in the palace. But that did not mean the first impression was entirely wrong, and the young Pallasos was among the few who knew it.
“I was waiting for the elder prince, but it seems he remembered some other business on the way.”
Anthalon was almost the only person who called them the elder prince and the younger prince. The queen’s people had tried to hint that he should stop, but he had firmly continued to use those forms of address, saying, “What is wrong with calling the elder prince the elder prince and the younger prince the younger prince?” Pallasos himself, however, did not find the form of address unpleasant at all.
“So it seems. Then I’ll be going.”
“One moment. May I ask you something?”
At Anthalon’s call, Pallasos raised one eyebrow with a faintly displeased expression. Anthalon seldom had business with Pallasos, and the queen, his mother, had repeatedly told her son not to listen to anything Anthalon said.
“Has Her Majesty recently granted an audience to any foreigners? People who do not speak our language well, I mean.”
Pallasos looked thoughtful for a moment, then glanced aside.
“I don’t know. Why do you ask?”
“Ah, it is nothing important. I have heard there are swindlers these days who go about seeking out distinguished people in various countries.”
“Really? Does Mother look as though she would be taken in by such people?”
“Anyone can be taken in by people like that. They carry sweet things and sweet promises. Then I shall go and see the elder prince now. Rest well.”
Anthalon bowed and went out through the north gate. Pallasos twitched his shoulders a few times, then urged his horse into the palace. He knew that the hills outside the north gate were not a suitable place to search on foot for someone on horseback. Anthalon would know that too. Pallasos was a boy, but he knew quite well how things worked at court.
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