Chapter 7 - The Breaker Stables

  Balt Breaker stared at them expectantly, a big grin on his face as he looked back and forth between them. Cal wasn’t sure if he was just excited or using the moment to size them up. Either way he’d certainly gained the upper hand in the negotiation if Meliana’s discomfort was anything to go by.

  “Likewise.” Meliana said, somewhat hesitantly.

  “So my Mother says you’re looking for every day travelling horses?” He asked, taking Meliana’s response in stride and motioning them to follow and opening up the stables. Inside was a large area with stalls all the way up the building on both sides. It was lit by magical lanterns, they seemed to glow an opaque beige colour, nothing too bright, but also good enough to see well.

  “And supplies to keep them going on the road.” Cal added.

  He waved a hand dismissively. “Price of these animals we throw all that in for free.” He said. He paused in front of the first couple of stalls to look back at them. “Now, we here at Breakers do a lot of special training and specialist training. Do you have any special requirements of your horse? Are you likely to ride them into battle?”

  “We could fight on them, but it’s unlikely to be any sort of pitched battle.” Meliana responded.

  “More like adventuring horses then.” He said, moving on from the first couple of stalls. “How do you both fight?” He asked. “Swords? Magic? Guns?” He looked back at them, stopping in front of the next set of stalls.

  “I use swords and fire magic.” Cal explained, “So preferably a horse that wont spook at fire for me. I also have a spell that protects us from elemental magic so it would be ideal if it didn’t get frightened when defensive magic was used on it.”

  “All of that is perfectly doable.” Balt agreed. “And for the captain? I see a sword is there anything else?”

  Her eye flicked to Cal and then she shrugged. She held her right hand and flexed her fingers. Bluish white energy rippled up from beneath her sleeve and coalesced into ice around her hand. Cal’s brows raised in surprise. “Sword and ice magic, ranged and close quarters.” She explained.

  “More new stuff.” Cal said, gently pushing her with his shoulder. “That’s really cool.”

  “And also very usable with our horses.” Balt continued. “More so than fire. Is there anything else for you, Captain?”

  Meliana considered a moment and then cocked her head to the side. “If we do get into a fight I might need to jump from the horse, get it up close to another horse. I’m very close quarters, but can fight at range.”

  “Great. Well, there are twenty stalls here, the first four at that end where we started are not trained for combat, but otherwise you should be all good to choose whichever you want. I will note that they get more expensive the closer you are to this end, but with as much money as my mother says you have to flash around I’m sure that won’t be a problem.” He took a breath and turned to Cal. “For you we’ll need to head over to the specialist horses.”

  “I’ll be with him when he’s fighting, shouldn’t I also have a horse who’s good with fire?” Meliana asked.

  Balt frowned, crossing his arms and thinking for a moment. “All of our horses are trained to deal with fire generally. They’ll ride by it and jump over it no problem. If someone throws it at you its there and gone and a Breakers horse will be fine to continue. The specialist training helps a horse be comfortable with fire remaining with it, staying next to it.” He explained. “If you think that you’d be more comfortable with that I can take you along to the other stables, but I think for your purposes, even with Cal here as an ally in your fight you should be fine.”

  Meliana nodded listening to his answers and then smiled. “Very well. Cal, pick out something nice.”

  Cal grinned. “Yes Cap.”

  “All right, we’ll be right back. If you find one you like then go ahead and take one of these brushes,” he pointed to a shelf with a bunch of well worn horse brushes, “And start brushing it out, get some bonding going. You spent time with horses? Know what you’re doing?”

  She nodded.

  “Great.” He turned to Cal. “Let’s go.” Balt turned and led Cal out the door at the back of the stable, opposite where they came in. They stepped back out into the cold air and Balt began marching Cal across the ranch to the stables on the other side. “We appreciate your business.” He was saying. “Don’t get so many this early in the morning though, sorry we couldn’t put on the proper show.”

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  “This is more than enough.” Cal replied. “I’m Westridge born and raised, but my friend is from… elsewhere. Not sure if you noticed the ears but she’s an elf, I think from Sagittaa. They’re not used to the pomp and ceremony.”

  “Fair enough.” Balt replied. “Nice to be selling to a local boy though.”

  You wouldn’t think that way if you knew I was from the Lower City. Cal thought.

  “You do any business I would know?” He asked.

  Cal shook his head, “general import export,” He lied. “I was scouted young and learned everything I could from my mentor,” Which was all technically true.

  “Merchants college?”

  “No, independent.” Cal replied. “Never had to do my year of travel with the Travellers Concord and went straight to work for my mentor’s business, then a little while ago I broke out on my own in Vanderheim.”

  “Sounds like interesting work. Business good?”

  Cal shrugged. “It’s been worse, but it’s been a lot better as well. Hoping to turn things around on this job.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s your business in Westridge?” Balt asked. It was all just casual conversation, but Cal was sweating. Most of what he’d said was true, if maybe skewed a little.

  “Just passing through. Made a new contact and got a new contract, but now we need to head off and we got here through… other means.”

  “Fair enough.” Balt said as they reached the other stables. He pulled the bar off of the door and pushed it open.

  Inside was lit with flame torches and braziers, carefully kept away from anything flammable, but near enough to the horses that they could get used to the fire in such proximity. The stable was laid out like a cross with fours small aisles of stalls, instead of one long one.

  For a moment Cal wondered, if the torches were all it took to get the horses used to fire why not do this in both stables? Torches were surely cheaper than the magical lights they had back there. As they stepped inside though, he realised: not only where the fires magical with no sources of fuel to keep them ablaze, but there were also magical shields around them to stop any risk of the fire spreading. They probably were more expensive, and they took up more room.

  “Well, Mr. Cal. You can take your pick of anything here. This first section is the cheapest and the only thing that's special about them is their comfort with elemental magic, mostly fire but also lightning acid, sonic and force energies as well.” He paused and considered for a moment. “Only thing special compared to the other stable, I mean. All the horses here at Breakers are special.”

  Cal smiled. “Of course.”

  “The horses down the left have their own speciality. On the right you’ll find our more exotic mounts. Most of which I think are unsuitable for you - think Riding Dogs for Feylings and Halflings - but you’re welcome to look. And finally the section opposite are meant as war horses. They’re bigger and harder to control, but if you’re worried that you need to take the horse into battle then that’s where you want to look. From what you’ve said so far this section with the elemental mounts should be what you’re looking for, but feel free to look around. I’m goin’ to head on back over to see how Captain Roe is getting on. I’ll send my second over in a few minutes to help you out.”

  Cal nodded his understanding. “Thank you Balt. I’ll be fine here.”

  The son of the ranch owner nodded back to Cal and then left.

  Cal smiled, he would be willing to bet that after seeing them he’d decided to stick with Cal to curry favour, certain that he must have better prospects, but after talking with him about his business he’d realised his mistake and wanted to return to Meliana. Cal didn’t blame him, Westridge was an easily prejudicial place and no doubt Meliana’s sailor attire had thrown him off. In contrast, Cals very fancy clothes - that she had given him - had made him seem like a wealthy businessman humouring a rich client.

  He sighed, this place is stupid. He thought, echoing Meliana’s words.

  Cal turned and started looking looking for a horse. There were fourteen stalls in each section so he started in the first area, looking in at each of the horses in turn. They were very beautiful creatures. The first he looked at was a black horse with a white mouth and feet. The second was a beige animal with white legs and belly. There were white horses, grey dappled horses, horses that were half white and half brown.

  Walking over to each horse he could tell that they were all exceptional animals, but none of them really stood out to him. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but something told him that there was something special to be found. There was a brown horse that he thought he would choose if there was nothing else - it was a reasonable price and seemed to have a good temperament - but wanted to check the other areas.

  Cal walked over to the specialist section, checking over each of the horses just as he had done with the first section. Each one had a few notes on the front of their stalls. He hadn’t exactly understood what this section was supposed to have, but after reading the first notes he started to get it. One had been trained to be comfortable with regular teleportation, especially in combat. Another had been trained to not worry about any sort of enemy that they might come up against. The note specifically mentioned undead and devils, so Cal gave that one - a grumpy looking black horse - extra consideration considering his eventual destination, but ultimately decided to continue looking around.

  And so it went through that section of the stable. Each one had a very specific additional speciality. They were very interesting, but they were so specific that it made them somewhat less useful. It made Cal wonder if they were the first attempts at a new standard, or if they were orders that were either never collected or that they couldn’t get the pay for. Regardless, a horse that wouldn’t shy away if beset upon by undead would be ideal should something go wrong while investigating the tomb of a necromancer.

  Still, there were more animals to look at. He walked back over to the centre of the stables and intended to take a left turn into the warhorses section, but as he drew near to the centre he heard a loud whinny from where the exotic animals were housed.

  Frowning, Cal looked up to see that one of the stalls had a head poking out over the door. It was a beautiful looking horse with brownish red fur covering the sides of it’s face, pure white fur coming down the front in a stripe and a mane that was practically gold. It was the most unique horse Cal had ever seen, and it was staring right at him.