Secular Wizard

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The tall roan stallion looked up and nickered. The other horses crowded to the doors of their stalls to watch Accerese the groom as he came into the barn with the bag of oats over his shoulder. A smile banished his moroseness for a few minutes. “Well! At least someone’s glad to see me!” He poured a measure of grain into the trough on the stallion’s door. “At least you eat well, my friends!” He moved on down the line, pouring grain into each manger. “And well-dressed you are, too, not like we who-”

Accerese bit his tongue, remembering that the king or his sorcerers might hear anything, anywhere. “Well, we all have our work to do in this world-though some of us have far less than-” Again he bit his tongue-but on his way out of the third stall he paused to trace the raw red line on the horse’s flank with his finger. “Then again, when you do work, your tasks are even more painful than mine, eh? No, my friends, forgive my complaining.” He opened the door to the fourth stall. “But you, Fandalpi, you are-” He stopped, puzzled. Fandalpi was crowded against the back wall, nostrils flared, the whites showing all around its eyes. “Nay, my friend, what-”

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