Excerpt From Today’s Writing
"All horses break if you put the right bit in their mouths, hm, Holl?" Athos grinned, a flash of white teeth in a whiter face. "Or…" He glanced at Kell Antari and Beloc tightened his grip on the injured man, wishing for nothing more from life than the ability to jam Athos's knife right up his own ass one day. "... perhaps I might say any horse may be broken to ride when you correctly use the crop?"
"Of course you may say that." Holland did not so much as flicker an eyelash in response, with only the faintest hint of disgusted emphasis on you. "While I am grateful that you gave him to me, I have need of him outside the castle. May we take him with us today?"
“Hm. You want him to carry our little red setter puppy?” Athos gestured with the knife, pointing it right at Kell, who didn’t even look up, his red hair a startling shock of color compared to everyone else in the bright white room. He’d healed some, the magic in his blood helping him along more quickly than others, but his face was pale and sweaty and his eyes were glazed from the drink Nasi had given him to help with the pain. Beloc had hooked an arm under his shoulders to hold him up where he stood.
Though Beloc was much shorter, a month of eating with Holland and Kell had filled him out again and he was strong enough to keep Kell standing and help him walk. He could be useful to the two Antari, and if he was useful, they would keep him around and he wouldn’t have to worry about ending up one of the Mindless if Athos or Astrid thought of him again. Being useful to them kept him busy, and it showed them he could earn his keep, that he was grateful.
He had to show them he was grateful, so they wouldn't get bored of him and forget him.
He knew he was useful to Holland - he had him reading all the time now, and Beloc’s head was stuffed near to aching with information on kings and courts and battles that he only barely understood.
It was important to him, though, so Beloc did his best to learn it - to show he was worth keeping around and protecting, to show that he was thankful, endlessly thankful, that they had helped him.
“I am uncertain as to whether we will make it to the Silver Wood without his help,” Holland said, and Beloc could see how carefully he chose his words. "Since you decided not to allow me to heal Kell-"
"What good is a man without scars?" Athos said with a shrug. "I have used Kell’s mistakes to give him a gift, you see, make a man of him. Only children are without scars. The boy is more a man than the puppy is." He smirked, a sneer of thin white lips. “I made sure of it.”
