Thomas barely heard Winthor tell them that they could remove their blindfolds. When he did, it took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, but when they did, they focused on a black horse with a black mane.

“You’re beautiful.” Whispered Thomas.

“Name your horse.” Said Winthor to the group

Thomas thought for a minute. “How about Nightwalker”

The big, black horse nickered and tossed his head back. Thomas took that as a yes. “Lead your new horses towards the other pages.” Winthor yelled from afar off.

Thomas had a moment of panic, then he remembered that this horse pretty much understood him. “Forward.” Thomas whispered.

The horse started walking purposely forward, and the horses parted for him.

Thomas looked around and saw that the other boys were having trouble getting their mares to move. Thomas approached his friends who were gaping at him. “What?” He asked

“Your horse…” Trembled Hanley.

“What about Nightwalker?” Asked Thomas.

“He’s the-the…” Started James.

“He’s the king.” Finished Terrance.

“What?” Asked Thomas perplexed.

“The king chose you.” Stated Hanley. “Just look at how big your horse is.”

Thomas looked down. His horse was definitely bigger than their horses. Also, as he looked around, he noticed that none of the other horses were black.

James just shook his head at Thomas. “Come on. As your sponsor, I’m supposed to show you how to get the saddle and tack on your horse. We’ll be riding around soon enough, and trust me, you do not want to be the last one saddled.”

James took his horse Maneater to the stables, and without Thomas saying anything, Nightwalker followed. He walked at a slow pace so as not to make Thomas fall off. For a horse he was big, for a ten-year-old kid; he was humongous.

After James showed how Thomas should saddle Nightwalker, he took the tack and saddle off and told Thomas to do it. Thomas only messed up a couple times, but in the end, it came out correctly.

Mounting up with a saddle was much different. Nightwalker didn’t need to kneel down because Thomas could just put his foot in the stirrup and swing himself up and over.

Thomas was relieved when he left the stable and saw that only about half of the first-year pages were already out there. Some of them seemed to have trouble getting their horses to follow their commands, which really confused Thomas because his horse did what Thomas needed without him even having to say anything.

“There’s no doubt that that is the king.” Said Hanley. “He’s got to be the best trained horse ever. Even when I got Sirota here, I had some trouble trying to get her to follow my commands. You don’t even have to say anything.”

“I got to admit. I’m a little jealous.” Said James.

After all the pages and their horses were assembled, Winthor led them on a march around the entire open space. All the while, he talked about new things that would happen this year.

“Older pages, you’re in for a surprise. In fact, all you pages are in for a surprise. I’m going to have some of the king’s guard kidnap you guys randomly!” He said with a chuckle.

A rumble went through the crowd. “He’s going to kidnap us?” Asked a kid at the back.

“For practice.” Winthor had razor sharp ears. “This will teach you how to get out of problems. Randomly, I’m going to have a couple of you captured. One of four things can happen: 1, you can fight back and evade capture, which let me tell you is the hardest to do because it’s a surprise. Two, you can find a way to escape on your own; each way of capture will never be the same. Three, friends can come help set you free. That way is most cowardly, but some time it might be necessary. Four, you fail to escape in a day and the guards will let you free. But let me tell you: you do not want to make it to that point, if you can’t get free, it will tell us that you are a coward and don’t have what it takes to be a page.”

There was a lot of murmurings at his words. “This should be fun.” James said.

“Alright lackies. That’s all for today. Put your saddle and tack away and groom your horses. Then go to the bathhouse and groom yourselves. I don’t enjoy smelling stink with my food.” Then Winthor took off on his horse.

“Come on.” Said James. “It’s always great to get finished with your horse first, then you can have the water while it’s hot.”

James sped up followed by Terrance, Namuel and Hanley. Nightwalker didn’t need any urging, he just took off towards the stables at full speed ahead. Thomas had no idea how he didn’t fall off. However, over the sound of his hooves, Thomas distinctly heard, “Showoff!” from one of his buddies.

When Thomas reached the stables, he carefully dismounted Nightwalker, and stuck him in an empty stall. Then he gently took off all the equipment. Thomas brushed down Nightwalker like Commander Liam had taught him to do to all horses.

When he was done, he turned around to see James smiling at him. “I don’t know how you know all this stuff, but I should stop seeming so surprised when I find out. Now let’s go to the bathhouse. You stink.”

“Are you sure that isn’t you, you are smelling?” Thomas replied.

James shoved Thomas then took off running out of the stables. Thomas followed only a few paces behind. Behind him came Terrance, Namuel, and Hanley.